Pin Action: Small-Time Gangsters, High-Stakes Gambling, and the Teenage Hustler - Gianmarc Manzione Audiobook

Written by Gianmarc Manzione
Read by Chris Lutkin
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Release date: December 11, 2014
Duration: 07:17:03

Most of us think of bowling as a “sport” in quotation marks, and bowling alleys are places with disco balls, matching shirts, and funny shoes. But in the 1960s, New York City was the center of “action bowling”, a form of high-stakes gambling in which bowlers—often teenagers—faced off for thousands of dollars every night. When money like that is changing hands, you can bet the pressure is on (and the balls are rigged), and losses come with dire consequences. But for a few kids, the world of action bowling would turn out to be a ticket off the mean streets and onto the Professional Bowlers Association Tour. For Ernie Schlegel, it would be a chance to shed his hustler ways and become a bonafide champion.

For the more than 100 million bowlers worldwide and for fans of timeless sports histories, Pin Action captures the underbelly of 1960s and ’70s New York and tells the true story of how the most notorious action bowler of all time became a Hall of Famer. Set in the gritty, flashy, lost world of action bowling, Gianmarc Manzione tells an epic tale filled with seedy characters, uproarious eccentricities, improbable twists of fate, and a rags-to-riches narrative so crazy it has to be true.

A few reviews - I am a life-long bowler, so my review is biased. Still, I found the first half of the book, where Manzione details the late nights hustlers bowled for thousands of dollars per game, with gangsters betting and watching in the background, incredibly gripping! The second half of the book, which focuses on Ernie Schlegel’s career as a pro-bowler, was less interesting, but it still contains Manzione’s sarcastic humor.

Started out great but then got overly repetitive. Fight, gamble, loan shark, rivalry, fight, loan shark, gamble, fight, rivalry, fight, overly explain bowling, fight, gamble, overly explain bowling.

This book brought back many wonderful memories of Saturday mornings bowling in junior league and in adult leagues, eventually a senior league. I found the action bowling portion of the book to be a little long and repetitive. Bets, bowling and brawling sum it up. Unfortunately, there are only so many ways to describe a strike but I did appreciate learning about the nuances of the game, such as reading lanes. For baby boomers this book would have appeal.

I watched Championship Bowling every week, first hosted by Fred Wolf and later by Jack Drees. Those were three game matches by the greats: Don Carter, Dick Weber, Ray Bluth, Harry Smith and so many others. I was also a regular viewer of the PBA TOUR on ABC with Chris Schenkel and Billy Welu, later Nelson Burton, Jr. That’s where I first saw the Bicentennial Kid, Ernie Schlegel.