Bowling Philosophy-April 2010

Chris Barnes-The 40-Year-Old "Version"

by Thomas Scherrer

One of these days, people will truly see themselves laughing at what they say or feel in regard to Chris Barnes when his career accomplishments and active participation as a professional bowler comes to its nadir. However, much like most great players in the sport's history, they are often spoken about in polarizing terms. Two camps litter the bowling world when it relates to Barnes: one is the camp that highly supports Barnes for his tremendous physical gifts. The other camp wants to dump all over Barnes for being unable to live up to those lofty standards by not winning enough. There is always that dangerous double-edged sword with most talents who are labeled "can't miss" or "top prospect" in any sport for a few simple reasons:

1) They are supposed to win...
2) They are supposed to dominate...
3) They are supposed to run over the competition and...
4) They are to never let us down when it matters the most.

Those criteria almost make winning a given and anything less a shock to people...how could a guy with all that talent lose??? When a person of Barnes' bowling caliber doesn't win, it makes fans or defenders of him suffer several emotions. They range to disappointment to justification to sudden hatred. It was never more evident when in the PBA Tour's final national event in Baltimore, Md., Barnes chided opponent Brad Angelo after a Brooklyn strike courtesy of ESPN's Inside Angle segments during live telecasts. Angelo would take this "shot" and deliver a flurry of "real strikes" to end the match and defeat Barnes, and with that, the fans of the PBA took over. Some calling Barnes classless, a prisoner of the moment (a suggested swipe at Barnes winning his second Roll 2 Riches event with a Brooklyn strike), and some words that rhyme with "glassbowl". Well for viewers who try to defend Chris Barnes, he did in fact act like a "glassbowl", in fact a major "glassbowl".

All snide remarks aside, this has sadly become the norm for PBA Universe: Barnes will never, ever be the bowler we thought he'd be. Regardless of how the next stage of Barnes' life goes, fans have already invested too much in a player who is not, in their minds, the game's heir apparent. Sounds strange to say, but we have been waiting for the successor to Walter Ray's throne for a long, long, looooonnnng time and we might still be waiting. While some of that distinction belongs to how great Walter Ray has been in his late 40's, some of this has to be directed at Barnes. However, we must not forget that Barnes is now 40 years old: still physically a tremendous talent, a wonderful in-game strategist, durable beyond belief, and always learning a few new tricks to add to his already stuffed toolbox. Barnes still has another possible 10-15 good years in him to pad stats that many thought he would have already acquired, and we don't seem to knock Norm Duke or Mike Scroggins for having a late career resurgence: in fact, we have applauded them (Scroggins for his unwavering ability to outwork his fellow players, despite being limited; Duke for his focus-driven persona in major championship events).

With that being mentioned, a few questions pop up as to Barnes legacy currently as he now enters his 40's:

Question #1: Is Chris Barnes a Hall of Fame bowler?
Stupid to ask, stupider to even respond...he is a Hall of Fame bowler. But...

Question #2: Is Chris Barnes a first ballot Hall of Famer?
This is not quite as rock solid as you or I think it should be. Let's observe some facts about this generation of bowling: the PBA is an exempt tour now, with only 64 bowlers making the main draw of the tournament. Your odds of winning events are slightly greater than they once were. They just are. Factor in Barnes' television history, which has been spotty at best, horrific at worst, and Barnes should be roughly in the 20 title range at this stage of his career, or similar to where Duke was when he turned 40. He is currently in the mix with players such as Steve Hoskins, Dave Husted, Patrick Allen, and Randy Pedersen to name a few (10-15 title range). Personally, I would be a harder grader for who should be a Hall of Fame bowler (that is, if I had a vote). In my personal opinion, there are 5 requirements to being a first ballot Hall of Famer bowler:

1) Win at least 15 titles and not 10 titles (that gets a player such as Jason Couch in, but it will make more sense soon).
2) Win at least 3 major championships. A little harder to win in professional bowling, however now with exempt fields, more demanding lane conditions, and longer formats, the better players should easily contend for more majors now than ever before (this makes Doug Kent a Hall of Famer).
3) Be a Player of the Year (this makes Kent a shoo-in along with validating David Ozio and Dave Ferarro HOF careers).
4) Have at least two transcendent seasons as a player (win two majors in a year, or 4+ titles in a season, or set a record for earnings, average, television appearances, ect.).
5) Revolutionize the game in some way that changes how we look at bowling (Roth's power game, Pete Weber's backswing/power stroke, Ozio's risk/reward gutter play, Husted's dominance playing the deep inside angle a generation before it was commonplace, or Jason Belmonte's two handed delivery).

It is feasible to be a Hall of Famer with one of these requirements, a given (in time) with two, but with 3, you should be a no doubter Hall of Famer. With 4 or all 5 of those requirements, you go into legendary/iconic status. We have to give some wiggle room to Weber because he has never won Player of the Year (a topic for later day in time) or Brian Voss (not enough majors) or Parker Bohn III (ditto) to reach all 5 requirements, but let's get back to Barnes' Hall of Fame status for just a moment and for whether or not he meets the Scherrer Hall of Fame Meter.

Criteria 1: 15+ titles, Barnes has 12. You'll imagine he'll get to the 15 title mark in the next few years, but this is Chris Barnes: you probably pegged him for 18-20 titles at this point in his career. As for now, not HOF worthy for me.
Criteria 2: 3+ majors, Barnes has 2. Again, you can guesstimate that Barnes will win several more majors soon. Then again, he did lose the 2008 T of C to Michael Haugen Jr. when he has a 50+ pin lead on him, he did lose the 2010 T of C to Kelly Kulick-no disrespect to Kulick but if you are Barnes facing a non-winner in the championship match of a major, you should win if we are to take you seriously as being an all-time great. He also let Walter Ray walk all over him in the 2010 Masters title match (don't worry Barnes supporters, he let Walter Ray do the same thing to him 6 years ago too). And for those who look at the last two instances and say that for Barnes to beat 265 and 290 in title matches is hard to beat, you're right, but no excuses. Barnes wouldn't want any, nor take any. In any event, currently he falls short on #2.
Criteria 3: Player of the Year, check (2007-08). Barnes won it off the points leaders award, and not by a vote. If you were to vote on the '07-08 POY, Barnes would have 3rd easily. Duke would have won (two majors/Triple Crown/Grand Slam historic season), followed by Walter Ray (two wins at 48 years old, 9 telecasts, best WRW post-2003 season), then Barnes (two wins, no majors, one gigantic collapse to Haugen, 9 telecasts), and only slightly over Haugen for 4th (two wins, one major, one historic rally to beat Barnes). Yeah, I know I'm picking on Chris Barnes but it is kinda easy to do so when there are other factors helping you argument. So he passes for #3 but if this were 1998 and not 2008, Barnes is not the POY.
Criteria 4: Transcendent season...? Barnes has carved out solid season after solid season but nothing of historical value, with the exception of the 2000 season, where he made 12 shows and 2008-09 where he put on the best 6 week run in bowling history during the first ever Extreme Swing. In 2000 however, Barnes won exactly as many title as I did in 2000: zero. Can't transcend when you don't win, period...thanks for asking. '08-'09 was a tremendous season for Barnes, showcasing his overall talents. He appeared to transcend bowling for two months and had the 8 pin fell during the US Open to beat Scroggins and then defeat Duke, he has arguably his defining season in his back pocket. However, we can concede this to him. He was THAT good despite all the zany formats and lane conditions and format changes that he deserves this one. A format designed to show how good Barnes was proved just that.
The best example of transcendent, dominant "I own the PBA Tour" seasons came most recently by Tommy Jones, who submitted back-to-back 4 title seasons. Jones got on television and left a trail of carcasses behind him and was the 2005-06 POY in a landslide. If Patrick Allen's equally transcendent 2004-05 season doesn't exist, Jones has back-to-back POY awards and is more of a lock Hall of Famer than Barnes is. He might still be as he just added his 3rd Japan Cup title a few days ago. The ceiling on Jones to be an all-time great is much, much, MUCH higher than Barnes' is. Don't believe it? Jones has already proved he can go to new heights...twice.
Criteria 5: Revolutionize the game. Barnes has taken our game to newer heights and for the better (and you thought I was going to bury Chris Barnes the entire time??? Give me some credit, please). His ability to be versatile on all conditions, keep up with this technological revolution of bowling balls, oil patterns, oiling machines, and lane surfaces, as well as having a great work ethic and a fitness regime that has further advanced his game (as well as others trying to keep up) makes this criteria a no doubter. The days of bowlers slinging two balls across their shoulders, bowling 3 separate 5 game qualifying blocks, then hopping to the bar, eating less than healthy food, and girl chasing are over. It is replaced by more dedicated, sophisticated bowlers who know how to take care of their bodies, adapt quicker to lane conditions, and are overall far more talented than their predecessors can be attributed mostly to the younger crop of players in the mid to late 1990's (Barnes, Healey, Smith, Haugen, and others) forcing the older generation to keep up and follow suit or follow their fellow competitors to an early retirement. Huge Advantage: Barnes.

Under the given requirements, Barnes certainly nails one of them, and borders on two others and he still has plenty of time left in his career to check off most everything off this list to become an iconic figure in the sport of bowling. However, we are still to wonder in question as to the legacy of Chris Barnes in bowling's history. As fans, no matter what we might feel or say about him, you want Chris Barnes to be one of the greatest players to ever bowl. You want this because you can someday tell your children or grandchildren that take an interest in bowling that you saw arguably, the game's most proficient tactician and in-game strategist. Also, a big time, clutch performer who sealed the deal in major events and became a player that truly progressed our sport to newer and higher levels. For now, Chris Barnes is just like most of us: human.

Bowling Philosophy-April 2010

Un-a"dore"ing
by Thomas Scherrer

It is sometimes sad to see Rome fall, in particular when the rise to power never fully reached its potential. As a curator of bowling from a participatory and philosophical standpoint, it is important to see things as objectively as possible, despite what your head and heart tells you. This tell tale heart version surrounds the end to the Vanderbilt Commodores 2009-10 Women's Bowling season: a season that resulted in 67 wins against arguably, the nation's toughest schedule. The season ended with a rather distraught 5th place finish, losing to eventual national runner-up Nebraska in the double-elimination bracket system. It also ended the stellar and somewhat on-the-fence career of Josie Earnest, who has virtually been the face of this program for 3 underachieving years. This, however should not be about Earnest (at least not at this time because there are many who felt that Earnest needed to validate her collegiate career with another national championship) or anyone participating on the team during this transitional year. The truth is, Vanderbilt has all the talent and ability that you need in college bowling to win, however something has always been missing since the 2007 season.

I always kind of weep with some sense of nostalgia about the 2006-07 team that won the school's first and still only national championship. I watched a young group of gals embrace team first fundamentals, a strong sense of character for such young ladies, as well as a dominant Baker bowling team, which is the backbone for all of college bowling. Not just because my girlfriend of almost 4 years, Michelle Peloquin was on the team, but it was a greater sense of things that went beyond bowling. That team transcended statistics, or who led a tournament (3 people won at least one All-Events title that season) in average, or who bowled where. I saw them as the definition of a team: mostly 7 girls coming together for a perfect storm to make school history. What was so great about this was that they had the blueprint plus another two years together to possibly make history. It never happened...in fact, the team that resembled the 2006-07 team slipped further and further into oblivion. Some blamed it solely on the growing egos of Tara Kane and Karen Grygiel, who were not talented enough to assume trying to assume leadership roles, thus creating a team divide. Some would go on record as saying that there was some hyper-jealousy concerning Earnest's media attention, which did border on nauseating but can you blame Vanderbilt for trying to put the machine behind Earnest? You had a marketable, young star on the rise. You needed an engaging face to help build the program and brand for the future and her individual accomplishments certainly lived up to the requirements. However the team aspect always seemed to fall short. This is not an indictment of the bowler or the person Josie Kaye Earnest, but as the face of Vanderbilt's bowling team, Earnest never got the team back to the promised land.

Then some would look at the coach...

When Head Coach John Williamson was asked about this current 2009-10 team in comparison to the 2006-07 team, Williamson was very pleased about his current squad's togetherness, despite not winning a second championship:

“I’ve told this team several times over the past couple of weeks that this is the first group of individuals that I would call a team. They bought into what we were doing and the direction we were going, and they all bought in. Over the last couple of years, I couldn’t say that we were 100 percent bought in. Last year when we were eliminated by Central Missouri, we just sort of fell apart. We didn’t end on a strong note today against Nebraska, but we certainly didn’t fall apart. We struggled, but we threw good shots and sometimes pins just didn’t fall. This year we bought in as a team..."

But Williamson had one final statement in regards to the 2007 championship team:

"...In 2007, it was pretty much an aberration. We caught lightning in a bottle and ran with it.”

Yes folks, you heard it correctly: the head coach of the school's only national championship just buried its history by calling that championship season an aberration. I will be the first to admit that I did not see the 2009-10 team bowl at all this season and by no means, do I feel that what Williamson said about this current team is not anything but honest and sincere. However, as someone who did watch the 2006-07 team and saw it actually win (which, if we are being blunt, is the idea, right? To win??), I am surprised by this statement as well as upset by it. Surprised that Williamson publicly said this because he basically denounced the 2007 team as lucky or not buying into the team concept, despite winning the national championship. I feel as if you can feel that way about a previous team, but to say it publicly? For all that it is worth, Williamson figuratively just took the 2007 trophy, snuck it out of the athletic center, laid it down on the school's 50-yard line, doused it in kerosene, and lit it on fire. Is that too harsh of a statement to make? Let's delve into the statement further (the upsetting part): to call the 2007 title season an aberration is to say that the effort put forth by the players to embrace the team concept was less than adequate, but let's not stop there. Williamson's aberration statement should be upsetting to not just the players who put the work in to win it, but also the parents, grandparents, siblings, relatives, friends, boyfriends that sacrificed their weekends to travel, to cheer, and to support their daughters, granddaughters, nieces, sisters, and girlfriends on.

Ultimately, this is what should scare you about Williamson's statement: he still fails to grasp what bowling is at its essence, which is a mom and pop type sport. Bowling at its most intricate, organic state is game that takes an entire village to raise a bowling child, which is not that foreign to that of a hockey child growing up: it takes everyone to make it work. Bowling and hockey share some strange parallels for parents as it does for kids: a sport that has a majority of its events in the fall and winter. Regionally speaking, the weather for these sports are more cold-weather. Parents of both sports will wake up at 5am to warm up the car or minivan with the weather below freezing, get the kids ready with their equipment, drive sometimes 4 or 5 hours so their kids can bowl or skate in a weekend tournament, giving up maybe a day of work or two, standing and cheering their kids on and then driving them back home after one or two days of competition so they can get home, finish their homework, and get ready to do it all again the next weekend. These sports are devoid of AAU or sleep-away camps. There are no scouts watching and recruiting young boys or girls in 9th grade to come to their university, nor is it being televised on ESPN. Nothing is comped or paid for by sponsors: you pay your own entry fees and hotel rooms and for food and gas. Then, all that dedication by the parents for their children pays off with NCAA taking care of their kids, yet they still pay their way to attend via hotel rooms, dinners, gas, and tolls just to see that the sacrifice was all worth it. In these sports, winning takes a concerted team effort, no matter what the circumstances are. So, for Williamson to call the 2007 season an aberration is a slap in the face to anyone that was a part of it. Anyone who had any investment in that 2007 championship season and felt like they helped contribute to it and with one afterthought statement by the team's head coach, it urinated on everyone's investment.

Funnily enough, I don't see Williamson giving the trophy to Maryland-Eastern Shore-the team they defeated-because it was "an aberration" or donating part of his salary back to Vanderbilt for "catching lightning in a bottle". I don't see those things happening by a very nice guy. In speaking with Coach Williamson, he is a nice, engaging, sneaky funny person. When I went down to Vanderbilt a few times to visit Michelle, he would let me join in their practices to help out in some doubles matches. He is not a bad guy at all, but to be fair, I have never felt that he was a good fit for a bowling coach. A simple reason is that John Williamson has never bowled competitively in a league or a tournament before. He has made the strides to understand the game, being a USBC Silver Level Coach however, Williamson knows little as to what goes into the psyche of being a bowler or understanding what they are seeing in a sport where the main opponents (lane conditioner and pins) are both invisible and indifferent sometimes. The comments about calling the 2007 season an aberration are unfair to both his program's past as well as its future. Taken at face value, that 2007 season is a byproduct of the players he has now. These new recruits have come to Vanderbilt not only to gain a very solid education (which should never be overlooked) but to be a part of the legacy that players like Peloquin, Earnest, Kane, Grygiel, Ashley Belden, Kaitlin Reynolds, and Mandy Keily helped formulate prior to them should not be overlooked. I do hope for Vanderbilt's sake that the run is not over: NCAA bowling needs them to be a powerhouse program as a means to help promote women's college bowling to the big conferences as maybe a sport they can take up, giving bowling a much needed boost for the next generation of aspiring young bowlers that are still driving in the backseat of their parent's minivan at 6am to go bowl because it is all about the love of the game. And I hope for Coach Williamson, he remembers the past of his program and embraces it for the future.

Fill Ball: I found (as referred to by Michelle) Williamson's statement on the New Jersey City University athletic page, as they were presenting coverage of the 2010 NCAA championships. Ira Thor, the Director of Sports Information at NJCU, did a tremendous job presenting up to the minute stats and scores of the tournament as well as question and answer features each day with some of the teams. However...I did not find Williamson's statement on Vanderbilt's athletic page during coverage of the tournament. In fact, if you didn't know any better, the comments Williamson made didn't event exist!

That omission should not go unnoticed. If you are an elite program, you owe it to your fans and player's friends and family as much coverage and access to the team as possible, as well as presenting all the relevant information. In fairness to Vanderbilt, they had a link to NJCU's website on each article during the 2010 NCAA Championship so perhaps, they can be given a little slack. If anyone clicked on the link and did enough investigative reporting, you could find the comment. With that being said however, a statement such as what Williamson said should be brought into the proper context. It could not nor should not go unnoticed by people who access the vucommodores.com website to get their info on the women's bowling team. This might be more nit picking or some might go as far to say, "piling on" Vanderbilt, but it is worth bringing up as a means of objective writing, for which in this instance, was very difficult.


Thomas Scherrer is back working in a bowling alley, as well as a USBC Level One Certified Coach. Bowling Philosophy is my blog dedicated to understanding the nature of the sport of bowling and what we all can do to improve the game we love.

Bowling Philosophy-April 2010

2009-10 PBA Tour: The Season of WOW

by Thomas Scherrer

As the official book closes on the PBA's 52nd full season of touring national events, I feel like a card player in Las Vegas as the clock approaches 4AM during a marathon of blackjack: alternately giddy and deflated, drunken and dazed, confused and even more confused, and ultimately highlights of being up 2 grand, then having a Mo Rivera-like closer coming in disheartening me. This season can be easily summed up as being "WOW...did that just happen?!?" on audio replay for months on end. First time champions, major champions out of nowhere, Player of the Year storylines, Cinderella stories, pros turned amateurs winning, amateurs turned pros winning, PTQ bowlers winning, hell, women winning for goodness sake!!! WOW...it all happened this year. This 2009-10 season was a season that lived on and off of every conceivable brink you can imagine and we all came out remembering something about what bowling fans just witnessed.

For instance:

• The World Series of Bowling that happened, roughly 12 years ago it feels, gave the PBA a home base for a few months. Were the fields in Detroit lower than expected? Yes. Was the scoring pace anemic for television execs? True. Did the bowling curtail players seasons? Possibly. Was it worth doing again? Absolutely.
• The Cheetah Championship was a 90 minute program that described what it takes to win a PBA event over the course of a week of bowling. Features such as multiple matches, interviews, player profiles, and the story of upstart Ryan Ciminelli, for which his story was only beginning in the 09-10 season.
• Tom Smallwood's journey from everyman auto worker to laid-off auto worker, to PBA exempt player, to PBA World Champion over the incumbent Wes Malott. The American Dream, Part One.
• Walter Ray at age 50 winning the Motor City Open over names such as Barnes, Weber, O'Neill, and Jones.
• Then Walter Ray striking again at the Masters over Barnes...again.
• Anthony LaCaze nailing down a clutch double to win his first title.
• Rolloff, Part One: Jurek vs. Fagan. Jack Jurek finding a way to finally win a tournament, some 15 years after he won his last (and only) title.
• Rolloff, Part Two: Belmonte vs. Ziesig. Save some space for this moment.
• Brian Kretzer at long last, securing victory over Patrick Allen in the Match Play Championship. He deserved it just as much as any of the first time winners this season.
• The Real Deal's Appeal: Billy O'Neill's 2008-09 season was the beginning, 2009-10 was The Leap, 2010-11 could be the true beginning of bowling's next all-time great (just wish it happened this year).
• Brian Ziesig...need we say more? Relaxed, calm, cool, unassuming, funny, humorous...etcetera. How about these words? Talented, successful, champion. Grande Cabeza gave us the American Dream, Part Two.
• The American Dream, Part Three: Kelly Kulick. What else can you say? Greatest performance in our sport's history given the circumstances.
• The Un-American Dream: Chris Barnes. A lost season to say the very least.
• The Party at Scroggys: what a fun ride it was for Mike Scroggins in his quest for the most unlikely POY in PBA history. He came up one game (and one virtuoso Pete Weber game) away from stunning the bowling world.
• The Greatest One? Walter Ray, age 50, seventh POY award. I don't have to like it, I don't have to believe it, but I have to respect it. And please....PBA: let's work out a way to see if we cannot find an easier, more exciting way to find out the real story of the PBA season and the Player of the Year. We can all work on it people, this is an intelligent group of people in bowling.
• And to the fans as always, the real MVP's of the PBA. For all the signs, the yells, the screams, the Hambone signs, and of course, the sacrifice. You, the fans of the PBA deserve your own WOW.

This was a good year to be a fan of bowling...here is to the summer and to the historic 2010-11 PBA season. As always, we'll try to do better the next time around. Namaste.