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The Secret of the Minbari Duckpin Bowling Caste is Revealed |
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| Article and pictures by Laura M. Appelbaum, special to Universe Today and sponsored by B5MD |
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For a thousand years, the Minbari have carefully guarded the existence of an ancient segment of their population - the Bowling Caste. Shunned by other Minbari because of their predilection for wearing garish polyester satin shirts and three-tone lace-up shoes, the Bowling Caste is nevertheless an important segment of Minbari society. For it is said that Valen himself, when addressing the Minbari people, delineated the tasks of each of the castes: "You work, you pray, you fight, you bowl." In a remarkable case of parallel innovation, the sport of Minbari Duckpin Bowling is nearly identical to the Terran version of the same game, which was invented in 1900 in Baltimore, Maryland and is played in several other states along the Eastern North American coastline. In fact, both Human and Minbari pins are just over 9" high and balls are no larger than 5" in diameter and no heavier than 3 pounds, 12 ounces. Unlike the Human sport, which is purely secular in its origins, even the most cursory study of the Minbari tradition reveals sacred elements. 
The ten pins represent Valen and The Nine Who Were of the original Grey Council. As one might expect given that everything the Minbari do is in threes, each player is permitted three rolls of the ball to knock down the pins in each frame; each ball representing one of the three openly acknowledged Castes; the Religious, Warrior and Worker. The fact that only the first two rolls are scored for extra points as "strikes" and "spares" reflects the Minbari form of apartheid wherein only the Religious and Warrior Castes had real power, despite representation from all three Castes on The Grey Council. This injustice was altered, as all readers of Universe Today know, by the actions of Delenn of Mir in 2261 when The Grey Council was restructured in its current form. Incidentally, no one has ever bowled a "perfect game" in Minbari Duckpins, presumably since the elimination of all the "Valen" pins from the lane would constitute a sacrilegious act of the highest order. Human bowlers may wonder why there are no holes in a Minbari bowling ball. Xenoethnologists believe this is because of Valen's purported dislike of an ancient Minbari curse-phrase; "there is a hole in your mind," but The Grey Council has refused to confirm or deny this hypothesis. Similarly, they have remained mute when asked whether or not the designation of the game as "Duckpin" bowling has anything to do with a phrase once familiar aboard Babylon 5; "Sinclair's Duck," but such a conclusion seems entirely reasonable to this researcher after comparing the size of the pins and the Duck's vital statistics. Members of the Minbari Bowling Caste are easily identified by the manner in which they carve their bone crests. Silhouettes of individual pins, bowling balls and the three-peaked Brunswick symbol are particularly popular, while other Caste members prefer to represent the 7-10 split. As a rule, Bowling Caste members also favor color-blocked garments in clashing combinations of turquoise blue, avocado green and harvest gold and satin jackets with their names embroidered on the chest and the name of a sponsoring business such as McBari's on the back. Finally, since the Minbari surrender at the Battle of The Line, the Minbari Bowling Caste has adopted the George Thoroughgood song "Bad to the Bone" as their official anthem. Members of B5MD regularly bowl Duckpins at the White Oak Lanes in Silver Spring on most Saturday nights around 10 PM. |