Bowling Video--Jason Couch Career Retrospective

Bowling Video--Jason Couch Earns His Way to the PBA Hall of Fame

Jason Couch will be inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame today. As a 16-time national titlist who throws one of the most powerful balls in PBA Tour history and as the only player EVER to win three--that's right, three!--consecutive Tournament of Champions titles, he richly deserves it. Here's a video commemorating those titles and his stellar career.

Deputy Commissioner Tom Clark Discusses the Present and Future of the PBA, Part 1

Many have criticized the PBA mercilessly over the past few years for everything from its comparatively meager prize funds and diminishing tour stops to ESPN announcer Rob Stone's sacrilegious "hambones" to recent telecasts featuring blaring rock bands, cheerleaders, smack-talking Dicks, and bleating vuvuzelas.

Critics complain that the PBA is demeaning professional bowling and selling out its base supporters who deeply love and respect the sport by resorting to crude marketing gimmicks to grab hold of younger, uninitiated fans with gnat-like attention spans, iPhones, Facebook, and a zillion-and-one increasingly gaudy, glitzy, and energetic entertainment alternatives vying for their attention and their dollars.

These complaints are especially prevalent in the PBA Forums of the PBA website. So, it's not surprising that Tom Clark, the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the PBA, recently chose that very forum to meet his harshest critics head on. Challenging questions and thoughtful suggestions were submitted to him, and he responded with trademark forthrightness and wit.

Over the next few days, this blog will present and consider some of the highlights of Mr. Clark's responses and invite your comments.

Some Season Highlights

Yesterday, I quoted Mr. Clark's overview of the challenges the PBA and its players face in today's market and of the misperceptions he thinks a lot of the PBA's most vociferous critics have of the organization's struggles. These words followed a litany of what Mr Clark considers to have been some of the highlights of the 2010-2011 season. Some of the highlights he listed were:

~ The first PBA telecast on ABC-TV in 14 years and Nelson Burton Jr's participation in that telecast.

~ The TOC boasting the largest prize fund "in bowling history."

~ Extended live television coverage of some of the majors.

~ Chris Barnes accomplishing an extremely rare Triple Crown victory with a dramatic strike in the 10th frame of the WSOB.

~ An unsung competitor from Korea winning a title by beating his Korean opponent in the final match of the PBA Scorpion Championship.

~ Bill O'Neill's masterful domination of "a WSOB qualifying marathon across five patterns and 60 games in one of the most demanding tests of bowling ever."

~ Widespread media coverage of Mika Koivuniemi's 299-100 victory over Tom Daugherty in the TOC.

~ Unprecedented live match play round coverage of a major.

~ The first "all-two handed match in PBA TV history."

~ Mark Roth throwing the ceremonial first ball of the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship.

~ Former Miss USA Kimberly Pressler "working the sidelines" of a televised event.

~ Jason Couch and Parker Bohn reviving the past by meeting in the final match of a plastic ball tournament.

~ Mika Koivuniemi making the finals of all four televised majors.

~ Howard Stern talking on his radio show about the PBA for a month.

~ The Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational making the PBA "look cool played by the coolest people on the planet."

~ Tom Hess' "emotional win at the Masters."

~ Norm Duke's "stone 8-pin" followed by Mika Koivuniemi's 10-pin miss to hand Duke the U.S. Open title.

Clark Criticizes Misreporting

Mr. Clark believes that the highlights he lists demonstrate that the 2010-2011 PBA season was a "super year." But he laments that the critics flooding the PBA message boards and other forums with unreasonable complaints and misinformation obscure this.

For instance, he tells of how he once joked on Facebook that the three "cheerleaders" working the crowd during the final telecast of the season were paid $7,000 (they were actually paid $50) each out of the "PBA player buffet budget," and a bowling webcast host who should have known better reported Mr. Clark's "facetious comments" as fact. This same host reported numerous other falsehoods as fact over the course of the season. Clark says:

"I share that story with you because it is just one small example of the type of incorrect information that somehow becomes accepted as “truth” or fact because of the lack of a filter on the burgeoning new social media on the internet. Unprofessional, unqualified, uninformed, often bitter, often frustrated, agenda-driven people suddenly have a voice, often an anonymous one like on this board, and too many spread lies, rumor and paint inaccurate portrayals that somehow shape public opinion and somehow in today’s world that is OK. It’s really sad, it’s unfortunate that it happens on serious issues that shape our lives and even here on this relatively trivial message board almost every single day."

Mr. Clark also writes about how commenters on Facebook's PBA page were criticizing the PBA for allegedly paying only 16 of 250 spots in the WSOB when, in fact, it had a "better than 1:3 payout ratio," and about how other commenters insisted that the "exempt tour model was keeping people from their dreams (when the reality is most events were open last year, none were completely closed, and some of the most compelling stories of the year came from players who were not exempt at the start of the season)."

Mr. Clark concludes the opening part of his response with the following:

"I understand the frustration people in and around bowling have. But they shouldn’t have to make things up or wildly exaggerate to make a point...Thankfully, for every negative person there are many positive voices being heard because of the new media, and greater opportunities for people to share them so I suppose it all works out in the end...I personally appreciate the passion most of you here have for this sport. But pro bowling needs your help, not your venom. Please redirect that passion by demanding the media give coverage and respect to our sport, by thanking sponsors with your letters and financial support, by making sure your local center promotes the pro game, by supporting the professionals you admire on the lanes. Don’t get me wrong, criticism is great. Complaining and pointing out what you don’t like or think is wrong is great. As long as it is based on reality. Merely proclaiming bowling is dead or rooting for the PBA’s demise, and dishing negative facts without any confirmation or characterizing things as “atrocious” and the like while not doing anything positive is just really lame and really you should just go away. But wow, I’ve beaten that point to death."

I agree with Mr. Clark that people should check their facts before criticizing the PBA for things it hasn't even done and that they should keep in mind the tremendous challenges the PBA faces in making its product appealing to sufficient numbers of fans and sponsors and do everything they can to support the PBA in its herculean efforts to live long and prosper. On the other hand, I hope that the powers-that-be in the PBA don't defensively dismiss legitimate criticisms and suggestions that the PBA's most ardent fans serve up in the PBA Forums and social media. If we all work together, perhaps the PBA can survive and even thrive.

What's Next?

In my next post, I'll start addressing Mr. Clark's responses to the questions and suggestions that were put to him, beginning with Why the vuvuzelas?

If you wish, you can jump ahead of me and read the whole discussion here after, if need be, registering.

Couch Defeats Bohn in 2011 Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship

"For it to be the Mark Roth and to be my first tournament win in three, four years is such a relief. It's special. ... It's a big monkey off my back."

--Jason Couch

It wasn't as entertaining as last year's plastic ball tournament in which Jason Belmonte left that impossible solid 7 pin on the first ball of a sudden-death rolloff and Brian Ziesig stepped up and delivered a clutch strike to win the championship. But it was still pretty entertaining watching hall-of-famer Parker Bohn defeat Tom Smallwood and fireballing hometown boy Ryan Ciminelli before falling to future hall-of-famer Jason Couch yesterday in the final game of the 2011 Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship at the Thruway Lanes in Cheektowaga, N.Y.

And it all began in wonderful style with Mark Roth himself shown throwing a ball and getting a seven count just before the competition began. Mark overcame a serious stroke on June 4, 2009 to make his remarkable appearance yesterday, and I hope he continues to improve.

In last year's version of the tournament, Roth appeared in the public arena for the first time since his stroke and could barely walk. This time, with the aid of all the rehabilitation he's undergone plus the help of an electrical stimulator called "WalkAide," he was able to get around much better and to even throw a couple of balls in front of the crowd as well as beat his physical therapist a few days before with a 157 game while throwing a 15 pound ball. This is tremendous progress since almost dying less than two years ago and not being expected to ever be able to walk again.

As for yesterday's matches, Tom Smallwood, who's had another great season, especially with his second place $100,000 finish in the Tournament of Champions, never did get lined up but still kept his match with Bohn close to the very end. In the next match, Ciminelli outbowled Bohn but had trouble carrying corner pins and lost to Bohn in another squeaker. In the final match, neither bowler performed at his best, but Bohn struggled mightily with getting the right feel in his thumbhole and consequently threw some bad balls that put him out of the match with Couch fairly early on. This was Couch's first title since 2007. As you may recall, Couch is the only bowler to ever win the coveted Tournament of Champions title three consecutive times.

Also noteworthy was hall-of-famer Johnny Petraglia's eighth place finish in the tournament. This borders on astonishing for a 64-year-old man competing with the young lions!

Perhaps almost equally astonishing is the fact that Chris Barnes finished only 30th in a tournament where one would expect his superior talent, skill, and bowling knowledge to propel him to greater heights. After all, this tournament was designed to, as the PBA website describes it, "put a premium on knowledge of changing lane conditions, subtle adjustments in hand positions and delivery techniques, and other skills rather than relying on advanced bowling ball technology." Whom would one expect to be better in these areas than Chris Barnes? Well, maybe we should expect it from old timers like Johnny Petraglia and even Parker Bohn who grew up having to rely more on these very skills in order to succeed.

Below are the final standings, playoff results, and videos of the televised finals.

Final Standings

1. Jason Couch, Clermont, Fl., 219 (1 game), $20,000

2. Parker Bohn, Jackson, N.J., 589 (3 games), $10,000

3. Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y., (1 game), $6,000

4. Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 197 (1 game), $5,000

Playoff Results

Match One: Bohn def. Smallwood 201-197

Match Two: Bohn def. Ciminelli 213-207

Championship Match: Couch def. Bohn 219-175

What a Difference a Pin Makes

Yesterday, P.J. Haggerty was in fifteenth place going into the final game of qualifying. The top 24 after that final game would advance to 24 games of match play. He bowled 146. Pete Weber, who was below 24th place, bowled a 248 and tied with P.J. for the 24th and final spot to advance to match play. So, they had to bowl a roll off game, and Pete came through, as one of the greatest bowlers of all time usually does, to win the game and head into match play.

Tonight, the position round of match play had Jason Belmonte, , Walter Ray Williams, Norm Duke, and Jason Couch vying for the fourth and final spot in tomorrows televised finals of the biggest tournament of the year. Belmonte, hobbled by an ever-worsening hamstring injury as he limped and struggled to hold on to fourth place, faltered against Tommy Jones and lost. Fifth place Walter Ray and sixth place Norm Duke scratched and clawed to overtake Belmonte and make it on to the show. It was neck and neck the whole way. Duke punched out in the tenth for a 201. Seventh place Jason Couch finished his match with a game in the 220's. Walter Ray needed to double and get a seven count to seize the fourth and final spot for the telecast.

He threw the first one flush for a strike. He struck again on the second ball. The crowd behind him erupted. He needed only seven pins to beat Duke and take the 30 bonus points for a win and make the telecast. He approached the line, threw the ball, and left the 3-6-9-10 to tie Duke with a 201 game, split the bonus pins at 15 instead of taking all 30, and Jason Couch passed him to snatch the fourth and final spot for the telecast. (You can read Jason Thomas' account of these events here.)

Jason Couch couldn't believe it. Walter Ray couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. But there it was. And if there was ever any doubt of how important every single pin is in a bowling tournament or league, what happened to P.J. Haggerty and Walter Ray showed that every single pin can be crucial. When you're bowling, try to knock down EVERY pin you can. Don't throw away ANY shots. Don't give away ANY pins.

One pin could make all the difference between advancing and being left out in the cold. One single, solitary pin could spell the difference between winning and losing. If P.J. Haggerty had knocked down one more pin or Pete Weber one less over 18 games of qualifying, it would have been P.J. going into match play and Pete sitting on the sidelines. If Walter Ray had thrown the ball just a little better and knocked down one more pin on that fill ball in the tenth, we would have been watching him bowl for his 48th title and third U.S. Open title tomorrow on ESPN. One lousy pin cost them both immeasurably.

Don't let it cost you someday.

Here are the four seeds for tomorrow's show:

1, Mike Scroggins, Amarillo, Texas, 16-8, 11,537.
2, Bill O'Neill, Southampton, Pa., 13-11, 11,486.
3, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 16-8, 11,413.
4, Jason Couch, Clermont, Fla., 13-11, 11,282.

I was sorry to see Belmo crippled by his injury. Had that not happened, he'd have almost certainly made the finals tomorrow. And I was terribly disappointed that Walter Ray wasn't the one to take the biggest advantage of Belmo's collapse. Nevertheless, tomorrow's finals boasts a stellar field and should be a good one. And Mike Scroggins, who shot 300 today in match play, has a very good chance of winning his second consecutive U.S. Open. He beat Norm Duke last year.