Bowling Doctor Jeff Mark's Mysterious Departure From PBA and Xtra Frame

Jeff Mark was known on the PBA's webcasting service Xtra Frame as the "Bowling Doctor." And if you watched any of Xtra Frame's coverage of PBA events, you know why. He was extremely knowledgeable about the technical aspects of bowling biomechanics, ball physics, lane construction and oil patterns, and how all these variables fit together in the increasingly challenging sport of bowling. Not only that, but he could articulate these concepts very clearly. Many times, I tuned in to Xtra Frame as much for his incisive commentary as to watch the action.

So, I was very surprised and extremely disappointed yesterday to learn that Jeff had parted ways with the PBA and would no longer be commentating on Xtra Frame. I was even more surprised to read one of the rumors circulating about why this happened. I don't believe the rumor and won't share it here, but I admit that I am curious about why Jeff left the PBA or was let go after years of seemingly dedicated and exceedingly capable service.

I inquired about it on Facebook's PBA page and on the PBA's Xtra Frame message board forum, but both inquiries were promptly deleted, and I received a private message from a PBA spokesperson explaining that this was a private matter and that no public discussion of it would be "tolerated" in PBA domains.

I guess I can understand and accept this. If I resigned or were let go from a public position, I might want the details kept quiet too instead of seeing official explanations or rumors galore splattered across the websites of my former employer.

Still, I don't think it's necessarily morbid curiosity that motivates fans of Jeff Mark, as I surely was, to want to know more about why he's no longer with the PBA or on Xtra Frame, and I don't think we're necessarily being unreasonable in our dissatisfaction with the seemingly tight-lipped and heavy-handed way in which the PBA has handled his sudden departure and public inquiries concerning it. I don't know precisely how these things should be handled, but I wish there were a better way to do it.

Nevertheless, the show must go on, and I've been assured by the aforementioned spokesperson that "The Bowling Guy" Jason Thomas will very capably take over Mark's commentary position, and, having heard Jason's work over many hours on Xtra Frame and having read his excellent columns on the PBA website, I don't doubt that he'll do an outstanding job in his own right.

Below is a video showing some of Jeff Mark's work on PBA Xtra Frame, even though it doesn't showcase his superb expert commentary skills.

Two-Handed Women and One-handed Thumbless Senior Bowlers

One of the great features of PBA Xtra Frame is that you can submit questions via the PBA Facebook page and get them answered almost immediately on the webcasts. Today, during Xtra Frame's coverage of the PBA Senior Northern California Classic, someone asked Jeff Mark and Jason Thomas if any seniors on tour bowl two-handed.

The answer was that no one, except for Walter Ray fiddling with it from time to time, does, probably because the two-handed delivery places too much strain on the lower back to lend itself to use by older bowlers. But, both Mark and Thomas opined that we might start seeing more elite female players using this style.

For, whereas a man using this style gets only a relatively small rev and speed advantage over the more powerful one-handed stylists on tour, an effective two-handed female bowler would have a tremendous power advantage over all but, perhaps, Michelle Feldman. So, if a woman were to start throwing the ball well two-handed, it could entice many other women to adopt the style, and this could have a huge impact on elite women's bowling.

I followed up this question by asking if any seniors on tour bowled with no thumb one-handed. Thomas answered that no one on the senior tour does now but that there's a guy in Southern California approaching seniorhood who might soon make a dent on the tour with his one-handed thumbless style and that Mike Miller, who cashed in the Tournament of Champions this year, would also be a senior soon and could be a thumbless force to be reckoned with.

If I don't beat him to it with my own thumbless style, that is. :-) Or maybe I should further develop my two-handed game.

My Description of Extended Bottlegate 2 Video

I wrote previously that PBA Xtra Frame was going to show a longer clip today of Sean Rash confronting Jason Belmonte for making noise with his water bottle while Rash was bowling, and I pledged to blog as soon after that as possible about what I saw.

Well, to tell you the truth, I'm disappointed. I expected a significantly longer and more revealing clip than I saw. The clip I saw today was only a few seconds longer than the original clip, and all it showed that the original clip didn't was Sean setting up on the approach, hearing a noise, presumably from Jason's water bottle, setting his ball back on the rack, and saying something like, "That's real class" to Jason before picking his ball back up and making the shot we've already seen in the original, somewhat shorter clip.

I thank the PBA for showing the video via Xtra Frame, but, like I said, I'm a little disappointed in it given how much the guys on Xtra Frame had been touting it as a more revealing look at this increasingly controversial incident that "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark has characterized as far and away the most intense confrontation he's ever seen between two PBA competitors.

Now I've heard that there's still more to see and hear than what's been released so far, and some if not all of that is supposed to be released in some fashion Monday or Tuesday of next week, but I'll believe it when I see it in terms of it shedding significantly more light on the controversy.

Judging from what I've seen so far and think it's likely that I ever will see of "Bottlegate 2," Belmo may very well have been telling the truth when he wrote to me personally last Tuesday to state that the noise was unintentional. And, barring my seeing good reason not to, I'm going to take him at his word and hope that this whole thing is laid to rest and that Jason continues to receive the respect of his competitors and of bowling fans for being the great bowler and fine human being he has long appeared to be.

However, he really does need to find a way to stop making distracting noises when his opponents are on the approach, and I have no doubt that he will.

Walter Ray Widening His PBA Senior U.S. Open Lead Going Into Final Day of Competition

"I’m still throwing the ball well. I had to migrate left a little tonight as the lane condition broke down, but it wasn’t much – which was fine with me. There are no guarantees heading into tomorrow, but I like what’s going on. I’d be very happy to have to bowl only one game in the stepladder finals for the title."

--Walter Ray Williams Jr.

After 35 games of match play and qualifying, Walter Ray Williams Jr. entered today's final day of competition in the PBA Senior U.S. Open with a 203 pin lead over second place Wayne Webb, last year's Senior Player of the Year.

PBA Xtra Frame is covering all of today's action, albeit with some unfortunate technical glitches thus far this morning. The bowlers will bowl two eight-game round-robin match play rounds this morning and afternoon, and the top four will advance to the stepladder finals beginning at approximately 3:30 pm Pacific.

Extended Bottlegate 2 Clip Promised

And bear in mind that Xtra Frame is supposed to be featuring an extended clip of "Bottlegate 2" this afternoon between the final round of match play and the stepladder finals. Xtra Frame announcer Jeff Mark and commentator Jason Thomas have said that this could well be the "most intense confrontation in the history of the PBA."

If you don't subscribe to Xtra Frame, I'll be blogging about what I saw in the clip as soon as I can after viewing it.

Click here to read the story on Thursday's action and see the standings going into today's concluding action.

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.

Walter Ray Williams Jr. Cruises to Title in PBA Senior Mark Roth Allentown Open

"I think the hard work I've put in the past couple of months has really paid off. I'm feeling very comfortable being able to make the adjustments I need to make and just bowling very well in general. I'm very encouraged and confident going forward from here."

--Walter Ray Williams Jr.

As I wrote yesterday, Ron Mohr appeared to be well on his way to another senior title and to strengthening his domination of the PBA Senior Tour. But Walter Ray Williams Jr. had other ideas. After finishing second behind Mohr in qualifying, Walter Ray sliced through his match play opponents Mark Williams, John Chapman, and Harry Sullins yesterday like a proverbial knife through warm butter until he met Mohr in the final, one game match of the PBA Senior Mark Roth Allentown Open and demolished him 268-168, prompting PBA Xtra Frame's "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark to say, "He has bowled tremendous today...Watch out in November, because somebody's going to have their hands full with this guy!"

Mohr bowled very well too, finding ways to come from behind and defeat his prior opponents on challenging lane conditions that favored a straighter line to the pocket than he typically plays. But when he struggled to strike in the title match and Walter started off with a flawless eight-bagger before going a little high in the ninth, the final match was never in doubt.

Walter Ray has his game and confidence back, Ron Mohr is still bowling great, and last year's Senior Player of the Year, Wayne Webb, is slated to make his comeback following knee surgery. The rest of the senior season looks like it's shaping up to be a great one. And you can catch it on PBA Xtra Frame.

Click here for yesterday's match play results, and here for the PBA press release on Walter Ray's victory.

Ron Mohr Leads Qualifying of Mark Roth Senior Allentown Open

Ron Mohr is at it again. I blogged recently about how well he was doing on the PBA Senior Tour before taking time off in the middle of last season to care for his wife Linda who eventually died of cancer early this year, and how he rebounded from the devastating loss to take fourth, second, and first place respectively in the first three senior tournaments of this season.

Well, Mohr led all qualifiers going in to today's match play and championship rounds in the Mark Roth Senior Allentown Open in Allentown, PA and, as seemingly always these days, is a serious threat to win another title. Of course, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Harry Sullins, and Tom Baker who qualified second, third, and fifth respectively, along with a host of other outstanding players still left in the field, may have something to say about that. But the way Mohr is bowling now, he's going to be hard to beat.

If you get PBA Xtra Frame or think it might be high time to sign up, there's no better time than the present. Two rounds of match play have already been completed this morning, but you can watch those in the archives and catch the concluding match play and championship rounds live. "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark is calling the action and in the booth with him commentating are Johnny Petraglia Jr. and none other than the great Mark Roth.

You can click here for the qualifying results and here for the Round of 32 and Round of 24 match play results, and below is a short video of Mohr throwing one ball.

Videos of Episode 3 of 2011 Dick Weber PBA Playoffs

As promised, below are videos of the three matches televised yesterday of the Regional Championships Round of the Dick Weber PBA Playoffs. Match one features Randy Weiss vs Steve Jaros. In match two, Dick "Ritchie" Allen takes on Jack "The Ripper" Jurek. And the final match has Chris Barnes going head-to-head with twin-grip fireballer Jason Belmonte. Following those three videos is the PBA Xtra Frame post-game show in which "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark interviews the three winners.

EJ Tackett and Men's Team USA

Unless you follow bowling pretty closely, you've probably never heard of EJ Tackett. But he deserves a lot more attention in the bowling world and beyond than he seems to be getting. At least that's the point I tried to make to PBA Xtra Frame's "bowling doctor" Jeff Mark and USBC announcer Lucas Wiseman the other day as Xtra Frame and bowl.com collaborated to bring us live online video coverage of the recent Team USA tryouts for the Pan American Games.

The tryouts, which took place Tuesday and Wednesday at the USBC's amazing International Training and Research Center (ITRC) in Arlington, TX, had all eleven members of this year's men's Team USA bowling eight games on each of four different patterns to partly determine which two bowlers would represent the USA in Guadalajara, Mexico this summer in North and South America's version of the Olympics held every four years.

The competing members were PBA stars Bill O'Neill, Chris Barnes, Patrick Allen, Wes Malott, Tommy Jones, Mike Fagan, and Walter Ray Williams, along with Scott Boyle, Steven Smith, Jarret Mizo, and EJ Tackett. The top two were determined based 60% on where they finished in the tryouts, 20% on their finish in the USBC Masters, and 20% on where they finished in the U.S. Open. By virtue of those calculations, Bill O'Neill, who ran away from the field for most of the tryouts, and Chris Barnes were the top two point-getters and will represent the USA in the men's bowling competition at the Pan American Games. I can't think of two better choices, can you?

But what impressed me almost as much as these two bowling superstars during the tryouts was the performance of EJ Tackett. For much of the competition, he held his own with bowling's big guns on challenging patterns, even sitting in fourth place after 17 games, until he faltered at the end, and by virtue of his performances during the tryouts and the U.S. Open earlier this year where he finished 15th overall, he was the highest overall point-getter among the non-touring pros on Team USA, finishing behind Walter Ray Williams.

What was so impressive about this? Well, EJ Tackett is only 18-years-old and is still in high school, and he throws what looks to me to be one helluva ball. I can't imagine how gratifying it must have been for him to make men's Team USA this year, finish so high in the U.S. Open awhile back, and then bowl so well against such a stellar field of pros in Arlington earlier this week. Talk about a kid's dream come true!

Well, not quite. EJ's biggest dream is probably not to win a PBA "major" or represent men's Team USA in international competition, but to win a PGA major. That's right, EJ Tackett says he loves golf more than he does bowling, is currently a 2-handicapper, and will be attending college on a golf scholarship next year.

As I watched him bowl during the tryouts, I wrote a Facebook message to Jeff Mark and Lucas Wiseman that I was surprised they weren't paying more attention to EJ instead of treating him like just another competitor. Mark's response was that unless and until he wins a big tournament, he hasn't really done anything all that noteworthy and doesn't deserve any more attention or coverage than he's been getting.

I respectfully disagree. I think one of bowling's biggest problems right now is poor public relations. It doesn't know how to market itself to the masses in a way that gets people interested and makes them respect the sport and the players more. When a young phenom like EJ Tackett or Kamron Doyle comes along, bowling publicists should jump on the opportunity to bring them to the public's attention. How many boys and girls and young men and women, who are the future of bowling, might be inspired by the stories of young competitors such as these to take up the game and get serious about it? When guys like Jeff Mark and Lucas Wiseman take the ho-hum attitude that they do, they're just shooting themselves and bowling in general in the foot, and they're not giving superbly talented and accomplished young competitors like EJ Tackett their due.

I wish EJ Tackett well with his golf game. He's certainly right when he says there is more "opportunity" in professional golf than there is in professional bowling. But I hope he keeps bowling too. I really like his game and would love to see him shine as a star on both the PGA and PBA Tours.

Below you can watch two video stories on EJ Tackett and video of the Team USA tryouts for the Pan Am Games. And you can click here for the official USOC press release on the selections for the Pan Am Games.

Bowling Quote--The Amazing Walter Ray

"Anybody who has been on tour for any length of time has his own Walter Ray story of seeing something miraculous. I mean I watched him shoot 860 with a plastic ball on a stripped lane. I defy anybody to do THAT. This man is an absolutely amazing individual!"
--Jeff Mark

Bowling Quote of the Day--5/4/10

"Come on, Walter Ray. is that really fair? You're still killin' it on the tour against the young guns. Now you want to make it almost impossible for the Seniors to win a title for some of which the Senior Tour may be the only way to do that?"
--Brad Heyden, Facebook comment

As of this writing, Walter Ray is in 11th place in the PBA Senior Miller High Life Classic after 8 games of qualifying. So he isn't running away and hiding from the field yet, although he's certainly hanging in the thick of the competition.

Still, he's only human, even if he often seems more than that, and those other guys on the Senior Tour aren't slouches. But even so, if Walter does dominate the senior events he enters, the way almost everyone including Xtra Frame's "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark seems to think he will, should he be out there depriving the other guys of the only chances some of them may ever have to win senior titles and make it to the TOC, not to mention take away from them the meager-enough-as-it-is money they might otherwise be able to win?

Bowling Quote of the Day--4/20/10

"No one strikes because they're good. They strike because they have something."
--Jeff Mark

Scroggins is in the Driver's Seat for Player of the Year

"If Scroggs doesn't win tomorrow, it'll be his own fault."
--Jeff Mark

The pin dust has cleared, and the five competitors have been determined for tomorrow's televised stepladder final.

Mike Scroggins bowled a blistering final round of 1708 for 7 games on the difficult Dick Weber pattern to occupy the top spot. He only needs to win one match tomorrow to earn the title and seize Player of the Year from Walter Ray Williams Jr's hopeful hands. However, if Scroggins loses, Walter Ray will win his unprecedented seventh Player of the Year award and be the oldest to ever win the award.

Nevertheless, Xtra Frame's "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark believes that Scroggins has a virtual lock on winning tomorrow because of three factors. First, the top seed gets to pick which oil pattern of the seven they bowled on this week that they will bowl on tomorrow. Second, Del Ballard has already stated unequivocally that Scroggins will choose the Dick Weber pattern because he loves it and ran away from the rest of the field bowling on that pattern in the final round today. Third, Scroggins will be the only left-hander in the finals, meaning that he won't have the four right-handers in tomorrow's finals spoiling his look.

Second seed is Pete Weber, who fittingly finished the final round of qualifying on the pattern named after his legendary father by bowling a 300 game. In third is Chris Barnes. Chris bowled steadily all week and is surely very determined to win his first and only title of the season. I hope he does it and silences his growing pack of detractors and, in so doing, hands Player of the Year to Walter Ray. Fourth is Brad Angelo. And fifth is Wes Malott.

Malott led the tournament most of the week but sputtered badly through most of the final round to fall precipitously from first to sixth or seventh place at one point. He went into the final game in sixth place just five pins behind Walter Ray. But big Wes hung on to shoot 234 to Walter Ray's 196 the final game to make the finals and relegate Walter to a sixth place finish for the week.

As disappointed as I am that Walter won't be on TV tomorrow, I must say that I'm very impressed that he gutted it out and managed to bowl as well as he did after his back injury yesterday and finish a very respectable sixth in one of the most, if not the most, challenging tournaments of the year. The old man still has it, and the guys on the senior tour should "be afraid, be very afraid" that a guy who won two titles and went right down to the wire for Player of the Year on the regular tour this season will be competing against them this summer.

But, as Jeff Mark says, the Marathon Open title as well as the Player of the Year award is Mike Scroggins' to lose. He has had a quietly outstanding season this year, especially during the second half, and, say what you will about his "boring" game, he is tough, tough, tough, especially when he's the top seed with no other righties in the finals and he gets to bowl on the pattern of his choice for the title.