Bowling Philosophy-March 2010

"In 'Layman's' Terms"
by Tommy Scherrer

Did it ever occur to anyone who attempts to write about bowling how they come up with their ideas for a report or a blog? I was peddling away on my apartment's stationary bike this afternoon and felt compelled to write something of significance for this week's BP edition. On the bike...nothing...while doing squats...nothing...hamstring curls...nothing....box jumps....nothing. So I was in the middle of my second set of squats and encountered a 45 pound weight falling off the bar and literally breaking into two pieces!!! I have never done such a thing before. There is was: cracked in half, clean as a whistle. How did this happen? Was the plate not set? Did I lean too much to one side? The answer was the bar where the plate goes on actually dipped and ostensibly, the plate fell off and to the ground. Luckily, no one (myself included) was hurt as the plate sustained a private funeral.

With my workout over, I had my answer to the BP Report (it needs a catchy name, doesn't it?): answer some questions on bowling. Where would I find questions to answer?...one might ask. Thankfully, Andy Morton's report on pba.com usually has open questions, entitled "The Big Four". However, Mr. Morton was out of service so Donnie Layman substituted and opened up five questions, or what he dubbed "The Greek Church". Thank you, Mr. Layman...let's answer these questions. Remember, this is just personal belief on my part and not what is fact or otherwise.

Q1: Does Mike Scroggins ever get enough credit for how great he really is?

A: Scroggins gets credit for these things: great person, very good bowler, and vastly underrated major performer. What he won't get credit for (by fans) is being a great personality, plus his style of game is not very exciting. Again, not his fault, but his steady performances over the last 7 years has been a reflection of his hard work as a bowler. Personally, I feel he needs another major title to establish himself as a Hall of Fame bowler or 3-5 more PBA titles. For the past decade though, tremendously consistent...really good...not great.

Q2: Can Bill O'Neill hold off Walter Ray and company for the Chris Schenkel Player of the Year?

A: Let's hope so as fans for the future of bowling. Yes, from an historical standpoint, having Walter Ray Williams Jr. try and win a record 7th POY would be a special moment in bowling history. Nobody 25 years ago would have possibly imagined that anyone could come along and rival Earl Anthony's bowling records and in some cases, go flying right past them. However, it is not in the best interest of a sport or an organization that is trying to promote younger talent AND is viewed as being a little too old to begin with, to have the POY be a 50-year-old.

Suppose we use golf as an analogy and say that Tom Watson wins the British Open and on top of that, were to beat a then morally sound Tiger Woods for Golfer of the Year at 58 years old in 2009. You loved the sentimental moment of Major Tom winning another Open championship, but Golfer of the Year??? That is insane, right? Imagine how foolish golfers half Watson's age would feel if that were to happen. Walter Ray winning the Masters? Great. Excellent performance by the game's greatest right handed bowler in PBA history. Winning Player of the Year at 50? It is not great for the sport, no matter how anyone spins it. As for the others? Try if they can, but for bowling to move into another generation, Bill O'Neill needs to finish off the 2009-10 season with the game's highest seasonal honor.

Q3: Will Jason Belmonte's hamstring stop him from making a run at POY?

A: It will and it has. Already not bowling in Columbus, Ohio this week, Belmonte might not even try bowling for a few weeks. Look, there is no need for Belmo to run out there and try and play hurt, not at his age, not when the PBA needs him to be a crowd favorite and not damaged goods. Belmonte has had a very strong season for his first full-time run on the PBA. He absolutely tore up the US Open pattern this week when he was healthy, so be on the lookout for that in the future. Medical advice: rest, ice, compress, and elevate Belmo.

Q4: Can PDW (Pete Weber) make it to 2nd on the all-time titles list before his illustrious career ends?

A: Weber's 2007 US Open was his 34th title. He has just tied Mark Roth on the titles list and arguably became the great power bowler of all time. Since then he has made 9 telecasts and hasn't won since. Remember, Weber had won his 34 titles in his first 116 shows, which would average to about one title for every 3.5 telecasts. If you were to prorate that in the last 3 years, Weber would have had at least 2 or 3 more wins and perhaps snuck in a major in there for good measure. You would now have 36-37 titles and now 9 majors, 4 titles and one major shy of Anthony and one major better than Williams. To me, the ultimate gauge on a player's professional career is whether or not he can win major titles. Just look at how we now observe Norm Duke's career in the last few years because of his recent major title run. Duke went from great player to an iconic, historical player in the course of 3 major events. That to me, that is what should matter.

So, to rephrase Layman's question into Question 4a: can he win two more majors to tie Anthony? To me, that would certainly re-open what many feel is a dead debate about comparing Weber and Williams and their careers against each other. Give me the guy who has more majors than anyone else and who gave the PBA more mainstream attention than anyone in the past decade than anyone else. Glad we had this discussion, let's move on.

Q5: Who else thinks Tommy Jones is on the brink of returning to his previous dominance?

A: Such an open-ended question, it should be on the list of Questions That Have An Obvious Answer However Do Not Because Of The Sport. Let's get some facts straight about winning in the PBA: it is whether you dominate on Sunday. Not on Saturday. Not Thursday. Not any day but Sunday. Yes, you have to actually get to Sunday (so being good during the week is important) but if you were to say bowling could stick to its single-elimination matchplay and say, have only two bowlers bowl on television in a best 3 out of 5 format to determine the week's winner, we could use the 'who dominated?' card during the whole week. In Jones' case, he could run over everyone when every event was single-elimination. Of his 12 titles, 8 of them were of single-elimination matchplay. Jones knew how to sprint in bowling terms like a 100 meter runner, and now he is being forced to run more 10K's and half-marathons on top of his sprinting. Not that Jones cannot be good with all of this, but it does take away a dynamic part of his game which made him a force. However, Barnes adapted, Duke adapted, Walter Ray adapted, even Scroggins adapted both ways in stepladder and matchplay formats. Weber, Jason Couch and Bohn have been more successful in long distance/stepladder format tournaments than matchplay and their winning has taken some decline. Jones will have to adapt better or have his Hall of Fame career suffer a Ballard-like string of zeros. Those are just facts in the last few years.

This is not to say Jones will not return to dominance. His numbers this year are consistent across the board. He even stole some of my argument's thunder last week by making the US Open televised finals. However, do I think Jones could benefit from the PBA going back to more single-elimination matchplay format...yes I do. And when I mean 'more' I mean pretty much all of the standard events.


Could I be wrong about all of these questions? Sure, but I will go back to what I mentioned about O'Neill Monday and say that the PBA could really, really, really, reeeeeallllly benefit from him winning Player of the Year. Scroggins is a potential Hall of Fame player but for the moment will not be a great player. Belmonte...seriously, mate: rest up. Weber's goal should be to tie the major record, which to me is a far greater accomplishment in this generation of bowling. As for Jones, dominance is relevant to what you define dominance is? Is seven shows and no wins as good as 3 shows and two wins? Not even close...you want wins over consistency because that is what people remember. And you will remember how this article got started: with a 45 pound plate snapping into two.


Tommy Scherrer is a USBC Level One certified coach and a fan of bowling since age 9. Bowling Philosophy is written to offer insight and provide thought to the world of bowling.