Bowling, The Wright Way - March 14, 1996 by Don Wright
Adult Bumper Bowling??!!

"I KNOW I'M WRIGHT" - I don't think I can make it through a day when I don't hear someone say that the new bowling balls are taking the integrity out of the game. I heard someone say, "it's adult bumper bowling." "The game's too easy," is another one I like. "Too many perfect games, too many high averages, something has to be done about the new balls."

There is no winning in this argument, but I want to point out a few things just for food for thought. First, there is more to the game than the balls. The system of bowling was supposed to be the answer to all our woes. Volumes were written in all the bowling magazines, the integers all told us that the system of bowling was the absolute answer to the high scoring that was created by short oil. But, did it? Not on your life. But, it is so easy to place the blame on the balls.

I have written about this before, and I will repeat it here, if bowling has become so easy because of the new balls, why are so many professional bowlers having such a hard time making them work? Where is Del Ballard, Jr; Robert Lawrence; George Branham; Kelly Coffman; Rick Steelsmith and many others who were household names. Why is Norm Duke, the former number one ranked bowler, having a hard time winning?

In the first four telecasts of the 1996 season we saw 20 different bowlers. None of them were the bowlers I listed above.

Let's stop placing all the blame on the bowling balls. Del Ballard, Jr., on the pro tour is having a hard time. Yet, on a league condition he can roll a 758 using a ball he can't be successful with on the tour. So, is it the ball or the lane condition? Or, is it the system of bowling in general?

If it's only the bowling balls that have made the game easier, not the other factors, such as pin weight, lane dressing, or pin design, why would the winnings for a perfect game by a professional be raised from $25,000 to $100,000 if rolled on the television finals.

Now, don't think that I am a bowling ball salesman or something, but I think the ball is taking far too much of the blame.

John Jowdy, PBA Hall of Famer, had this to say about bowling balls and ball representatives in his recent column. "Bowling ball representatives are the most important and least known performers on the PBA Tour." He went on to say, "...ball manufacturers investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in research and development of bowling balls with exotic weight blocks and wondrous surfaces..." Sounds to me like there are no plans to change the bowling ball and it certainly doesn't seem to me to be the villain as it is depicted.

BOWLING OR BASKETBALL? - Well ABC TV will soon be covering the Pro Bowlers Tour. I don't know about you folks, but I really like Earl Anthony and Mike Durbin. I'm excited about bowling being back on Saturday, but I hope that "Bo" and Chris improve. Even in arena format, those two are about as exciting as watching paint dry. ESPN got the first few weeks of bowling because ABC opted for college basketball. I sure hope that ABC is doing better than CBS with college basketball. According to Rudy Martzke in his USA Today column, CBS' college basketball ratings are down 9% this year to 2.1 and are off 36% in three seasons.

Maybe the PBA should talk to CBS and slam dunk the ABC contract.

GOLF - CLEARLY MORE CIVILIZED - Bowlers are the only athletes who blame their bad performance on the place in which they played, the center, right? How many remember Greg Norman's comments about the Eagle Trace course where the Honda Classic is played? In 1991, after a third round 77 knocked him off the leader board he called it "a Mickey Mouse course." He likened playing on the near-treeless tract bordering the Everglades to "carnival golf."