Although its name evokes smiles , duckpin bowling has long been a serious part of working-class culture, communities, and history in Baltimore. According to the officially-sanctioned history of the sport, [Henry Fankhauser and Frank Micalizzi, The Book of Duckpin Bowling (South Brunswick, N.J.: A. S. Barnes, 1969)] duckpin bowling is said to have been created about 1900 in a saloon at 519 North Howard Street owned by two famous Baltimore baseball players, John "Little Napoleon" McGraw (1873-1934) and "Uncle" Wilbert Robinson (1865-1934). The pair reportedly took a sack of broken tenpins to Baltimore woodworker John Dittmar, who carved them down into a smaller size and shape. The sport's name supposedly followed from the pair's observation that when struck the flying little pins looked like the ducks the ballplayers hunted on weekends. Duckpins quickly became "Baltimore's Game," quickly eclipsing the big-ball style of bowling common to men's clubs and bars across the city.

By the 1930s, duckpin lanes were found in all kinds of establishments-church basements, veterans' halls, ethnic clubs, schools and factories-but for Baltimore's impassioned bowlers the real action took place in the city's famous duckpin alleys. From bustling docks and busy factories workers signed up for leagues that began in the morning and ran late into the night. By 1939 four hundred such leagues were in operation at more than fifty bowling centers in Baltimore, including the legendary one-hundred-lane Recreation Center at 602 Howard Street.

Such huge bowling alleys seemed to herald a greater victory for Baltimore's brand of bowling. Local newspapers boasted that duckpins threatened to crowd out tenpins on the East Coast and had "stormed nearly the whole country." Commentators worried that the growing popularity of the sport along the East Coast and into the Midwest threatened the continued dominance of the hometown duckpinners.

A 1948 comic book, True Sport Picture Stories, acknowledged Baltimore as the center of the sport and wrote: "Duckpins today is played by millions on the East coast and is spreading swiftly and surely over the country.. It took kegling out of the cellar of a tavern and put it into palatial establishments. It runs into big money. Duckpins made bowling a universal caviar sport by taking its mug and pretzels away."

Caviar sport or not, duckpins' heyday in Baltimore lasted long into the post-war era. In the 1950s, bowling made the jump to television, thanks to Gunther Beer and the pioneering Baltimore production company that brought the idea of "Duckpins for Dollars" to the small screen. Later, Bert Claster Productions adapted the show's idea to fit the standard tenpin game, dominant in much of the rest of the country.

The popularity of duckpin bowling peaked in the 1960s. The Baltimore-based National Duckpin Bowling Congress oversaw bowling in 6,669 lanes at 550 centers up and down the East Coast, and counted more than a quarter of a million devoted league bowlers. Baltimore remained the sport's center, with as many as 1,200 duckpin lanes in operation.

Though breakfast and midnight leagues flourished, changes were already underway. Promoters hoped to draw more women into the sport. As one reporter noted, "Bowling establishments, once known for tavern-like atmosphere and unprepossessing pinboys, today are merchandising wholesomeness, housewifely tidiness, and mechanized conveniences." Operators began to reject the term "bowling alley" in favor of the more picturesque "bowling lanes" and "bowling center." Some added nurseries and Laundromats to their centers, and updated snack counters to cocktail lounges.

Other changes were more ominous. For one, big-ball tenpin lanes re-emerged in the region, much to the disgust of resistant duckpinners. From three centers in the early 1960s, tenpins had expanded to nearly twenty in the area by the early 1970s. Many new centers began placing duckpins and tenpins side-by-side within the same alley. In a feud that continues to burn, duckpinners blamed high-stakes, big money tenpin bowling advertising and championships for undercutting duckpin's dominance. One newspaper noted that Baltimore bowlers had begun to worry that "in two generations.there won't be any duckpins at all." Bowling center owners lamented the rising cost of duckpin pinsetting equipment.

Although not apparent at the time, the signal for duckpins' decline may have been the closing of the mammoth 100-lane Recreation Center on Howard Street in the late 1960s. As the city's industrial base and population declined over the 1970s, neighborhood centers began to suffer. Eventually the Baltimore-based Fair Lanes bowling empire-which had once harbored dreams of becoming the "Disney of bowling" and ran 112 centers-was sold to investment bankers and a tenpin corporation, which closed duckpin alleys or converted their lanes to the standard big-ball sport.

In recent years, local newspapers have largely stopped covering "Baltimore's Game," though the passing of former bowling greats and league players is duly noted in obituaries. Television stations no longer carry duckpin bowling shows. Duckpin tournaments disappeared from the professional schedules. League life, with its rituals and etiquette, has slipped away. Neighborhood alleys close one after another.

In perhaps the greatest heresy to date, some observers have even begun suggesting that duckpin bowling may not have been invented in Baltimore after all, though evidence of a New England origin has yet to meet the strict standards of local enthusiasts.

Fankhauser, Henry and Frank Micalizzi. The Book of Duckpin Bowling. South Brunswick, N.J.: A. S. Barnes, 1969