How to Get Your Bowling Fix

Do you miss the PBA telecasts on ESPN? Are you going through televised bowling withdrawal? Well, you can always go back and watch YouTube's archives of bowling telecasts, many of which you can view in embedded videos on this blog if they're from the past couple of years. Or you can subscribe to PBA Xtra Frame and watch live match play of senior and some regional Tour events over the spring and summer, as well as access the archives that go back ten or so years.

However, if you don't want to pay for any subscriptions and you'd like to watch bowlers at the USBC Open in Reno and other upcoming events this spring and summer, you can always check out Bowl.com for their live streaming of numerous bowling competitions, and you can also access their growing archives of past events including the recently concluded Queens match play and Senior Queens finals, Men's Team USA competition, and so forth.

Bowl.com has posted a schedule of upcoming events they'll be covering live over the next few months including tonight's live coverage of Carolyn Dorin-Ballard's team competing in the USBC Open at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno. So whether you're willing to pay for it or you want it for free, your bowling fix is literally just a mouse click or two away.

Bowling Quote of the Day--Walter Ray Anticipates Better Things to Come

"I have basically felt that most of my struggles this year were related to me. I think I started doing some things that weren't quite right so I have been working on improving my timing and push away to create a better swing. With the changes I have had to make to my game hopefully I can improve upon what I'm working on and have a successful Senior Tour season."

--Walter Ray Williams Jr.

Jason Thomas Praises Dan MacLelland

Jason Thomas has just posted an article on pba.com, Dan MacLelland is Breakthrough Star of 10-11 Season. Here is a choice quote:

"MacLelland possesses one of the strongest strike balls on Tour, a sick, vertical backswing with perfect balance, and his ability to compete on difficult conditions (he qualified 5th for the U.S. Open telecast, which is considered the toughest condition on the Tour) made him a threat any given week. He also can roll the big scores as well, once shooting a "low 6" (that would be a perfect 600 series) for a 2-game sweeper at the South Point in Las Vegas during a megabuck amateur event prior to his debut on Tour."

Video of 2011 USBC Queens Championship Telecast

I was talking with a friend last night who said he wishes he'd recorded Wednesday's ESPN2 telecast of the USBC Queens Championship so he wouldn't have had to watch all the commercials that littered the two hour program. I didn't notice more commercials than usual, but maybe that's because I wasn't noticing the commercials at all. When the commercials came on, I focused my attention on other things.

Nevertheless, it's not a bad idea to record a bowling telecast if you don't absolutely, positively have to see it live and don't care whether you know in advance who won the matches, or you want to watch it again later. And if, by chance, you don't have a DVR or, if you're really old-fashioned, a VCR, or your DVR is full, or if you forgot to program your recording device, there's always YouTube. Usually, some kind soul who loves elite bowling as much as I do will upload video of the telecast to YouTube within a day or two, and someone did that with the 2011 USBC Queens Championship, which I am happy to share with you below.

Chris Barnes' Outstanding Bowling Commentary

Chris Barnes is one of the greatest bowlers in history. He's also showing himself to be an outstanding bowling commentator. Wednesday night, he was the commentator on ESPN2's telecast of the USBC Queens Championship, and he was excellent, just as he was in last year's Queens and Women's U.S. Open telecasts and as he always is when he sits in on PBA Xtra Frame and USBC webcasts.

The man clearly knows the ins and outs of bowling, has an exceptionally keen eye for what's happening on the lanes, and he has a virtually flawless way of articulating what he knows and sees so that we, the fans, can know and see it too.

When I watch a bowling match, I don't need someone to tell me that so-and-so left the 10 pin or got a strike or spare. I can see that with my own eyes. I want to know WHY the 10 pin stood after what appeared to be a perfect pocket hit, or why so-and-so's ball is carrying strikes while her opponent's ball isn't.

Chris Barnes gives you that information. He talks about how minor variations in release, ball speed, and entry angle can spell the difference between a strike and a pocket 7-10. He can insightfully analyze a bowler's style and strategy in fine detail, and he can tell you what went wrong on an errant shot and what adjustments in equipment, release, alignment, ball speed, or body mechanics the bowler needs to make to get to the pocket and carry. And he manages to do it in a way that keeps me interested and informed without overloading me with information that is too abstruse to understand.

I look forward to any bowling telecast or webcast that features Chris Barnes' commentary, and I hope there will be many more of them. Fortunately, he'll be joining yesterday's Queens play-by-play announcer Dave LaMont next month to cover the finals of the USBC Intercollegiate Championships. The tournament actually concluded last Sunday, April 24, but ESPN2 will be airing it on May 15 at 6 p.m. EDT.

I'll be watching.

What do you think of Chris Barnes' bowling commentary, and who are your favorite bowling commentators of all time?

Below is video of Chris Barnes' commentary for the entire telecast of the 2010 USBC Queens Championship.

How to Bowl Like the Pros Commercial

Missy Parkin Bounces Back to Win 2011 USBC Queens Championship

Last year, Missy Bellinder needed only a mark in the tenth frame of her match with Kelly Kulick to advance to the third match of the USBC Queens Championship. She got up, threw what looked like a great shot, and left a pocket 7-10 split for a 212 to 220 loss. Kulick went on to win the next two matches and add the Queens title to her miraculous year of accomplishments.

Since then, Missy got married, worked hard on her game, and came back this year more determined than ever to win. Now Missy Parkin, she decisively beat two time U.S. Open champion and former Queens champion Kim Terrell-Kearney 235-172 and then defeated top seeded Elysia Current 214-189 to earn the championship, the tiara, and the $20,000 first prize.

The hard throwing right-hander had this to say about her victory in a USBC press relase posted on Bowl.com:

"After last year's show, I was pretty devastated, and for a while after that, every time I left the 7-10, I got angrier and angrier. But today, I definitely had a different mindset. I told myself I needed to throw 10 good shots every game, and that's all I could do. That was my plan all week, and it worked out well."

Congratulations to Missy Parkin on her 2011 Queens title. I have the feeling she's going to be a force to be reckoned with at the U.S. Open in Texas in June.

For all the results of this year's and last year's Queens tournament, click on here. Below is video of a brief interview with Parkin about her victory. And when video of the televised finals becomes available, I'll be posting it to this blog, so be sure to check back for it.