The Mo and Phil Show - Bowling Memoirs of Johnny Petraglia

Mo Pinel and Phil Cardinale have been in the bowling game their whole life.Right now they are the owners and designers of Radical bowling balls, which Brunswick manufactures for them.Currently the Radical GURU is a great ball which is selling very well.Both are a genius in their own way, and because of that they have eccentric qualities.This isn’t a knock, I love and respect the both of them, but sometimes they think a little different than we do.I’ll give you one example of each.

Mo was giving a seminar for pro shops at Carolier Lanes and he asked if I could come down and help out. There were about 20 pro shops there totaling about 30 people. They were all seated in the bar, and I was sitting behind all of them. Mo was ready to start, and introduced me, and then the seminar started. Mo’s opening line was, “Copernicus said the world is round. Copernicus was wrong. “I thought, even for Mo this was a pretty wild way to start….telling everybody that the greatest astronomer of his time was wrong! Besides being insulting, what does this have to do with bowling? My thoughts were confirmed when a guy in front of me leaned over to his friend and said, “Who the %#&$ is Copernicus?”. I couldn’t resist, I leaned forward and said, “It’s Joe Copernicus, he bowls in the Friday night league.” The guy said, “Oh, okay.” I told Mo after the seminar what happened. He doesn’t use that line anymore….I rest my case.

Phil Cardinale is more the business genius. He’s also a lefty bowler. He has a habit of projecting what scores would have been if he could carry better. The same way he projects sales, based on a number of factors. He’s good at projecting sales, it just doesn’t apply to throwing strikes in bowling. Recently he found a scoresheet from when we bowled each other in the 1985 Newsday Eastern Open. Phil explains that in game one, he was scarred for life when he threw a six count in the tenth frame and lost to me 227-223.But if he could have carried the 7 pin in the second game it would have been a great match. As the scoresheet will show, if he could have carried the 7 pin 6 TIMES, it would have been a great match! Going by Phil’s way of thinking, if I could carry the 7 pin, I would have four thousand perfect 300 games and 80 or 90 titles.

Thankfully both of these guys are on the planet. When I’m with them, whether it’s testing balls, bowling a tournament, or having dinner, life is never dull. I know my buddies Mo and Phil won’t mind me picking on them.

cento anni’…Johnny Petraglia