Bob Perry Could Have Been a Contender

"I remember meeting Earl Anthony ( He was in town visiting ) in Paramus lanes one night (I was a teenager at the time at that time he [Bobby] bowled anchor for D'amato paperstock , (Mark Roth bowled leadoff ) and Bobby introduced me to him . Bobby walked away and Earl said to me "You know , he's the best bowler in the world " nodding his head pointing to Bobby . Bobby was the best unequivacably, without a doubt . Anyone who truly knows bowling knows that on a given night even a blind squirrel could find a nut . But a Lion will always eat . Bobby was a Lion on the lanes . Again in his time period I saw him beat EVERYONE of the guys mentioned in these memos."
--"Joey Ja"

I was thrilled to watch the fifth and final "Chris Barnes Challenge" of the season Saturday night. I've watched and enjoyed all five of them to varying degrees, but Saturday's was special because it pitted Chris, who's been struggling lately to get his formidable act together, against an up-and-coming star. More importantly, it was held on the East coast in an area that has long been renowned for "action" or "pot game" bowling, and, unlike the previous challenges, the enthusiastic spectators in West Babylon, NY were packed like sardines to watch Barnes and Anthony Pepe battle it out for the $10,000 winner-take-all pot.

The match, which Barnes won, had the excitement filled ambiance of a televised national tournament and was, from what I gather, reminiscent of the days back in the 50's, 60's, and 70's especially when these kinds of high stakes matches were occurring all the time in bowling alleys throughout metropolitan New York and New Jersey and involved the local hotshots and even PBA stars who would come along and join in when they could.

After watching the Barnes-Pepe match, I began to do some reading about the history of action bowling. I found this website, and, in skimming through it, I happened upon glowing praises of a guy named Bob Purzycki (aka Bob Perry) who was apparently one of the most respected and feared action bowlers of the 70's. And then I discovered that a film (see video below) was made in 2004 titled High Roller: The Bob Perry Story, and when I found out that I could watch it instantly on Netflix, I did.

It tells the both tragic and inspiring story of Bob Purzycki. Bob was born in New Jersey in 1952 and became so passionate about bowling at an early age and was so good by the tender age of twelve that he was invited to compete at a World's Fair. But he was felled by a terrible accident just before he could go. He lost vision in one eye from the accident and spent months and years after that rehabilitating himself until he became very highly regarded by locals and pro superstars such as Dick Weber and Teta Semiz in action and pro regional circles. But, on the eve of going out on tour to prove himself to the whole world, he was devastated by another catastrophic accident that almost cost him his life and the use of his legs.

After that, this star-crossed young man who had shown such incandescent talent and skill on the lanes began to spiral out of control in his personal life with alcohol abuse and drug addiction until he was living on the streets as a homeless, toothless, and drug-addled bum. But he finally had an epiphany after a failed suicide attempt, yet still managed to land himself in legal trouble with organized crime until he broke away from his old life for good with the help of a Catholic priest.

He eventually returned to bowling and won his first High Roller bowling tournament for $100,000 in Vegas at nearly 50 years of age and another a few years later. He also, along with one of his sisters, started a 12-step referral center for alcoholics and drug addicts called "The Last Stop."

I found large stretches of this 54 minute film unrelentingly bleak and depressing, and I wish there had been more footage in it of him bowling along with more discussion of his entire bowling career. But if you're a bowling fan like I am, I think you'll enjoy learning about this remarkable person who may not only have been or become the best of the best on the lanes but who also overcame horrible adversity to salvage his own life and dedicate it to helping others to do the same with theirs.

I give the film a B grade.

Chris Barnes' Next and Final Opponent in the Chris Barnes Challenge

This week's Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship in West Babylon, New York will carry the final "Chris Barnes Challenge" of the season. And, judging from the way things have been going for poor Chris this season, he may be glad for that. He's 2-2 on the season, but the two matches he won were against less-than-stellar amateurs, and the matches he lost were against pretty solid but not spectacularly good players, with the second of those losses, which took place just two days ago, being an unmitigated disaster. But next Saturday, he'll be putting up the $5ooo maximum of his own money to take on what is very possibly a star-in-the-making in young Anthony Pepe.

Pepe (please see video below) is the New York left-hander who qualified first in the recent Brunswick Euro Challenge before losing his single-elimination 3-game match in the Round of 32. This is what Tommy Scherer of the This is Bowling Philosophy recently had to say about Mr. Pepe:

"Pepe is a lefty from Queens in New York. Early 20's, good all around talent. Excellent ability to post up shots and play all parts of the lane (a unique talent amongst lefties). Shy personality, doesn't say much but his game does a lot of talking for him. Bowled many junior events with him in the early part of the decade in the northeast. He has the potential to be a tremendous player, just needs more reps at the higher levels. Already a top-5, top-10 local talent in the highly competitive Long Island/Metro NY area."

It sounds to me like Chris Barnes may have his hands more than full for the second consecutive week and that he'd better go see Fred Borden or Mark Baker for some solid coaching before the match.

By the way, this match will be contested with regular equipment and not with the special plastic balls the players will be restricted to using during the tournament.

Brunswick Euro Challenge Update

Americans Anthony Pepe and Mike Fagan continue to lead the Brunswick Euro Challenge in Saint Maximin, France, but Malaysian Adrian Ang is putting on an amazing show of consistency by amassing the highest score in all three squads in which he's bowled and moving up to sixth place overall by virtue of his latest effort of 258-244-268-245-255-210 for a 1480 series and 246.67 average. Malaysia is a bowling powerhouse, and Ang is considered to be the best male bowler in that country. Look for him and other Malaysian bowlers to continue to put their stamps on this and future world competitions.

Also, look for Mika Koivuniemi, Norm Duke, and Brian Voss to rise higher in the standings. All have bowled one squad today and may well bowl again to move up on the leaderboard. Koivuniemi is 9th, Duke 38th, and Voss, who finished second to Mike Fagan last year, is currently in 147th place. I also see that local-boy-makes-good PJ Haggerty sits comfortably in 21st place at the moment but may try to move up as well. Heck, if you're going to fly all the way to France to bowl in a big tournament, you might as well make the most of it.

Qualifying ends tomorrow, and single elimination match play followed by the stepladder finals take place on Sunday.

UPDATE TO UPDATE

No sooner had I posted the information above when I saw that another squad had concluded and that Osku Palermaa, the two-handed sensation from Finland, has moved into third place. He had bowled an earlier squad to sit in 96th place, but that would have left him out of match play. Now he's guaranteed to make the cut, and those of us who have seen him bowl on American TV, such as last Sunday, know that he's a force to be reckoned with. It's too bad Jason Belmonte isn't there too, and healthy.

Brunswick Euro Challenge Update

The Brunswick Euro Challenge rolls on today with squads 11-13, and bowlers from the USA occupy five of the top eleven spots after squad 11. In first is Anthony Pepe (pictured above). I've never heard of him, but he's from the USA and shot 299-258-217-245-297-256 for 1572 and a 262 average for six games. Right behind him is defending champion Mike Fagan with games of 221-260-281-236-257-300 for 1555. In seventh is Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, in ninth is Parker Bohn, and in eleventh is "Real Deal" Bill O'Neill.

Qualifying will continue through squad 23 on Saturday, so there may well be some big changes to the leaderboard between now and then. After that, the top 16 qualifiers will sit it out while the remaining 48 top qualifiers bowl six games to determine the top 16 from that group. There will then be 3-game, single elimination matches between the remaining 32 bowlers with qualifier #1 bowling qualifier #32, #2 bowling #31 and so on until the field is cut to four who will then compete in a traditional stepladder format for the championship and 13,000 Euro top prize.

I think we might be able to see live video coverage of the finals here, and, if not, we should be able to view it there later. What a wonderful opportunity to see great male and female bowlers from outside the USA and to see how our bowlers from the USA fare against them on conditions described as a "medium difficulty sport" pattern.

Stay tuned for further developments.