"Bowling Blind"

PBA Tour
Rhi"no"-TOC

When legendary ABC announcer Jim McKay used to open up Saturday's "Wide World of Sports" with the classic line, "The thrill of victory...and the agony of defeat" showing the famous by accident clip of Yugoslavian ski jumper Vinko Bogataj skidding off the ramp and careening into the snow and mass of humanity, it showed you the truest form of losing in pain. For so many years (36 to be exact), Chris Schenkel would be there at 3:30 PM every Saturday on ABC giving bowling fans the finest in athletic competition and sometimes, you would see the "Thrill of victory...and the agony of defeat". Yesterday afternoon, for the PBA Tournament of Champions, we saw the thrill and the agony reflected in one subtle moment when Patrick Allen defeated tour roommate and friend Rhino Page 267-263. The pictures above are more a reflection of relief from Allen and utter pain from Page as he had the match in his hands, similar to that of Walter Ray Williams Jr. two weeks ago in Reno. However, this was not 8-10 again...this was 1-3-4-7-9-10, or as it will be known as in some circles as "The Whiff".

(All fans of ABC's bowling telecasts will remember the best "Agony of defeat" moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vyxr-i1JyA)

A phrase much shorter than gigantic washout or not the 8-10 or whatever you want to call it, it can also be called "Shot Clock-Gate". To further explain things, Page needed strike, 9, spare in the 10th to shoot 268 and win his first career major over Allen and after getting the first strike and showing remarkable composure throughout the entire telecast and then something strange happened:

(dialogue by Page to Tournament Director Kirk von Kruger):

Page: "Shot clock's already started...I just got pins."

And Rhino Page never...EVER thought about putting the ball down. Whether it was a Prison Shot (all 3 fingers come out of the ball like a bar of soap to clarify and by now, you know what they do with soap in jail) by Page or a total distraction looking at the shot clock, Rhino Page never seemed ready to embrace this moment. Strange for a player who has had so much success in the last few years winning major international events would stare to his right and stare at a shot clock violation that would have meant nothing had he struck or had even gone 9, spare. It is not like Page needed to flush all 10 to win...he just needed 9, spare to win and he got 4 the hard way. He completely fanned the shot left and Patrick Allen found another way to salvage the "Thrill of victory" while Page sustained the "Agony of defeat".

I often wondered why the PBA Tour would utilize a shot clock violation for only one day in a 4 or 5 day tournament when the answer is apparent: they are trying to condense the show into 90 minutes as safely as they can so they do not run over the slot time. It made even more sense when Allen was there holding the trophy and at such an historic tournament (a MAJOR, by God), you would like to think the PBA could have the winner do a little wrap-up interview with Randy Pedersen, who has experienced the "Agony of Defeat" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSOTzi67jYQ) before. With that being said, the PBA always seems to ruin a one car funeral. The last two PA wins were with him sitting on the bench, the product of bad luck (WRW) and bad mental patience (Page) and with the way Allen can be chirpy, it would have been nice to hear what he had to say after two shocking wins.


Did Allen deserve to win both times...? That answer is debatable but he certainly forced both players to make shots to win which is far more than what other great players of this generation have done to other players when they had them beaten or when they had to perform. Allen now has 12 titles and two majors to his ledger, and is now a US Open shy of joining the ranks of the Triple Crown with the likes of Hardwick, Petraglia, Aulby, Weber, and Duke which puts him into legendary status in the history of the sport. As for Rhino Page...one will think that he will rebound from this because he is that type of player. He has found a way in a season to where he is trying to round out his overall game, make two finals and win one tournament where he had nothing and lose a major championship where he probably had the best reaction of anyone on the show. However, Page suffered Agony while Allen obtained Thrill...fans will remember Page's ski jump for a long time.

"Bowling Blind"

Bowling fans need to see him this Sunday.

PBA Tour-Tournament of Champions

This is a memo to anyone associated with the PBA, whether it be Commissioner Fred Schreyer, Tournament Director Kurt von Kruger, the lane maintenance crew, Red Rock Lanes, the city of Las Vegas, state of Nevada, the western time zone...I could go on forever but you'd lose interest. The point I am getting at is that for all the history and the pageantry that surrounds this all important Tournament of Champions, celebrating the 50 greatest players in PBA history, bringing back all the recent champions and Hall of Fame players and past T of C winners, there is one thing that must, must, MUST happen this week on the lanes: Norm Duke must be there on Sunday.

He doesn't have to win, but he has to be there Sunday, with the chance to win. Rare is it in this sport of bowling that you can control your own way (not destiny-you cannot control destiny) through qualifying and match play and onto the television show when there are so few slots available to the bowlers. On most given shows, there are only 4 people that are visible on Sunday whereas in golf, a high majority of the field is still visible on Sunday, which sometimes can write its own storyline with a back 9 charge or a back 9 collapse, especially on a major Sunday telecast. Bowling is not offered that luxury of having its own storyline being written out on Sundays because the final four bowlers have already been decided and they are the only bowlers remaining. There is no one that is in 10th place making a late charge through match play to win a bowling tournament on a Sunday, but there is a possibility of a collapse late to lose a championship (Copyright: Chris Barnes, 2008 T of C). With that being said, the PBA would do itself a favor, as well as bowling fans a favor, by getting Norm Duke in the finals of Sundays' telecast for the Tournament of Champions.

The reason is rather simple: in case you have been living under President Obama's stylish new trench coat (and don't worry, about 2 million people were there in DC yesterday to watch his Inauguration), Norm Duke has a chance to claim his 4th consecutive major championship: a feat never before accomplished or never before even approached in bowling history until Duke won the last major, the 2008 World Championship which was his 3rd consecutive major victory. It's amazing to comprehend what Duke is on the verge of considering where he was at this point one year ago. One year ago, Norm Duke was hurt, sick, injured, and unable to gain any traction in what was slowing becoming a lost season...so lost of a season that he was on the verge of losing a coveted exemption spot for the 2008-09 season. Said miracles happened in Indianapolis, then North Brunswick, and then Wichita.

Now what happens in Vegas...stays in the PBA record books.

Win or lose, Norm Duke must find a way to get to Sunday's show if not to make history, then to at the very least, chase history. The general viewing public has always gotten to see their champions and their heroes riding great streaks to their inevitable conclusion, but the mere thought that the TV's watching at home can be a witness to greatness is what draws eyes to the sport. It takes the athlete out of the sport's consciousness and into the national consciousness: one in which they can become the transcendent figure or team in the country's eyes. Whether radios tuned into the Summer of '41 where Joe DiMaggio hit in 56 straight games or Ted Williams hit .406 or the 2007 New England Patriots had millions of viewers watch their pursuit of 19-0 only to see it fall in Super Bowl XXXXII, or nearly 60,000 fans in the Astrodome watched the Houston Cougars snap UCLA men's basketball winning streak of 47 games or even Notre Dame stopping the Bruins eighty-eight game winning streak. The point is that streaks end. Runs end. The winning ends. You either cheer as a fan for the streak being snapped or bemoan that it ended but you can at least remember where you were when it was over. In the case of Duke, bowling fans have often been cheated of the great storyline for so many years and for the first time in the PBA Tour's 50 year history and for the first time in organized bowling's one hundred and thirteen year history there is something that if a sport's fan were to truly observe closely, this is an event that no one may ever see again.

The only problem is that fans may not be able to see the run end, or to be more precise, they won't know where the end came. Duke will eventually not win a major championship and that is something everyone will come to grips with. What we as bowling fans cannot come to grips with is that we may not see Duke at any point on TV this week to see him officially lose his bid at four straight. We as bowling fans need finality to easily the greatest major run in bowling history by having Norm Duke not win while on television but this being the PBA, if Duke does not finish in the top 4 after qualifying and match play, fans who are not lucky enough to watch Duke bowl this weekend will not see history end. They will hear about it, they will read about it, but they will not see it. This is where the PBA must count its lucky stars and hope Duke makes the final 4 or get him there even if they have to overstep their time boundaries again this season. If Duke finishes 5th, just one spot shy of the finals, they should do what they can to get Duke on the TV finals to at least give fans the sense that 4 straight is still alive and in a setting where there is nothing significant on in the sports world opposing bowling, it should make it a 5 person final to captivate the bowling fan watching or even the casual fan tuning into maybe watching history.

Fans this Sunday hope that Duke can give them one more moment
in PBA history that only he can make so humbling.

As stated in my first "Bowling Blind" article of the season, Norm Duke is easily the sport's most popular player amongst fans and his wins in recent years have been crowd pleasing as well as drama filled. Since his last Player of the Year award in 2000, Duke's TV moments have been rather dramatic, historic, fun filled, and emotional all rolled into one. Another Duke moment (even if he's seeded 5th, it is worth it to lose some money by spending more TV time) has been worth it over the last 7 years. Some great Duke moments:

2002 (Syosset, NY): Beats Dave Traber in a 3 frame roll-off after both players punched out for a 245 tie. Duke won in the 3rd roll-off frame with a strike to win the tournament. Andohbytheway, the winner of that match got back into the T of C.

2003 (Seattle, WA): Against the eventual POY, Walter Ray Williams Jr. (Mr. 8-10) Duke fires the 15th televised perfect game in history. It was also an arena final as well, giving a larger in house audience a great show. What is amazing about that day is that Duke lost in the title match to Mike DeVaney

2003 (Kansas City, MO): Covers the 1-2-8-10 to beat the eventual POY Mika Koivuniemi.

2005 (Atlanta, GA): Wins while hooking the whole lane against Tony Reyes and Ryan Shafer.

2006 (Lake Hammond, IN): Goes through match play undefeated, beating Koivuniemi again in the title match.

2006 (Babylon, NY): Plays up 10 on the Shark pattern, runs the ladder against Mike Fagan, Joe Ciccone, Tommy DeLutz Jr., and Shafer

2007 (Indianapolis): After Shafer shoots a perfect game on TV, Duke elects to play a line further left than he played all week long and routs Shafer again on TV.

2008 (Indianapolis-WC): Fighting the flu and nagging injuries, beats Williams and Shafer to regain his exemption. Tears flow from Duke as he secures a 4 year exemption.

2008 (North Brunswick, NJ-US Open): The only major he had yet to win in his career and in the same week he lost his grandfather, Duke runs another ladder over Doug Kent, Chris Loschetter, and Koviuniemi converting the bucket to win. Duke's emotion after covering the spare was priceless-jumping in the air, screaming, crying. Another great Duke moment.

2008 (Wichita-WC): Looking to pursue an unprecedented 3rd straight major, plays the gutter shot and beats two Wichita State alums in Sean Rash and Chris Barnes. Styx plays in the background.

"Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto...for helping me escape just when I needed to. Thank You!"

Even if Norm Duke's timeline for the future probably is shorter than most of the superstars left on the PBA Tour, he can firmly carve his place in PBA history with 4 straight. We all hope as bowling fans we get to at the very least the end if it doesn't happen. For Norm Duke, I think we can all safely say that he too, would like the major roll to continue on "The Greatest Week in Bowling". He is a man of history, after all...

For all readers who have no effin idea who Styx is, check out the Mr. Roboto music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBtZk13miAE

For all emails, responses, or well wishes because I jumped off the deep end with this blog, reach me at Senordoscien527@aol.com.

"Bowling Blind"-con't

Demo Days

That was "Swing"ing
In recent years, bowling ball companies have been producing bowling balls en masse trying to find out which ball will draw the greatest revenue gains for their company. Unfortunately, and this is for another time and about 30 pages worth of discussing, most bowling ball companies have failed to stick with the bread and butter for two reasons: 1) technology is always advancing so one company is going to always come up with the "best damn bowling ball, period" and 2) they fear getting outstripped by other companies who make the advancements.

What certain companies have failed to realize is that most league bowlers will often stick with a bowling ball the garnered past success for them and is affordable. Most bowlers will not willingly purchase a ball in the 140-210 dollar range for a ball that they have never tried before and in tough economic times, it makes perfect sense: you cannot reasonably invest in a product that you have no idea if it suits your wants or needs in particular. In the last few years, bowling ball companies have also buoyed their new products with what they have called Demo Days. Demo Days are nothing short of public viewing for bowlers to try out a company's newest release and with little money down: free. Nothing quite like a free deal but there a few caveats involved in Demo Days, primarily the one in which it is highly unlikely for a pre-drilled bowling ball to fit as properly as your custom fit bowling balls that you are throwing. However, one of the great pluses in Demo Days are that you can get a bowling ball to fit close to your specs within seconds with the brand new switch grips invention. A simple twist and click and bingo...you got a thumb slug and two fingertip grips ready to go.

This past Monday at Bowl Long Island-Patchogue in the Ebonite Monday Open, Columbia 300 showed the public their newest release, the Power Swing. To avoid getting super technical and boring my fellow readers (all 5 of you, thank you!) the Power Swing is Columbia's newest high performance release bowling ball designed to create more overall hook downlane, which for most league bowlers is a premium while performing on "blocked lane conditions" (copyright: John Jowdy) but due to its 4000 Abralon surface, it does allow more control in the heads due to its matted finish. Now every bowling ball company releases a bowling ball with advertising and marketing ploys telling you, the bowler, that their new bowling ball is the best ball on market today. The upper level bowler chooses to look past that and into what bowling ball is working for them at the present time (whether it be manufacturer, core design, coverstock) but one thing that can spark interest in a bowling ball is what happens when a good player gets his/her hands on it and they build up the bowling ball and push it to the moon.

Luckily for all my five readers...I can safely push the Power Swing because I used it Monday night during the Demo Day. Not just for 5 minutes in practice, not for a few games before my league to see what it does...I chose to use it in my league that night.

What does it do..?
It does kick off the friction to the left (I am left handed...right for righties) and it does something that most players enjoy seeing once it gets in the pocket area: it carries everything. Most off pocket hits still had enough carry to get through the pindeck and leave an X on your scoreboard. It does create area for more overall hook downlane and the surface does help get it started soon enough to where a miss inside of target will lay off enough and a miss wide can can grab the lane and make the move (warning: this wasn't the US Open I was on...it was a THS but it was worth noting facts).

What does it NOT do..?
It will not make a move in the oil line...repeat: IT WILL...NOT MAKE A MOVE...IN THE OIL LINE!!! I stand corrected, it does move off the pattern but it does not finish hard enough causing weaker carry. In the first game, I was trying to play a tighter line through the heads around 18-19 with my feet angling to the left to get into 8-9 at the arrows. Ball had good movement...good roll...not so great carry. Light hits weren't there, high hits were marginally there, but a 210 with a high performance ball was not what I was looking for. Seeing this, I moved about 3 boards right (who said lefties can't move in?!?) and elected to circle the conditioner more at 11-12 at the arrows with a breakpoint at 4-5...the result was a 279 game with the only non strike being a shaker 10 in the 4th frame which I got it inside of target down lane (12 at arrows, 7 was the breakpoint) and the carrydown created a late arriving ball that really had no chance of striking. The third game was more of the same with striking but carry went down a little bit for a 234 game (when the ball started laboring, a move right and more hit did the trick just fine) for a nice 733 series using a ball I had been using for 3 hours. One more plus note: on my fill shot in the second game, I moved about 6 boards left to 16-17 with the feet and tried to take some hand out of it and play the dirt on the outside part of the lane. The result was a clean whistle strike so playing the friction also worked as well but playing in the track was not the best look for this ball. Either a significant move left of right worked best.

Overall, the Power Swing worked out very well for me and I must safely say that it would be a ball that I am interested in adding to my bag for the tournament portion of the season if i have to play more in the center part of the lane given the lane conditions or if in league night where there are multiple left handed bowlers on the lane to where the outside part of the lane might get swirly. Not only did I throw it during league but a few other bowlers tried the Power Swing during league and had similar results which would be striking a fair amount. Rich Lee, who is third in the league in average with a 238 clip tried it and fired games of 258-247-246=751 playing up the boards and throwing it firm. Fellow lefthander Paul Bajorski was bowling one pair to the right of me and also shot 279-762 for the night and he was getting more tilt on the ball. Me being the fool I am tried the track area and puckered a 210 out there until i got smart and moved right. It should also be noted that both Paul and I bowled with another lefthander on our pair playing around first arrow so the decision to move right for the both of us was the right decision.

For a list of our league standings check out this site: http://leaguesecretary.com/LeagueFiles.aspx?LID=41312&IFTID=1

The Demo Day was a success in my opinion and I would highly suggest any player looking into a new ball for the next swing of league or tournaments search all the major bowling websites and see when they have a Demo Day available in the area or consult a pro shop operator at your bowling center to evaluate what you need for your game.

Coming shortly: Bowling's #1 vs. Bowling's #2 at long last!

"Bowling Blind"

The Importance of 8-10



If you ever got the sense that history has a way of writing its own script, Sunday's telecast of the Big Wood PBA Tour could not have written itself any better right up until its final delivery: for the first time in tour history, there were two lane patterns dressed for one tournament, primarily as a showcase for the top players who could juggle their physical games as well as mental games to attack two diverse and extremely different patterns in terms of lane play. When you go through the annals of PBA history, there are none fewer at matching the juggling act better than the all time leader in victories in Walter Ray Williams Jr.. If you have read carefully in my past blogs, I am not Mr. Williams' biggest fan from a standpoint of growing the game off the lanes but on the lanes...you cannot argue with the success this man has had evolving his game through what has been the greatest revolution in bowling history in terms of technology.

He had safely negotiated his way to the top seed of the first ever mixed patterns event and set himself up for one of his more impressive victories in his storied (and now one of the two greatest in PBA history) career. However, Walter Ray's defeat is arguably the most significant of his career because of....8-10.



Eight...ten...? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5DaIXTjLIY



How could the great Williams not only fail but fail in such a devastating way? The answer, it would seem was in pride. A man who never took reracks (something I do when I bowl, I hardly look at the pins to see if they are off spot: you gotta bowl under adverse conditions so bad pin spots are gunna happen, it is up to the bowler to figure out how to strike and execute), when Walter Ray went plack 8-10 he cried foul on the pins: put the pins on spot, I guess. This being Walter Ray, he never cried foul on maybe he threw the ball too fast, or might have been a pinch right of target, or he might have missed it at the release just enough for the ball to hit like a wet noodle (my point is, despite the bad break I was going to give him, when he opened his mouth about the pins, he chose a scapegoat which for me typifies the man as a bowler: no shot he ever thinks he throw is a bad one, it was something else's fault and not the man who threw it) causing the major deflection and the victory being lost to Patrick Allen (which we'll get into the other 4 show finalists momentarily).

But this loss for Williams is shockingly enough, a major bowling breakthrough for Walter Ray, if he ever chose to look at it that way. For perhaps the first time in his great career, Williams was as much a victim of himself as he was of any external factors that was going on. His game of end-over-end, no turn, good ball speed, accuracy, and near flawless spare shooting has withheld the test of time but on this occasion, it failed him. Needing the second strike of a double against Allen on the right lane (the lane which had the Cheetah pattern on it) to win, the story all but had been written and then he goes...8-10. His reaction was demonstrative as it should be, Allen's was jubilant if not a sense of shock and relief for him, but the crowd reaction was what told the story.



If you listen closely, people actually cheered when Williams went 8-10...most were obviously shocked and stunned with several holding their hands over their mouth in disbelief at the sight of 8-10, but the cheers and applause for when it happened was noticeable to anyone listening and thanks the beauty of YouTube, you can listen to the reactions of the crowd. You can read into it what you want, but the cheers were for either Allen winning or Williams losing, the shock was purely for Williams losing and on such a devastating break but perhaps for the first time in recent memory, Walter Ray Williams Jr. has got what I have been looking for out of him: a moment. Never before had Walter Ray had the crowd and casual fans feeling so bad for what happened to him or in some cases, laughed at him for it. The moment 8-10 happened, I got several IM's from people with the same "Holy S*it!" reaction that fell off their chairs. Some were stunned and speechless while some laughed at him: an indication that certain fans contempt for Williams runs deep and it was not only noticeable with the people I know but with the people on TV that expressed their feelings.



As for Patrick Allen, he deserved to win the first ever mixed pattern event in PBA history. For four games, Allen was sound and precise in his execution of Bill O'Neill, Mr. Lynda Norry (Chris Barnes), and Wes Malott in getting to Williams and much to his credit, Allen forced that double out of Williams and was probably thinking at worst, he will get to a rolloff, which given Allen's action background in the northeast part of the country was a slight advantage over the great Williams. He got more than he could have ever expected from the result and was jubilant over the proceedings that he was roughly 8 to 10 lanes (get it...8-10? Work with me people, it's snowing in Long Island) away walking in disbelief amazed at how Water Ray went 8-10 on Shark (he did misspeak, the left lane was the Shark pattern while Cheetah was on the right), and probably at worst, he was going to see WRW get the double to win title #46. It did not happen, Allen gained his 11th title in the process.



"Thank you Storm...and Hammer...and Vise...and Denny's for my
trim and slim waistline."




As for the format of mixed patterns itself goes, it seemed to be a real positive experience for fans viewing it. Rare is it that you get 5 bowlers each throwing several bowling balls, playing different lines, with different surfaces, with different ball speeds on one telecast. The only trouble is you are beginning to get a sense of what guys are really having demons on TV. For O'Neill, he is still learning and has had a positive outlook on this season making 4 shows but now the time has come for him to win on the big stage. It is similar that to the season Rhino Page had last season where he went 0-for-4 on TV in quest for title #1 until he finally got it. Perhaps show five this season for O'Neill will finally be the breakthrough for him to claim his first title. As for Mr. Norry (because as we know, Lynda Barnes is the best Barnes in the bowling family) and Mr. Malott, they are starting to share paralles on TV. They are now both beginning to share the moniker of "talented? yeah but..." which for Malott is not a good thing to have. Barnes once again showed you why he seems too forced in this game. Yes, I know he was jobbed on that solid 7 in the 9th against Allen but under no and absolutely NO circumstances should he have whiffed the 7 pin which gave Allen the match. Malott basically discredited the mixed pattern event in an interview and proceeded to bowl about as unmotivated a match you have ever seen by someone so talented in this sport and who is leading the Player of the Year points race as well. The show needed some color and entertainment and thankfully for bowling fans, Patrick Allen was able to deliver that.

YEAH, HOSS!!!


Coming up: Demo Days-Columbia 300 Power Swing

"Bowling Blind"

Teaser Alert!!!

To all the fans of the great Walter Ray Williams Jr., what you are about to see is so devastating that it needs your immediate attention:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ypQU_vIDk


More to come this week:
Later...why this Teaser Alert is important.
Wednesday...Demo Day
Thursday...1 vs. 2 Vanderbilt-Nebraska

We apologize for the technical difficulties...sorry, I am working on a budget.

Cheers,
Thomas