Legally blind senior bowls trio of 300 games in Crazy 8s league

WARREN — It’s been a summer of 300s for Warren resident Jim Day.

Day, 75, who is legally blind, picked up bowling the last two years, competing in the league at this church, the New Beginning General Baptist Church in Madison Heights.

With two years under his belt, the now-seasoned, southpaw bowling veteran found himself competing in a Crazy 8s league at Bowl One Lanes in Troy after friends from his church league talked him into it, and he didn’t disappoint.

A Crazy 8s league allows a bowler to knock down eight pins and it’s considered a strike.

On June 1, Day would set them up and set them down for his first career 300 game, and he said that was a feeling he’d never forget.

“It was a thrill for me to do that,” Day said. “The whole bowling alley knows that I’m legally blind, so everybody started cheering and they announced it over the loudspeaker and everything of what I’d done, and that was a little exciting.”

Three weeks later, he’d do it again on June 22, and for one final curtain call, he’d finish off the month of June with his third 300 game on June 29.

Day credits his teammates and friends for assisting him in lining up his shot and making sure he safely made it to the lane to bowl.

So, what does Day exactly see when he’s looking at the pins?

“When it’s my turn to bowl, all the pins are up there and all I see is a white box,” Day said. “I don’t see individual pins. I just see white down there, and that’s how I bowl. If I leave one standing, they’ll tell me where to stand to throw the ball. It’s not very often that I pick up a spare.”

Day has had vision issues all his life, especially in his right eye as a child that he described as a “lazy eye.”

Born with cataracts, Day went through seven cataract surgeries from age 7 to 14 in hope of correcting the problem.

By 2007, glaucoma would become a major issue for Day, as he underwent two glaucoma surgeries and two cornea transplants that his body rejected.

“It just progressively got worse after that,” Day said. “I had a doctor in Ann Arbor out of Michigan medicine, and they were going to put a plastic lens in with the cornea and cover it with a plastic lens, but I went through all the procedures and then COVID hit, so all that had to be put on hold. I went back and started all over again and got all the procedures and everything, and the doctor called and told me that I had so much scar tissue that he couldn’t even tell me if I was going to get any more sight back, so he told me to accept what I have and go on because he didn’t think it would benefit me to do that.”

While his left eye struggled with losing 70-75% of its sight, Day said the one positive thing is that the bad eye all his life has now become his reliable one — his right eye.

Day had to sell both of his classic cars, which were a 1947 Ford coupe and a 1966 Mustang, but he still gets to enjoy his classic car shows, walk his goldendoodle, Charlie, maintain his garden and spend time with his wife, Roberta, of 55 years.

“I have enough sight to get around, but I don’t have enough sight to read print, so I have to have a machine to do my reading,” Day said. “I still have to wear glasses, too, so I get around pretty good compared to other people. I don’t want to complain too much because no matter how bad a person has something, there’s always somebody worse off.”

Day was also elected trustee at his church, which he’s attended for over a decade.

He’s a figure in his church community, and now he’s a figure on the bowling scene as well, and he’ll look to continue his bowling success into his church bowling league, which starts in August.

As great of a bowler as he’s turned himself into, Day’s friends say he’s even more impressive as a person.

“He would give you the shirt off of his back if you needed it, and even if he needed it more,” said Rick Walker, Day’s friend of 30-plus years.