Bowling Philosophy-January 2010

PBA Tournament of Champions

"It's bigger than us"

Sometimes, the story writes itself...

So many times, you watch sporting events or go to sporting events and you view them hoping that the moment goes beyond your wildest expectations and you watch expecting something that you have never seen before. It is why fans shell out thousands of dollars on season tickets and personal set licenses, jerseys, auctions, rare collectibles, TV packages, and so on. You want to be an owner to a piece of history, no matter the price. You will refinance your house, cars, RV's...anything to be a part of it. Even if you don't attain that moment, you knew that you were close to seeing it which only makes the hunger to see a moment like that grow only stronger, so strong that you continue your idolatry with the sport or sports. We live for sports to suspend reality, to escape the 9 to 5 grind, the hassle of freeways, cars, and trucks, and to dream that maybe someday, our children can achieve that possible dream of being a professional athlete to give fans similar feelings for generations to come. What that feeling is escapes most.

On Sunday, January 24th, 2010...you got your payoff of something you have never seen before. No, it did not involve Peyton Manning's virtuoso performance against my Jets, or the Saints marching into Miami to their first ever Super Bowl over the Minnesota Fumblers...er, Vikings. It did involve round objects, collisions, and major sports championships. January 24th, 2010 will be forever known in sports history as the day Kelly Kulick became the first woman to win a PBA national tournament, and it just happened to be the PBA's marquee event: the Tournament of Champions.

For those who saw the moment happen live in Las Vegas' beautiful Red Rock bowling center, to those who watched her sensational run on Xtra Frame (an absolute must-have for a bowling fan), to those who watched her seal the deal on TV Sunday afternoon by defeating Mika Koviuniemi and Chris Barnes, you saw something that quite possibly, was the finest performance put forth by a bowler given the circumstances in not just the PBA's 51 year history, but in the sport's entire history. This was such an indescribable moment in time that not even Kulick, 32 of Union, New Jersey, could get a firm grasp on. If you watched, you cared about bowling at its highest level producing another tremendous story in a season that keeps giving the common bowler a sense of "anything's possible". If you smiled, you were appreciative of Kulick's sensational fifty game performance during the entire week just to get to this point. If you cried, you were human to see such a moment that replaces words. If you did all of the above, then you were observing a moment that does have a word.

Organic...

It was an organic moment in sports history, something we all wish to see. Virtually free of overexposure or criticisms or any cynicism. Organic...that's the word maybe to all of this. We might never see such a unique moment in sports ever again. Did it matter to me that Kulick's victory came over Chris Barnes, a man whom I have openly said, needs to take bowling to another level? Nope...this isn't about Barnes' total lack of the moment (don't worry, another blog in the near future might be about that). Did it matter to me that Kulick's victory came with little media attention, getting a few highlights on ESPN programming? Not at all, in fact, it makes the moment even better for me and for anyone who watched it. I saw history on TV with my girlfriend (a HUGE Kulick fan), a fellow bowler, a fellow All-American bowler, a fellow National Champion in college, and a fellow female. When it was all said and done, she smiled proudly and I knew she felt proud that she watched this. Even if you were not a woman, you should have been proud. Anyone who dared to make a joke of this or dared to bring this moment down just doesn't get it. In fact, even us who saw Kulick take down the big boys of bowling, don't get it. We will never get it or truly understand it, while those who dare to demean it, think they get it but are totally lost about the moment. In the end, Kelly Kulick's victory has no meaning: it is bigger than us.

It will always be bigger than us, and quite honestly, that is the way it should be. The moment should always transcend our limits of thinking for it to mean so much. We often make too much of what we call great sport moments and therefore, turn it into something that has meaning. Why should moments like this have a meaning when the best thing to do is just let it happen-again, being organic? We were true witnesses to something that might never happen again in sports and in turn, we now have a lifetime moment to remember. Bowling might not matter to the American public like it used to when Dick Weber, Chris Schenkel, and Earl Anthony were the game's elite names and players, but it doesn't have to be anymore. We (and by 'we' I mean bowlers) try to envision ourselves and the sport we love growing to global heights rivaling golf and soccer, as well as trumping football in this country as Sunday's athletic religion, but we know that is not likely possible. Instead, it is best to search for moments that other sports cannot duplicate and if you do in fact find that moment, you hold onto it, you celebrate it, and you rejoice in it. Most importantly, you try not to re-create it. It just happens...Kelly Kulick happened.

Will it happen again? It might happen again, in fact, could you put it past Kulick, now with her win in the T of C getting a two-year exemption, doing this again? She has the most ideal game to play with the men out on tour. If you remember, Kulick earned an exemption once before by way of her great 2006 Tour Trials so her being on tour is not going to be shock to the central nervous system of bowling. She is the Evolutionary Wendy MacPherson for women's bowling: get in with the rev rate out on tour, yet be smooth enough to play straight and tough enough to grind it out on demanding conditions. Her 50-game average this past week at the T of C was 226.44, which outaveraged Rhino Page by .11 pins. She won 16 games in match play, including her two wins on Sunday's telecast against a) all men and b) all PBA champions. She beat Barnes and Koivuniemi, two former PBA Player of the Year winners and former major champions to boot. In closing, she earned this championship in every conceivable way possible. It cannot be easily defined how great her performance was.

Well...maybe it can be. The telling point of the telecast Sunday was the image at the top of this article: 10th frame, match over, the only person in the world right now that bowling is watching. How does she celebrate? Hands raised, almost defiantly, almost telling anyone who tried to push her away because she didn't have the right looks or the right words or the right game or anything else to promote women's bowling...Kelly Kulick was the moment. What it means we will never truly know and to me, that's cool. Kelly Kulick took us to a place where nobody ever thought we would go. We went to a place that is bigger than us...we went organic.