By BILL SNIER
KENT — Coming back off of rotator cuff surgery in May, John Randolph wasn’t sure what to expect from his bowling game as he picked the ball up again in August.
“When I started leagues, I hadn’t been bowling but a couple of weeks,” the 56-year-old Tallmadge right-hander said. “It’s been about a month now and the timing really has been pretty good. It’s just getting the muscle used to handling the weight again.”
Randolph, a comptroller at Mancan Inc. In Massillon, was diagnosed with the shoulder problem in March.
“I put off the surgery because I wanted to bowl the Petersen (Classic),” said Randolph, who goes with a squad captained by Mark Suchan to the famed event.
After surgery, he took three months off from the game to heal.
“They said the tear was pretty bad, but I was blessed with n to having a whole lot of changes,” said Randolph, who chose to stay with 15- and 16-pound equipment rather than drop weight. “I had heard a whole lot of horror stories about the pain and stuff, but I think I only had to take a couple of Advil once or twice after surgery.”
Randolph’s comeback was capped recently in league play at Kent Lanes, when he had games of 259, 280 and 267 for an 806 series — his 15th career 800 to go along with “between 30 and 40” 300 games.
“I pretty much played straight up the outside. The ball was working really well and I didn’t have to put a whole lot of effort behind it,” said Randolph, who used a DV8 Brutal Collision all night. “By the second game, I was really stroking it well. I had the one spare in the second frame and then went sheet.”
Things didn’t change much in Game 3 although Randolph admitted “I had to muscle up a little bit just to keep it on line.”
“It worked an I was picking up the 10-pin so I didn’t have to change balls all night,” he added.
Randolph also bowls in the Northeast Ohio Travel League, where he is averaging 203 through three weeks. But the week after the 800 at Kent, he shot “just” 708 so his average “dropped” to 252 at that center.
“To get back into that groove again, it felt really, really good,” said Randolph, whose last 800 came nearly two years ago. “It wasn’t until the end of August when I started swinging it a little bit again.
“After being out for three months and not throwing a ball at all … the shoulder is doing well and I’m starting to get my strength back.”
And after back-to-back big weeks at Kent, the results are proving it.
“I guess,” Randolph laughed, “I’ve got to keep my average down.”