Only 10 people have ever bowled a perfect game blind, and Ron Gooch is now one of them. Legally blind since childhood, Gooch found solace in bowling back in high school and on Sept. 15 he mastered the game.
He actually came close to the milestone before. In 2008 he bowled a 299. He bowled 11 straight strikes, but on the final frame he left one pin standing.
"I thought I had it, but it didn't go and the utter disappointment — I was so close," he recently told the Chicago Tribune. "I thought, 'Man, this is a once in a lifetime thing' and then two years later it happens."
This is not the only good news Gooch has received recently. In August, he and his wife, Tammy, finally got pregnant after being told they could not conceive. The due date, March 24, is actually the same date Gooch almost bowled that perfect game back in 2008.
Gooch was born with nystagmus, a condition where the eyes move involuntarily. It leaves him with such blurred vision that he is deemed legally blind.
He can barely see up to 20 feet away, so he uses the arrows on the hardwood to orient himself. Looking down the lane at the pins is nearly impossible for Gooch, who compares it to “trying to look into a flashlight."
His buddies down at Echo Lanes in Morris, Ill, are quick to assure any doubters that this was no fluke.
“He's paid his dues," said Jim Tondini, a friend who witnessed the perfect game. "He's carried around this burden for life, and he's adapted to it so well. You really wouldn't want to take your wallet and get to gambling with him at bowling or pool or cards."
