I know what you’re thinking. It’s the middle of Spring, and the bowlers are just now finishing their Winter campaign? Well, bowlers tend to move at their own pace, and it’s a 30-week season. Perhaps the old baseball adage of a season being a marathon and not a sprint is apropos to the old hardwood.

San Diego Gay Bowling (SDGB) is unique in that it serves as the umbrella organization for two separate leagues. The High Rollers league bowls on Wednesday nights and the Rainbow League takes to the lanes on Thursdays. Both are completely separate entities, each with their own board of directors and membership fees. However, they both start and end at the same time.

Wednesday’s event is the more popular of the two, with 100 regular players composing 20 teams. Thursday’s has 70 bowlers and a total of 14 teams.

Both are what is known as “handicap” leagues. Bowlers are given credit for knocking down a certain number of pins prior to their games even starting. The lesser your skill level, the more pins you’re given. The number of pins equals your overall handicap. For example, a bowler who knocks down an average of 127 pins per game would be given about an 88 pin handicap to start. If a bowler bowls their average in a game, then their overall score would be 215. However, the higher a bowler’s average, the lower their handicap. If a bowler averages 178 pins per game, their handicap would only be about 42 pins.

As the seasons wound down, four teams in each league were fighting for playoff spots and a chance to win their leagues outright.

The High Rollers entered the final week of play with teams We’re Not In Charge, 6 Balls 2 Splits, 5 B’s Still Itchin’ and My Dixie Wrecked all vying for the title. In the end it came down to six Balls and My Dixie Wrecked, with the latter taking the title. We’re Not and 5B’s finished third and fourth, respectively.

In addition to the 100 regulars, The High Rollers league also welcomes the occasional substitute bowler filling in for a player who would be otherwise unavailable. Over the course of a 30-week season, there are, after all, bound to be some absences.

But it was a regular bowler, Grady Mitchell of the team Bluestone Design, who had the distinction of throwing a perfect game. He got 13 strikes in a row, in one game, giving him the maximum possible score, 300. In fact, Mitchell was the only bowler in SDGB to bowl a 300 this season.

Thursday night’s Rainbow league also entertained four teams in its finals match-ups. Gutter Sluts took the crown, followed by davidtangredi.com in second place, Star 94.1 Pit Crew in third and Pocket Rockets took fourth.

Anthony Ballard was almost able to answer Mitchell’s perfect game, falling only two pins short in the last frame, finishing with a 298, which was good enough for the highest score of the Rainbow season.

Both leagues roll at Kearny Mesa Bowl (KMB), and games begin at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $16 per player, per week on Wednesdays and $17 on Thursdays. Fees include time on the lanes. Sponsorship fees are $50 and $65 per season, respectively. For information about San Diego Gay Bowling or to become a player, contact Ron Suttora at 858-569-4285.

High Rollers and Rainbow are not the only gay bowling leagues in the city, or that bowl at KMB.

The Easy Pick Ups League is San Diego’s oldest gay and lesbian bowling organization.

At one point more than 30 teams strong, The EPUs played at Aztec Bowl in North Park. But when real estate developers decided to build a condoplex at that location, the league was forced to move around, and members started dropping off. The first move was to Sunset Bowl. Following the closure of that alley, they moved to the lanes at The Grove by San Diego State University. When The Grove was shuttered, the league moved to an alley on a Naval Base, but after only one season the Easy Pick Ups were asked not to return.

The league eventually re-settled at KMB, where it plays on Sunday afternoons starting at 12:30 p.m.

For more information about Easy Pick-Ups, contact Ron Sperry at 619-640-1633.

CORRECTION:

Last week, we incorrectly reported the Web site for the San Diego Tennis Federation. The correct Web site is www.sdtf.org. Also, the incorrect AFCSL scoreboard was printed due to a production error.

We apologize for the errors.