Joe Jimenez Sr., from a legendary Saginaw family of champion bowlers, rolled 98 perfect 300 games by the time he reached middle age.
He was 42 years old when he suddenly collapsed on the local lanes days before Christmas 2007, with the dual diagnosis of a stroke and a brain tumor.
Since then, now in the 17th year since that fateful evening, Joe has not scored another 12-strike perfecto in pursuit of “100 300’s.”
Still, he is winning:
- He says medics told him he would be fortunate to simply walk again, but he definitely would be finished with bowling. Forget that! Jimenez needed three years, but he has been back out there for more than a decade, in defiance of the diagnosis.
- Foremost, he has conquered the personal self-harm of alcoholism, formerly consuming “hard stuff….. every day,” he told Hugh Bernreuter of The Saginaw News in 2013. He not only capped the bottle, but he shed 65 pounds (250 at the time, now 185) by dieting and by becoming a regular at the Saginaw YMCA.
Jimenez says he began “talking to God” to find inspiration for his comeback, and he is sharing his story as a representative for the Mexican American Council. Among other activities, MAC is organizing a health fair later this summer with support from the county’s new Health Equity Council.
“The stroke was a God-given thing,” he said. “If I didn’t have the stroke, I never would have known about the tumor, which was found to be not malignant.
“I was on my way toward dying because my blood pressure was so high.”
In the Saginaw Bowling Hall of Fame, he joins his departed father, Albert Sr., along with Jesse, his uncle, and Albert Jr., his sibling. Joe Jr., who was 16 when his father took ill, is in line to become a fifth Jimenez family member for enshrinement.
Top supporters are a nephew, Andre Gonzales, and a niece, Shayla Owens, with young Shayla showing that 300 also is in reach for females. Andre, meanwhile, is known for his no-thumbs, two-handed style.
Less skill, still a legend
Along with strength of character, the new life for Jimenez is filled with modesty. The stroke’s personal effect is on his right side and he’s a right-hander, noted for his unique style of holding the ball side-saddle instead of in front. Nowadays he simply can’t throw the ball as hard as he once did, when he won 11 straight Saginaw News high-average “Bowler of the Year” crowns.
He’s more likely to shoot around 180 than his former 240. He earlier chalked up more than 50 three-game series of 800 or above, but when he rolled a post-recovery 709 triad, subpar by his old standards, he still proudly posed as “Bowler of the Week,” a newspaper award usually reserved for regular keglers who enjoy once-in-a-lifetime high-score performances.
“It was an honor,” he says, even though 709 was far from his best. “It was my way of showing how much I always will enjoy the sport.”
He today is similar to a star athlete who maintains grace and class after their prime years have ended. A recent example is Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers, who comes from Joe’s next-favorite sport, baseball. A youthful Jimenez was a teenage pitching star for the Green Hornets, a youth baseball state championship team
But just as Miggy closed with a flourish with his 500th career home run, Joe Jimenez dreams of another 300 game some day. His closest was starting with an open frame — no strike, no spare, like a golfer hitting his first tee shot into the water — and then stringing together 11 consecutive strikes to finish with 257. More recently he registered a 268 that “would have been 279” except for a hard-luck 9-pin leave on his final ball.
“It can be a matter of one or two shots within the game,” he says. “I know I can do it.”
History lives today
He also “can do it” in terms of health and well-being, and as one of Saginaw’s most-noted athletes he aims to serve as a role model for others to do the same.
Not that Joe Jimenez was a big wrong-doer with his drinking. He was friendly and popular among his bowling peers, even as he vanquished them on the scoresheet with one “X” (strike) after another. He has maintained loving bonds with wife Geraldine and daughter Jasmine, along with Joe Jr.
Jimenez says his boozing began during post-competition parties with other bowlers who also were his best friends, always after the matches, never before or during.
“At first, I didn’t realize it was going to be a problem,” Joe recalls.
In 1982, Jimenez made his inaugural mark on local sports history when he became the first Saginawian to roll a 300 game at the age of 15. His son and J. Neville Kirby have broken the youngest-ever record, and while Joe Sr. was thrilled by the acclaim, he feels the pressure to stay on top may have led him to pursue an alcohol escape valve.
A former competitor and bowling equipment specialist, Brian Waliczek, once said, “Joe was the best, but his actual physical game was not high end. It was his mental game. Some guys would get eight or nine strikes, but couldn’t finish it off. Joe always finished it off.”
That type of tough-minded determination paved the way for 98 perfect bowling games. Now it is leading to a better life. In his modest manner and soft-spoken way, he aims for his message to be a strike.
