Bowling, The Wright Way - July 2005 by Don Wright
Bowling Musings

What you're writing about isn't very timely when you write a column to meet a deadline. However, we ponder things all the time. Here are a few things to ponder.

• Will we ever see another PWBA? If the answer is yes, will the former athletes of the PWBA support it? I believe that the longer the PWBA stays in limbo the less likelihood of the greats of the sport returning. I think too much emphasis is placed on a television contract. Forget the television, get the Tour started. Out of sight, out of mind.

• There has been a lot of talk and a lot written about Liz Johnson and I agree she bowled remarkably well. But, she didn't win and she's not exempt for next year finishing 24th in the PBA Tour Trials. Kelly Kulick was 28th and Carolyn Dorin-Ballard was 30th. Another writer I know told me, "There are too many lane patters for the women. Some women can hook the ball, but can't go straight. Some can go straight, but can't hook the ball. That won't get it done against the men." Something to ponder.

• According to the Smoking and Health Action Foundation the lowest price for a carton of cigarettes is $43.59 in Kentucky. In New York the price is $79.56. That should be incentive enough for anyone to quit. Do you know how many games of bowling that would pay for?

• At the ABC Championship Tournament, soon to be the USBC Open, they play both the Canadian national anthem and ours. The Canadian anthem is harder to sing than ours. Also, in all the times I have bowled in the ABC Tournament there has never been a Canadian team competing on my shift, yet they play their anthem anyway. Why is that?

• One of our local bowlers has rolled several 300 games. I don't call them perfect games anymore because most of them aren't. Recently he was bowling at my center and he had a strike in the first frame and the desk clerk made the following announcement."…is on his way to another 300." I remember when a 300 wasn't a joke.

• I got an e-mail from an out of state friend the other day and he said he had a chance to read some of my columns on the Internet. He and I bowled together while in the Army and because of health he can no longer bowl. He closed his e-mail by writing, "I really miss bowling." I know that if I could not bowl I would really miss it, too.

• While talking to some bowlers recently I said I would like to see a one ball tournament. One guy said, "Why would you want to do that?" I expected some response to my comment, but not that one.

• Only 77 bowlers went out for the PBA Tour Trials.

• If you are not listening to the Phantom on the Internet you are missing out on some good dialog. Here are a few people I would like to hear on the Phantom - Chuck Pezzano, (Future of the BWAA), Pete Weber, (Plans for the future), Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, (High School Bowling), Tish Johnson, (Ability of women to compete on the PBA and what she thinks the future holds for the PWBA), and finally, Dick Evans, (Writers role in bowling, who should the BWAA align with, and will a writer be inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame?)

• My wife loves to crochet and usually when we travel she has some project in her hands while I drive. She's making a baby gift for a friend, or she's making something just to give to an old friend. While she's counting stitches, I get to ponder a lot.

• I got to see my first ABC Tournament in 1956. It was held in the War Memorial in Rochester, New York. The War Memorial is now called the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. More corporate take over. I don't remember much about the tournament except it was four years after my Dad passed away and I was told his bowling team was competing. I don't recall seeing them, but I remember thinking to myself that some day I would bowl in that event. Thirty-six years later in Corpus Christi, Texas I did it and I was hooked. Every time I walk down the center isle I think of my Dad.

• Whenever I travel I try to think of easy columns to write.

See you on the lanes.