I'm sorry that I haven't been posting as much as usual. I've been preparing for a trip down to Southern California today to compete in a 20-gamer tomorrow, 6/12. We'll be bowling our first 10 games on the Cheetah pattern and the second 10 on the Scorpion. We're supposed to start at 10 AM and finish around 10 PM, although, even with an hour break between blocks, I don't know that it will go THAT long.
Mike Devaney, P.J. Haggerty, Brett Wolfe, and other bowling luminaries are signed up to bowl in this marathon. So, it looks like a tough, tough field on challenging conditions.
I've been tempted more than once to withdraw, but I'm going to hang in there and do my best not to think about my competition or what they might be thinking (probably nothing) about me and just focus on being "all there" and making the best shot I can each and every time.
In any case, I expect to have a blast bowling and visiting an old friend afterward. And I'll be blogging here about the bowling part of it after I get home.
Until then, take care everybody, and happy bowling.
"I'm glad he didn't choose the Cheetah pattern, because I'm no good on the Cheetah pattern." --Pete Weber, referring to Mike Scroggins exercising his choice, as tournament leader, to have the players bowl on the Dick Weber pattern today
Mike Wolfe almost broke a PBA record by shooting 2,338 and averaging 259.78 for nine games in the opening round on the Cheetah. Sean Rash was only seven pins behind. Walter Ray Williams Jr holds the high nine game total of 2,367 which he bowled in 2004.
Wes Malott led the second round on the Shark pattern with a 246 average and vaulted into the overall lead, which he still holds after bowling seven games on the Viper. He's glad to be bowling this week after having to stay home last week to care for his ailing wife and son, and I'm glad to see him back in impressive action.
1. Wes Malott 2. Chris Barnes 3. Brad Angelo 4. Sean Rash 5. Stevie Weber 6. Mika Koivuniemi 7. Tommy Jones 8. Dave D'Entremont 9. Walter Ray Williams Jr 10. Robert Smith
And lest any of you rabid Jason Belmonte fans be worried, Belmo is hanging in there in 22nd place.
The next round is about to begin and will be streamed live with commentary on PBA Xtra Frame. It will be bowled on the Chameleon pattern.
It just goes to show that you need to take bowling predictions with more than just the proverbial grain of salt, but with a whole bucketful of it. Many predicted, yours truly included, that Chris Barnes would handily win his first best-of-seven, single-elimination match of the Go RVing Match Play Championship and continue right on into the televised final where he'd overcome his bad luck on TV and win the title.
After all, he's widely thought of as the best bowler in the world and a preeminent match play bowler. What's more, he's bowling on pairs with a very different pattern--Cheetah on the right and Shark on the left--on each lane, and this makes him doubly likely to win because of his legendary ability to adjust to differing lane conditions. Finally, his first opponent was an amateur, albeit a successful one in high-stakes tournaments, by the name of Alex Aguiar (see embedded video below) who entered the tournament as the 61st seed by finishing fifth in the TQR. On paper, it looked as though All-World Chris Barnes had a virtual lock on victory.
So much for paper. When the rubber met the road or, in this case, the reactive resin met the oil coated synthetic material, Alex Aguiar destroyed Chris Barnes four games to one, shooting a blistering 801 series for his last three. Chris Barnes wasn't even close.
And the multitudes who predicted that #1 seed Walter Ray would readily defeat #64 seed J. Warhol fared no better. Warhol crushed Williams four games to one. In fact, most of the higher seeded players in the first round lost to their lower seeded opponents.
The moral of the story is to not take bowling predictions seriously. Actually, there are two morals of the story so far as I'm concerned. The second is that single elimination matches from the get-go are a travesty and should be banned immediately and permanently from PBA tournaments. They can eliminate the best bowlers in the tournament before they even have a chance to warm up and show why they're the best bowlers in the tournament.
