Lunch with Tommy and Stasia

"Hold on to your tray tables, boys and girls!"

This was the Saturday lunchtime rally cry from legendary Channel 5 sportscaster Don Gillis. Every week for nearly four decades, families slurped tomato soup and crunched on grilled cheese sandwiches while the world s best candlepin bowlers performed otherworldly feats for over 200,000 TV viewers. Candlepin Bowling, often the top-rated Boston sports show of the week, made names like Czernicki, Olszta, and Jutras as familiar as Bird, Yastrzemski and Orr.

Mike Morin s new book, Lunch With Tommy and Stasia: TV s Golden Age of Candlepin Bowling, is the very first behind-the-scenes look at what made these pop-up stars tick. Morin watched hundreds of hours of classic TV matches and then sought out the bowlers to uncover what really happened on (and off) the lanes.

As a TV co-host of nearly 300 candlepin bowling episodes in Boston and New Hampshire, Morin got to know the players personally. They didn t hold back as they shared their stories, many never heard before. Stories like:

Mike Sargent wins a big-money purse match but instead gets paid with something he never expected.

Tom Olszta s discarded, muddy bowling balls make a surprise appearance courtesy of Santa.

Hollywood celebrities love candlepins. Just ask Eve Jan Brady Plumb, Will Ferrell, and Simpson s executive producer Matt Selman.

The highs and lows are all laid out, accompanied by a photo gallery that will bring back memories of Saturday lunches with Tommy, Stasia, and hundreds of other candlepin bowling stars. Finally, their stories are told.