Ray Bluth Bowling Videos

Yesterday's anecdote about an alleged confrontation between Carmen Salvino and Ray Bluth sent me looking for bowling footage of Bluth, whom I revered as a boy for his unique peekaboo stance on the approach and his meticulously scientific approach to the game.

I found two video clips of him on YouTube. One is an Ebonite ball commercial in which he appears along with other bowling luminaries of the day including Salvino and briefly exhibits his aforementioned peekaboo stance, and the other is an absolutely delightful introduction to bowling featuring a pre-peek a boo Bluth as a member of the awesome Budweiser All Star team that dominated team bowling competition of that era. You can view both below.

Carmen Salvino's Cure for the Uncommon Cough

You're probably tired of all the talk, here and elsewhere, about "Bottlegate," and, frankly, so am I. Even though I've been focusing more on how people reacted to it and to the PBA's handling of it than I have on the incident itself, it's probably time to move on, unless something comes to light that merits further attention.

However, before I move on, I'd like to share with you a Facebook comment that someone left on the PBA page soon after the "Bottlegate" story broke. The comment recounts a confrontation between the mercurial Carmen Salvino and the impassively cerebral Ray Bluth. I don't know if this really happened, but it sure sounds like it could have, and it's a delightful little story of a colorful confrontation between two bowling legends in a bygone era:

"This exchange between Brad and Belmo reminds me of an incident involving Carmen Salvino and Ray Bluth a number of years ago. Both bowlers were facing each other in a major tournament. Every time Salvino would get up on the approach and get into his delivery, Bluth would start to cough. Salvino figured Bluth was doing this on purpose, playing head games and getting Carmen to mess up. Finally, Salvino turned around, pointed his finger in Bluth's face and said: "You cough one more time, I'll punch you in the nose!" Bluth said calmly: "Go ahead, you'll hear from my lawyer!" The coughing stopped. After the match, Salvino goes up to Bluth and says: "You owe me money!" Bluth says:"What the heck for?" Salvino yells: "For curing your damned cough. Dr.Salvino will send you a bill!"