Josh Blanchard's Fall Heard Round the World

"Trust me if they didn't show me and just showed Jason it would have been fine with me!!!" ~ Josh Blanchard, commenting on Facebook

My previous post featured a video of professional bowler Josh Blanchard hanging up in the thumbhole of his ball when he tried to release it and slipping on the oily heads past the foul line and falling in the channel on his butt on last Sunday's PBA telecast. I said nothing about Australian two-handed sensation Jason Belmonte bowling 300 in the next game and then defeating Brian Kretzer to advance to the PBA World Championship finals to be shown next Sunday.

And it seems that, despite the still relative rarity of 300 games on PBA telecasts (there have been only 21 in 50 or so years), Belmo's accomplishment garnered virtually no attention from the sports or news media. Instead, they were all about Blanchard's boo-boo, with ESPN even interviewing him by phone while playing endless slow motion repetitions of "the fall."

To Blanchard's credit, he handled the interview with good-natured grace, but I'm guessing that this isn't how he wanted to find himself featured on ESPN, as his quote above amply implies. Yet, should the media have ignored him or, at least, given equal coverage to Belmo's 300 and tournament victory?

This was probably the first time a bowler has ever fallen like that on TV compared to the 21 PBA perfectos that have been televised. Yet, if Belmo's 300 had been the first or only the second or third perfecto ever, I'm wondering if it wouldn't have still been eclipsed by Blanchard's fall so far as the media's concerned.

Some complained about the media's coverage. Others said they understood it, even agreed with it and that the PBA should be grateful for any mass media coverage it can get. What do you think?

Should Jason Belmonte Have Won the ESPY for 2011 Bowler of the Year?

"Of all the award shows, the ESPYs have got to be the dumbest award show there is. First of all, award shows in general are sort of silly and ridiculous and we know they're just for creating publicity, but at least it makes some sort of sense within that framework to have an awards show for movies, or television, because there is no way with those to know which is the best. But when we're talking about sports -they actually play the game. We don't have to give an award to the best team. We know who the best team is - they've already won! That's the great thing about sports, there's a built-in objective mechanism by which we can ascertain who the winners are. But no, you have to win a second time in a tuxedo, and a spokesmodel has to hand you a trophy; that's what's important."

--Bill Maher

"I love John Walsh, and I have a fond feeling for ESPN. But I find the ESPY Awards objectionable. We already have awards. The World Series is an award. An MVP is an award. We don't need more awards. They make up this crap so they can fill time with it - the worst."

--Bill Wolff, former ESPN producer

I apologize for not posting for awhile, but now I'm back and have a lot of news and views to cover. Let me begin with this year's ESPY's. As you may or may not know, the ESPY awards are sports network ESPN's "Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly" awards that go to athletes in a wide variety of sports. The candidates in each sport or category are chosen by the ESPY Select Nominating Committee and then voted on through online fan balloting. The winners are honored on an ESPN television program.

You may be surprised that even though bowling seems to garner little respect in the sports world or among the public at large, there IS an ESPY award for "Best Bowler." I didn't agree with last year's choice of Walter Ray Williams Jr. over Kelly Kulick, but Walter Ray did have a good enough year that his selection wasn't the travesty this year's was.

This year, Jason Belmonte was selected "Bowler of the Year" and received his award on last night's ESPY broadcast. Now Jason has been known to read this blog on occasion, and I want to make it perfectly clear to him and to everyone else that I'm not slamming Belmo when I say that he didn't deserve to win the award. As I think I've made very clear on this blog, I stand in awe of Belmo's talent and skill and think he's one of the best bowlers on the planet and destined to get better and better still. However, I don't see any way in proverbial hell that he was this season's "best bowler."

If we look at the PBA Tour stats, at least three bowlers on tour had better seasons that Belmo did. Of course, there was PBA Player of the Year Mika Koivuniemi. But there were also Chris Barnes, who led the Tour in overall points, and Bill O'Neill, who surpassed Belmo in every statistical category. So, why did Belmo get the award?

I have to think it's because people voted without looking at the stats or caring what they revealed. I have to conclude that, at least so far as bowling is concerned, the ESPY award for "Best Bowler" was the result of a popularity contest or, perhaps, a coordinated voting campaign and not the result of an informed and reasoned pick of the highest performing bowler of the year.

I'm guessing that Jason knows this as well as anyone and is not as happy about his award as he'd like to be. I'm sure he'd like to know, in his heart of hearts, that he deserved it. But the one good thing about it is that it seems to show that the Bottlegate episodes have not significantly lessened his popularity with the bowling public. Nor should they.

Do you believe that Belmo deserved to win this year's ESPY award, and, if not, who do you think DID deserve it?

Bowling Video of the Day--Funny Sean Rash Commercial for ESPN

Breaking Down Bowling's Bottlegate 2

Point/Counterpoint

Belmo did it on purpose. He didn't do it on purpose. Belmo's a cheater and a liar. Belmo's a good guy who made mistakes and just needs to be more careful from now on. Sean Rash is a jerk. Sean Rash is a tough competitor who doesn't take crap from anybody and gave Belmo what he deserved. The PBA should punish Belmo and/or Rash. The PBA shouldn't punish Belmo and/or Rash. The PBA is milking these Bottlegate incidents for all they're worth. The PBA is simply sharing the news of what happened. The PBA should use these incidents to stir up interest and attract viewers to the telecasts. The PBA should say nothing about these incidents and should edit them out of the telecasts. Impressionable children and society at large will be scarred for life by seeing these incidents. Children already see much, much worse, and neither they nor society will be harmed in the least by it.

If you read the various bowling forums about Bottlegate 1 and, especially, 2, these are the diverse opinions you'll encounter about these incidents. I never cease to be fascinated by how human beings can see and judge the same events in such wildly contrasting ways.

I think I've already made my opinions regarding Bottlegate 2 pretty clear, but I wrote yesterday that I planned to post my updated "take" on the matter today with the help of the extended video the PBA released yesterday (see below), so here goes.

What I see when I look at the video

Extended Clip: Rash/Belmonte Bottle Incident - Funny bloopers R us

At the beginning of the video, there is some kind of "roll off" competition between Rash and Belmonte. Rash is on the approach while Belmonte takes three sips from his water bottle. Then, as Belmo puts the cap back on the bottle and begins to set it down on the floor, Rash puts his ball back on the rack but doesn't say anything. It's not clear if Rash is reacting to a bottle noise or not. I can't hear any bottle noise, but this isn't to say there isn't one. Rash has a well-publicized tendency to balk on his shots, so maybe he didn't hear anything that made him put his ball down and regroup, and maybe he did. Then he grabs his ball, throws a strike, and says not very loudly but loudly enough to be heard, "Step up to that, Bitch," as he walks back and Belmonte gets up for his shot. Belmo throws a strike and sits back down. Rash gets back up, picks up and wipes off his ball and steps up on the approach while Belmo reaches for his water bottle and can't find it at first, finally does find it, picks it up and just holds it from the bottom with one hand and from the near the top with the other, Rash turns around, Belmo apologetically says, That was...," and Rash puts his ball back on the rack while saying, "Really. Lot's of fu*king class right there," resets himself, and Belmo waits until Rash releases the ball before he picks his bottle back up and it seems to make a crinkling sound when Rash's ball is more than halfway down the lane. Rash says, "Go through it!" as his ball looks like it might go high but strikes, and then he turns around and yells, "Take that, you bottle bitch! Come on! [Bleeped inaudible] Come on! Let's go! Let's have some fun!" while he walks back and high fives his Brunswick teammates and then sits down and says, "I'm tired of it. Everyone, you do it to."

What I think about it all

I won't bore you with a long winded exposition on what I think. I'll simply say that I believe Belmo when he says he didn't purposely distract Rash, and even if he were lying, I don't think anyone could prove it, and, therefore, no one should flatly accuse him of what they can't prove, especially given the way he's conducted himself in all other respects. I think Rash was out-of-line to act the way he did but that this doesn't make him one of Keith Olbermann's "worst persons in the world." I think the PBA should fine Rash or at least strongly warn him that profanity won't be tolerated in televised events. I don't think the PBA was wrong to report on the event and even use it as promotion of its upcoming telecasts. I don't think the PBA needs to edit out the incident although it probably should and probably will be required by FCC regulations to edit out a choice word or two. I don't think airing the incident will significantly impact children who watch it or society at large. I think Bemo needs to consciously adjust his pre-shot routine so that he doesn't touch water bottles while his opponents are on the approach and in the process of making a shot in the finals of a PBA event, or he needs to use a water container that doesn't make noise. No, better just to not touch ANY water container while opponents are bowling.

You've seen the most revealing video, you've read my take on it. What do you think? Or do you think you need to see it all on TV first?

PBA Xtra Frame's Announcement About Bottlegate 2

"I did get to see it today, I saw it, and you don't want to miss it."

--Jeff Mark

Today, I had meant to post a lot more about the increasingly infamous Bottlegate 2 incident where Sean Rash called Jason Belmonte a "bottle bitch" for crinkling his bottle while Rash was bowling. But I've been watching PBA Xtra Frame's live coverage of the PBA Senior U.S. Open, and I heard PBA publicist Jason Thomas and "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark explain that there's a lot more to the story than is revealed in the short clip of Rash's outburst that's been making the rounds.

Apparently, some pretty heated confrontations occurred before and after Sean's angry words that were caught by the cameras and will be shown the second weekend of ESPN's airing of the GEICO Team Shootout. The first week's airing is on Saturday, June 25. So, I'm reluctant to say much more about Bottlegate 2 until I've seen all of this.

PBA Xtra Frame Exclusive

Fortunately, as a subscriber to PBA Xtra Frame, I may not have to wait until early July to see it. For Jason Thomas and Jeff Mark announced this afternoon that they've obtained video from ESPN that shows more of the incident and that they've asked for and expect to receive permission to show it on Xtra Frame. If they do get that permission, they plan to show it tomorrow between the final match play position round and the beginning of the stepladder finals. This means it should air shortly before 3:17 PM PDT tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if it also ends up on YouTube shortly thereafter, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it. In the meantime, I'll watch it tomorrow and blog soon after about what I saw.

Besides this, while watching Xtra Frame, I got a chance to ask Jeff Mark and Jason Thomas, via the PBA's Facebook, page the following question:

"Do you think Belmo is crinkling his bottle to purposely distract his opponents and is lying when he says he isn't, or do you think he's doing it out of unconscious, nervous habit?"

Jason Thomas replied on Xtra Frame by saying that given the frequency of Belmo's bottle crinkling and the problems it's been causing, there are essentially two "options": (1) Either Belmo IS deliberately distracting opponents and then lying about it when called to task for it, or he's pretty "clueless" or careless. In either case, Thomas said, Belmo needs to stop doing what he's been doing and should "come out and address it" publicly before he suffers irreparable damage to what's left of his good reputation.

Belmonte Writes to Me

Now it just so happens that after I posted my first blog entry about this issue on Tuesday, Jason Belmonte wrote to me privately to give me his side of the story, and I would love to share with you what he said. But I'm still trying to secure his permission to share it. In the meantime, I will only say that he denied purposely crinkling his bottle to distract Sean.

When I look at all the coverage I and other people are giving this relatively minor incident and issue, I feel a little sheepish continuing to write about it here. Yet, I won't lie and say that I'm not kind of jazzed over it and that I'm not having fun writing about it, and I've received many more hits on this blog over the past couple of days than I normally do. So, it seems as though a lot of you are interested too.

Please stay tuned for further developments.

Should and Could the PBA Find Another TV Network?

"ESPN is awful... can't believe you wouldn't stick around long enough to see his reaction after he threw his last ball... For his first title you cut to commercial, that's brutal. No wonder bowling can't seem to gain a big fan-base let alone bigger sponsorship, even ESPN didn't see that as a broadcast worthy moment."
--Patti, commenting on PBA website

I wasn't able to watch yesterday's PBA title match live the way I usually do. But I recorded it with my DVR and watched it soon afterward. The final game finished later than it was supposed to, I set my DVR to record for only the 90 minutes for which the show was scheduled, and so I missed the very end of the tournament.

But I've since read that, because the program ran over its allotted time, ESPN didn't show the final frame or allow fans to see Brian Kretzer react to his victory. A lot of people on the PBA website and presumably elsewhere are angry about that. Here's what one disgruntled person named Michael wrote:

"Both ESPN and the PBA need to decide once and for all what they want to do. They run over so much so often - it is ridiculous. However so does Monday Night RAW for WWE. What does USA do? They show it til the end. 11:05, 11:06, 11:10pm, doesn't matter. We see the main event in full and that is for wrestling. Bowling seems to get disrespected because even the network doesn't respect it. If the PBA doesn't have an 'over-run' clause in their contract with ESPN, I'd say ditch ESPN and put the PBA on Spike or USA or something.

ESPN is a disgrace and the PBA should sue them if possible for damaging the PBA product week-in and week-out."

I agree with Patti and Michael that ESPN sure doesn't seem to give bowling the respect it gives other sports it carries and that this can't be good for the PBA. However, I'm not sure the PBA could find any other network to carry it and do a better job with it than ESPN does.

Would USA take it on, or Spike? And if either of them would, would they attract more viewers than THE sports network, ESPN? What do you think?

PBA News of a Glorious Future or Last Ditch Effort?

If the news from yesterday's meeting of exempt players on the PBA Tour is any indication, widespread predictions and my own worries about the PBA's eminent demise may have been premature. Because the news is good. Better than good, actually.

For starters, next year's TOC will feature a staggering, at least for professional bowling, $1 million prize fund and a $250,000 first prize check. Wow! And the tournament will be open, as I've always thought it should be, to ALL previous national title winners and not just to a select few. By golly, it's even open to all past Regional, Senior, and Women's Series titlists. Now THAT'S a true Tournament of Champions. I can't wait to watch it on PBA Xtra Frame!

Other highlights include:

An even bigger and better World Series of Bowling than we saw last year, including a United States vs. the World special competition at the WSOB.

ESPN live broadcasts in HD, with some events, including the U.S. Open and PBA World Championship, being carried live by the ESPN family of channels over a groundbreaking three consecutive days.

A new, season ending six-week series of PBA Playoffs in an elimination format and with its own separate prize fund and a big impact on the PBA Player of the Year race.

A new "Xtra Frame Tour" in which PBA Tour players will compete in at least five separate locations in tournaments using a modified format and covered exclusively by PBA Xtra Frame.

Yes, this and more is the unbelievable news coming from yesterday's meeting in Norwich, Conn, site of this week's national tournament. Click here to read the whole fantastic story.

Of course, the cynically inclined might detect a scent of desperation pervading next year's plans and argue that, even if all of the elements of this wildly ambitious scenario come to fruition, they will be the prodigious but dying gasps of a doomed organization before it fails once and for all and dies for good.

Well, I can be as cynical as anyone, but I'm going to suspend my cynicism for now and let myself revel in the marvelous excitement and hope I feel over this unexpected and amazing news regarding next year's PBA Tour.

Earl Anthony Memorial Wrap Up

It was nice to finally see ESPN show the men's and women's finals live last Sunday. I don't know about you, but I was tired of seeing telecasts of events that transpired weeks if not months before they aired. I guess I should be grateful that ESPN or any channel shows them at all, and I am. But I'd be more grateful if most or all finals were shown live.

In any case, it was good to see Anthony LaCaze earn his first national championship with three perfect clutch strikes at the end. As commentator Randy Pedersen excitedly said, LaCaze amply demonstrated his "maple moxy" by throwing "three of the prettiest strikes you've ever seen on one of the most demanding lane conditions we've been involved with." And now he'll be going to the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas this week, and he won't have to bowl in any more TQR's this season.

Having said that, I feel for Mike Machuga leaving that ringing 10-pin on a solid pocket hit on his second ball in the tenth. Had he struck and gotten a nine count on the next ball, he would have won.

I really liked what LaCaze said during his post game interview when he was asked how he felt when Machuga stepped up to deliver his second shot in the tenth, and he replied that he wanted to see Machuga perform to his high capabilities and throw a good ball no matter what happened with it. I think LaCaze really meant it, and it just goes to show that nice guys can finish FIRST.

Stafanie Nation was also pretty impressive in her win over Lynda Barnes, rebounding from hitting her ankle and going wide in the ninth frame to strike on her first ball in the tenth to wrap up the match. This was after making it to the finals by overcoming a three game deficit to Shannon Pluhowski Friday night by finishing with nine strikes in a row in the seventh game to snatch the victory 259 to 244.

In my previous entry, I mentioned what Jeff Mark said about American bowlers needing to improve their fundamentals and especially their spare shooting. This was brought home Sunday by three missed single pin spares, including two by Sean Rash that cost him the match. I don't know why so many of these young guys throw so hard at their single pin spares. They don't need to do this to make the ball go straight at the spare, and they should take a chapter from the books of guys like Walter Ray and Norm Duke and slow down and focus on the shot. They can't be thinking about their next strike shot and then running up there and firing the ball as hard as they can at the spare and expect to consistently make crucial spares in the television spotlight.

In my next post, I'll be writing about the Tournament of Champions that opens tomorrow and which will receive extensive coverage on PBA.COM's Xtra Frame. Now is a great time to sign up for that wonderful bowling resource.

Here is a behind the scenes look at the pre-game festivities at the Earl Anthony Memorial last Sunday.