PBA's Unfair Double Standard?

"Win or lose, bowling a doubles tournament is one of the funnest things I've ever done."
--Randy Pedersen

"Voss is playing today like someone has handed him a ransom note on one of his kids."
--Rob Stone

"As we've seen, crushing the pins during the week and doing it on Sunday are two different stories."
--Rob Stone

"The two of them are showing their mutual arm swing love for one another."
--Rob Stone's quip of the week regarding the compliments Brian Voss and Diandra Asbaty expressed about each other's graceful and efficient arm swings

I'm thrilled that Brian Voss and his partner Diandra Asbaty won the tournament Sunday. They bowled very well together and earned their victory, just as Jason Belmonte and Michelle Feldman earned their right to bowl for the title after the dazzling show they put on in qualifying and match play.

Voss hadn't won on the regular tour since 2006, but Sunday's victory gave him his 25th title, exempt status next season on tour if he wants it, and a sure shot of confidence in the arm to pursue his profession with renewed passion, not that he seemed lacking in passion from the get go Sunday.

About.com's bowling writer, Jef, said that even though he enjoyed the bowling, he had concerns that the Baker format might have confused and alienated bowling novices and that the PBA should go light on "gimmicky" tournaments like yesterday's. But I disagree with him about yesterday. Even though I don't care much for the Baker format, it's the only way they could have shown so many matches featuring such an impressive panoply of male and female stars, and I doubt that any ESPN bowling viewer worth keeping was befuddled or turned off by the Baker system.

But I'm befuddled about one thing. As much as I like, respect, and even revere Brian Voss, I have misgivings about crediting the winner of ANY doubles tournament with a PBA title. But, more than that, I don't begin to understand why Diandra didn't get credit too. The way I see it, if Kelly Kulick was credited with a PBA title and awarded an exemption for winning the TOC, and Brian Voss is credited with a title and awarded an exemption for winning Sunday, Diandra Asbaty darn well deserves HER PBA title and exemption too.

How do YOU feel about this?

Brian Voss Converts 7-10 Split

I've never converted the 7-10 split, and I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've seen others convert it, beginning with Mark Roth's famous effort on TV years ago. On another occasion, I was bowling in league against a team where a guy left the 7-10. One of his teammates told him that if he picked it up, he'd buy him a new bowling ball. You can guess what happened after that. It was the first time he ever converted it after forty years or so of bowling. Would you believe that the other guy made good on his offer? Now that's a man of his word. You gotta respect that. That's the only time I've seen the 7-10 made in person.

But I saw the next best thing last night on Xtra Frame last night. It was the position round of the final block of match play. Brian Voss left a 7-10 on what appeared to be a good pocket hit late in the game. He and his doubles partner Diandra Asbaty needed every mark they could get to make it to the televised finals, and, you guessed it, Voss converted the 7-10 and will be on TV Sunday. You can watch his conversion below.

By the way, if you're into very technical ball talk, don't miss replaying most of this block. The guest was Hank Boomershine, a top product development guy for Storm. He's incredibly knowledgeable about bowling ball design and dynamics, and he answered a plethora of probing questions about this stuff last night. It was a veritable clinic.

Here are the top five teams for Sunday's stepladder finals:

1, Jason Belmonte, Australia/Michelle Feldman, Auburn, N.Y., 11-5, 7,289.

2, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas/Shannon O’Keefe, Arlington, Texas, 12-4, 6,903.

3, Rhino Page, Dade City, Fla./Shannon Pluhowsky, Kettering, Ohio, 9-7, 6,888.

4, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich./Jodi Woessner, Oregon, Ohio, 10-6, 6,883.

5, Brian Voss, Alpharetta, Ga./Diandra Asbaty, Chicago, 9-7, 6,839.