Every year I do a story about the Bags League at Sheridan Lanes. It is possibly the premier bags league in the entire corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago. It features 14 sets of customized boards that plays host to 28 teams which allows for good competition with a fun time always being the underlying theme. My wife’s Bill’s Corner Club squad is an Original 6 member of the league and SL owner Jason Griffin has always treated her team very well. And full disclosure, I think my wife is kinda hot, so I like showing her off any time I can. So when it was time to take the usual picture of her shooting good bags for this year’s story, I told her, “next game, please shoot down there in the sunlight so I can get a good picture for the story”. Imagine my complete delight when she took up against her opponent who was the only dude there wearing a Speedo and an orange head band! I’ve seen the “Speedo Team” before and was never really sure what that was all about. I still have no idea, but let me tell you, the man sold it pretty well.
This league has simply blown up! It is fun, it is competitive, it is well run, it has many added extras that are incorporated into league play including nightly giveaway contests, blind-draw tournaments and a free trip to a Kingfish game every year. It is literally more bang for your buck than any competitive league I have ever seen in this city and I think I’ve seen ’em all. And as we wake from a pandemic nap, it was good to see some semblance of normal taking place at Sheridan Lanes again. They have a very loyal core group of customers and then the bags group has also come heavy to load the NE corner of the parking lot every Monday. It is really something you should go check out some Monday night if you have yet to do so.
With the death of softball and the niche of horseshoes and bocce, the new big boy on the block may literally be bags. It is a game that most everyone has played to some degree. I don’t believe that males possess any advantages over females (my wife is considerably better than me and I pitched softball for 30 years) so it is a level playing field. And most importantly, the vibe there is where it should be. You generally see leagues in any competition that are either ultra-competitive or complete “fun” leagues. This league is the best of both worlds. I’ve seen people shooting hard and intently trying to win against another strong team. And I’ve seen a dude in a Speedo and an orange headband drink a shot and then see if he can bring rain with a 30-foot arching launch of a bag.
Kudos to Jason and his wife and his brother and to everyone who makes the Bags League on Monday nights down at Sheridan Lanes special. Mad respect from an outsider who is married to an insider who loves playing in this league.
