"Bowling Blind"

PBA Tour

Good to the "Bohn"

Operating costs aside, the true cost of any product always costs more than its retail value, no matter how great the demand or how precious the supply. In tough economic times (a situation I'll actually delve into later), you need one word from a commodity: consistency. The more consistent a product has been over a long period of time, the more willing you are to take a bet on the product. Even during tough times you know that the product may be on the downside of its returns, but is still solid enough to at the very least, balance things out. The best case scenario is that the product gets on a hot trend and you can make a profit out of and still feel that your faith entrusted in the product was well justified. Every person wants to be surrounded by the words "success" and "consistent" as a sign of prominence in society and usually don't value loyalty as much as one used to.

Perhaps that best describes Parker Bohn III stock value over his career: remarkably consistent and successful for the better part of a decade or 15 years on the PBA Tour (before mega fat cholesterol meals and deforestation were title sponsors), then a downturn where Bohn struggled but was still relevant. This was followed by a near collapse in 2004 where at one point in the season, he was ranked 51st in the points list and outside of an exemption for the following season. It almost seemed the PB3, Inc. was going out of business...

But a late season resurgence got him in the points list then 2005 saw Bohn win again in El Paso, Texas on the Cheetah pattern. At that point he had become only the 4th bowler to ever win 30 titles and the career long portfolio still looked as if it had another good run in him. A win last year in South Carolina was another spike in the market then Sunday's win over Mike Scroggins 242-198 further solidified that, even in a down economic season you can still rely on Parker Bohn III.

The real story though was evident on the telecast when Bohn basically admitted that he felt that he was overlooked for Team USA during the Men's World Championships this past summer. In some cases, bowling had moved on from a standpoint of loyalty and had searched for other forms of support. Much like the economy, the USBC had devalued its loyalty to Bohn...

This isn't to say that USBC treated Bohn wrong. After all, he is on the "Dream Team" as a member but was not one of the first 6 chosen to represent America in the World Championships. The other fact that Walter Ray Williams, Jr. won the Masters division further supported USBC in not having Bohn be on the traveling squad as justified. However, I mentioned a few weeks back that as good as Williams is, he was never the greatest promoter for the sport of bowling when he was the game's top bowler and still is one of the best in the world today. Bohn, despite not winning as much as Williams has in the last 5 years was still the epitome of a bowling ambassador: a professional and a class act, a sportsman, did bowling promotions across oceans and continents, and would never utter a bad word about bowling no matter where he went. This generation's Dick Weber??? No question about it. This society's answer to a model citizen??? Of course there is. A winner??? Well...not as much recently but he's still a name in the sport with 32 titles and two player of the year awards, as well a 4 time Steve Nagy Sportsmanship winner, showing the finest example of being a pro and showing class to his fellow bowlers. In the end, he no longer was a dominant player but a good figurehead to put on Team USA as a name to attract the international attention. USBC made a clear indication that they didn't think Paker Bohn could win anymore. His win at AMF Thruway Lanes proved differently and that his true cost is much higher than anyone else's. Speaking of AMF...

AMF

"Always Means..."

Fiscal trouble?

Finance cutbacks?

Forgetting league bowlers?

Yes, I am a happy employee of AMF working at Syosset Lanes in Long Island but the recent changes in cutting back hours to save income means that the economy is hitting everyone hard. The recent hour cutbacks as well as reduction of pay increases and no longer matching 401k contributions are clear indicators that AMF is feeling the crush of revenue losses. Bowling is a strange activity in that people do not make plans to bowl for say, a date. They do it on a whim...almost as an impulse thing to do. Usually open bowlers go through cycles of going to bowl just to kill time and then something else comes along to kill some recreational time. Whether it be mini golf, movies, or your local pub, etc...the open bowler has their moments of coming and going, which puts them out of a constant. The one thing that is a constant with bowling is league and with that comes league promotion.

Bowling promotion in leagues has been a highly untapped resource primarily because league play is in the major decline and has been so for the last decade. The truly elite players don't care much for leagues because the house conditions have catered to the lesser talented players and have created bowling's version of NFL parity in a bowling center as well as bowling companies creating bowling balls that supply greater entry angles and better pin carry for players who are lesser talented. The lower level players are just that: lower level bowlers that do not ply a considerable amount of trade into practicing or learning the new advances in the game and very comfortable bowling in mixed handicap and vacation leagues. The only problem is that those mixed leagues and vacation leagues at AMF are nonexistent. True, the big leagues are still floating around in certain AMF centers but bowling leagues are a guarantee licence to print money for a bowling center. Not only are leagues but in house tournaments as well.

The next two weeks on the Big Wood PBA Tour are to be held in AMF centers (Thruway Lanes and Country Club Lanes) and this should be a time for AMF to make a gigantic push in terms of exposure and saying to the bowling public, "Hey, economy is on the short side of things but we can host a high caliber tournament in conjunction with the PBA Tour and help get our centers some exposure and we can show how good we are." Sadly though, in looking for a high profile name in the company to be in the front row showing a brave face on Sunday's telecast, there was no mention of any AMF management in attendance. Surely they were there at the show, but no mention of it was disturbing. It couldn't have hurt to mention if Mike McKinley (Northeast Region VP) was there just to show that things are ok. Alas, it sounds as if McKinley wasn't in attendance and why you may ask? Because AMF decided in their December 1st memo to all AMF centers that travel expenses for District Managers and Regional Vice Presidents will be cut by 20%. A short term panic decision that completely didn't make sense considering that the last two events for the first half of the PBA Tour's schedule are to be held at AMF centers would have been a nice memo to show the staff members that work in all the bowling centers that we, as a company are still doing ok and that we will rebound. Let's hope next Sunday that the visibility is apparent.

College

1 vs. 2

If you enjoy watching a true powerhouse bowling team look no further than Vanderbilt's 3rd consecutive tournament victory this past weekend at the Jeanette Lee Invitational. The Lady 'Dores went through the field unbeaten this past weekend to raise their won-loss to record to 36-5 and for the 3rd time this season, overpowered the field in terms of total pinfall. The march to a fantastic 1-2 Vandy-Nebraska matchup in January begins as both teams are off until the Mid-Winter Classic. And these two teams were ranked 2nd and 3rd to start the season...wow, who did the rankings? The BCS?

High School

Century Mark

If you have a young daughter in the Long Island area who likes to bowl, do yourself a favor and take her to East Islip Lanes in East Islip, NY and watch the girls high school bowling team in action. Led by coach Harold Cooley, East Islip has owned women's bowling in Long Island since I was in high school (was it really 1998?) and they have also had their success on the state level winning two state championships in the decade along with winning seven county championships as well since the 2000-01 season. Andohbytheway, did I mention that the girls are riding a 100 match winning streak.

Yes...one hundred. In times of waning interest in bowling, the high school level in New York is still high and heavy as one the few states that carry bowling as a varsity high school sport for both men and women. With that being said, for a high school team to not lose a match in seven years says a lot about overall dominance and great coaching. Coach Cooley has been at this since I bowled in high school 10 years ago and he has always gotten the very best of his players and the word "program" fits into this high school team. They were good then, should be good now, and may always be good and the team that stops the streak will have some history for themselves...that is, if East Islip loses...ever.

Tommy Scherrer had to change his personal at the bottom this week in order to plug how you can contact him. For questions, comments, concerns, or really if you think I stink at this please send all of your questions to Senordoscien527@aol.com.