MMSTL - The Weekly Booklets

The weekly standings sheet is the backbone of every bowling league. A league has its rules and formal organzation, but the printed hardcopy is what each league uses for reference each week, when tracking where a team resides in the standings, individual player averages, and scheduling where a team is to play on a given night.

The early MMSTL weekly standings sheet, back in the 1960s, was a single sheet of paper, with both sides containing the team and player info. This was a very effective format in the early years, which contained everything the players needed to know on a weekly basis. As a matter of fact, this method, as shown in this link, was such a pillar of the league that it remained in use from the early 1960s up through the 1990-1991 season.

When I 'inherited' the job of league secretary (I only got the position because there wasn't anyone from the league who wanted it), I didn't want to make any big changes, since the league was so successful. But in the 1990-1991 season, I did make an appearance in the league as a substitute for a couple of weeks, and there was one area that need an improvement. I happened to be standing close by, and one of the bowlers, Skip Rice, who had reached middle-age at that time, was commenting that the size of the print on the page was hard to read, since he had gotten a bit older. So, the main enhancement on the agenda in my first year was to provide a sheet that was a little easier on the eyes. So, the use of a folded-over sheet of paper, along with boldface type, and a little more efficient use of the existing white space (as well as a reduced number of teams in my first year), made the new sheet a little more visually appealing.

From the 1991-1992 season up through 1995-1996, this new format was used. But during those years, in order to instill interest in the league, by adding a few statistics and periodic inner-league tournaments, it became desirable to add more space to the weekly sheet, which meant using at least one extra sheet of paper. During the 1995-1996 season, news of a Singles League, which was popularized by one of the bowlers, Fariley Poore, in one of his leagues from a few years prior, had become a 'want' in the MMSTL. To do the job right, the ideal thing would have been to add an extra sheet of paper, just for the Singles League alone. With a need for at least 3 sheets of paper now, a little desktop publishing experience came in handy, because by organizing a series of folded sheets in an appropriate fashion, a mini-book could be produced, and thus a plan for the expansion of reading developed.

Near the end of the 1995-1996 season, a prototype booklet was introduced at one of the league's Sunday matches, and can be viewed here.

The booklet idea, with the use of 4 or 5 sheets of paper for either a 16-page or 20 page publication, provided the advantage of adding an appealing cover, in which a magazine such as Sports Illustrated could be mimicked by featuring the Player of the Week. So, in the 1996-1997 season, the MMSTL migrated to a booklet-style format, with a color cover (using an inkjet printer)to add a zest to the new look. In the 1997-1998 season, the booklets continued with the color covers, but with a stiffer cardstock (sometimes 65 lb, and sometimes 110 stock paper), to make the booklets more durable. By the end of the '97-98 season, I had pretty much worn out the rollers on my inkjet printer with the heavy stock paper, and thus for several seasons to follow, a normal weight colored paper with standard black print was used to save a little bit on expenses. The color covers resumed, starting with Week 30 of the 2003-2004 season, when I purchased a color laser printer.

For the 10 years from the 1996-1997 season to 2005-2006, the Travel League weekly book was a staple of the league. A lot of information could be packed into booklet -- some of it being auto-generated from customized code in the computer program, which was used to compile the weekly printout. Being a bowler in the league at that time, it was fun to produce the publication because I had a good idea of what kind of data about my own bowling that I'd like to see over the course of a year. But, there were also several worthwhile suggestions coming from the bowlers, as well.

Being so close to the action, I was oblivious to whether the booklets were being read by a majority of the league. In the years that ensued, on a few occasions, I noticed that at the end of a night, when I was looking for a copy of a booklet to use as my guide, sometimes there were no spare copies, and I'd have to produce an addtional copy over the weekend. I found out later that members of the Senior Citizens and Retired Champs (SCARC) league were intrigued by the booklets and enjoyed reading them. It was gratifying to learn that one of the Travel League members, Jim Troxler, would collect stray booklets that were lying around, before they ended up getting thrown out by the clean-up crew of the bowling alley. Jim would then take the copies he collected, and pass them out to members of the SCARC league on the Wednesdays that followed the Friday night Travel League. Eventually, I made it a habit to print off an additional 10-15 copies each week and give those to Jim, which he appreciated. However, he did continue to pick up any extras that he found by the end of the night, which kept the booklets from being wasted.

Between the books and the addition of the Internet to the league in late 1996, membership increased in the MMSTL, despite the fact that two of the larger bowling establishments in the area closed their doors permanently (Fontana's Bowlarama in 1994 and Fair Lanes Prince Georges in 1995).

The weekly booklets were unique by the covers. Sometimes it was a challenge to come up with a nifty headline, but for the most part, it was enjoyable to fit a caption with a photo along with a bowler's big performance.