Photo by Jessica Stewart / St. Joseph News-Press

Brothers Craig and Jeff Barber, owners of Cordonnier's Place, won the first Silver Strike Bowling league.

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Cordonnier’s Place sponsors a bowling league, but the teams don’t go to the alley to play. There are no heavy balls, no rented blue and red shoes, no team shirts.

Instead, the teams meet at Cordonnier’s and the game is electronic, played on an arcade console. Players “bowl” by using a trackball controller that they move with their hands.

Think of it as a bowling league for the tech generation. This is a Silver Strike bowling league.

Cordonnier’s Place hosted its first Silver Strike league last November. The second season is set to begin next week.

Jeff Kamler of Kamler-McKenzie Amusement LLC, which owns the Silver Strike machines, says the game has become popular.

“A lot of guys are trading in their regular bowling ball for a trackball,” he says.

Competing in the league costs $5 per person per season, which includes game play. The league has regular nights, meeting on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The Silver Strike machines keep track of their scores online, and at the end of the six- to eight-week period, the team with the highest score gets a cash prize, trophies and their names on a plaque, which hangs in Cordonnier’s Place.

Players also are entered in the national Silver Strike raffle for weekly and monthly prizes, including a Harley Davidson motorcycle, Ford Mustang convertible, a $10,000 Costco gift card and a trip to the Super Bowl.

The league isn’t just for those who already have honed their Silver Strike skills with hours of play. Anyone can join, no experience necessary.

“Some are here just for the fun, some are die-hard,” says Craig Barber, who manages Cordonnier’s Place with his brother, Jeff.

“There’s a lot of new people who get into it.”

Craig and Jeff were new to the game until the league came to Cordonnier’s Place, but they managed to win the first season. But it doesn’t hurt to have some knowledge of the game, and you need to at least know the fundamentals of bowling, Mr. Kamler says.

Other than that, it depends on a player’s natural talent and his or her style.

“It don’t take no skills,” says Scott Bertelsen, who played in the league last season.

Mr. Bertelsen was a regular player of Golden Tee, the golf version of Silver Strike. He didn’t expect the Silver Strike league to be that entertaining because “it’s bowling, you know, how exciting can bowling be?”

But he soon found that trying to beat out the other guys in the league made the game entertaining.

“It’s just when you get a bunch of guys around there, competing for the top scores, it just makes it more fun,” he says.

The Silver Strike league at Cordonnier’s Place isn’t the only game in town. ACME Music and Vending Co., Inc. also is hosting its first Silver Strike league. The ACME league is a traveling one, alternating nights between bars and restaurants across St. Joseph.

“It’s very popular,” says Tom Cobb, president of ACME.

The ACME league is halfway through its first season. Mr. Cobb says another season is planned for this summer.

Jeff Barber says he didn’t realize how popular the league would be when it started, it just “took off.” And not only does the league attract those competing, but it also draws in spectators.

“It’s standing room only when it’s all going on,” Mr. Kamler says.

“People come here wanting to sub all the time.”

It’s hard to play just one game of Silver Strike, he says. A spin of the trackball, a virtual strike and you’re hooked.

“It’s highly addictive,” he says. “You can’t get away from it.”

Lifestyles reporter Lacey Storer can be reached at lstorer@npgco.com