Much like other areas of life, bowling does not always present you with a second chance if you fail to take advantage of a rare opportunity.

Ron Gooch of Morris has bowled for 46 years, but had never achieved his ultimate goal of a perfect game for the first 44 of them. On March 24, 2009, Gooch got his chance, throwing 11 consecutive strikes. A strike in the final game would clinch perfection, but Gooch left one pin standing to leave him with a bittersweet 299.

"The last ball I threw that day was a good one but it just didn't happen," Gooch said. "I was wondering if I was ever going to get another chance like that. The second opportunity did arise one week ago, last Wednesday."

Last Wednesday, Sept. 15, turned out to be a day Gooch, who is legally blind, will never forget. He was, as usual, bowling for his Clayton's Tap team in the Wednesday Night Major League at Morris' Echo Lanes. At the beginning of his series, Gooch thought it was a round he would forget quickly.

"Actually the night was going kind of badly," he said. "I have a 200 average, and the first game I shot like a 158. For some reason, I don't know that it was any reason other than coincidence, I started off the second game throwing strikes and kept it going into the third game."

Before long, more than just teammates Jeff Couvenhoven, Mark Schaum, Jim Tondini and Gary Videl were gathered around the 17th and 18th lanes as Gooch tried to close the deal.

"[Being perfect] really never entered my mind until the eighth [frame]," Gooch said. "Then as we were coming up to the ninth one, my teammates were just saying relax and don't do anything different than you usually do. If someone's going into the 10th frame with a perfect game, the whole alley stops to see if they get it.

"I carried my first ball on the 10th and the 11th, and by now, everyone is gathering up behind our lanes. My buddy [Tondini] was saying, 'Don't turn around. Just go get your ball and throw it.' It came up the ball return and I went to the same spot I always do. I had the ball came off the same spot off my hand. I thought it was good but I'm thinking, 'No 10 pin, no 10 pin.' It hit the pins and blasted them all."

Tondini has known Gooch for around 30 years, and the two have bowled with and against one another for decades.

"I was really pulling for him. He's been a regular and the bowling alley forever and has put in his time," Tondini said. "I just told him to pay attention to what you're doing. The worst thing you can do is choke and then think 'damn' and end up saying that you never got another chance. Just make sure to throw a good shot so you're not upset at yourself later. Bowling is something where there's not a lot of physical work that goes into it. It's more of a mind thing and it gets tough when you outthink it."

The second time around, Gooch did not outthink it, and the 300 that resulted rates as the pinnacle of his bowling career.

"It was total ecstasy and relief. Everyone wants to get one," Gooch said. "The only think in my lifetime that I know is a greater accomplishment than what happened Sept. 15 is about a month ago, we found out we're expecting our first [child]. I am 52, and my beautiful better half [Tammy], we'll we'd better just say she's 29."

Since birth, Gooch has been legally blind due to a disease that runs in his mother's side of the family and affects the optic nerve.

"I can't see the pins. It's like looking into a flashlight," Gooch said. "I can see my feet, but if I leave a pin, all I can see is a strip of white. If I leave two or three of them, then someone's gotta tell me what I got."

Gooch is a second-generation longtime bowler.

"I started when I was 6," he said. "My father [Dale], back in the 70s and 80s, was one of the better bowlers in this area. Before they invented the new equipment everyone uses today, if you had a 180 average in the 70s, you were a God of bowling, and that's what he bowled. ... He kept me on the straight and narrow and told me what to do and how to do it, but you've still gotta go do it yourself."