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.

Old Master of the Masters

"It's deja vu all over again."
--Yogi Berra

Walter Ray Williams last bowled in the title match of the USBC Masters Championship in 2004. It was at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada. He was seeded second to his opponent Chris Barnes. He defeated Barnes that day 268-239 for his first Masters title.

Yesterday, the finals of the 2010 Masters Championship took place. For the first time since 2004, it was held at Reno's National Bowling Stadium. And, once again, Walter Ray Williams was seeded second to Chris Barnes.

Williams bowled well all week and steamrolled over his opponents in match play until he ran into a razor sharp Barnes in the final winners bracket match and was dominated by a hundred pins by the widely acknowledged best bowler on tour, prompting both Xtra Frame's "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark and ESPN's analyst Randy Pedersen to unequivocally predict a Barnes victory.

Nevertheless, Walter Ray came out firing on all cylinders yesterday against young lion Ryan Ciminelli in the semi-final match and, playing his patented outside line, convincingly dispatched him 258-224 on the way to his showdown with Barnes. But his first ball against Barnes came up high, and a surprised Williams was lucky to leave only a 7 pin instead of a disastrous split. Yet, this was the last time Williams failed to strike as he blasted eleven strikes, most of them "high flush," in a row after that to crush Barnes 290-217 and earn his second Masters title and a $50,000 paycheck, his 8th major title, tying him with Mike Aulby and Pete Weber for second place behind Earl Anthony's ten on the all time list, increase his career national title record to 47, and vault the 50-year-old bowling wonder to the top of the Bowler of the Year points race.

"This is just another little feather, it's just awesome," said a jubilant Williams, who was reported to be leaving afterward for Stockton, CA to celebrate his mother's 75th birthday. When asked about his future bowling plans, Williams replied: "I'm going to go out there and plug along as good as I can, and the year that I'm no longer exempt out here, that's when I will have had enough.

I'm sure both the regular touring players and the bowlers on the senior tour are overjoyed to hear that.

Masters Finalists

Well, the match play dust has settled and the four finalists for Sunday' USBC Masters telecast have been determined. Lefty Mike Scroggins will take on lefty rookie sensation Ryan Ciminelli in the first match. The winner will bowl against Walter Ray Williams. And the winner of that match will face the great Chris Barnes for the prestigious title.

Xtra Frame's "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark says Barnes is going to win it, and Barnes certainly does look intimidatingly sharp right now. But I, as always, am rooting for Walter Ray Williams. By the way, Williams won the Masters in 2004, and that was the last time this great event was held in Reno's bowling stadium.

Entering Match Play of the USBC Masters

Match play of the USBC Masters at the cavernous National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada is about to begin. And even though anyone with a sanctioned 190 or higher league average could bowl in it provided he or she put down $500, and a lot of people I've never heard of in the field of 267 took the plunge, it should come as no surprise that the 64 to make it to match play are dominated by the names we bowling fans all know and mostly love. That's right, even though the great Norm Duke surprisingly didn't make the cut, just about everybody else who is somebody on tour did.

Brian Voss led after the first five game block of qualifying, averaging an awesome 248. Chris Loschetter led after the second block with a 234 overall average and ended up leading all qualifiers after a total of fifteen games with a 233 average, followed by Jason Belmonte, Patrick Allen, Chris Barnes, and Ryan Shafer, with Tommy Jones, Wes Malott, Pete Weber, Mike Scroggins, Mike Koivuniemi, and Eugne McCune all in the top 15.

However, it doesn't really matter a whole lot how these guys (and, yes, they're all guys this time, even though some women did participate) scored in qualifying, because those scores are now tossed aside and the bowlers, including last year's champion John Nolen, who was seeded directly into match play, will now engage in double elimination match play until only four players are left standing to bowl in the live televised finals this Sunday at 3 PM EST on ESPN. Match play is a 3 game total pin format.

Match play today begins at 7 PM EST and can be watched with scintillating commentary for free on PBA Xtra Frame. It will conclude God knows when tomorrow night. I'm going to have my ringside seat here at my computer, and I hope you'll join me at yours. There should be some very exciting action as a great field of the finest bowlers in the world scratch and claw each other to make it to Sunday's finals.

Why You Should Subscribe to PBA Xtra Frame

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of PBA.com's subscription service Xtra Frame. If you've been reading my blogposts, you know that I mention it just about every chance I get. The reason I do is simple. Xtra Frame gives the bowling fan tremendous value in bowling entertainment and information. For just $7.99 a month or $64.99 a year, you can watch the finest bowlers in the world bowl live in qualifying and match play.

You may think that the televised finals on ESPN tell the story of a week's tournament, but Sunday's program is only the final chapter of an epic novel of bowling challenge, struggle, defeat and triumph, and intrigue. Just as reading the last chapter of a novel alone isn't nearly as rewarding as reading the entire book, watching the televised finals of a PBA tournament is much more exciting and rewarding if you've been following on Xtra Frame the bowlers, matches, lead changes, and expert commentary on all of the above that led up to Sunday's program.

And when I say "expert commentary," I'm talking about people with awe-inspiring insider knowledge of the bowlers, bowling industry, the PBA tour, lane conditions, ball layouts and surfaces, bowling techniques and strategies, and on and on. In the past two weeks alone, subscribers to Xtra Frame have been treated to the prodigious knowledge and insights of the likes of PBA Deputy Commissioner Tom Clark, Paul F. from Ebonite International, John Jowdy, Rhino Page, Barry Asher, Stuart Williams, Ritchie Allen, and Mark Baker as they sat in with Xtra Frame announcer Mike Jakubowsky and genius analyst Jeff Mark during the match play rounds and not only commented on what they saw happening on the lanes but also answered questions from Xtra Frame viewers posting on Facebook's PBA page. That's right, you can ask questions about every aspect of bowling and get immediate answers from the Xtra Frame commentators during match play. I've already had three of my questions answered.

And in case you miss any of this live or you want to see some or all of it again, you can call it up from the archives on demand for no additional cost as well as do the same with the archived PBA telecasts, interviews, and Xtra Frame productions such as their "39X60" program. Not only that, but the more subscribers they get, the better equipment they can use and the better coverage they can provide of the action.

For instance, during last week's One a Day Dick Weber Open, they miked and followed bowling writer and former professional bowler Jason Thomas around as he competed in the qualifying rounds. and they're planning to do the same with some big name exempt bowlers in order to provide Xtra Frame subscribers an unprecedented bird's eye view of tournament play. I'm really looking forward to this.

But for those of you who aren't convinced by my glowing recommendation, you are cordially invited to check out Xtra Frame yourself for free during their coverage of next week's venerable USBC Masters tournament in Reno. You can follow all the live action subscribers can, although you won't be able to access the archives. If you're a real bowling fan, you're going to love Xtra Frame and want to subscribe.

In my next post, I'll recap some of the highlights of last week's Xtra Frame coverage.