I had never heard of David Whitley until today. But professional bowler and PBA.com columnist Andy Morton has definitely brought this self-professed "male chauvinist pig" onto my radar screen with his article today attacking a piece Whitely wrote at fanhouse.com that disparages bowling as a sport.
Whitely's article, "Chris Barnes: The Guy Who Lost to a Girl," essentially argues, if I'm not being too charitable in calling it an argument, that while Kelly Kulick is to be commended for beating the world's best male bowler, even if hardly anyone had ever heard of Barnes before Kulick beat him last Sunday, we shouldn't make too big a deal out of it since bowling, after all, is not a real sport. Why not? Because any contest in which an adult human female can beat an adult human male doesn't rise to the exalted level of sport and doesn't deserve to be honored as such. Not only that, but it's ludicrous that the NCAA acknowledges it as a sport and hands out national bowling titles to schools. Whitely concedes that bowling may require "flexibility, strength, concentration and years of personal sacrifice," yet "So does ballroom dancing, but you don't see the NCAA handing out championship trophies in that." Whitely concludes by sarcastically stating that he hopes millions of girls will now "get off their duffs" and aspire to be NCAA bowling champions and to compete with men at just about everything.
I think Whitley is full of it. I don't think he understands the first thing about how demanding and athletic bowling is on a physical and mental level when you reach the rarified heights of amateur and professional competition. But I guess he speaks for most people. Most people have no idea of what bowling is all about at the stratospheric altitude of a Kelly Kulick or Chris Barnes. If they did, they would never say the kinds of things Whitley says in his article.
What do you think? I know that if you're reading this, you're probably biased in favor of bowling, but do you think that bowling is or is not worthy of being called a sport? How do you define "sport"? One dictionary definition I read is: "an activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively." Do you agree with this definition, and does bowling meet it?
Saturday, January 30, 2010
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Thanks for another nice blog, Steve. I hadn't heard of Whitley or fanhouse.com before but certainly don't agree with what he says.
ReplyDeleteUsing the same criteria, I assume that he also says that golf is not a sport either. It is a shame that professional bowlers earn such little money when compared to those on the golf tour.
Good point about golf, Bob. I don't know what Whitley would say about golf being or not being a sport. But haven't female pros beaten male pros at golf? And what about tennis? I thought I read somewhere that the Williams sisters would be ranked in the top 100 on the men's tour or, at least, that they could beat and have beaten some male pros.
ReplyDeleteso obviously you don't understand that a sport doesn't have to be a contact one you try bowling 60 some odd games a week to just QUALIFY to move on. Try throwing 15+ weight down a bowling lane for a few hours repeatedly and see how your fingers and hands feel. Try bowling over 200 every game. It's funny how those who criticize bowling lie about their averages being ridiculously high. They do it because they know bowling takes skill and they want that skill.
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