Bowling Quote--Tom Smallwood's Self-Deprecating Humor

"I'm just here to spray and pray." ~ Tom Smallwood

2011 Dick Weber Playoffs: First Week's Telecast

"Why does that happen every time? Every time I bowl, it happens every time.”

--An understandably exasperated Ryan Shafer

I didn't get to watch the PBA telecast on Sunday. Actually, it was filmed long before that but broadcast Sunday. I don't know why they can't show these events live. I don't know about you, but it's much more exciting to me to see them live and not know who wins until it happens then and there than to know it was taped weeks or even months ago and who won. But if you do a bowling blog like this one or just spend any time online, it's all-but-impossible not to know who wins ahead of the showing, and that takes away from the whole experience.

However, given the format of this year's inaugural Dick Weber PBA playoffs, I guess they couldn't show all the matches on the same day. They had eighteen players, three in each of six different regions, competing against one another to crown the champion, and that takes more matches and more time than any network commanding a decent sized audience could hope to show in one day.

In any case, having aired my mild gripes about the Dick Weber broadcast format, I have to say that I did manage to watch a recording of Sunday's telecast yesterday, and I very much enjoyed the action. It took place at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis, IN on the 39' Dick Weber oil pattern. Commentator Randy Pederson explained that the relatively short oil coupled with more than the usual PBA concentration of oil in the middle of the lane allowed the bowlers to "play to their strengths," "maximize creativity" and attack the pattern from "multiple angles." In other words, it made the lanes higher scoring than we see on tougher patterns.

But higher scoring made for a very entertaining 90 minutes. In the first match, the top three finishers arbitrarily assigned to the Eastern region--Scott Norton, Tom Smallwood, and Steve Jaros bowled one match to determine who advanced to the next round. Norton, the California native, part-time attorney, only lefty among the eighteen finalists, and son of female bowling legend Virginia Norton who seems firmly on track to win Rookie of the Year honors and who won a national title earlier this year in Dublin, CA couldn't buy a strike until the sixth frame, leaving four pocket 7's, while Smallwood opened with his first five before leaving a 10 pin and Jaros with his first seven before sticking a 10 pin. Jaros went on to finish first with a 258. Smallwood stepped up in the tenth needing a strike on the first ball to win outright and left a light pocket 7. He then needed to strike on the fill ball to tie and pulled the ball slightly leaving a four pin and losing by 1 pin to Jaros while Norton finished with a distant but respectable 224.

The next match featured South region contestants Tommy Jones, "underrated" Ryan Shafer, and Randy Weiss. Weiss first shot ever on TV was a solid strike while Jones kept getting tapped. All three were in the match until near the end when snakebit Shafer went into the tenth frame with a lead only to get shafted with a pocket 7-10, Jones doubled and left a four pin for 238, and Weiss needed to strike out to win by one and did, shooting a 239.

The final match of the telecast had Central region finalists Dick Allen (formerly Ritchie Allen until he decided that he should adopt a more adult sounding name after recently becoming a father), Player of the Year shoo-in Mika Koivuniemi, and Walter Ray Williams Jr. This was Walter Ray's first television appearance of the season and last chance to extend his record 17 straight year streak of PBA national titles. When asked why he'd struggled so much this year compared to his fabulous Player of the Year season last year, he surmised that his recent hernia surgery, shortened grip to lessen the pain in the knuckles of his arthritic bowling hand, and the fact that his old body was simply "falling apart" had something to do with it.

Nevertheless, he and Allen opened with five baggers before Walter left a stinging pocket 7-10 while Mika was never in it and Allen struck five more times before sticking a ringing 10 and sparing for a 289.

Next week, the finalists from the Midwest, Southwest, and West/Northwest regions will compete, and they include such luminaries as Bill O'Neill, Chris Barnes, Wes Malott, Jason Belmonte, Brad Angelo, and Jack "The Ripper" Jurek.

If I haven't spoiled it for you by recapping Sunday's highlights, or you'd like to see the telecast again, you can watch all of it in the videos below, and you can read PBA.com's official summary of the action here.

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

2010 GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship Finals

Yesterday, I posted video of the 2009 GEICO Plastic Ball Championship finals. I'd like to follow that up today with video of most of last year's thrilling TV finals of the 2010 GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship. By the way, you can click here to read my commentary on last year's tournament, which I think may have been one of the most entertaining in the entire history of the PBA.

Tomorrow at 1 PM EST, ESPN will air the 2011 Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship, and, like last year, Mark Roth himself will be sitting in the front row behind the bowlers to take in the tournament held in his honor.

Since no left-handers made the televised finals of the first two plastic ball tournaments, perhaps it's only fitting that three out of the top four finalists for tomorrow and eight out of the top sixteen are lefties, with slow-hooking Tom Smallwood being the only righty to make it to the show.

However, to my way of thinking, it would be more "fitting" still if the lanes for every PBA national tournament favored neither lefties nor righties, although I'm not sure how that could be achieved.

Bowling Bytes--4/30/10

~ Will anyone ever surpass Walter Ray's career accomplishments? -- "It was once hard to believe that anyone would equal or overcome the late Earl Anthony's 43 National titles when his greatness was being witnessed. Hank Aaron's home run record once seemed insurmountable until Barry Bonds eclipsed it. Richard Petty's 200 career victories in NASCAR has stood for the better part of two decades now, and no one is even CLOSE to passing that milestone. I'm sure there are some other astounding records out there I'm leaving out. Having to account for some of the differences in the current version of the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour from years past, I am hard pressed to come up with any bowler who has a clear cut shot at taking down Walter Ray Williams Jr. and his 47 victories, or his career earnings record, for that matter..."

~ Bowling Manufacturers Set to Do Battle in GEICO PBA Team Shootout -- "Four of bowling’s leading ball manufacturing companies are going to do battle when Six Flags Great Adventure hosts the GEICO PBA Team Shootout in Jackson, N.J., June 11-12. ESPN will air the 15-segment series beginning June 27. For the fourth summer in a row, stars of the Professional Bowlers Association will don shorts and sunglasses, and bowl outdoors on specially-constructed lanes at Six Flags Great Adventure in a made-for-television team competition. The 2010 twist to the Baker team battle will feature Brunswick, Ebonite International, Storm Products and 900 Global – rival bowling ball manufacturers who have selected their own teams...The 2010 GEICO Team Shootout will use the Baker team format for all matches. In Baker team competition, five players bowl two frames each to complete a game. The Shootout will call for each team to face each of the other three teams twice in “home and away” matches. The “home team” in each match will select the lane conditioning pattern and finishing lane. The head-to-head matches will produce 12 half-hour shows.The standings after the round-robin matches will determine stepladder positions for the final three half-hour shows. The “championship round” will begin with the No. 4 team vs. No. 3. The winner will bowl the No. 2 seed. The championship will feature the semifinal match winner against the No. 1 seed. All matches will be contested on June 11 and 12, with June 13 as a “rain date.” The first two shows will air back-to-back on ESPN on Sunday, June 27, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. The next four shows will air consecutively over a span of two hours on Saturday, July 3, at 1 p.m., followed by four more shows airing Sunday, July 4, also at 1 p.m. The series will wrap up with a five-show, two-and-a-half-hour finale on Sunday, July 11, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Eastern..."

~ Egypt's Mennat Soltan stuns favorites to win women's title in 12th Sinai Open -- "Mennat Soltan (pictured left) from Egypt was the surprise winner of the women's division in the 12th Sinai International Open Bowling Tournament while Shaker Al-Hassan cruised to the men's title from the top seeded position Thursday at the International Bowling Center in Cairo, Egypt. Soltan, who earned the No. 2 seed for the women's stepladder finals after averaging 223.63 in round robin, topped No. 4 seed, Cassie Staudinger, Australia, in a high-scoring semifinal, 258-236, and then flew past No. 1 seed, Zandra Aziela, Malaysia, in the title match, 278-212. Aziela's team mate, Shalin Zulkifli, seeded third, lost the opening match against Staudinger, 213-203. Soltan received $4,500 for the first-ever victory of an Egyptian woman in an international bowling tournament. Aziela pocketed $3,200 for second place. Staudinger got $2,200 for third and Zulkifli garnered $1,500 for fourth..."

~ World Championship winner, Tom Smallwood, joins Brunswick Pro Staff -- "Brunswick Bowling announced today that Tom Smallwood (pictured), rookie-bowler and 2009 Professional Bowlers Association World Championship winner, has joined its Pro Staff. Smallwood, who has three career PBA 300 games, finished the season tenth in points on the PBA Tour. As the fifth earner for the 2009-2010 season, he's earned more than $100,000. Thanks to his win at the PBA World Championship, Smallwood earned a two-year exemption on the tour and a chance to bowl in the PBA Tournament of Champions in January. Smallwood's story has been all over the news media from USA Today to Sports Illustrated to the Los Angeles Times. After a job loss prompted him to enter the PBA Tour Trials in Detroit, he finished third and earned a full-year exemption to bowl..."

~ Former Team USA member takes Open Singles lead at Bowlers Journal Championships -- "Former Team USA member Derek Eoff of Arlington, Texas, may be quiet and reserved in demeanor off the lanes, but while competing, his performance often speaks volumes, and he has evolved into the type of bowler people stop to watch. This week, the 29-year-old right-hander turned heads at the Storm Bowlers Journal Championships, presented by USBC, where he fired games of 258, 289 and 268 for an 815 series and added a 202 for a 1,017 four-game total, which moved him into the top spot in Open Singles. David Ewald of Macomb, Mich., previously held the lead with 992..."

~ The many benefits of league bowling -- "For those of you out there who have never bowled in an organized bowling league, you may have won-dered what it would be like to do so. You may have questions about what a league really is and how you would benefit from the experience if you joined one. The simple answer is that league bowling is a group of people getting together to bowl on a competitive basis. League bowlers consist of people of all age groups, all walks of life, and all levels of athletic skills..."

~ Harry Lippe (1952)

~ Assess Your Bowlers Learning Styles -- "How do you or your bowlers learn best? Are they an auditory, visual, kinesthetic, or a multimodal learner? As a coach, you have a responsibility to learn about your individual players' learning styles and needs to communicate most effectively. Use the following free learning styles assessment to help you be a better coach and to meet the needs of individual players. This will enable you to express and explain ideas more clearly to your athletes..."

~ Traditional vs. functional training methods: Which does the elite athlete choose? (Training Room: Mark Gerule & Paul Butcher--Bowling This Month, May 2010, pgs. 38-41) -- "Regardless of what level bowler you are, it is important to understand what fitness and conditioning program is best for you. By adhering to certain fundamental principles you can increase the possibility that your workout program will produce your desired gains. How will you know which conditioning regimen is best for you?...traditional training and functional training are the two main types of training methods seen in athletic centers today. The authors believe that both methods should be used by bowlers to get transfer of performance from the gym to the lanes. The percentage of traditional versus functional training performed is individually specific and is based on areas of deficiency..."

~ The case for limited layouts: There can be simplicity in choosing your arsenal (Smart Moves: Rob Mautner--Bowling This Month, May 2010, pgs. 48-51) -- "The Five Variables...Coverstock...Core Configuration, RG and Differential...Limiting Pin Positions...What to do with a tired bowling ball...How to choose pin positions....Once you have learned to limit the layouts of your bowling balls, ball selection becomes simply a matter of numbers for the ball purchases and lane changes dictated by transitioning oil."

After First Round of Match Play at TOC

Tony Reyes is leading the pack after the first 8 game block of match play, and Kelly Kulick is doing a beautiful job of hanging in there with the guys. She's in fifth place and a mere 55 pins off the lead. But can she keep bowling like this? She's qualified for match play in men's national tournaments before but couldn't sustain the pace in match play. Yet she was throwing the ball very well last night, went 4-3-1 in her matches, and seems very confident. It would be sensational if she made the televised finals of this hallowed tournament or even won it. I think the PBA's powers-that-be are praying for this to happen so they can reap the rewards of the ensuing publicity.

Speaking of publicity, Tom Smallwood continues to receive his share after his victory a few weeks ago. Almost everyone knows the story of how this laid off GM worker qualified for match play in a tournament at the WSOB, proceeded to bowl his way into the televised finals, turned down a job offer at GM just before he bowled in the finals, and went on to win the championship. His story has been featured in all kinds of media ever since, and, as reported last night on Xtra Frame, there's a writer from Sports Illustrated following him around this week to do a story on him for the king of American sports magazines. And if Kelly Kulick makes it to the televised finals, it looks like he's going to have more work to do.