Brian Ziesig: 'Tis is a small world after all

I’ve come realize the last couple days how crocheted the Long Island bowling community is. Get it? Really tight-knit. It’s kinda like a small, rural town where err’body knows somebody and somebody knows err’body. You could probably pick any two names and play three (or fewer) degrees of separation.

As you know (we hope), Levittown’s Brian Ziesig won the PBA Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship on Sunday at Babylon Lanes. Turns out the Nassau high school bowling coordinator, Eileen Shultis, was Ziesig’s babysitter.

“I’ve known him since he was 10 days old,” she said. “I'd known the family all my life through bowling. We lived in Levittown and bowled together at South Levittown Lanes… I was 15 and I’d ride my bicycle over to their house.”

So watching lil’ Brian, now 35, reach the apex of his bowling career in dramatic fashion, in front of a home crowd, brought out the emotion.

“I thought about going, but I said, ‘Let me sit at home and watch by myself because I know when he wins - when - I’m going to cry,’” Shultis said. “And I did.”

Well, after a waiting-to-exhale delay. Ziesig had tied Jason Belmonte at 247 in the 10th frame to force a roll-off. Belmonte went first and rolled a nine and Ziesig followed with a strike, seizing the in-house crowd’s breath as the 10 pin hesitated to collapse like a fainting cartoon character. Or like in any made-for-kids basketball movie where the down-two desperation shot makes four rotations around the rim before dropping in. But the folks at home didn’t see that live.

“The viewers didn't know,” Shultis said. “Somebody stood up and blocked the [ESPN] camera. “You were waiting for this person to get out of the way and it's like time was going by slowly at that moment."

That would be like watching a baseball game where it's two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Team A is up three runs but Team B has the bases loaded and their slugger belts one deep... then the broadcast is interrupted by "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system."

"Then when they switched to a different camera, you saw him celebrating,” Shultis continued. "I was so excited for him...After he won, I got so many calls, you would've though it was my husband or my son."

Ziesig bowled in honor of his father, Robert, who died of cancer. His dad had taught he and his brothers, Chris and Steve, how to bowl and they competed in father-son leagues.

Late Friday night, when Ziesig flew into first place and the other Long Islanders fell out of contention, almost the entire audience rushed toward the west end of Babylon Lanes, trying to poke through to watch him work on Lane 11. It’s like he had the Verizon network behind him. I overheard a couple people on their cell phones telling whomever that they know the guy who’s in first now. “I used to be in a league with him,” one person told me. “He’s a down-to-earth, funny guy.”

Little evidence: I interviewed him on Saturday during Fan Day and he said, “I’m gonna try to get some autographs myself. And I’ve been told by my daughter (Kirsten, 7) I have to get one from Belmonte. I don’t know if it’s because he’s good-looking or the accent, maybe it’s the fact that he shoots 300 every other game, but she’s got a crush.”

He also wasn’t kidding about snapping back to reality right after the tournament. I’m told he bounced before ESPN was even done filming. He’d promised his friends before that win or lose, he’d go hang out at South Levittown Lanes. He also used the three-hour breaks between rounds in the tournament to go pick his daughter up from the school bus. And this morning he was back to work as a salesman in Ace Mitchell bowling mart in West Babylon. So I’m guessing that $25,000 prize won’t be going towards 22-inch spinning chrome rims.

“Over the years I’ve come across thousands of great kids through bowling and it’s like how parents love all their kids, but one stands out,” Shultis said. “Brian is the one who stands out. I can't express how well he's handled himself through major events in life.”