MMSTL - Communications

In the days before smartphones and social media and after the arrival of the Internet, email was the primary means of communication when using personal computers. . . . However, websites were the bridges by product merchants and information peddlers in gettng their message out to the general public. And websites typically provided links to the appropriate email address of the website owner.

Websites were international, and could be 'tuned in' from continents all over the globe. In the late 1990s, the MMSTL was contacted through its website, via email, by the top duckpinner on the South American continent, Nestor Nicolini. It was at this time that an exchange of bowling cultures took place, and some great information was shared between the two countries. On the North American side, we learned that the game was extremely popular in Argentina (Nicolini's hailing place), and that Nestor's wife, Clara Ribiero, was the #1 lady duckpin player on that continent.

Although the Mens Maryland Suburban Traveling League website was duckpin-based, it was one of the early websites for the general sport of bowling, which featured different variations of the sport. In Canada, the game of Five Pins was the premier version of the game above the U.S. border during the MMSTL's Internet years. One day, right around the year 2000, Canadian Five-Pin player and noted historian of the Five-Pin game, John Honeyford, was surfing the web and came across the game of duckpins. He subsequently made contact with the United States through the MMSTL website. Prior to the communication, I wasn't aware of the existence of Five Pin Bowling and was intrigued by the email and the conversations that would follow. Honeyford was most gracious and even sent down a collection of VHS tapes which had telecasts of CBC Five Pin bowling tournament broadcasts from about a decade earlier. It wasn't long after interactions with John that I came into contact with Greg Peteraitis, who was a champion Five Pin player. He and his bowling buddy and accomplished pro, Mike Wood, ultimately made driving trips down to the College Park area, where they competed in one of the "Buddy Creamer Classic" open events, and a short time after that, Greg joined and competed in the men's duckpin pro tour on several occasions. This led to other waves of Canadians coming down, both men and women pros, making a big splash and even winning several pro events. Peteraitis' visits to the United States also led the Americans to the introduction of Phipps Bowling, the maker of Softroll bowling balls, in which the MMSTL was the first official distributor of this line of balls. (Shown here is the original promotional chart for ball colors that Phipps provided to the MMSTL and later on its website.)

Several years later, with the Fivepinners enjoying success on the pro duckpin tours, one of the Candlepin game's top pros, Bob Whitcomb, entered a DPBA tour event, and had great success, advancing to the stepladder finals of a tour in the New England area. Whitcomb enjoyed the experience so much that he made another trip down to the Silver Spring area later in the year to compete in a DPBA event at White Oak Lanes.

But, communications with the MMSTL weren't just limited to bowlers. An elementary school physical education teacher from Grand Junction, Colorado -- Adelaide Currier -- reached out to the MMSTL for help in locating a set of duckpin balls and pins. Her ideal plan was to acquire bowling equipment from the small ball game to help with expanding the students' cultural awareness through athletics, and duckpins was a great option for learning about the game of the East Coast. With a huge assist from AMF College Park manager, and duckpin legend, Jeff Pyles, the MMSTL was able to fulfill Ms. Currier's request. The supplying of the balls wasn't just limited to one school, however. The balls and pins were part of a rotation system involving 17 elementary schools that would each enjoy use of the equipment on a 2-week basis, and thus, duckpin bowling was circulated into the midwest of the United States.

The MMSTL also fielded requests from other bowling centers across the midwest. The proprietor of Brownsburg Bowl in Indiana made contact via email in the year 2000 in search of bowling balls. Once again, the help of Jeff Pyles was enlisted, and he was successfully able to acquire a substantial number of new balls, which were shipped to the Indiana bowling establishment.

Getting back to the first communication with Nestor Nicolini . . . although nothing was planned for a merging of the 2 continents at that time, these early emails ended up planting the seed for the 2014 Inter-Continental Duckpin Bowling Challenge. The most recent occurrence that would directly lead to the 2014 IDBC, however, was via the efforts of Ezequiel Delfino, who made a 31-hour trip from Buenos Aires to Silver Spring, Maryland, to participate in the Pop Whitten Pro Tour, later in 2011. There was an interesting story behind this, as well. I made the trip down to White Oak Lanes from Pennsylvania on a Saturday to attend the qualifying round of the PWPT event, and when I arrived, the tournament director, Gary McKinsey, alerted me to the astounding fact that a player from Argentina participated in the event. Apparently, I had just missed Delfino's 6-game block. Gary said something to the effect of "He (Delfino) just left, but he might still be in the parking lot". I hurried back up the stairs and was able to spot a van pulling out of its parking space, and I took a chance that the driver was the pro from Argentina, and so I flagged him down. Delfino graciously stopped and spoke with me for a few minutes, and we then exchanged emails. I later contacted him to get a story on the details of his trip and his participation, which I included in an article of an edition of the North American Bowling News.

It wasn't long after the article featuring Delfino in the NABN that I received another communication from the Argentine duckpin champion (circa 2013), Roberto Di Spirito. After a few months of cordial emails were exchanged, plans were soon in the making for the launching of the historic event between the 'Americas'. Di Spirito suggested the initial format that included a team of 10 players for each country, comprised of "Class A" and "Class B" bowlers. The final step in the process was to send a formal letter of invitation to the Argentine government, and from there things began falling into place.