The first time I heard about Robby was when news spread of a youth bowler popping off a perfect 900 series. This series was bowled on November 5, 2005 at the Pine Plains Bowling Center in Fort Drum, N.Y., located in an Army base. It was bowled alone during a pre-bowl session for the Pine Plains Junior/Senior League.

The Internet bulletin boards lit up as bowlers protested the accomplishment by someone so young and under pre-bowled conditions. Then the USBC did something... or rather didn't do something... it didn't recognize the award. It instead put it on hold while they began an investigation.

Just as soon as bowling stopped talking about Robby, on December 3, 2005 another 900 series was submitted. Again, the series was bowled alone during a pre-bowl session at Pine Plains. The USBC once again did not approve it, as an existing investigation was ongoing. The Internet boards had a field day.

Everyone was getting impatient with what was to come of all this. Then about one month later, on January 4, 2006, the USBC made its decision on the first 900. It was rejected due to late sanctioning, a technicality. Robby still had the 900 shot in December going for him, however.

Approximately six weeks later on February 19, 2006 the most unexpected thing happened. Robby bowled a third 900 series. Pre-bowled but this time he bowled with another bowler, Jaime Grimm. Grimm, coincidentally, bowled his very first 300 game during this session. That means that two bowlers bowled a total of six games, four of which were perfect.

The remaining two 900 series, and the individual perfect 300 games, were approved by the USBC on June 19, 2006. "USBC did conduct a thorough inquiry. Based on the information derived in the interviews, USBC concluded that the rules of the game were followed, and therefore the scores were approved," said USBC Director of Sport Jeff Henry.

Fuzzy Facts

Robby is not only the only bowler in history to have more than one USBC approved 900 series, but he's also the youngest to ever achieve the coveted feat.

Beyond the odds of any bowler to achieve this... remember kids, his first submitted 900 was declined due to a technicality... there are a couple more reasons why Robby's story is hard to swallow. In an interview, Robby has stated that he has bowled two ADDITIONAL 900 series in practice. Yes, I will agree that in practice the strikes come easy. Usually a bowler is bowling faster and can get in a groove. There can be fewer bowlers bowling with you and your shot stays longer than in normal competition. Regardless, this places Robby in a real unique position to have bowled FIVE perfect series... that is five times more than any other bowler has claimed in the history of the sport.

Another reason why some people are struggling with this is due to another thing Robby has claimed. You see, he stated that he has learned to predict when he is about to leave a 10 pin by watching his pin action. He then adjusts before being tapped and this is accredited to how he can strike more frequently. Here's the problem with this. There are many reasons a person can leave a corner pin. When a round ball hits round pins, which hit other round pins, the outcome is not perfectly predictable. Of course Robby's claim also has a serious implication. Let's say he IS able to determine that his next shot will leave a 10 pin. That would mean he'd be able to adjust a fraction of an inch at the headpin, while keeping ball speed, revolutions, and tilt perfectly the same.

Last I heard Robby refused to take a lie detector test. Or was it his father that refused for him? Or did he agree? I do recall a user on one of the bowling forums offer to pay for a test if he'd do it. Personally, if I were him and I actually DID bowl those scores I'd be racing to the nearest testing facility to verify my achievement. But that's just me.

According to the ESPN Outside The Lines television segment, the odds of a bowler bowling two perfect 900's is 129 nonillion to one. Interestingly, the video segment (see In The News section for link) says that is 129 followed by 26 zeros. But a nonillion is 10 to the 30th power (30 zeros), according to Wikipedia. If it is 30 zeros, that looks like this: 129,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to one.

To put that in perspective, here are some other odds:

• Odds of a meteor landing on your house:
  182,138,880,000,000 to 1
• Odds of winning the Mega Millions Lottery:
  175,711,536 to 1
• Odds of dating a supermodel:
  88,000 to 1
• Odds of dying from ignition or melting of nightwear:
  30,589,556 to 1
• Odds of getting a royal flush:
  649,750 to 1