Bill Simmons and the PBA: Successful Experiment?

Last Sunday's Dick Weber Open featured a third man in the booth. It was ESPN's The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons. Now, I have to admit that I enjoy reading Bill's columns and his interweaving of pop culture into his sports analysis is witty. I feel as if I am part of the inside joke with many of his television or movie references. I'm sure you do too. Most all males currently in their mid-40's can recite many lines from Caddyshack or Ghostbusters. Simmons' in-depth analysis of the movie Hoosiers is like something that I have never read. However, is he good for televised bowling? Does the PBA throw any random person into the announcers' booth as a bridge between the hardcore and casual fanbase? Should the PBA stick to only the 'experts' in the bowling industry?

As part of his ESPN duties, Bill also does podcasts, or taped Internet shows. The day before the telecast, he and Rob Stone discussed bowling and soccer. Entertaining interview, but one point made me wince. He asked Stone about the pronunciation of 'Weber.' He asked Rob if he should do some research or do 'fish out of water.' He, obviously, was the latter. Various comments across the Internet seem to dislike his performance.

Is this a one-time shot with the PBA? Will they also have other guest announcers? The WWE has guest host on RAW every Monday night on the USA network. Should the PBA also have William Shatner in the booth with Stone and Pederson?

This was good and bad. I think if Bill had done more preparation for the show, it would have worked better. Most everyone should know about Dick Weber. He should represent the casual fan that the PBA needs to expand its ratings. Also, to appease the hardcore fans, the announcer cannot appear to mock the sport. Rob Stone mentions this in his beginnings as a PBA announcer on the podcast with Bill Simmons.

The hardcore fans want another expert as the third announcer. Not every expert can be a good fit for the booth like Nelson Burton, Jr. or Randy Pederson. The show is not that entertaining if I hear too much technical commenting about how the bowler missed inside of target because of something the expert saw in the third step of the approach. I don't want too much hilarity, but I also don't want too much USBC gold medal coach jargon.

I like to be entertained when I watch the show. So, I give the Simmons experiment a 'thumb in the middle' sign. Maybe another celebrity who knows bowling could be a good fit. How about Jerome Bettis?
Or, bring back Simmons, and give him another shot when he is better prepared. He loves sports and can be that bridge between the casual fan and the hardcore fan if he just learned the sport. Most all of us like to explain the nuances of bowling to our co-workers. Let Randy school Bill like he does Rob.

Can we fix the city tournament system?

In case you haven't noticed in your area of the state, association championships, or city tournaments, are floundering. Entries have been low for years. Reading various associations' board of director minutes, this is not an isolated incident. It is happening all over the state. What can be done to increase city tournament entries?

League bowling is down
Let us not forget this important fact. Long gone are the times of two night shifts of league bowling. Long gone are the days when open bowling was only available during the day and Saturday nights. So of course, association tournament entries will be down also. Now, it is more important than ever to increase the percentage of your membership into tournament entries. There are different ways to secure this goal; a positive one and a negative one.

Promote, Market, Publish, Inquire, Advertise
The association board of directors and various house representatives basically have to work every league night in every house and invite everyone to participate. This is more than making the P.A. announcement at the counter. Invite each team to enter. If they are having a good time bowling one night a week with their friends, why not do it on another week-end? An Open association does not discriminate on gender anymore, so all are welcome to enter the open tournament. Try this method but let everyone know months in advance when the tournament is being held. "The tournament has always been held on these week-ends." Don't assume everyone knows this. Publishing entry forms for the bowling centers 3 weeks in advance of the closing date and posting tournament information on the association web site less than a month before entries are due is not timely promotion. Too many competing activities and other commitments can fill up a person's calendar long before you even notify the community of the city tournament dates.

Change the Dates
If the city tournament has been losing entries, maybe it is time to change the time of the season when it is being held. Leagues that last more than 32 weeks are dwindling as more and more people think the typical bowling season is too long. Shorter season leagues are getting more popular. While the bowling season is young and interest is at its zenith, hold a city tournament. I've noticed that some associations hold their championships in October and November. The association may not have to worry about a ten-pin rule if your bowlers don't have 21 games in the current season for average establishment.

Solicit input from the members
While board members are promoting the tournament, handing out entry forms, ask the bowlers about why they have not participated in past tournaments. Ask for their ideas. They may be more honest than anonymous surveys or e-mails.

Negative Changes
I mentioned earlier of positive changes and negative changes for the association tournament. Positive changes are inclusive so all bowlers feel welcome. Negative changes are exclusionary where bowlers feel they are not wanted in the tournament. One idea that always limits the amount of bowlers available for leagues or tournaments is the average cap. The average cap is the top limit for a sum of a team's individual averages. Obviously, the idea is to foster more balance and equal playing strength among the teams in a league or tournament. There are a few reasons why this won't work. First reason is that the average cap is usually poorly chosen and static. With today's high scoring conditions, bowlers in an high scoring house can not bowl together because they made the unfortunate choice of bowling league in an easy house. Teammates for years cannot bowl together in this average capped tournament or league. Some average capped leagues have had to keep raising the maximum team average to keep the current teams in the league intact. So, instead of recruiting new bowlers, these leagues are trying to retain the ones they have by raising the average cap each year. Soon, the average cap is so high it defeats the purpose of having one.

Who is helped and who is hurt?
Are the high average bowlers winning too much? Mathematically, the higher your average, the more times you should win. I have always believed that you increase your skills by competing against better bowlers. There is always someone better. However, if everyone feels they have no chance and the better bowlers are 'taking all the money,' a perception becomes reality. However, city tournaments have never involved a lot of money. Even brackets and side-pots are measly because tournament squads are small. However, these higher average bowlers support the association championships by entering multiple times. The other side of the equation of the higher average bowlers 'taking all the money' is that the higher average bowlers are putting in the most money by entering multiple times. Rules limiting the number of team events one can enter only seem to apply to these bowlers as they will bowl on two or three teams.

So, an average cap prevents the bowlers who most support the tournament from even entering it. An association championship, as well as league bowling, is still a social activity. Strangers don't come together to form teams to enter a tournament so as to meet average cap requirements.

Tournament managers want the maximum number of entries for their event, so why would any tournament exclude people from entering?

End of 209 Notes

If you are a regular viewer of the front page of AlabamaBowling.Com, you may occasionally click on some of the bowling stories that appear in various newspaper, TV, and other web sites. I have various Internet searches give me a list of daily news stories based on certain key words, such as 'bowling.' I could use an automated program to just post these stories automatically, but you would be subjected to multitude of stories from Great Britain, India, and other parts of the Empire regarding the latest controversies in cricket. You would also get tired of stories about local news in Bowling Green, Kentucky and the multitude of stories that pass on just local scores. However, there is also a lack of creativity in the journalistic profession. These examples include:

Video Game Seniors
Do reporters get writer's bloc? If so, do they read newspapers on-line from another part of the country and just copy the same subject? Our nation's senior citizens are getting exercise by playing Wii bowling. Every part of the country has run this story, including some television stations. My editorial control prevented me from basically showing this same story run all over the country. Just 'google' this subject and see how many stories you can take before you realize that we will all live longer if we pay video game bowling. My personal opinion is that Wii bowling is too easy. Play the Brunswick or AMF Wii bowling games where you have different lane conditions and equipment characteristics. Also, like real bowling, if you are not consistent with the release, you get different results. So, Brunswick's version is not as forgiving as the regular Wii bowling.

College Football: End of Season
Why does each college town paper call a successful football season as 'going bowling?' "The Big 10 is going bowling." "Fresno State hopes to go bowling this season." No, you are not going 'bowling,' you are playing one more college football game as a reward for a successful season. Rolling a ball to knock down pins is not involved in winning the Cotton Bowl. This is a stupid cliché. With a variety of sports web sites and 24-hour sports channels, sportswriters just want to be cool and dream of hosting SportsCenter.

Top NFL Players Change Sports
This year the annual NFL all-star game, known as the Pro Bowl, is not in Hawaii. It seems that most players want to be selected, just not play in the game. Chris Barnes is a pro bowler, not an NFL all star. However, I hear NFL announcers call a player selected to the annual NFL all star game as a pro bowler. Another stupid cliché as it must be cool to compare America's favorite professional sport with bowling. As an aside, of all the major American sports leagues, the NFL Pro Bowl is the worst all star game of the lot. Ironic, as the NFL is the league that has the most popular championship game.

Get a New Blackberry for Christmas?

With the new Storm2, you can play a PBA pro on a PBA lane pattern

PBA Bowling 2, BlackBerry Storm2’s OpenGL Game Now Available

Sport or Recreation; Reality or Perception

There has been talks for years of trying to get bowling into the Olympics. Bowling on the same par as track & field, soccer, swimming and the decathlon? Gymnastics gets the most television viewers for the Olympics but with its subjective scoring, I don't consider it a sport.

However, the perception of bowling is probably what is keeping it out of the Games. I am not referring to an individual's perception of bowling, or taking a general survey of the population. I am no sociologist, but I think there is an institutional negative perception of bowling. USBC has now decided to focus on the SPORT of bowling; advanced coaching and more equipment specifications as some examples.

There is a lull period in college football right now; the end of the season and before the bowl season. This void needs to be filled with other televised activities. This institutional perception was made aware to me while I exercised at the gym one Sunday afternoon. There were many televisions around the facility displaying different channels. Besides the NFL game, I noticed the other events being televised; billiards tournament, darts tournament, and a poker tournament. If you include the PBA show earlier in the day, you have included every event you can see in a 'family fun center' or 'recreation center' or whatever we call 'bowling alleys' these days. Thus, my view is that society groups these events together.

The purpose of television programming is to broadcast shows and events that attract viewers so as to sell advertising. That works for me. I'd rather watch darts, billiards, bowling, and poker than gymnastics.

Help Mark Roth

News from CharlestonBowling.com

• New items added to the Mark Roth Live Online Auction
• Charity Tournament to be held for Mark Roth
• Charleston Traveling 8-Game Year End Tournament held
• Greater Charleston USBC Youth City Tournament Results
• Greater Charleston USBC holds Hall of Fame and Annual Awards Banquet

New items added to the Mark Roth Live Online Auction

Want to own a piece of bowling memorabilia while helping support a legendary pro bowler? Check out the live auction going on right now at http://charlestonbowling.com/markrothauction.htm - autographed jerseys, balls, and photos have just been added by recently crowned PBA title holder Bill O'Neill, legends like Tom Baker, Ryan Shafer, Norm Duke as well as Ryan Cimenelli and Jason Belmonte and many more. Check it out today, auction ends on December 6th!

Charity Tournament to be held for Mark Roth

In addition to the live online auction, we are teaming up with John Howe and Royal Z Lanes in Columbia to hold a Old Dog Young Dog tournament charity tournament for Mark Roth. One bowler must be over 50 and one under 50. The Tournament will be held on December 26th at Royal Z Lanes in Columbia, SC. Check in begins at 11am and bowling begins at 12pm. Prizes are - $900 1st place singles (based on 30 entries), $1800 1st place doubles (based on 20 teams). Go to http://charlestonbowling.com/MarkRoth.htm for more information!

I thought we already had these ...

900Global has introduced a radio controlled bowling ball. A real life bowling game like Wii when you can use your controller to guide the bowling ball after it is delivered down the lane. On some of today's lane conditions, it appears that some balls are being easily directed to the pocket by some mysterious control. It must be radio control as it does not matter what board, or arrow, the bowler uses on each subsequent shot. I like to see how good a 'poker face' a competitor has I observe his facial reaction after an errant shot is dead flush in the pocket. Is he showing gratitude, relief, discovery, or no emotion at all? I need to know if he realizes that his 'look' to the pocket is better than he thought. I don't want him to get more comfortable. I don't mind if he wants to explore his area on the lanes. My opinion is he will sacrifice some carry if he varies too far from his intended target.

900Global has signed Walter Ray Williams, Jr. to its professional staff. For the conspiracy theorists, is the new remote control ball the reason WRW can play the outside part of the lane when no other pro bowler is out there?