EXCHANGE: Nonagenarian bowlers still compete in local league

By RYAN MAHAN - Associated Press - Thursday, April 23, 2015

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - At 93, Nick Frasco isn’t the oldest member of his Tuesday night bowling team.

That distinction belongs to John Mayes, who turns 95 on April 1, making him and Frasco most likely the oldest teammates in not just their Merchants and Manufacturing League at King Pin Lanes but in all of the Greater Springfield Bowling Association.

“I like to bowl with (Mayes),” Frasco said. “We tease each other. I’m glad he joined us. We have a lot of fun.”

But while Frasco has continued the sport he loves, Mayes only recently started bowling again after about a 60-year layoff.

When his wife, Velma, went to live at a local nursing home, it left Mayes at home alone with nothing but time on his hands. Velma died on April 21.

So one evening, Mayes took the short trip down Sangamon Avenue to go hang out at King Pin Lanes. He struck up conversation with a women’s bowling team and even gave one bowler some pointers - which he said resulted in her getting nine straight strikes.

Before long, Mayes got the desire to do more than just watch bowling. And he couldn’t be stopped once he got going again, joining two leagues on a full-time basis and bowling part time in a third.

He bought a 15-pound ball, but that was too heavy. His easier-to-manage, lighter ball turned up in the unlikeliest of places.

“I found a 13-pound ball out in my front yard, and it was out there in the flower bed for 10 years, 15 years, something like that,” Mayes said. “And I thought, ’I’ll take it and clean it up and use it,’ and that’s what I am using - an old Ebonite ball.”

Larry Bartolazzi, 72, is one of the pair’s younger teammate on Tuesday nights. He plays golf three times a week with Frasco, usually at Bergen Golf Course.

“Both of them are popular with anybody I know out there, and not just there, but their circles wherever they both go,” Bartolazzi said.

’Out there every day’

At the end of his enlistment in the U.S. Army in January 1945, Mayes began bowling for about four seasons until he got a night job driving for the now-shuttered Amrhein’s Bakery. That prevented him from sticking with the sport.

These days, Mayes can be found at a bowling alley in town almost every day, whether he is bowling or not. Sometimes it’s a love-hate relationship.

“I’m out there every day,” he said. “I threaten to take a cot out there and put it back in the alley so I would be there and I wouldn’t have to run around.

“I’m trying so hard to get my average up to bowl with some of the big guys, and I get so disgusted that I want to quit. But I love it, so I keep on slugging away.”

Mayes is averaging 157 on Tuesday nights. His high game this season is 200, and he had a 554 three-game high series.

Mayes’ goals might be loftier than his age.

“I’d like to get (my average) to 195, but I’ll settle for 180,” he said with a chuckle.

No stopping Nick

Frasco, meanwhile, has been involved with the sport continuously. He’s planning on attending his 49th United States Bowling Congress Tournament this spring. And he’s hoping to make it 50 tournaments in 2016.

“I’ve been at it a long time,” Frasco deadpanned. “I feel halfway decent; I’m still pretty lively.”

Frasco, who is twice widowed, has also been a part of the Greater Springfield Bowling Association since 1968 and has held a variety of offices in the association. Up until 1999, he headed the 700 Club, for those who have bowled that high a series score.

And despite two knee replacement surgeries and a recent troublesome hip, Frasco is averaging 150 on Tuesdays. His high game this season is 192, and his top series was a 508.

“You can’t dance around and stuff like that when you get a strike is what I am trying to say,” Frasco joked.

If these two can get out there and bowl on a weekly basis, Bartolazzi said, it’s hard for others in the league to complain about their ailments.

“I don’t think any other team would dare say much as far as their problems,” he said.

One of Frasco’s best achievements was rolling a 299 game in 1999. He averaged 193 in the 1970s and bowled in the prestigious All-Star Individual Classic League.

“As you go along, you learn. Now I go along and I’m not learning. I’m just there, (but) I enjoy it,” he said.