Followers

Monday, October 27, 2008

"Bowling Blind"-a reivew of bowling in the past 7 days.

(Editor's note: This will become my true weekly feature on blogspot, which is a look at bowling reviewing the previous week on the PBA tour as well as a look at local and collegiate bowling news. The reason for college: I have rooting interest as you will soon find out.)

Defining Duke

Whether or not fans of Wichita like to hear this, but your hometown heroes got owned yesterday. Let's properly put into context what Norm Duke has accomplished the last 8 months of his bowling career on the Big Wood PBA Tour. In February of this calendar year, Duke was ranked 51st in the PBA point rankings putting him out of the exempt line for the current 2008-09 season. His career-whether or not anyone thought it-was truly in the balance. Injuries has offset the great talent and the brilliant match play mind that occupied his body (again) and just when he finally got healthy enough to bowl without pain, he became ill again with the flu. It could have been a simple fold the tent week for Duke and try and rally for the rest of the season to earn his tour card, but this was no normal week back in February of 2008...this was the World Championship. A major championship that he could not pass up given that he could will his way through match play and hold off enough bowlers to at the least save his career in terms of points was enough motivation. What Norm Duke did was will himself into the championship round and then took down the legendary Walter Ray Williams, Jr. and Ryan Shafer to win the World Championship and earn a 4 year exemption.

Encore...?
Duke then rolls into the US Open in March and wins the only major he has never won, doing it running the ladder to firmly cement his legacy in PBA lore by being the second player to ever win the career Grand Slam, joining Mike Aulby as the only other bowler alive to have laid claim to the Masters, Tournament of Champions, National/World Championship, and US Open.
Encore...encore..?
Once again, the World Championships came calling and Stormin' Norman came a-callin'. Healthy, happy, and almost free of any distractions surrounding him just went out and assaulted Chris Barnes in the title match to win his third consecutive major: a feat never accomplished in this history of this great sport.

The truth behind the victories lies the simple fact then when he's right, Norm Duke is the best player in the world when the money is on the line. I alluded to it yesterday that he is the sport's most popular player since Earl Anthony and the amount of respect he gets, even in what was considered a hometown mosh pit for Sean Rash and Barnes yesterday, the one chant that still prevailed was "DUUUUKKKKEEEEEE!!!"
Take away the small stature and the oversized elf ears and the balding spot on top of his head and there is still the bowler, Norm Duke: one of the 10 greatest players of all time, maybe one of the 5 best in PBA Tour history, and a future Hall of Famer in January. He is one of 5 players to win the Triple Crown (Aulby, Pete Weber, Billy Hardwick, and Johnny Petraglia), one of two players to win the Grand Slam, and now the only player to win 3 straight majors. He has won two Player of the Year awards (and was easily denied one in either of the last two years based on politics or new formats), has shot on of the 19 televised 300 games in PBA history, and lost in yesterday's victory he joins Williams, Anthony, Mark Roth, Weber, and Parker Bohn III with at least 30 PBA titles in his career. He now has 6 majors and its hard to think that even at 44 years of age he won't get another one or two before his great career comes to a rest. He has truly become one of the all-time great ambassadors and good guys in bowling. His resume is far from done and there is one more stat worth noting: in the last two plus seasons (this win included) Duke has won 7 titles and was healthy for pretty much less than half of the events he bowled in. Simply amazing...

College

Anyone got their watches ready?? The NCAA bowling season is about to get rolling with the season's first marquee tournament, the FDU Invitational October 31-November 2. Women's bowling has really taken gigantic strides in the last few years and women's collegiate bowling has been right at the apex of this rebirth. Not that the ladies are getting televised in the college game as they are in the pro level, but they are the future of the game and the talent of these players is exceptional. The tournament will be held at Parkway Lanes in Elmwood Park, New Jersey just off of Route 46 East. If you enjoy watching bowling and for a reasonable price (free) get your fannies to the newly renovated Parkway Lanes. Andohbytheway, have a grilled cheese sandwich while you are there at their snackbar...it is to die for (almost literally).





Michelle Peloquin

"The better bowler in this relationship is NOT the author."


Local
No local news to report so far because I really wasn't around locally last week visiting my girlfriend (Michelle Peloquin, Senior, Vanderbilt, ranked #2 in the nation, hence my rooting interest) while she was on her mid-semester break. My objective for this-and I have no idea how to do this-but I will try to feature a league per week in this feature for the local leagues in the Long Island area. If i can't...then you will have to deal with my weekly barbs Monday night at the newly renovated Patchouge Lanes (Bowl Long Island).


About the Editor: Tommy Scherrer (that's me) is one of the night managers-a far more fancier term for 'Shift Leader'-at AMF Syosset Lanes. A former student at William Paterson in Wayne, NJ as well as a member of the Pioneer bowling team for 4 years, he is a regular contributor to the pockets of many great players and on occasion, will actually make his money back generally in marathon tournaments.





Sunday, October 26, 2008

PBA World Championship



Hello bowling fans, and welcome to a special running diary of the Big Wood PBA Tour!!! Today we document the sport's first major, the World Championship!!!





12:55 pm: Like the intro folks?? I built up nothing...ESPN cut away to Norm Duke throwing a practice shot with those new PBA pro shirts. Looks like he should be in a NASCAR pit crew.





12:58 pm: Duke in a commerical looking like a hippie throwing a peace ball up 7...high flush.





1:01 pm: New music...new graphics...same game. Rob Stone is back looking sharp and the crowd certainly has its "HAMBONE" signs ready to go.





1:03 pm: Randy Pedersen is looking sharp again...has he been on the nutra system plan?





1:05 pm: Rash-Duke is match one...Rash is first up...BALK! Apparently Chris Barnes has taught him well...but Rash recovers and strikes. Duke comes back playing up the 1 board and strikes...what else is new?





1:07 pm: Rash balks again...if this were baseball, Duke would have scored two runs already.





1:10 pm: 100th show for Duke and about 100,000 Marlboro Reds later...he keeps on truckin'. Rash balked again for the 3rd time...he is lost $1,100 dollars already. He may actually lose money on this show the way he's going. Bob Davidson is having a field day somewhere.





1:13 pm: No Hambone...Rob Stone's publicist is looking to jump out a window.





1:16 pm: Geico...'so easy, a caveman could do it." Ladies and gentlemen..the saviors of bowling: Tom Clark and Fred Schreyer...not only are they leaders of the premature balding club, but they are clients as well.





1:18 pm: Rash leaves the 7-10 and then promptly hits the 10 pin and flies it back into the pin deck but does not get the 7 out. For his next shot...BALK! But he recovers and strikes in the 7th frame.





1:22 pm: Again...a stop by Rash in the 9th. Strikes again...makes him 5 for 5 on striking after a stop.





1:25 pm: 1...2...3 strikes from Duke in the 10th. Rash needs to strike out to tie. Rash gets ready...and stops again. He is donating to the Jimmy Fund today it would seem.





1:26 pm: Rash goes stone 9 pin to lose his first match in his career on TV. To recap Sean Rash's day: 6 balks, 7 strikes, one 7-10 split, one near made 7-10 split and about $2,100 shorter in the wallet after having 6 shot clock violations. Duke wins and advances to the finals.





1:30 pm: For the Big Wood Tour's 50th season, they are bringing back some of the game's greats for interviews. This week, they bring back Nelson "Bo" Burton, Jr. for an interview in between matches. Mr. Burton is truly one of the all-time great ambassadors for bowling there is. He and Chris Skenkel were the true pioneers for televising bowling. The tour also is doing their top 50 bowlers in PBA history. Burton is featuring #46 on that list: Gary Dickinson, 8 time champion and a former US Open champion.





1:37 pm: The old title sponsor of the tour: Denny's. Where real heart attacks happen...





1:38 pm: Match number 2 is Steve Jaros versus Chris Barnes. Barnes the reigning POY as you know by reading my blogs and Jaros both wearing their Pit Crew uniforms.





1:40 pm: Chris Barnes starts out wayyyy in...in front of the ball return on the right lane. The master tactician has 9 spare, 9 spare to start. This match will not have the same type of feel as the first match did.





1:42 pm: Jaros with his GEICO spare ball, Steve would like to think GEICO, 3G shoes, Global 900, Vise grips, the PBA tour, and his twins for sponsoring him this season.





1:45: No strikes so far. Both players look absolutely lost early. Norm Duke cannot wait to finish his 3rd Red of the match to finish one of these guys off. Quick cut of Chris' wife, Lynda (the better of the husband-wife). Note: Chris proposed to Lynda at a bowling alley...yea, if I do that you can basically cut my man region off.





1:48 pm: Finally....the strike HAS COME BACK....to the World Championship.





1:49 pm: Double for Barnes with a can opener strike. Then proceeds to do the single most obnoxious thing on tour: go over to his twin sons and give them a high five. If this scene has not played out over and over in fans' minds each of the last 3 seasons. Look, I root for Chris...I truly do, but he should have the audacity to just run over every player in his way and not worry about giving his kids a high five. They will not knock ten pins over but he's a good family man so I should shut up.





1:53: I forgot Jaros is throwing an AMF ball...sorry, AMF. Gotta give dap to them as well for sponsoring Jaros.





1:55 pm: Barnes' shirt is more symbolic of a bike racer's shirt so at least it's not as bad as the one Jaros and Duke have on.





1:59 pm: Barnes needs all 3 in the 10 to shut out Jaros...there's 1...there's 2...AND 3! Barnes locks out Jaros...you have no idea how hard that is on a condition like that to fire 3 in the 10th for the win. Chris takes the time to throw up a WSU Shocker cap...lame.





2:02 pm: Bowling fans get what they want: Duke-Barnes...but first a word from Cialis.





2:05 pm: Historical matchup scenario: Duke wins it would be his 3rd consecutive major victory-the first in tour history to do so. Barnes wins it he would win bowling's "Triple Crown" (WC/US Open/TOC). The winner also get to do donuts on the infield with their new racing shirts.





2:09 pm: Barnes starts off the title match playing wayyy out to start. Goes half 10 to start. Duke steps up, same line, same release, same result for him-strike!





2:12 pm: Barnes whiffs the head pin in the 2nd frame. Randy Pedersen hates to question Barnes' moves but its suspect to say the least especially when he looked like he was coming on from deep inside...never did though. He only used the term 'second guess'. This is where I wish Pedersen would get away from being 'Randy the bowler' Pedersen and be 'Randy the analyst' Pedersen. Not Johnny Miller-like but critical enough to where he might actually generate some heat on the show.





2:13 pm: Hambone watch...DUUKKKKEEEE....HAMBONE!!! Shoot me now, devil! Take me home, Lord!





2:16 pm: What to do Chris Barnes? Continues to play out and strikes with the bank shot off the rail. New observation: they are playing music in between shots.





2:18 pm: Barnes inexcusably misses the 4 pin in the 5th frame. Norm Duke is up by 50...dig the grave now.





2:19 pm: Duke now have 5 in a row...cue up some Styx for DUUUKKKEEEE!!!





2:20 pm: Barnes strikes and gives you the stupid Buzz Lightyear smile afterward. Again, Chris Barnes promptly shot himself in the foot then the chest and then finally the head.





2:22 pm: The 300 watch is on right now...7 bagger for Duke. DAMN IT THOMAS!!!! Ring 10...I jinxed him. Well not really, Duke missed in with more speed and his ball just went through the pins too fast.





2:23 pm: Barnes moves back inside...doubles. Figures.





2:25 pm: Duke moves way in on his fill shot and strikes...he's incredible! Simply incredible.





2:27 pm: Duke picks up the Eddie Elias trophy (wow, they shrunk the damn thing!) and defends his World Championship and in the process wins his 3rd consecutive major and the 6th major of his career. Barnes once again completely out thought himself in losing.





2:30 pm: Randy and Norm talk on the floor. When you analyze Norm Duke's career, there has never been a more popular player since Earl Anthony. He is loved for his diminutive stature, his elf ears, his penchant for crying after winning...all of that, he is truly one the greatest players ever to bowl. Chris Barnes on the other hand goes home without the Triple Crown and another show where 'the great tactician' screwed himself.








I am not sure if I will be doing this every week for the Big Wood Tour but I will certainly try and do this during all the major events this season...anyway, have a good week people we'll talk later!


Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Loss of man power



Alexei Cherapanov was supposed to be the next big thing, the future of what has been a tremendous youth movement by the New York Rangers. Cherapanov was supposed to be the future with young talent like Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Marc Staal, Lauri Korpikoski, and Nigel Dawes.

He was supposed to be next...

Instead what Alexei Cherapanov was was laid to rest yesterday in Moscow, Russia to be buried by family, friends, fans, and teammates way too soon at 19 years old. That's right: nineteen years old...

Alexei Cherapanov died at age 19 while playing for the Avangard Omsk hockey club of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) on the bench. The initial cause of death was termed chronic ischemia-a medical condition that means that not enough blood was getting to Cherapanov's heart of vital organs. It would make sense to the symptoms of Cherapanov's sudden death in that he was simply a picture of health seconds before talking with linemate Jaromir Jagr and then in an instant he was white: a ghostly figure passed out on the bench.

What would transpire in the coming moments would be a sad comedy of how a life could have been saved and was not. First, amateur video taken of the game showed players and coaches gathering around the bench to carry off Cherapanov, and not a stretcher. Secondly, the ambulance scheduled to be at the Moscow arena where Omsk was playing was 15 minutes late to respond, meaning that there was actually no ambulance on site during the game which would be a direct correlation to the lack of a stretcher for Cherapanov when he collapsed on the bench. Finally, any medical staff that might have been in attendance did not have either a defibrillator that worked properly or had one that was on hand that might have helped revive the 19 year old prospect. All of these acts are deemed criminal as complete negligence by the KHL as well as member of the Russian Parliament who oversee the operations of the KHL.

The KHL with their multi-billion dollar owners and their willingness to shelve out millions of dollars to former NHL players such as Jagr and Alexander Radulov of the Nashville Predators that are tax-free and allows former Eastern European players to possibly get a final payday in the final stages of a career. They have also shelved out millions to their younger talent in Russia to keep them at home which was a source of concern involving Cherapanov and his rising talent. The KHL fancies itself as a suitable alternative to the NHL for its ability to pay for its talent and take care of its players financially, however maintains an Old Western mentality toward its conduct of players. In the case of Radulov, league officials knew that Radulov was still under contract with Nashville, yet did nothing to honor that by offering him a deal to play back home in Russia. They also did bad business with former Cup winning coach Bob Hartley when he was all but given the keys to coach the Omsk team, yet turned around and gave the head coaching position to Wayne Fleming, a Canadian Olympic assistant.

Despite all of the KHL's mismanagement in handling contracts, players under contracts, coaches, and now most importantly the lack of response to a player going into cardiac arrest, this really is not about the KHL and how they do business, or about millions of dollars, or about protecting their assets...this is truly a sad story of a young athlete, possibly Russia's future superstar right behind the names of Malkin and Ovechkin, the future of one the NHL's marquee franchises in the New York Rangers, the future of maybe the NHL's youth in general was not taken care of by anyone.

The sport of hockey in itself is a sport of speed: bigger, faster, stronger. Men skating around the ice at blistering speeds with bone crunching hits, hard slap shots and quick reflexes. It is truly the one sport of all the major sports where to see it live is to gain an appreciation of how fast the game really is. Make no mistake about it, the players are moving fast and their bodies are trying to keep up at heart pumping speeds. Current Toronto Maple Leaf and former Ranger Ryan Holliweg was once monitored in a hockey game how fast his heart was pumping in beats per minute and at points of max movement Holliweg was registering at close to 150bpm. Think about doing this on an average of 15-20 times a night to your heart for the better part of your life since you were 6 or 7 years old: think about how much blood your heart is pumping to its organs and brain to function normally just to keep up. It is amazing that someone that has not yet to be diagnosed with a heart aliment in an NHL game has actually suffered the same fate that Cherapanov did. The whole story is that in an age where players are being paid a tremendous salary in a game that is unequivocally faster than any sport in the world, that players are not required to have an electrocardiogram (ECG) for every physical they take. This should not just apply to hockey players but to every single athlete for every single sport.

We tend to evaluate a pitcher's medial colateral ligament or a women's basketball player's anterior cruciate ligament more highly because they are deemed 'career threatening' injuries as opposed to monitoring what is every athlete's most vital body part-the body part that is vital to every human being alive: their heart. Too many times now we have seen young athletes in the pro and college sports world fall victim to heart related deaths, whether it be Hank Gathers, or Reggie Lewis, or Thomas Herrion. Cherapanov now joins Sergei Zholtok and Mickey Renaud as pro hockey players who have died suddenly due to a heart related stoppage. With the exception of Cherapanov, the other 5 men just mentioned died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, whereas Cherapanov's death has been linked to ischemia, which would not be detected by an ECG.

The whole truth has yet to be revealed about this tragedy involving a future star in the sport of hockey and an idol to many in Russia. The mere fact that investigators in Russia want to see Cherapanov's blood work as a possible link to doping is clearly a sign of uncertainty, as well as further continuation of how sad the story continues to unfold. In the end, Cherapanov will be remembered for something hopefully in the sports world: to a culture of athletes who deal with showing no weaknesses, the greatest weakness an athlete can show is admitting that there is something wrong with their heart. However, it may end up saving their lives. It might end up saving your own.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

"Miss"ed the Memo.

Are you bowling fans ready??? No, no...I said..."Are...You...READY????"

Apparently, some aren't just yet. This is the 50Th anniversary of the PBA Tour, or should I say the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour, and for all the tour's great history this season is revolving itself around one word: change.

Changes in so many things-title sponsor, formats, multiple lane conditions, doubles events, women bowling in seven events this from four last year, celebrity shootouts with basketball stars, as well as new bowlers for the bowling public to learn and to recognize. Yes, change appears to be all around with one grand exception. With all this change, will bowling finally establish itself as a profitable entity for not only players, but for the PBA Tour itself? To steal a line from the PBA.com's resident blogger Missy Bellinder, the 2008-09 season has yet to begun, and yet there is so much to talk about. Only her blog was about 200 words, this blog won't be. No, simply put, this 50Th anniversary season is arguably the most important season in its history...ever.

Not that we say this every year because we do. We like to think that the sport of bowling will slowly recapture the attention of American sports and be launched into the mainstream like tennis and golf and yes, auto racing have alongside the 'big four'. We, as bowlers want to walk around with our heads held up high and want to feel good about what we do as a profession or as a recreation, whichever title the reader holds. We want to be respected and to be seen as athletes that carry 15 or 16 pound bowling balls, throw them roughly 16-18 times a game, as little as 3 games a day and as many as 16 games in a day for the elite, adapt to ever changing lane conditions, use different hand positions, release points, axis rotations, foot speed, pace, etc. We all want this-fans of bowling want this, bowlers watching bowlers want this, professional bowlers want this. However, it will be up to the professional bowlers to live up to this mantle and to provide it on a weekly basis for the course of the 2008-09 season, as well as the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour higher ups to deliver on the goods this season.

For one thing, those in charge of the tour did not give us fans and bowlers a good head start by changing the title sponsor from Denny's to Lumber Liquidators because 1) the title sponsor is now much longer to say and 2) I have to create a new nickname for the title sponsor. For the last two years, I jokingly said that the Denny's PBA Tour might as well been called the HDL Cholesterol PBA Tour, a slight to the mega-fat packed meals Denny's offers, which is what every athlete wants to be reflected in: heart attacks. This year and for the next few years, Lumber Liquidators now is the title sponsor, a large distributor of wood across America. Usually when you liquidating, you are packaging things in big quantities. Naturally, this led me to the PBA Tour title sponsor's new nickname: The Big Wood PBA Tour.

The Big Wood PBA Tour...now we're on to something! It is much shorter for fans to say, it still has the PBA Tour in it, the title sponsor nickname has bowling related words in there, plus the obvious change being that I think every bowler wants to be associated with having 'big wood' instead of 'hardened arteries'.

"Hey Jimmy, what are you watching on Sundays...bowling?"

"Not just bowling, Timmy. The Big Wood PBA Tour!"

Now that we have a new nickname for the PBA Tour, lets get into the new changes in formats this season. I have to say this as a bowling fan, but the mere thought that the Big Wood PBA Tour would make such radical changes that one would have thought they were running for office. Bowling fans literally now have several formats to relearn and to remember yet most of these changes are great for the enhancement of the bowler itself. The one that I would think most fans are going to watch would be the Ultimate Scoring Championship held in Taylor Lanes where there will be an honest chance at having perfection on TV which is still one of the great moments you can draw up on live television. There is just one problem with that last statement: the Ultimate Scoring Championship show will be in the can! That's right, it is recorded which takes a lot of the drama out of it. How strange would it be if an unknown amateur made it through the Pre-Tournament Qualifier (PTQ), got to the finals, then somehow were to win against the world's best players on the softest conditions the PBA exempt players have seen since...well, Tuesday night in their hometown bowling league. And it's recorded? Could you imagine a common man beating down Walter Ray Williams Jr. with his sour-puss face after leaving his 5th weak 10 of the match on live TV? Sadly, we will not be bestowed that honor but we will be rewarded with an even better event for the pros: The Plastic Ball Championship.

The Plastic Ball Championship deserves its own paragraph because it is truly unique in that is brings back the word 'talent' to the tour players. With the enhancements in modern technology the one thing that keeps getting overlooked in bowling circles are the bowling balls themselves. With the ability to drill and mold a bowling ball to meet a lane conditions specifications, most of the exempt players always have an option from week to week regardless of actual mechanics or physical conditioning. Now it is time to see what player truly has the best talent. Sounds like a great idea, with two notable exceptions one from personal standpoint and one from a whiny pro standpoint. First and personally, the PBA will not recognize this event in the PBA Point standings, yet it will count as a title and an exemption for the following season. So the Big Wood PBA Tour basically pulled a 'boner' on this one. How could this event not be counted toward the point standings and to a lesser extent, the PBA Player of the Year race? Now this has not been totally clarified on the website nor by the PBA itself, but if they don't add the winner of this tournament numbers onto the POY points list, it is an absolute disgrace. In a sport where bowlers and bowling is trying to establish credibility, you make what would be a fun tournament and a big late season tournament into something that is completely worthless. You would hate to think that the winner of this event didn't win POY by 2 or 3 points because this tournament didn't count toward that. The other issue to bring up is probably a pro issue, mainly right handers. You can almost hear Chris Barnes with his glass of Hater-Ade saying that with plastic balls with their higher hardness scale will push oil down the lane, forcing major carry down while lefties will have a greater advantage based on there being fewer lefthanders and therefore, less carry down. To Chris Barnes, the 2007-08 Player of the Year we remind you, and to any other righties who would like to whine about this, don't bowl...don't embarrass yourself...don't even bother attending the event. This event might be the most intriguing event to bowl in as a pro and the first thing one can think about is just how much bitching some players will do about it. That is the ultimate disgrace.

As I pull myself off the soapbox, the one thing that still is bringing up controversy is how the Chris Shenkel Player of the Year race will unfold. Last year, the 2007-08 season implemented a points race based on a player's performance on television determining the POY, which was a radical change from the past 48 years in which the PBA membership voted on it. Sometimes bowling can be a popularity contest and the 2006-07 season may have provided the impetus to the mess. Doug Kent won the 06-07 POY and his resume would certainly hold valid for it: 2 titles, both of which were major championships and a runner up finish to Pete Weber, who did win his record 4th US Open that season to polish his resume. Norm Duke however led the tour with 3 titles, he made 4 shows, went unbeaten until he got to the season ending Tournament of Champions on TV all season, and led the tour in average. He also bowled on and off with a broken toe for 8 weeks and the first week he was healthy was the US Open where he finished 5th, then won the next week and finished 3rd at the TOC to give himself 3 top 5's in the last 5 weeks all the while bowling with an injury for most of the second half of the year, and in arguably the tour's two marquee majors he averaged finishing 4th, yet still had the numbers to win Player of the Year and finished third in voting behind Kent and Wes Malott, who led the 06-07 tour in TV appearances and points yet won only once. Some would argue that Duke bowled with the broken toe as gutty, while others (some PBA players) saw it as Duke bowling with the toe injury as a payday. After all, all Duke had to do was bowl one game each week with the bum foot to cash a check as his honor of being an exempt player. It easily caused a moral issue with most players and they saw an opportunity to strip Duke of a rightful POY award.

The 07-08 season saw the change to points and a strange thing happened: Chris Barnes finally won the POY award he had been chasing for the last 8 years because he made 9 shows, won twice, and outlasted Walter Ray Williams Jr. who only made 8 shows and won twice in what was nothing short of a sensational season for Williams. The one show was the difference in points, yet neither player won a major title in the season. Walter Ray made two majors finals appearances, Barnes made one and had arguably the greatest collapse in televised tour history losing to Micheal Haugen Jr. in the TOC. The saga again really revolved around Norm Duke and his season. Duke bowled all season hurt and sick and was close to actually losing his exemption, until he got to the World Championship and beat Walter Ray along the way to win the major title. Duke then came from the #4 seed at the US Open and beat the reigning POY Kent, Chris Loschetter, then Mika Koivuniemi to win the US Open. It was Duke's first US Open, which historically made him the 5th player to win bowling's triple crown (US Open, TOC, World/National Championship) and the 2nd bowler in history to win bowling's Grand Slam (Triple Crown plus Masters), yet for all this history and for pretty much duplicating Kent's season a year before and with much more dire circumstances on the line then what Kent was dealing with, Duke again was denied the Player of the Year because is was based off points and not voting. That isn't to say that Duke would have won POY by votes but history has shown that these historic events usually garner POY. For example, this is the 3rd time in the last 6 seasons that a bowler has won two majors in a season and the previous two (Williams and Kent) won the award; Duke did not. Of all the things the Big Wood PBA Tour changed, this one still will breed the most controversy only because majors should be weighed much higher than regular events and now, every regular event doesn't count the same.

For all the changes the tour has made in its history, this season of change will surely be remembered for how the PBA is trying to evolve with its fan base and trying to make its players (past and present) more legitimate as athletes by putting them in spots where success could lead to great things, however its great prize at season's end is still wrapped in a shroud of doubt. The PBA is trying to honor its past this season and yet still cannot seem to figure out how its future will be played out; what they hope for is a savior and that memo you cannot "miss".