Pete Weber Wins 69th PBA U.S. Open

"Dad, I know you were watching. I know you're proud, and I'm sorry I broke your record." ~ Pete Weber

Until Sunday, February 26, 2012, nobody owned more U.S. Open titles than the late, great Don Carter and Dick Weber. Then Dick Weber's Hall of Fame son Pete stepped onstage to defeat Ryan Shafer 223-191, Jason Belmonte 225-213, and Mike Fagan 215-214 in one of the best-bowled and most intense televised stepladder finals in TV bowling history en route to an unprecedented fifth U.S. Open, ninth major, and 36th tour title that had no less than bowling luminary and writer Jeff Richgels opining that PDW may well be the best bowler of all time.

And as much as raw statistics might still award that glittering honor to Walter Ray Williams Jr. or Earl Anthony, there's no avoiding the fact that, as Richgels writes, "Pete has been at the top of bowling through more eras than either Earl or Walter Ray, starting at the end of plastic through urethane to reactive resin...You simply can't deny that Pete has stayed on top through more changes in the game than any bowler in history. And look at how much his game has changed from when he was a teenager who arguably had the most powerful game in bowling to almost a finesse player who is little more than a tweener in the current era of two-handed ultra power players. What hasn't changed is his almost unreal competitiveness and will to win that has enabled him to rise to big occasions as much as any player in history."

Richgels writes that he's still not sure who's the greatest bowler ever but that Pete Weber's phenomenal performance Sunday at the age of 49 has "changed the debate" for him. I guess I'd have to say that the same goes for me. Bad boy that PDW has been over the years and was again on Sunday, there's no denying his stupendous bowling accomplishments that rise to the level that one of his opponents Sunday, the immensely talented Jason Belmonte, characterized as "inhuman." I'd call them superhuman.

I'll have more to say about all of this and about this year's PBA U.S. Open and Sunday telecast over a series of upcoming blogposts, but I want to end this entry with videos of yesterday's wonderful matches for you to savor. It's been a long time since bowling has received the respect it deserves, and, regrettably, Sunday's finals probably won't change that a whole lot.

But it should.

For a concise summary of the entire 2012 PBA U.S. Open, be sure to check out this article on Jef's Bowling Blog, and for a more detailed summary of the televised finals, you can read Bill Vint's wrap up on the PBA website. Finally, you can watch the videos below to behold what words cannot fully convey of all three matches.

Earl Anthony vs. Pete Couture in 1981 Firestone Tournament of Champions

There have been many exciting Tournament of Champions televised finals over the years since the tournament's inception in 1965. But the match between Pete Couture and Earl Anthony in 1981 has to be one of the most exciting ever. Below is the last half of that historic match.

Mark Roth Bowls Earl Anthony at the 1981 Showboat Invitational

In the wake of the PBA Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship, here's video of a classic battle of the bowling titans of 1981 in the finals of the Showboat Invitational.

Bowling Quote of the Day--Perfectionism in Bowling

"It's the bowler who makes the least number of mistakes that prevails; a perfectionist doesn't exist."
--Earl Anthony, as quoted by Tom Kouros

This quote is attributed to Earl Anthony in a Bowlers Journal International article. If it's exactly what Anthony said, I need to make a small correction. I'm quite sure there are "perfectionists" in bowling. By that I mean people who strive to bowl perfectly--to make the perfect shot, bowl a perfect game, or even bowl a perfect series. But there are no perfect bowlers.

Anthony's point was apparently that it's impossible to be absolutely perfect on every shot or maybe even on any shot, so don't beat and mess yourself up trying too hard to be perfect. Yet, I wonder if Anthony himself wasn't a perfectionist on the lanes. He may not have expected perfection in himself, but I'd venture to guess that perfection was the horizonal ideal for which he strove on every shot, and that the closer he got to it, even if he never actually achieved it, the better. In fact, I'd guess that if we don't challenge ourselves in this way, we may never progress as far or as fast as those who do.

So, rather than say that there are no bowling perfectionists, it might be truer and more helpful to say, "There are no perfect bowlers, but bowlers who strive to come as close to perfection as they can on every shot are, all other things being equal, likely to perform best."

Bowling Video of the Day--Mark Roth vs. Earl Anthony

On Sunday's telecast, Johnny Petraglia spoke of how Mark Roth won most of his tournaments during the same era that Earl Anthony won many of his. He said that if not for Anthony, Roth might well have won 10 more titles. And the reverse was probably also true. I don't doubt that these two bowling titans snatched a lot of titles away from each other. The video below shows them bowling each other on lacquer. Watch it and see who wins.

The Calmer Way to Better Bowling

Did any of you watch Alex Aguiar take it to Chris Barnes in Saturday's "Chris Barnes Challenge"? I did, and it wasn't pretty. Aguiar shot 626. Barnes shot 524.

But it wasn't only what Chris shot that made the contest so ugly, it was the WAY he shot it. He smirked and grimaced and juggled balls all the way through it and finally just figuratively if not literally threw up his hands in resignation.

That was what disappointed me the most about Barnes' performance. I think maybe he's been so good for so long that he expects to do well all the time and hasn't learned to handle struggle and defeat with exemplary professionalism and grace.

Can you imagine Earl Anthony carrying on like that? Or do you think he would have continued calmly trying to figure out the lanes, correct his mistakes, and stay in the hunt until the end? And do you think he, even in this modern age of bowling ball mania, would have kept going back and forth between all those balls, or would he have taken a couple at most and tried his best with line, speed, and release adjustments to make them work?

I realize that we're all different. We have different temperaments and styles and ways of doing things, and what works best for some may work worst for others. But I wonder if there isn't an optimal way to approach bowling psychologically and strategically that works best for virtually everyone.

During the Chris Barnes Challenge Saturday night, Del Ballard noted how upset Barnes seemed to be and said it was good to get angry because this focuses you on your game more intensely and makes you bear down, try harder, and do better. But it didn't seem to be helping Chris.

I personally don't see the value in getting upset at yourself or the lanes or your opponent or whatever. It seems to me that you aren't consciously trying to make mistakes. You're trying to do the best you can, and when things aren't going well, there are reasons or causes for why they aren't. So, rather than get all bent out of shape, why not keep your cool and try to figure out what's amiss and correct it and keep on trying to make the best shots you can?

I guess there's such a thing as being too cool and not caring enough about what you're doing up there on the lanes to do your very best. But surely there's an optimal middle ground between that and what we see from a lot of bowlers on TV, in our own bowling leagues and tournaments, and maybe even in ourselves too much of the time.

Maybe there's a better way, and maybe we can find and discuss it here together.

Legends of Bowling Video

Let's continue our leisurely stroll down bowling's memory lane with this video of the televised finals of a quirky 1980 mini-series called "Legends of Bowling." In the finals, Earl Anthony, Donna Adamek, and Ed Lubanski, the man who once shot two consecutive 300 games on television before the PBA Tour came into existence, took on Tom Baker, Pat Costello, and Harry Smith in an unusual format in which the bowlers had to throw strikes and convert pre-determined spares scored in a special way.

Yes, the series was corny, but it's still nice being able to watch these genuine bowling legends compete. And if you look closely, you'll see Lubanski throwing his ancient rubber ball with an old-fashioned two-fingered grip.

Enjoy.

Bowling Video of the Day--3/17/10

It didn't get any better than this in 1981, and I don't think it could be any better than this today. Protoypical power vs archetypal finesse. Mark Roth vs Earl Anthony. Enough said.

Earl Anthony Teaches Bowling Video

While mining YouTube for nuggets of bowling treasure, I stumbled on to a bowling instructional video by Earl Anthony. If you're reading this blog, you probably know who Earl Anthony was. If not, let me just say that he was voted the #1 bowler in the 50 year history of the PBA. And even if the video below is a little dated, having been made sometime in the 1980's, anyone just starting out in the game or interested in brushing up on his or her fundamentals would do well to watch it and learn from the master of masters of the bowling game.

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.

First Round Match Play in Dublin

I've spent a couple of hours this morning watching live match play at the Earl Anthony Memorial Open in Dublin, California on Xtra Frame on the PBA website. As I type this, the video coverage has concluded until 2 PM PST, but game seven of a best-of-seven game match between Eugene McCune and PJ Haggerty is still unfolding, and I'm following the frame by frame scoring of it on the PBA website.

I know PJ's mom, Debbie. In fact, we just won the doubles championship of a small fall league a few weeks ago, and this is actually the second time we've done this since I moved to Sacramento and started bowling league where I do now. Debbie has been voted by Bowlers Journal as one of the top 100 bowling coaches in the USA, and she was also voted by the USBC as the top junior bowling coach in the country last year. She runs a marvelous junior program at Fireside Lanes, and she's a good person.

Her son PJ was two time collegiate bowler of the year at Fresno State and is now an exempt player and Columbia 300 staff member on the PBA tour. He hasn't been on the national tour long and hasn't made it to the TV finals yet, but maybe this week will be his week as I see that he's just defeated Eugene McCune in the round of 28 and will next face Steve Weber in a best-of-seven match in the round of 16 to be bowled later today.

One of the things I enjoyed about this morning's Xtra Frame coverage was a guy named Rob Allen who sat in with Xtra Frame commentators Mike Jakubowski and Jeff Mark and displayed his unbelievably encyclopedic knowledge of PBA tournament results over the past forty-five years. He could list every Tournament of Champions winner from the beginning in 1965, and he seemed to know who won just about every PBA tournament, where it was held, whom he beat, and what score he shot to win since that time. People watching Xtra Frame could write in and challenge Allen with trivia questions, and he was up to the challenge an overwhelming majority of the time. It was a nice trip down bowling memory lane and an amazing display of a prodigious memory.