I started out the title defense on Thursday with a bit of trepidation but mostly I was calm and just ready to have a good time. I was able to put myself at ease after getting marks in both the 1st and 2nd frames (spares) with little difficulty.
I think part of the reason why I was able to do this was because I have reached a point with this championship where it doesn't really matter to me if I win or not, I am there to have a good time and it's not like there is any real reward that you get from winning. It's not like there is any money involved, it's just a silly WWE wrestling belt that is intended for children.
Things were going well for me as I continued to do pretty well and ended up bowling my first game above my average and ended with a 156. This is not a huge score but it is pretty good and I was happy with it. I did miss a couple of easy spare pickups and that always irritates me but whatever man, I'm just happy to bowl above my 140 average.
It was shaping up to be a good day but something very strange and bad happened at that point as my opponent, who bowled that highest score out of anyone last week with a 194, just couldn't get anything to work and didn't even break 100 points in game one. He finished the first game with an 89. Now this is where things took a bad turn and just made it not fun for anyone. At the start he was having a sense of humor about his mistakes and the fact that he was missing the pins rather badly, but then his humor turned into moping, and then this turned into an extremely childish response of not interacting with me or anyone else at all and complaining about the game. I don't think he smiled at all for the rest of the game. There were times when he would get a strike and I and others would cheer and I extended my hand for a high five and he just walked right past me. He was being short and rude to anyone that tried to talk to him or reassure him and honestly, it was just extremely bad form.
I am not the kind of person that rubs it in towards anyone in a serious fashion if they are doing poorly and I also try to celebrate any sort of small victory that anyone has. For example the 2nd division promotional match was really amazing with both of those guys bowling well above their normal abilities and like I have said before that "greatness begets greatness" and both of those two guys were just having stunning games and staying within a few pins of one another each frame that passed.
But my opponent didn't even celebrate that and was in his own world, moping and acting like a stick in the mud.
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I don't know what to do in this situation but at one point I stopped and asked him to calm down or take it easy and asked if he wanted to take a short break or something and his response was "I couldn't understand any of that." He could hear me, he was just being a petulant man-baby.
His attitude was noticed by many others at the lanes and it was frowned upon because he wasn't helping anyone, including his own performance by behaving like this. In the 2nd game he did better and I did worse, perhaps in part because of his moping, but while I scored 120 and he scored 117 in game two, this was no longer fun.
In game 3 I had a fantastic series of frames towards the end and he actually did quite well also with us finishing with a 184 for me and a 156 for him.
When I extended my hand to shake his as is customary in these competitions, he refused to shake my hand and walked away.
Look, I am an extremely nice person and go out of my way at these events to try to help everyone has as much fun as possible and this is kind of unacceptable. There isn't really anything I can do about it though because its not like we are going to kick the guy out or anything. We have only ever banned one person from attending the bowling in the past 4 years of doing this and trust me, that guy deserved the ban. As far as my last week's opponent is concerned. I was later told that during the tag team competition that takes place after the singles bowling, he was being rude and not even trying to do well. Whenever he missed a shot he would get all testy and irritable and just made everyone uneasy that was around him.
He attended the after party, but stayed away from almost everyone else in attendance and then left before the announcements happened and he has never done this before.
Look, I too have bowled terribly in a competition and yes, it is frustrating but I dunno, since I am an adult I realize that getting all pissy about it isn't going to improve anything. There was a time in the past where I failed to break 100 points in the first game and was absolutely dominated by the person that I was up against but I took it in stride and laughed about it and congratulated my opponent on a game well-played. Acting like a pissed off baby because you don't win is just stupid behavior for someone who is an adult.
There were rumors circulating that he was telling people that he isn't going to go to these events anymore and good grief man, I hope that isn't the case but if it is the case, and if this is how someone in our ranks is going to handle these situations then maybe it is best if he doesn't come anymore. We do not need this sort of negativity inside of what is supposed to be a light-hearted and fun experience. If you can't handle being in the spotlight and competing, nobody is going to ever force you to play for the belt. It's always an option to opt out of being in the competition.
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I didn't attempt to embarrass him during the speech and I am not going to attempt to reprimand an adult. I do hope that he and others can perhaps learn from this experience though and maybe have a different attitude in the future. I think that for him the WORST thing he could possibly do would be to not ever return because that would just be the icing on the cake as far as childishness is concerned. The main thing is that this guy and his wife are both really nice people normally and if they were to not come back they would essentially be cutting off all of the friendships that are in this league as well. Is it really worth it?
I say swallow your pride and apologize. That's what I would do