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 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 of New York
City and onto the Professional Bowlers Association Tour. For Ernie
Schlegel, it would be a chance to shed his con artist 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, when thugs and hustlers ruled the
dark alleys, 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's tells an epic tale filled with
seedy characters, uproarious eccentricities, improbable twists of fate,
and a rags-to-riches narrative that is so crazy it has to be true.
