Mike Machuga Criticizes Jason Belmonte After USBC Masters

Jason Belmonte is my favorite bowler without question. I'm tremendously impressed with his physical game and with his mental strength to make the right moves and perform almost flawlessly in pressure packed matches. What's more, as his remarkable USBC Masters victory Sunday attests, he appears to be getting better and better, and I have little doubt that within another year or two he will have risen to the indisputable top of the sport in the eyes of virtually all knowledgeable bowlers and bowling fans.

And not only does he have an amazing physical game, but, from my vantage point as a viewer and reader of bowling media, Belmo has always seemed like one of the most personable people and gracious sportsmen on tour. Yes, I remember the "Bottlegate" brouhahas involving Brad Angelo and Sean Rash, but I could never believe that Belmo was deliberately trying to throw off his opponents by crinkling his water bottles. I chalked up these incidents to nervous habit under the immense pressure of televised competition.

But now there's a new scandal of sorts involving Belmo. Mike Machuga writes about it today in his bowling blog. It concerns a nailbiting match Machuga had with Belmo last week in the Masters in which Machuga had to double in the tenth if he were to hand Belmo his first defeat of the double elimination tournament.

Machuga writes that Belmo kept talking loudly to himself while he, Machuga, was going through his pre-shot routine and finally he chastised Belmo for it, Belmo stormed (no pun intended) away in anger, and, after winning the match following Machuga's failure to strike on his second ball, Belmo approached him to talk about what had happened, yet, instead of apologizing for his distracting actions, he merely berated himself for perpetrating them. I took the gist of Machuga's complaint to be that Belmo keeps doing these kinds of things in competition and then comes across as curiously self-centered in how he responds to criticism over it.

As I say, Jason Belmonte is my favorite bowler, and I never tire of singing his praises on this blog and to my friends and fellow bowlers. So many people seem to be looking for reasons not to give this great bowler his due--for example, he's not American, or the two-handed, thumbless game is not "real bowling"--that my heart sinks when I hear people calling him a "cheater" and a "jerk," and I still don't believe for a single moment that he's either.

But I hope he finds a better way to stand up to the pressure of competition than to do things that so blatantly distract his fellow bowlers at their most vulnerable moments. Until he does that, it looks like he'll be under a cloud, and it's a cloud to which he doesn't seem impervious. I believe that he feels quite bothered by these criticisms and disparagements--bothered all the way to the bank to cash his championship checks.

Top Qualifiers in the Dick Weber Open

Mike Fagan led the qualifying round of the One a Day Dick Weber Open in Fountain Valley, California. The top 24 is filled with big names including Walter Ray Williams, Amleto Monacelli, Tommy Jones, Bill O'Neill, Robert Smith, Pete Weber, Ryan Shafer, defending champion Norm Duke, who seems to have recovered sufficiently from his ankle injury that forced him out of the TOC, and Mike Machuga. And I'm happy to see Bryon Smith back in the hunt at #20. I was always impressed with Smith's stylishly smooth game but haven't seen or heard from him in several years. Notably, Chris Barnes finished in 50th place. I hope this has nothing to do with what happened last Sunday. Barnes bowled brilliantly to make it as far as he did in the TOC and has nothing to get down on himself about.

In watching some of the qualifying today on Xtra Frame, the lanes looked really tough even if Mike Fagan didn't think so. I saw guys like Brian Voss and Mika Koivuniemi struggling like mad just to hit the pocket. They and a lot of other guys and a few gals were going high and crossing over constantly, and when they tried to adjust for this, they often ended up with washouts.

The first round of round robin match play is about to begin, and I'm going to be watching and reporting on it in my next post.

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.

Match Play at the Earl Anthony Memorial

If you love bowling like I do and you have Xtra Frame, you find your eyes glued to your computer monitor, especially when live match play is in progress. So, it was with great reluctance that I left to attend a party last night with my wife and miss the exciting action that took place in the men's Round of 8 and the women's semifinal match play.

However, I did get home and tune in just in time to see Stafanie Nation finish with nine strikes in a row to defeat Shannon Pluhowsky 259-244 in the seventh and final game of their great match after Pluhowsky began by winning the first three games and appeared to have the match all but locked up. That just goes to reinforce the trite but true saying, "It ain't over till it's over." I try to remember that whenever I'm bowling in competition and my opposition has a big lead. I keep on trying.

I was disappointed that PJ Haggerty lost to Steve Weber in the Round of 16, and I wish Jason Belmonte had made it to the TV finals instead of losing to Sean Rash in the Round of 8, but the men's and women's field for Sunday's ESPN's live telecast looks like a solid one with Sean Rash facing Mike Machuga, and Anthony LaCaze taking on Mike Wolfe in the men's semifinal matches, and Lynda Barnes matching up with Stefanie Nation in the women's final.

I have a few comments about what I observed yesterday watching match play on Xtra Frame.

First of all, I'm very impressed by the way Sean Rash is throwing the ball. He generates so much speed and turnl, but he's controlling it extremely well on the demanding condition they put out this week for the Anthony Memorial. Xtra Frame commentator Jeff Mark said that some people may not like Rash on the lanes where he can act like a bit of a jerk with his super-competitive demeanor and frequent balks on the approach, but he's a very nice guy off the lanes and recently organized and hosted a fundraising "Bowl for Wishes" Super Regional in Wichita Kansas.

Second, Xtra Frame takes questions from viewers while matches are underway, and one viewer wrote in with a question that's often occurred to me: When the oil on the lanes breaks down and the balls hook as much as they have in Dublin, why do bowlers keep moving so deep inside and throwing such big hooks with their relatively aggressive balls instead of switching to far less aggressive equipment and playing farther outside and straighter. "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark replied that as the bowlers keep throwing their oil sapping reactive resin balls and progressively move farther and farther inside as the oil breaks down, they create a V-shaped pattern where just about any kind of ball you throw in that area is going to hook too early and lose too much of its energy to carry well at the pocket if it even hits the pocket, which is hard to do when the ball hooks right off your hand. So the bowlers pretty much have to keep moving inside.

I still don't understand this oil pattern and oil breakdown business as well as I'd like, because I see people like Walter Ray Williams continue to play far to the right of the other bowlers even after the lanes have gotten very dry, and I've seen him score very well doing this, making the Round of 28 this week where he lost to a blistering hot Patrick Allen in six games. I guess guys like Walter Ray tend to play outside the V-shaped oil burnout pattern that the other players create, and he keeps his ball more controllable with his end-over-end roll. But I still wonder if the best way to bowl on really dry lanes is to keep moving inside even as far as having to stand in front of the ball return and take a three step approach and/or loft the ball five or ten feet out onto the lane, or if one wouldn't be better off using some combination of equipment, speed, and release that allows one to stay further outside and play straighter with a more controllable ball reaction.

Jeff Mark also commented that, as a former Ebonite ball rep, he used to work with Walter Ray and try to get him to use equipment with more exotic layouts, but Walter liked to have a "certain look" with his ball and preferred to stick to the simpler, more basic layouts that consistently gave him that look. Given his incredible success, I wonder if simpler isn't generally better than the widespread push to increasing technical complexity in bowling equipment. Or would guys like Walter Ray do even better if they listened to the ball reps and tried more complex combinations of coverstocks and layouts?

Finally, someone asked about the difference between European and American bowlers, and Jeff Mark replied that he thought European bowlers tended to be much more sound in their fundamentals and especially their spare shooting because they grow up on more demanding lane conditions and learn to make their spares and grind it out with solid fundamentals instead of relying as much on power and being as sloppy in their execution and spare shooting as American bowlers even at the professional level tend to do and be.

I thought this was a very interesting observation that supports my belief that bowling centers in this country need to start putting out more difficult conditions , especially for their junior bowlers, and encourage them to become better in their fundamentals. I, for one, would love to see more difficult house shots such as the Red, White, and Blue patterns of the Pepsi tournament that aired last week and, of course, the animal patterns of the PBA Experience leagues. But I can understand why bowling centers would be reluctant to do this. They're afraid they'd lose business to the centers that keep their conditions easy and their scoring inflated.