"Bowling Blind"

PBA Tour

'Choog'in Along

For roughly 24 hours, I was searching for ways to describe what I saw this past Sunday on the Big Wood PBA Tour when suddenly it me: no, not an idea but a flat tire on the Long Island Expressway while driving my sister and her friends to the teen center. My sister had already driven me nuts by oversleeping in the morning and missing the bus for school along with her friend who was staying over for the week at our house (aptly nicknamed "Ashton's Palace"). Then I do the big brother thing and pick her up from school after my bowling instruction lesson and there she comes waiting for her friend...and another friend that I had not known was joining them this afternoon. Perhaps the extra baggage in the vehicle was too much for the Silver Bullet (my '01 Sentra) to handle as the left front took a bump and went limp on me quicker than a sailboat on a calm, sunny day.

This past Sunday's Chameleon Championship was much like this afternoon for me in that I got more than i bargained for and most I did not like and wish did not happen, although in the end you felt as if the outcome you anticipated all day long was going to happen. That outcome Sunday was the official coming out party for Billy O'Neill winning his first career title. After coming within one shot of taking down the great Walter Ray Williams Jr. (Hall of Famer and bowling ambassador as you all well know), this was going to be the week where O'Neill would take his spot among the elite and become a PBA champion. Usually tournament leaders in the stepladder format do not fail at sealing the deal unless circumstances of an extreme nature take place and one of the major factors I always consider is can the guy at the bottom of the ladder complete all the steps and get so much momentum that he is unstoppable? In the case of Mike Machuga, I was proven right. Machuga was seeded 5th in what was supposed to be a 4 man stepladder final only extreme circumstances necessitated such a change.

On Friday night, a scoring malfunction had Sean Rash (Sunday's #4 seed) bowling in the position round against the wrong player. It was nothing of Rash's doing at all nor was it of Machuga's doing-merely an honest mistake made by the PBA. However, honest mistakes are one thing...not giving both players the opportunity to bowl would have been another thing. Rash was supposed to bowl where he was supposed to bowl, same with Machuga but mistakes happen and Rash after seeing the mishap and knowing full well what he needed to bowl to advance to the show did enough to knock Machuga out of the final 4 (and by one pin no less). The PBA made thr right call and Machuga took care of the rest going through Rash, then Brain Kretzer, then Wes Malott, and then finally past O'Neill to win his second career title.

As for Bill O'Neill, he has now had 3 runner-up finishes in his career and in the last two weeks has had the tournament in his own hands both times, only to make a late game error and lose the match. While last week, losing to Walter Ray is no shame he had a chance to put a player who has never been a great closer in Williams on the hot seat to try and win (yeah, I forgot to mention that in my Walter Ray Haterade blog of last week-if you can keep up with WRW for 8 frames, he will get fast with a shot and go plack 10 and you can sneak in the backdoor and win) and O'Neill went 2-4-8-10. A week later, title in his grasp late spot in the 8th frame...2-8-10. Amazingly, O'Neill still had a chance to win his first title outright with a double in the 10th frame and failed to do so. Machuga stepped up and showed you how winners win: clutch double in the 10th for the money.

This show turned out to be the flat tire on the expressway for O'Neill in that no matter what the expectations were, something happened along the way to change the result which leads me into one of the major thoughts of this blog: for all of Billy O'Neill's great amateur and collegiate accomplishments before coming out on tour, where has the major breakthrough come for him? In 4 remarkable seasons at Saginaw Valley State, O'Neill never won a national championship and only came sniffing near one once in his senior year where Rhino Page and Kansas got in his way. In 4 years on tour, still no wins and two mini meltdowns when he had a chance at the title. Look, this is not a blast on O'Neill or me being harsh on him not winning but eventually, the label begins to be etched on your forehead, "yes he throws it great, but...".

The label grew on Chris Barnes and his failure to win a major and still hangs over his head to this day despite winning a pair of majors. When the great college players make headway on the PBA Tour, much is expected of them from the start because bowling fans want to get get behind a player from the start and root for him. The only way that anyone will root for a player is if they can win and prove to fans that they are on that winning level. Rash has won, Page has won, even Machuga is from the great stable of college players of this generation has won twice, O'Neill has not yet. Here is hoping that he does because when you watch him bowl, he can get crazy hot and run through people unlike most in this sport. I do root for him but until you change the flat tire, it will stay flat.

Some other observations about yesterday:

1) The Rash Aura is weakening: for the second consecutive time on television, Rash looked tight, he looked nervous, and looked uncertain in his approach to bowling. It showed on the scoreboard in losing to Machuga in the first match in which Rash rolled 3 suspect strikes and balked again. Say what you will about Rash and whether fans like him or not, he is a great mark for bowling: polarizing. Fans like him or hate him, there is very little grey area with Rash. But one part of being good on TV is swagger. Tommy Jones has the swagger on TV that you wish most young players had to where they ran through people. Rash appeared to be heading that way but has looked very tight the last few times out and with that, looks to be beatable as opposed to when he just running through people on TV.

2) Malott-a advertising: my buddy and Monday night teammate, Mike Boble noticed Wes Malott's nice racing shirt Sunday. Big Wes is well a big guy, to which he had Office Space type 'flare' all over the shirt. He has his Roto Grip shirt with the big Roto star right in the middle, the new Cell Pearl bowling ball, Vise grip patches on his right chest and left arm, on his right arm was the PBA Tour patch, the 50th Anniversary patch, and had his shoe sponsor, Etonic on both arms and on the back of his shirt. I was almost expecting Malott to hop out of a race car with his pit crew. I jokingly talk about that but did you happen to see the oversized check Jimmie Johnson was carrying around winning his 3rd straight NASCAR championship? Johnson made over 7 million dollars this year driving in left circles...yes, seven million bucks. I can't help but be dumbfounded by it but this is where you can start seeing the paralles between Walter Ray and bowling as opposed to Dale Earnhardt in car racing. What Earnhardt did for the sport of racing by selling his name and promoting himself to polarizing levels (he was hated by many in the sport), he became a far greater name than anyone in the sport and the future generation has followed suit and are now making millions a year with sponsors all over everything on their car and fire suits as well as their signature on anything that cannot be bolted down. On the bright side, Walter Ray sells RV's...

3) Machuga Maturation: the Chameleon pattern lended itself to playing the inside line all week long and Mike Machuga went into TV Sunday with a plan: play from out, carve it from out, work a shot from out and stick with it. It was a performance worthy of his bowling buddies Norm Duke and Brian Voss in that he gutted out a victory when it appeared that he was going to lose. Back to back opens early in the championship match to O' Neill while Billy O started out with 3 out of 4 strikes could have ended Machuga's day. However, all those late night talks with Duke and some Marlboro Reds in the hotel room (and other things perhaps...) paid off for Machuga in the title match. Playing the gutter shot, he carved out a performance worthy of Duke or David Ozio when he was the master of the gutter shot. It appeared that Machuga was going to have to move away from the gutter yet he did not and prevailed by getting the big time double that he needed to win.

4) Ladies...: Just two events in, the Women's Series has kinda been rather unexciting so far. Michelle Feldman has made both shows and won Sunday over a rather unimpressive Jody Woessner, after Feldman came up short against Stefanie Nation two weeks ago. Feldman has found her groove bowling with the men in the midst of the Women's Series. Her power game has become very transparent bowling alongside with the men so far and she has been able to run away from her fellow females when the lanes require an inside line. Feldman can be very exciting if she is on striking and ripping racks and taking women's bowling to another level but so far, she has been off in her TV appearances. Yes, she did win but in the process missed two single pin spares making what should have been a runaway a match to where she needed to make marks late in the match to hold off Woessner. If the Women's Series is to take off into new heights and make women's bowling seem relevant again (past college), it will need Feldman to be a monster on the lanes as well as its other top stars in Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Nation, Diandra Asbaty, and Joy Esterson to make splashes on television in ways they did last year. So far, the heat is not there yet but with five events left, you hope that a storyline comes out of the Women's Series instead of women just bowling for no good reason.

College

Next Week: No PBA blog on high scores (the Ultimate Scoring Championship), but it is time to bring the college game back into the forefront next week with the Lady Hawk Classic November 21-23, held at Millsboro Lanes in Millsboro, Deleware. Bring the kiddies to this wonderul shore resort town...in the middle of fall, right before Thanksgiving where lakes turn into ice rinks and the sun sets around 4:30 in the afternoon...better yet, watch some bowling then go watch some Ohio State football ass-whuppin on That Team Up North.

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 former 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.

"Bowling Blind"

PBA Tour

Still "Dead" on
He still won't go away...

Even at 49 years of age, Walter Ray Williams Jr. continues to defy Father Time (and perhaps the hearts of several fans who would rather see him vanish) by taking down Bill O'Neill, 246-202, for his 45th PBA title Sunday afternoon in Hammond, Indiana.

Yes...forty five titles.

It is truly staggering to think that Williams is still winning in a generation where power and youth are being served more so than ever. If you take a look around the Big Wood PBA Tour, the young stars have power, they have revs, they have collegiate successes, they have national championships, they have degrees, they have exposure...in an essence, they have everything Williams never had (sans the Caly Poly-Pomona alum's physics degree, which has been greatly underrated over the years as to how successful he has been over the changes in the sport). However, Williams still has wins...he still has money...he still has drive...he still has his legacy as the greatest player in PBA history intact...in essence, Williams has what everyone else wishes they had: greatness.

Walter Ray truly is great and it's hard to describe how he does it. He throws it end over end, he throws it too firm, he throws it too straight, he falls off balance on every shot...this assuredly goes through just about every opponent's mind when they face the man nicknamed "Dead-Eye", but he does it the same way every time and the results are similar..."red ball up 5, ten in the pit...", he has made it almost comical and did I mention he is 49 years old? He defies logic, age, physics, and modern convention yet still wins. There is one more thing he defies and that is the game's mortality.

A question opposed to me this morning at Bowl Long Island by one of the seniors was how can Walter Ray win so much and yet he does not transcend bowling like Tiger Woods does golf or Roger Federer does tennis? I had no logical answer for him trying to avoid the simplicity of saying that nobody cares about bowling but that is not true. Bowling still has a place in society, albeit not as lucrative or as prominent as it once was decades ago in relation to fame and fortune, but the sport has suffered through inexorable tolls in the last 15-20 years due to lack of interest of lack of revenues or lack of money or lack of TV exposure. Say what any bowling purist wants to say about the current state bowling is in, this fact remains: this is a severe uphill climb for the sport in regards to notoriety and will be for years to come. To the PBA's credit, they have pushed new players to the public's viewing in the last few years in O'Neill, Sean Rash, Rhino Page, Wes Malott, and Tommy Jones to garner interest in young stars that can carry the sport's water for the next decade plus. However, they still have one glaring issue that whether or not anyone will admit to saying it still plagues their future and that is they cannot get rid of the main player that put them in this perilous hole: Walter Ray Williams Jr.

After thinking about it for a few hours before writing that last line, it is something I have genuinely thought about for the last 3-4 years and never had the guts to publicly say for fear of excommunication from bowling but here goes nothing: you cannot have a sport prosper when its greatest player has not done anything in the way of promotion on a global stage the way Walter Ray Williams Jr. has in his career. Whether or not people like to admit this but the sport's great demise has happened with Williams as its top player and that is a sad reality. Look, this is not saying Walter Ray is not a nice guy by any stretch of the imagination but when the game has needed him to be an ambassador, a leader for youth bowling, a figurehead above all the other players, to be a transcendent figure he has not been there. Where Williams could have promoted the game globally during the tour's off season, he stayed at home and pitched horseshoes and played golf (both exceedingly well, in fact Williams is a member of the National Horseshoe Pitching Association Hall of Fame). Only recently, did the World Tenpin Bowling Association decided to give its top stars a chance as promoting the game by allowing professional to participate on their national teams and Williams was the star of the Men's World Championships, winning the Masters event. It was truly a landmark event for bowling having arguably its greatest player ever win and still show at his age that he is still better than all the young talent arriving on the bowling scene, however this moment for Walter Ray came about a decade too late for himself or for American bowling.

This isn't to say that he is responsible alone for the downfall of bowling but he is a very prominent face in bowling annals for the last 3 decades and the sport is still suffering to regain its equilibrium because of many bad decisions. With all that being said, Walter Ray could have and perhaps should have tried to do more for bowling from a promotional standpoint in his career when he was easily the best player in the game. He will be remembered in January as probably the greatest player in PBA history for the PBA's first 50 years, but this begs the great question to the great man's legacy: is Walter Ray Williams Jr. the greatest player of all-time?

Is he better than Dick Weber or Don Carter? The PBA won't agree with that statement but let's get some semblance of facts for a moment. Both Carter and Weber won 4 US Open championships (formerly named the BPAA All-Star) and in the case of Carter if you count his bowling world championships that many consider majors, Don Carter has 11 majors. Most though will argue that Williams was a better and more consistent player than Carter was so his resume as a bowler nuts to bolts is comparable.

Is it to Weber's? You can make the case that Dick Weber is not even close to Williams in terms of overall success as a bowler but there is one thing that no man that has ever bowled before or after Dick Weber can argue with: when it came to promotion, showmanship, class, professionalism, and sheer bowling talent, Dick Weber was the total package. He had aura and mystique (not the night dancers, Curt Schilling), he had audacity and persistence, and he had the winning pedigree. In short, he transcended the game of bowling in the 50's and 60's the way Arnold Palmer did for golf.

That is maybe the greatest correlation you can make in denouncing Williams' greatness is looking at it from golf's lineage in the last 50 years. For golf, there was Palmer who was then followed by Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer of all time. Nicklaus was followed by Tom Watson and Greg Norman, then followed by Tiger Woods who has sent the game from a popular standpoint into the stratosphere. Bowling had Weber, then followed by Earl Anthony, the most beloved bowler ever by the common fans who sent the game into new paralles winning titles and majors at a breakneck pace, then it was followed by Williams by winning player of the year in 1986. This was 22 years ago and Williams should have sent the game to greater heights by traveling globally and promoting the game, instead the mantle of promotion went to Parker Bohn III and Mike Aulby, who were both great players and legendary players but were not truly the world's best player. Pete Weber (Dick's son) would have been the great link to bowling's past but the PBA in its conservative past never allowed Pete Weber to be "Pete Weber", the dynamic and at times controversial player. Suspensions have cost him roughly 8-10 titles and there the PBA has butchered its greatest what if...

What if Weber, who currently has 34 titles, had won at least 8 more titles if suspensions had not stopped him? He would be sitting at 42 titles, still with a few more years in him to get 4 or 5 more titles he would be in the mid forties as well. What if, given the rise in promoting bowling from a postmodern standpoint, you had two players in Williams and Weber-polar opposites of each other in every conceivable form-going week to week seeing who was truly the greatest player in tour history? What if both players could rise each other's game to new levels and bowling to new levels by having a weekly chance to take over the career titles lead? Finally, what if Weber could have picked off Williams a few times when he was suspended and was truly bowling's greatest talent, denying him of a few titles...would this conversation be about Pete Weber being the greatest player in history having Walter Ray chasing him? We will never know the truth but what we do know is that bowling has suffered with Williams as its top player and he had every chance in the world to enhance the game and most importantly to him, his paychecks.

What if...?

There is no need for what if...? We know unfortunately.


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 former 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 generall in marathon tournaments.

"Bowling Blind"

A"dore" me

Truthflly speaking, you cannot quantify the value of adding or subtracting one player to any team in one tournament or game. It is just unfair to generalize such ideas based on "does X player make everyone around us better" in 3 days but after one tournament for the Lady Commodores of Vanderbilt, they have found one great problem that every team wishes they had: they have 6 of them that makes them better.

It is amazing to think back to April of the 2007-08 season, that the last time Vandy took to the lanes, they were in defense of their national championship and basically had their ticket stamped to at least defending their title when they were up 3-0 to Maryland-Eastern Shore in the national semifinals...then things fell apart. Whether it was bad breaks for Vandy, lucky breaks for the Lady Hawks, Sharom Brummel outcoaching John Williamson, or one team was flat out better than the other when the pressure was on the line, 3-0 became 3-4 and Vandy had authored nothing short of a collapse and went home titleless.

In the world of college sports, you only get so big a window to be the best and to make runs at winning titles. Winning one national championship is always self fulfilling in itself but the chance to win two makes great teams historic and make no mistake about it: the 2007-08 'Dores were supposed to be historic. They had the same roster from the 2006-07 championship team and added to their future with solid players in Amanda Halter, Brittney Garcia, and Ellen Morrison. But there was something missing from the 07-08 team that never was properly looked at until they were defeated and those in charge didn't know who their future was. They thought it would be Morrison but she struggled with the ever changing and drying conditions of NCAA bowling and is still in transition. They thought Garcia was talented but raw and somewhat emotional and maybe too emotional to be effective. When evaluating Amanda Halter, they didn't see talent but they saw stability and depth from a bowling standpoint and coupled with her straight game and loft was another Karen Grygiel...in the future.

Strange as the world is, the future is now and now Garcia and Halter, along with new freshman Brittni Hamilton and the core of Micha Peloquin (hi, honey!), Tara Kane, and Josie Earnest took step one into taking the 2008-09 season and making last year seem like it was 20 years ago by coming east and taking down Farleigh Dickinson in the title match to win the Fright Knight Invite (yes I know it was riveting to say 5 times fast) this past weekend.

"It's my blog...she goes up...I have a bias."

When 6 players contribute to a victory, you revel in the 'team effort' idea behind the win and make no mistake about it, this unit of 6 showed something that arguably no Vandy team showed at any point last year and that is bowling character in the face of adversity. Through Saturday's traditional 5 team games, Vandy had opened up a big lead into their Sunday baker games only the pinfall did not carry over and was only used for seeding in Sunday's brackets. Due to the travel and short time slot, only the top 4 teams in pinfall could win the tournament, with the winner of the 1 vs 2 matchup (Vandy vs. FDU) would get a bye into the championship match while the losing team faced the 3 vs 4 winner (Deleware St. vs. New Jersey City University) to see who would be the other finalist.

(Note: had you tried to read the bracket system on paper Sunday it was color coded and done very well to explain how the seeding would play out yet even after seeing it, one might have felt they walked into a rainbow on an acid trip not quite sure knowing what was going on...much like how St. Peter's and Morgan State looked all weekend which was about 20 female Art Shell Faces while bowling and no, that was not meant to be a male pig but to say that these teams were getting beat up pretty good and they had no shot.)

Of all the strange ironies, FDU just ran over Vandy like they were standing still and it looked like the tape had been replayed from the UMES semifinal match (or just watch the Met bullpen door open and you know what I felt like in 2007 and 2008) and despite being up over 400 pins on FDU through all the pinfall bowling, this was what mattered and Vandy had to get through two teams to win the tournament and sure enough, they took on Deleware State and the same thing was happening, only this time it was more prevelant off the lanes.

FDU has Mike Lopresti, who for all the rather unpleasant things I say about him and how he looked like a maroon oompa-loompa this weekend, is a damn good coach and evaluator of talent. He out coached Williamson by leaps and bounds by getting his best players in the right slots in the lineup to be succesful. It was not that Williamson had the wrong 5 players, he had them in the wrong spots. From a spectator's perspective, the player with the best look from the first shot she threw for the 'Dores on Sunday was Tara Kane yet she was not in the anchor slot, which is reserved justly for Earnest but Kane was not 4th or even 1st to start. John Williamson had his two seniors in Peloquin and Kane, bowling 2nd and 3rd respectively. Hamilton looked shaky and nervous, Garcia was her usual risk-reward self and Earnest looked like she was in need of some help at the bottom and never got it. The end result was 4-2 Knights.

DSU has Kim Terrell, who for all the rather pleasant things everyone has to say about her and how she is one of the great major bowlers in women's bowling history, is another damn good coach and evaluator of talent annnddddd of lane play. In their matchup against Vandy, Terrell saw the lanes on fire and made the edict to her five players: same ball, same line, same layout, same method. And it looked for all the world that the Hornets were going to sting (yes, corny but deal with it) the 'Dores to the consolation match. DSU was striking and sparing and seemed to be a unit while the Black and Gold looked lost-from the players on the lanes and espicially the coaching staff of Williamson and Travis Loeffler, who at times in the FDU match were 10-15 feet apart from each other showing little in the way of unity. However, two things happened that turned the complexion of the tournament in Vanderbilt's favor. First off, the Terrell-ettes failed to execute enough to win matches and in an error of her own, may have failed to get her best players bowling in the key baker positions. The second thing was Kane moving to the leadoff and Peloquin to the 4, with Halter coming in for Hamilton at the 3 slot.

Halter had the right style for what was happening on the lanes: speed and loft with precision on the quick drying heads while Hamilton was just off. Halter stepped in and Williamson threw her in a non-pressure spot in the lineup in a pressure filled situation and suddendly the express got rolling. Down 2-1 and 3-2, Vanderbilt roared back to beat Deleware State 4 games to 3 to get the rematch against the Lady Knights of Leonia. The next 5 games were a formality: Kane and Garcia (later Hamilton for Garcia) stayed sharp, Halter continued to channel her inner James Posey and then the talent came out. Peloquin jumped left and started becoming Dave Huested, Jr. and Earnest started splitting the 16 board like she was a Weber and the end result was 'Dores 4-Knights 1...game over.

"Vanderbilt+Halter-Grygiel=TEAM"

When this season began, Williamson had one major issue to contend with that no coach in the bowling nation had to deal with. He had to integrate a lot of big names into a small collective unit and then try and get the best 6 players to travel to every tournament. With 6 bowlers, things are simplified greatly for a coach and their staff. First of all, his/her players can bowl and not worry about looking over their shoulder at seeing the backups foaming at the mouth to get in, espcially if you are struggling as a bowler. Secondly, with only 5 bowling balls to bring per bowler, a coaching staff has to evaluate 30 bowling balls. Don't think it adds up? Lets look at Sacred Heart for a second: Coach Becky Kriegling likes to bring the entire school with her to the tournaments and at points has as many as 12 bowlers traveling. You can bring up to 5 balls per person in an NCAA tournament and if all the bowlers bring the max amount that is now a rather unmanageable sixty bowling balls that Kriegling, and assistant Steve Peloquin (yes, Michelle's father which leads to so many other stupid questions that I heard over the weekend) have to sand or shine or tape up or glue grips or remember specs...blah, blah, blah. It becomes impossible to manage. The last thing in bringing 6 is that if you have a team over 10 bowlers, bringing only 6 justifies the rest not traveling in that more than 25% aren't in competition. Perhaps the last item of note is where Williamson's gamble paid off the most because he had a delicate choice to make when assembling his team, mainly did he take his top three seniors in Peloquin, Kane, and Grygiel along with Hamilton and Earnest as the other two locks and then take one more between Morrison, Garcia, Halter, Ashley Belden, Katy Lammers and Kaitlin Reynolds or not bring Grygiel, sub her out for either Halter or Garcia and then take the best of the remaining cast? Williamson went with Halter and Garcia, and kept Morrison, Belden, and Grygiel off the traveling squad.

(One more note on Sacred Heart: they do have a 3rd person on staff in Jaime Smith but she is called a "stats" coach. Surprising for a team that has always had a nice lineage with left handed bowlers that Smith, a left handed bowler is not more involved in the bowling decisions espicially with two lefthanders on the team.)

This is not to say that Karen Grygiel deserved to be held back but on a team of 6 where 4 spots are taken up, two for 7 is a near impossibility to make without pissing someone off. Williamson chose to go with a combination of talent and good team players that was missing on his team in previous years. Say what you will about Grygiel's potential as a player in her career, she has won a lot in her bowling years but she is a mentally soft player when things do not go right. Accepting being the 6th woman on this team would be a devastating problem given her past success and her at times, penchant to pop off. The only logical way to have her travel is to have her start every block of bowling and cross your fingers on a player who is in transition in her game to have a perfect look and not bench her for fear of losing her in the long run mentally. Ask any coach alive with a last year player on the decline in terms of skills and they will say it is the toughest thing to do in sports because of their pull on a team's young players and overall psyche..it spells disaster. Having Halter and Garcia thrive in their opening tournaments as main-event players will only help the team's future as well as their present.

This isn't to say that these two will have their growing pains this season or that Hamilton will struggle with the game at a higher level as well or that Kane's lack of bowling knowledge will hamper her ability or that Earnest and Peloquin won't be in teacher mode throughout this season and not be in shotmaker mode for every game but their success of the younger players in the first tournament will allow the core to be the big time players that they have always been. In the college sporting world, young and old alternate really fast and with quick turnover so the young players quickly become the veterens and the new breed is right behind them to learn from those that preceded them. Before you blink, Kane and Peloquin will be gone and Garcia and Halter take over the roles.

A"dore" the present because the the future comes to pass awfully quickly...this is the season of redemption and transferrence in Nashville for the Lady Dores.

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.