Sunday Pin Pals

02/05/2026

Hello y'all! I've texted most of you, but just to let you know that we WILL be bowling on Sunday night. We'll have the stuporbowl on and the speakers up on the TV's, so you won't have to miss what's likely to be an EPIC halftime show this year I'm sure! We'll have a somewhat more limited crowd as some teams won't be joining us and will have to find an opportunity to make up.

Understand that the reason for NOT cancelling is that adding the extra week on to the end of our year puts us on Easter Sunday and because of that we end up adding a whole month to our season just to skip one night.

That is all, see ya Sunday... or not.

Pete

09/22/2025

Team shirts of the year!

08/24/2025

Hello Pin Pals, it’s league meeting night! Looks like we’ll have a couple new teams this year, so plenty of fun folks will be on hand for your tomfoolery and bowling pleasure! Please make an attempt to come down tonight to discuss what few changes if any we’ll have for the year. We’ll be at the Wagon Wheel at 7, see you there!

League bowling starts Sunday September 7th at 7pm! 👍

08/01/2025

Hello, PIN PALS! Last night was the ass. meeting. (that's abbreviation for "association", right???). Long story short, the news is that there really aren't much in the line of changes this year. Why? Because this is a pretty damned cool place to bowl and we're not going to mess around too much with the good thing we've got going.

Prices for this season have not increased, so I don't envision our league fees increasing either. This is awesome considering there have been significant investments in our building and equipment this year ranging from setter repairs and updates to HVAC unit replacement. THANK YOU to Chopper and Jonda, Joe and Madi for keeping our prices low. And they ARE low! I've been paying attention to what other houses/leagues charge in a USBC page I'm on, and you wouldn't believe what people are paying to bowl in other places. I 'bout pit my shants!

We had pretty good prize money last year, so we're not selling ourselves short by any means. That leads to me wondering if we want to bring back gift cards for Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks? Or do we continue to do without the holiday gifts and put it out in prize/point money at the end of the season? Seems like a good topic of discussion at the league meeting which shall be.....

SUNDAY, AUG 24th at 7PM!

This is where we'll ultimately decide on changes that we will make or not make to our league rules, so please make an attempt to have your team represented at the meeting. If you think everything is running hunky-dory.... and judging by our average league meeting attendance, this is how the majority feel.... then I guess you don't "need" to be there. Just keep in mind that changes may or may not be made at this meeting.

Just a couple things to touch on: Please make sure your team envelope is full every week. If someone is absent, please "put in" for them if you can so that your team isn't behind on payments. (It's generally the team captain's responsibility to make sure it's all there). We don't have a huge problem with this, which is good. But particularly early-on in the season it can make more significant ripples in league accounting. The other thing is that we will once again be very accommodating for teams or individual/pair bowlers for pre-bowling or post-bowling when you can't bowl on the regular night for whatever reason. We all do have lives outside of the bowling alley, after all. Well.... some of you do, not all! Because it can get a bit a bit sketchy to nail down lane availability to pre/post bowl, please pre-bowl if possible, or schedule post bowling ASAP at the counter, and let your league secretary, that's ME, Pete, know also.

Last season we brought back FUN NIGHT (our equivalent of a banquet) at the end of the season and all in attendance looked to be having a blast. Seeing as how we aren't going to get hit with holidays this year, I'd imagine we will be able to do that again.

We're courting a couple of potential new teams, so hopefully that means we'll have some new victims... I mean, FRIENDS, soon!

That's all for now. Hope to see you at the meeting. If not, we'll see you THE SUNDAY FOLLOWING LABOR DAY which is SEPTEMBER 7th! Be there, or be square.

02/19/2025

Hello pin pals,

Our last night of bowling is March 23rd. We’re getting done fairly early for once. So…. Should we decide to have a fun/payout night this year, two weeks past the last night, that puts us at April 6th. So the question is…. Do we want to have a fun night like back in the pre-Covid years to partake in a little tomfoolery and collect our payouts?

Answer here, or I’ll contact team representatives by text.

Pete.

01/24/2025

Congrats to our own Val Cooper for a MONSTER 771 series tonight on the Thursday mixed league! While I can't confirm it for certain, that is likely a Women's House Record at Meadow Bowl! GREAT BOWLING VAL!

Send a message to learn more

08/26/2024

OK, so, we had the league meeting tonight, and there was only one major decision to make, which was the weekly fee, which we voted in unanimously at $16 per person per week. That exactly reflects the extra $1 per person per week that our prices went up. That price is also going to be held for two years even if BUILD BACK BETTER completely puts the screws to the house, so thank you to Chopper and Jonda, Joe and Madi for doing their best to look out for us even at times when their own income is a question mark. It was also decided upon at 2/3rds majority that Sunday Pin Pals is once again the most fun league in the house, so you can all be proud of that.

Again, your certification fees are $20 per person for the season unless you've certified in another house/league.

Our first night is September 8th at 7pm, so we'll see you all there. If you can't make any night of bowling, please let me know (Pete) and also inform Meadow Bowl of your absence and schedule your pre-bowl or make-up.

One more thing... team captains PLEASE make sure your envelope is full each night, which is $64 per team per night. If you have a bowler that can't make it, please put in for them and have them make it up to you on the next week. Also, general rule of thumb is that if you have a substitute bowler, "subs don't pay" and the regular bowler they're subbing for is on the hook for the weekly fee. Your team can make its own rules in that regard though, as long as there's $64 in that envelope each night.

Your league officers for this year again are Jeremiah Mergenhagen, President/Bouncer. Trevor Huhn, Vice President. Pete Bengel, Secretary/Treasurer.

Thanks all, and we'll see you on September 8th!

Pete

Send a message to learn more

08/08/2024

Happy August, Pin Pals! The Association meeting was tonight, so a brand new season will be upon us shortly. We are going to be down 4 teams this year, but pretty sure we'll have a new one coming aboard already. Either way, we'll have some room for new bowlers if you know anyone FUN that wants to join us. Contact myself (Pete) or Kris and we can get them all hooked up! First night is September 8th, 7pm. Be there or be square!

Bowling prices have gone up this season as there has been a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of maintenance and repairs done to our beloved hang-out over the last season or so. That means we will have to raise our league fees a little... I'm suggesting we go to $16 per person per night. Still cheaper than a lot of leagues and that should set us up financially similar to last year when all is said and done. This is something we'll discuss at the league meeting which will be August 25th, 7pm at Meadow Bowl. Certifications for this year will remain at $20.

The only other thing that I need to bring up is that if you have an absent bowler on any given night, PLEASE pay for them so that your envelope is full and settle up with your absent bowler. That actually IS an official rule. We try not to push it, but it isn't fair to the rest of the league to have to carry someone's shortage.

PLEASE make an attempt to attend the league meeting on the 25th. It is typically not very well attended. While I feel appreciative that evidently people trust me and the handful of us that show up to make good decisions on behalf of the league, it sure is nice to have extra input and support. And who knows... someone could come up with a great suggestion that we might be overlooking. But it's awful tough to have a good suggestion if you're not there. EVERYONE is welcome to attend, but I would like to, at least, have each team represented by at least one person.

Enjoy the last bit of summer and we'll see you all again soon!

Pete

Send a message to learn more

04/17/2024

Good evening, Pin Pals. Final standings are in, and congratulations to The Boomsters for winning the first half, and Sandhams for winning the 2nd half.

High Game: Katie Rutka, 298 and Aaron Jegla, 268.

High Series: Teresa Simon, 623 and Kevin Jones, 697

High Average: Val Cooper, 189 and Brandon Rutka, 223

Most Improved: Betsy Holland, +8.93 and Artie Sanchez, +10.62

Point money turned out to be roughly $2.87 per point, and final points standings are:

Sandham 61, WABB 59, Pete's Draggins 56, Pipelayers 44, Time 2 Spare 50, Spear 57, PCC Duffers 44, Boomsters 55, Alley Rats 45, Alcoballics 39, Boozing Buddies 38, Ackerburger 40.

I will be in contact soon to get everyone their prize/point money. (each half winning team gets $100 and Most Improved get $10 ea, the rest is point money)

Thank you for another fun year! I'll be in touch after our association meeting in August with a date for our league meeting. Have a great summer!

Pete

Send a message to learn more

08/09/2023

Greetings, Pin Pals!

We're about a month away from the start of another awesome season of Pin Pals bowling. Our first night will be September 10th, otherwise known as the Sunday after Labor Day, and we start at 7pm. Fees will be the same as last year, which is $15/person/night and $20 for certifications if you haven't paid in another league already.

There are a few things to discuss this year at our league meeting, which is Aug 20th at 7pm, mostly having to do with pre-bowling or make-up bowling for weeks when you may not be able to bowl in the scheduled night. As the league attendance is at 90-some percent house-wide, finding a night to pre or post bowl is a challenge at times and can lead to problems when team members can't seem to find a time where all 4 bowlers can bowl together. We need to come of with a consensus in our league whether to allow separate bowling or not. (2 bowl separate of the other two, etc). This decision WILL be made among those attending the league meeting, so if you have an opinion on it one way or another, you need to be there to voice/vote on that. If you don't feel strongly enough about it to attend, then you can't feel strongly enough about it to have any say in the matter after the fact. Sorry, but that's the way it has to be.

Also, we need to cut down on the SURPRISE factor on attendance. If you know you won't be bowling, I (Pete) need to be notified and it's a good idea to let the staff at Meadow Bowl know also so that they can coordinate pairings and free up lanes if possible, often so that teams from other leagues could potentially have lane access during our league.

Hope to see many of you on the 20th, and otherwise we'll see you on September 10th!

04/05/2023

2022/2023 Final Standings.

As per our fall meeting, we decided to do away with rolloff, and just pay each half winner $100. We also did away with individual prize payout for high game/series/average since pretty much the same people win every year, and we rolled that money into points payout where it can be paid back more equally to EVERYONE! We did keep payout for most improved man/woman though, those lucky winners will get $10 each.

I'm not going to post the league financials on here, but anyone interested can contact me and I'll be happy to send you a copy. Points totals are below, with roughly $2.50 being paid back to each team for each point won. There were 578 total points won.

Time To Spare, 59.5 points.
Alcoballics, 51 points.
Spear, 34 points.
Boomsters, 65 points
PCC Duffers, 49 points.
Boozing Buddies, 48 points.
Sandham, 58 points.
Pete's Draggins, 40 points.
Pipelayers, 45 points.
Alley Rats, 58.5 points.
WABB, 42 points.
Split Happens, 28 points.

I think that you'll all notice pretty decent point payback money. This is because we did away with payout for high game/series/average awards as well as cut holiday giveaways and the brackets. Long story short, we had to make these cuts or we'd have had to raise our bowling fees and those in attendance at said fall meeting voted to do it this way. That is where these decisions have to be made, so if any of these changes don't sit well with anyone... you gotta come to the fall meeting.

Once again, thank you all for a very FUN year of Pin Pals bowling. Check out the short summer leagues we'll have at Meadow Bowl such as the Pitchers and Pins league and the Red Solo Cup league. They're TONS of fun and are a great way to keep from getting out of the swing of things over the summer.

See y'all next fall!

Pete