Professional Bowlers Association

In very few professional sports does Player of the Year boil down to one game.  However, for two consecutive years on the PBA Tour, Player of the Year has come down to the final game of the final tournament.  And Mike Scroggins has been on both sides of the fence.  Well, it’s really a three-sided fence.  He defeated Norm Duke in the final of the US Open to gift wrap Player of the Year for Wes Malott in 2009 when all Norm needed to do was beat Scroggins to earn it for himself.  This year, he played the Norm Duke role and Pete Weber beat him to gift wrap Player of the Year for Walter Ray Williams, Jr. 

I say gift wrapped because I don’t know of a better gift to give to another bowler than Player of the Year.  Sure those guys bowled great to get themselves in that position, but when it’s crunch time and you end up relying on someone else to get you to the finish line victorious, it’s a gift. 

It’s become pretty clear that the best way to win Player of the Year is to leave it in the hands of someone else on that deciding Sunday.  And for helping your fellow player, you are rewarded with a tournament title.  Not a bad bounty at all. 

Ironically, one of my first blogs this season was about the Motor City Open, which focused on the age-defying accomplishments of none other than Walter Ray Williams, Jr. and Pete Weber.  And here we are at the end of the season talking about Walter’s 7^th PBA Player of the Year award and Pete Weber’s 35^th PBA title. 

This season-ending tournament also brought to an end one of the most disappointing years for number one seeds heading into the stepladder final.  The top seeds this year went an astonishing two for eight.  Or look at it this way; 25% of all number one seeds were able to win while 75% of them lost.  This is worse than the NFL’s coin flip problem in overtime and they just changed that rule.

Generally, it would be hard for the PBA to get away from the one-game roll-off with only a 90 minute broadcast each week, but as I’ve said before, we don’t ask Tiger Woods to come back on Monday to play 2^nd place in a one-hole playoff.  One, Tiger’s been a little busy these days, and two, he won the tournament by scoring the best over 72 holes of play. 

When you consider this specific tournament (called the Marathon for a reason) forced players to bowl a whopping 53 games over the course of the week, it’s strange to ask them to come back on Sunday for a 100-meter dash to the finish.  Sure, it’s exciting, but it in some ways, it belittles the work they’ve put in over 53 games.

Here’s the thing, over those 53 games, we saw the cream of the crop rise to the top.  Five of the top seven players were former Players of the Year.  Your number one seed was vying for his first POY award and your number two seed is remarkably the only player among the top 10 of the 50 greatest players of all time not to have a POY award.  No matchplay, no bonus pins, no gimmicks.  Just bowling for 53 games on seven conditions. 

THE BIG FOUR

1. A season of firsts.  Too many to name. 
2. My two favorite performances on television this year came from a couple of cagy veterans.  Pete Weber this past week and Brian Voss in the doubles tournament.  Those two know how to put on a show. 
3. The PBA Senior Tour is about ready to kick off and there is a newbie coming to play.  I’ll be curious if there is any fraternity-like initiation process for Walter Ray. 
4. Last Sunday, my PBA Experience League closed up shop for the 2009-2010 season.  We sanctioned 71 bowlers with 14 of those being youth bowlers.  A 19% increase over the previous year.  I personally ended the season with a disappointing 198 average for 64 games over 16 weeks on 10 different patterns.  Proof that taking the summer off hurts, my first eight weeks I averaged about 188 for 31 games.  The last 8 weeks I averaged 208 for 33 games.  Needless to say, I will be in the bowling center THIS summer. 

MY LAST TOP TEN FOR THIS SEASON (Most recent finish in parenthesis)

1. Walter Ray Williams, Jr. (6^th)  There is one accomplishment he doesn’t have and that’s Senior PBA Player of the Year.  Good Luck!
2. Mike Scroggins (2^nd) Probably the most underrated player on tour.  He flirted with winning Player of the Year. 
3. Bill O’Neill (20^th) What a great year.  First title and first major. 
4. Chris Barnes (4^th) Probably about as good a year as you’ll have without claiming a title. 
5. Pete Weber (1^sT) Since January, he’s had five top 10’s.
6. Wes Malott (5^th) Three shows in his last six tournaments. 
7. Tommy Jones (7^th) I think Jones is on the verge of another POY season. 
8. Jason Belmonte (25^th) Two runner-up finishes this year, but in his first full season on Tour, proved he will be around for a while.
9. Mike Fagan (128^th)  Pretty sure he withdrew from the Marathon, but in a year where he snagged his first victory and finished 2^nd in another, Mike is one of the elite players on tour.
10. Rhino Page (124^th)  Another bowler to withdraw.  No shame in that.  It’s been a long season and Rhino managed to find the winner’s circle early in the year. 

March Madness is in full effect for college basketball with most conferences beginning tournament play this week to determine the teams with automatic berths into the 64-team bracket NCAA Championship Bracket.  The PBA begins its own version of March Madness with the Go RVing Match Play Championship on March 17^th, 2010.  Whereas I have no clue how the NCAA manages to decide on the 64 teams and their rankings in the tournament, I have a general idea how the PBA does it.

The madness for the PBA begins in this tournament with the lane conditions; which are described under tournament details as mixed.  Meaning the left lane will utilize one pattern and the right lane will utilize a different pattern.  This adds an increased level of difficulty as players must break down two patterns, adjust to two patterns, and carry equipment for two patterns.  It’s pretty much twice as hard as bowling on one pattern. 

As for the bracket, all the 56 exempt players on the PBA Tour are seeded into the 64-player bracket based on their current point rankings.  Currently, Walter Ray Williams, Jr. is your #1 seed.  Then eight at-large bids into the tournament are won through the weeks earlier TQR.  Those players are seeded at the bottom of the bracket.  Isn’t it nice to know that if you’re the last qualifier in, you get to bowl Walter Ray right from the get-go?  I mean, at least in a normal tournament you have a chance to improve your standings with a 14-game qualifier. More...

Bowling is never far from my mind. Almost daily I have a plethora of thoughts about this game: League ideas, tournament ideas, and my own ambitions as a bowler.

I’ll be turning 29 in April and will be making my first trip to the USBC Open Championships at the end of April. Along with being truly excited to participate on that stage, I’m also polluting my mind with thoughts of how much my performance there may mean for my future in bowling.

I’m certainly not coming to the end of my bowling career, but how much longer do I have before I realize I’ve peaked? As much as I know that one event isn’t a true measure of one’s ability, I’m not sure how many more trips I’ll have in me to test these waters against a large and talented amateur field.

I certainly intend on having a good time. Enjoying the company of my teammates and friends and reuniting myself with the National Bowling Stadium is something I'm looking forward to. Hopefully I make good decisions on the lanes, good shots, and convert those pesky spares. All things considered, I’ll be really happy if I average 200 over the course of the event. Not only because I think it’s a reasonable goal, but because I've got a lunch bet with my brother on it.

The pros (and most of the world's best amateurs) were there at the Stadium last week and put on another great show Sunday, with Walter Ray Williams Jr. winning his 47th career title. Hopefully, my visit to bowling's version of St Paul's Cathedral will yield similar magic...and those of you who are planning to attend the USBC Open Championship some time this year find your own magic as well. More...

Anthony LaCaze didn’t win with quite the flare and attention of some of the other first time titlelists this year, but like Tom Smallwood, he has pretty good story to tell about his first Tour Qualifying Round (TQR) experience last year when he was fined for not owning a shirt with his name on the back.

Good news Anthony! You’re going to get some custom Gemini jerseys with your name on them when you come out on tour next year as an exempt player! I imagine you’ll also have some companies vying to fill up all that logo space based on your performance. Last week’s victory says a lot about how good Anthony is to come back just one year after his first TQR experience to win a PBA title.

And how about getting a spot in this week’s PBA Tournament of Champions on top of all the success he relished in last week? Players strive to be a part of this tournament. Spend years perfecting their craft intent on winning a PBA title and entry into this event. Cloud nine anyone? Probably not high enough and probably not enough time for last week’s success to sink in.

Maybe bigger than Anthony’s win is another success story from the PBA Tour Qualifying Round. Every time people argue for the PBA to open up fields, someone squeezes through a TQR and finds success. They work for a variety of reasons but, most importantly, for half the price you can bowl in a rabbit squad that if you were to finish in the top 6 or higher each week, would advance you into the main tournament against the 58 best players in the world. Not only that, but the TQR has its own prize fund just in case you finish outside of the cut to the main tournament. It’s the perfect place for someone to test the waters without spending a full $500 or $600 on an entry into the tournament. More...

The holidays are over and I can finally relax. The Christmas tree is stowed away and the presents have all been built according to my own intuition, because I failed to read most of the instructions. And I can finally get back to the task of covering the PBA Tour in the New Year.

The second half of the season is now officially underway this week with the Earl Anthony Memorial Classic. With only 10 events remaining in the season, this certainly seems like a good time to take a gander at the PBA points list is see who is treading water to maintain their exemption on the PBA Tour.

This season added a new test for the players; bowling seven events within one month’s time in one city, and mostly in one bowling center. A bad month of bowling in August would have significantly more impact than a bad month (typically four events at most) would have in previous seasons. More...