Rendezvous in the Alley : League bowlers--some who have been teammates for decades--gather weekly to check up on friends. Sometimes they even roll a few games.

Marion Baines took his bowling ball out of the bag and fired the first insult of the new season.

“Do I have to look at you again?” Baines asked Jim Frachtling, his Thursday night buddy for the last seven years.

“You’re not going to use that same ball again?” responded Frachtling, taking his cue.

The two men laughed and shook hands--male bonding at Brunswick Bowl in Van Nuys.

A few miles away, at Sports Center Bowl in Studio City, women from Temple Beth Hillel have made the alleys a place to schmooze.

“It’s a way for everyone to catch up with what’s going on,” said Gloria Gurian, who helped establish the Wednesday morning league in 1957. “This one got divorced, this one has more kids. It’s really a soap opera.”

The Solomons and Edelmans have bowled together for 18 years at Woodlake Bowl in Woodland Hills. One year, they opened a mutual fund to save their match winnings for a trip abroad.

“You have to be here, unless you have a real good written excuse,” joked Judy Solomon. “No matter what we do, we know that on Thursday nights, we’ll be together.”

Welcome to the start of another bowling year, and, more importantly, a new season of socializing.

Each September across the Valley, teammates who have bowled together for years, even decades, are reunited in their annual pursuit of triumphs and trophies.

But the real prize is their weekly opportunity to leave the house and see each other.

Bowling, often perceived as a blue-collar hobby in the industrial centers of the East and rural back yards of the Midwest, is much more popular in Southern California than many imagine.

“Because of the state’s large retirement population and people’s desire to get out of the heat, it seems like everyone bowls,” said Renee Schlitz, the senior coordinator for the Women’s International Bowling Congress in Greendale, Wis.

According to the Los Angeles Bowling Assn., about 12,000 men and 9,000 women belonged last year to bowling leagues in the San Fernando Valley. Ages of bowlers range from 18 to 90. At the Temple Beth Hillel league, 90-year-old Bee Fink slipped on the alley and broke her wrist two years ago. The first question she asked her doctor was how soon she would be able to bowl again. She was back six months later.

Some leagues engage in cutthroat matches with hundreds of dollars at stake, as bowlers put in $25 to $50 each week and cash in for highest total pins and most winning games. Bowlers often make side bets with teammates and opponents. Three years ago, five bowlers in a women’s league from Granada Lanes in Granada Hills were cited by the Los Angeles Police Department’s vice squad for gambling. The case made national news. Officers later withdrew the citations but issued warnings against gambling.

But the majority participate in looser competitions for fun. Leagues normally charge between $10 and $15 for three games.

Most leagues operate at night, but some traditions just will not die, like Wednesday mornings at Sports Center Bowl.

Gurian fondly recalled the early years of her league.

“There had been a couples league,” she said, “but we thought it would be a good idea to start a women’s league. This was when women had time during the day, before everyone worked.” Now, she said, people who have jobs arrange their work schedules around their bowling time.

At first, the Temple Beth Hillel league had only 20 bowlers, but membership tripled in just three years.

“We had to divide it into an A and B league because we got some people who had never held a bowling ball,” she added.

Gurian belongs to the 29ers--each teammate was born in 1929. The team was formed last year.

“A lot of us got our bowling balls with Green Stamps,” she said. “Back then it was a very big investment.”

The league also doubles as a clothing store. Every other week, for the last decade, Louise Kingsley of Woodland Hills has sold outfits to the bowlers. “Some of my favorite things come from here,” Gurian said. “Friends will always ask where I got them, and I’ll say, ‘The bowling alley,’ and they’ll laugh.”

As Gurian’s generation gets older, a new one has come aboard to guarantee the league’s survival.

“My husband used to stay at the nursery at the alley when he was a kid,” said Gurian’s daughter-in-law, Linda. “This league is family, and after a summer away, you miss people. It’s so nice to see everyone again.”

After bowling, many members of the Wednesday morning group meet for lunch next door at Jerry’s Famous Deli. Some take longer journeys together.

“I’ve gone to Fiji with a friend from here,” said Gloria Gurian. “We see each other a lot away from the bowling alley.”

The ties within the Wednesday evening league at Granada Lanes seem just as strong. Sally Stern of North Hollywood plans to gamble in Laughlin, Nev., next month with about a dozen friends from the league.

“We’re going to play blackjack and craps, and just have a good time,” said Stern. “They’re my buddies.”

Stern, who has two teen-agers, said the league is a much-needed release from the strains of work and parenthood. “All week long, I think about the league,” said Stern, who works as a directory assistance operator for Pacific Bell. “I can’t wait for Wednesdays.”

The evening is also a safe night out of the house for women. “We don’t get hassled here,” she said. “I don’t know of any person whose husband has a problem because it might be dangerous.”

For men, the weekly rendezvous at the bowling alley is equally satisfying. Dave Reeves and Jim Frachtling have bowled together for more than 25 years. They used to belong to a league at Panorama Bowl in Panorama City but moved over to Thursday nights at Brunswick Bowl in the mid-1980s.

Reeves and Frachtling bowl with intensity--winning matters to them. But they say their prime motive is to have a good time. Each year, along with their wives, they go to county and state tournaments for long weekends.

“We’re older and have less hair,” said Reeves, of Northridge, “but in many ways we’re still, the same and that’s what we like.”

The Thursday night league at Brunswick includes an unusual team--three lawyers and an Oscar winner. Donny Markowitz, who won the Academy Award for composing the music for “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” from 1987’s “Dirty Dancing,” said the league is a peaceful escape from the show business community, and he doesn’t care if that might surprise some people.

“Hey, it’s just another way that rich people are missing out on fun,” said Markowitz, who is currently scoring the ABC series “Civil Wars.”

Markowitz’s teammates--the Spaceballs--even use the league to talk about business.

“We don’t get to see each other as much,” said Brian Weinberger, a personal-injury attorney in Los Angeles. “So this is a great chance to discuss different cases and talk about the latest things happening in the business.”

Added Scott D. Sklar: “Yeah, we swap stories.”

Sklar said he occasionally meets people who don’t believe he bowls once a week.

“They look at me kind of funny,” said Sklar, who also specializes in personal-injury law. “I tell them, ‘I bowl, and I’m proud of it.’ ”

Markowitz originally was looking for a place to play poker, but was persuaded to try bowling instead. “It’s a great night out with the boys,” he said.

At the Thursday league, few women show up to root for their loved ones, just as few men watch the women bowl. But for some couples, bowling is a social activity they can enjoy together, which explains the popularity of the mixed leagues. John Miller, secretary of the Los Angeles Bowling Assn., said mixed leagues have the most members.

Kim Adams, 35, of Canyon Country, joined the Tuesday night league at Sports Center in 1980. Her husband, Arthur, came aboard two years later, and is now the league’s president. For the last decade, they’ve been on the same team. It’s something they can’t easily forget.

“Except for last year,” Kim said, “we’ve been in last place every year. We try to win, but we still lose. But I don’t mind. We’re having fun. A lot of people build teams to win. For us, it’s family.”

Yet, last year, when they finally escaped that distinction by finishing in the middle of the pack, they renamed their team Cellar Dwellers Were Us.

The Solomons and the Edelmans carry a similar nonchalant attitude toward the competitive aspect of bowling. They said the league isn’t as much fun as it was in the late 1970s and early 1980s because many of the new bowlers place a premium on winning. They forget what a mixed league is supposed to be all about.

“Sometimes we annoy them because we just want to talk and have fun,” Vivian Edelman said.

The couples joined the league because it was an activity they could all do together, she said. They met when their children became friends, and looked for a way to get to know each other better. The league has cemented their relationship. They bowl but talk about everything but bowling.

“We talk about the week we had and the week we’re going to have,” said Judy Solomon of Woodland Hills.

The couple still have a joint banking account that contains their league earnings. Each year, they add to it.

“That plus about $10,000 gives us enough for vacations,” joked Ray Edelman of Woodland Hills. In the past, the two couples have visited Europe and Hawaii.

“Through the years in the league, you realize you are aging when you look at everyone else,” said Edelman. “We’re just lucky we have bowled all these years with our friends.”