onefrombills
08-30-2009, 05:52 PM
In less than ten days the World Series of Bowling will be history (well, sort of, actually once the ESPN finals air between November 1 and December 13, they will be). Next week’s humongous, triple-headed (PBA, Women’s Series and Senior) World Championship will cap off the WSOB and it will be the players’ last shot at glory here in 2009.
We’ve seen oodles of amazing things over the past month, like the epic double-tie position round at the Motor City Open, the PBA’s first reality-style tournament (the Cheetah Championship), amazing performances by the Women’s Series competitors and a flood of International players moving into the spotlight. It’s a little hard to put a finger on just what to say about this inaugural edition of the World Series of Bowling, so, instead, let’s pick our five favorite storylines that have emerged thus far.
STORYLINE #1: MOTOR CITY OPEN = BEST TV FINALS FIELD EVER?
Going back throughout the history of the PBA, there may never have been more titles represented on a single TV finals than we’ll see for this season-opening ESPN telecast on November 1. With 101 career titles amongst the finalists (45 for WRW, 34 for PDW, 10 for Chris Barnes and 12 for Tommy Jones), a win here will be so tough that it might be worth two or three titles (Bill O’Neill, the talented “fifth Beatle” on the show, will try to win his first title by going up the ladder...good luck with that).
And the way the finalists were determined was so mind-bogglingly fantastic that it would have taken an astrophysicist with five supercomputers to detail the possible scenarios that might have been over the course of the position round game. TJ jumped from 8th to 4th with a final game 300, while Rhino Page and O’Neill started the game tied for the 5th and final spot on the show and tied in the position round to force a one-game roll-off for the final spot (which O’Neill won). Osku Palermaa was sitting in 4th place and needed a decent game and a win against Pete Weber to stay on the show. Unfortunately, his 258-205 position round loss left him 10 pins shy of TV. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Barnes and Williams were tied to the pin for 1st? The Xtra Frame coverage was so dramatic that droves of fans proclaimed that they’d already gotten their entire year’s subscription worth of value from that single broadcast (which made me feel nice, but also a little nervous about how we’d be able to top it). It was indeed a perfect start to the WSOB and set the stage for our move over to the massive (and historic) Thunderbowl Lanes venue, where the rest of the action would unfold.
STORYLINE #2: THUNDERBOWL AND MODIFIED PBA OIL PATTERNS
Once the World Series tent moved over to historic Thunderbowl (the enormous venue where the National Bowling League kicked off back in the late ‘50’s) the question was how the lanes and a series of modified PBA oil patterns would play. The Cheetah Championship saw a return to the good old-fashioned scorched gutter setup which forced everyone into one place and yielded the usual batch of eye-popping scores. This tournament was also contested under a different format, where the ESPN cameras roamed free all week to cover every round of competition in order to present the entire competition in a reality-style format.
The next three events showcased modified Chameleon, Viper and Scorpion patterns, each of which offered players a number of different choices for how to play the lanes. The result was 11 different players qualifying for the 12 slots on the three telecasts (Sean Rash is the only player who qualified for two shows…Chameleon and Scorpion).
The final animal pattern event featured a higher-volume, more-OB-heavy Shark pattern, which ate up the players on Day 5 at the Tour Trials this summer, but isn’t likely to play quite as tough here (take that Jeff Mark…heeeyaaah!). And once the Shark concludes there will be the World Championship getting underway with its own special pattern.
The biggest controversy surrounding the lane conditions has undoubtedly been the different surfaces between the Main Bay (where Men’s qualifying action takes place) and the Arena Bay (where Women’s Series and Men’s late-round Match Play unfolds). The Arena Bay surface hooks quite a bit more than the Main Bay, so players are required to significantly adjust their plan of attack once they move from one side of the house to the other. We’ve seen quite a few unusual strategies employed (some successful, some not) including the use of old-school urethane balls, drastic line changes (like jumping from 6th arrow to the gutter) and controversial pre-match practice strategies (like the one Tom Smallwood utilized to take the gutter away from Norm Duke in their Scorpion Championship Round of 8 match).
STORYLINE #3: RYAN CIMINELLI = RHINO PAGE CIRCA 2007
Each new season on the PBA Tour gives us a chance to see an exciting new star emerge. The past two seasons, we’ve been lucky enough to see two such phenoms explode onto the PBA scene with Jason Belmonte in ’08-’09 and Rhino Page in ‘07-‘08. Page’s rookie season saw him set nearly every TQR and rookie record in PBA history, as he qualified for five shows and won his first title to seemingly come out of nowhere (of course, that’s not quite true given his celebrated amateur career) to jump right into the position of one of the elite players on Tour (and he’s certainly shown no signs of a sophomore or even a junior slump).
Here at the World Series, it looks as if we’re about to have another great young star emerge in the form of Ryan Ciminelli, an athletic lefty from Cheektowaga, New York. Ciminielli absolutely dominated early action at Thunderbowl, finishing top 3 in an early sweeper event, then scoring top 2 finishes in each of the first three TQRs. He parlayed those into two consecutive TV finals appearances in the Cheetah and Viper Championships, and is looking to secure his exemption later this month by winning one of those events in the ESPN finals. Even if he doesn’t win, he has a huge leg up on earning his exemption through the point list, and he plans to continue his march when the second half resumes in January. Plus, having spent an hour talking to him the other day, he’s a great kid and is exactly what the Tour needs.
STORYLINE #4: XTRA FRAME COVERAGE
OK. This one here I may be a little biased about. But when the PBA hired me to help out with the Xtra Frame coverage here at the World Series, I was very much aware of the notorious past of the subscription service and my goal here was to simply prove that Xtra Frame could be a viable product that fans could get excited about.
Of course, the fact that we’ve had incredible and dramatic tournament action has helped, but the fan feedback we’ve received from the nearly hundred hours of content we’ve produced so far has been fantastic. In fact, Jeff “The Bowling Doctor” Mark, who expertly handles color duties on our Xtra Frame live streaming tournament broadcasts, has told me that he no longer fears angry fans coming up to him at tournaments and threatening bodily harm because their Xtra Frame stream doesn’t work or that the production quality is subpar. In fact, the feedback in the PBA Message Boards and on Mike J. Laneside’s Facebook page has been so positive, we’re half expecting a meteor to fall out of the sky and crush us and all of our production equipment because we just can’t believe how well everything is going.
But believe me, we’re not resting on our laurels whatsoever. Every night, after the action concludes, the XF posse (we actually do call ourselves that) meets to discuss ways to make our productions even better (like how to incorporate live scoring into the broadcasts…we’re getting really close on that one) and how to make everything about the product better for you fans. The World Series has also lent itself perfectly to the kind of extensive coverage the new Xtra Frame is now equipped to bring you, with either live tournament action or a new episode of PBA:39x60 coming to you each and every day. We’re all very excited about the future and the potential that Xtra Frame has to help generate awareness of what goes on at these amazing tournaments each week and we plan to continue to make strides toward making the product bigger and better.
STORYLINE #5: A TRUE WORLD SERIES
And our final storyline, although certainly not the least important (and maybe even the most important) is the infusion of diversity that this World Series has brought to competitive bowling. Exposing the world bowling community to International players competing with all of the best in one place has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that bowling is truly a global sport. The success at the WSOB of players like Jason Belmonte, Osku Palermaa, Andres Gomez, Amleto Monacelli, Martin Larsen, Stuart Williams, Clara Guerrero, Shalin Zulkifli and Aumi Guerra shows that the United States no longer has a stranglehold on the best bowling talent in the world and that entire legions of fans in other countries will no doubt be instrumental in growing awareness of the PBA and the world’s best bowlers in years to come. Perhaps one day, the World Series of Bowling will take place in Tokyo or Paris or Sydney or any number of other great cities where bowling now thrives. When that happens, no one will be able to say that this concept, which only a few short months ago was merely a figment of the imagination, was not the best possible thing that could have happened for the sport of bowling.
We’ve seen oodles of amazing things over the past month, like the epic double-tie position round at the Motor City Open, the PBA’s first reality-style tournament (the Cheetah Championship), amazing performances by the Women’s Series competitors and a flood of International players moving into the spotlight. It’s a little hard to put a finger on just what to say about this inaugural edition of the World Series of Bowling, so, instead, let’s pick our five favorite storylines that have emerged thus far.
STORYLINE #1: MOTOR CITY OPEN = BEST TV FINALS FIELD EVER?
Going back throughout the history of the PBA, there may never have been more titles represented on a single TV finals than we’ll see for this season-opening ESPN telecast on November 1. With 101 career titles amongst the finalists (45 for WRW, 34 for PDW, 10 for Chris Barnes and 12 for Tommy Jones), a win here will be so tough that it might be worth two or three titles (Bill O’Neill, the talented “fifth Beatle” on the show, will try to win his first title by going up the ladder...good luck with that).
And the way the finalists were determined was so mind-bogglingly fantastic that it would have taken an astrophysicist with five supercomputers to detail the possible scenarios that might have been over the course of the position round game. TJ jumped from 8th to 4th with a final game 300, while Rhino Page and O’Neill started the game tied for the 5th and final spot on the show and tied in the position round to force a one-game roll-off for the final spot (which O’Neill won). Osku Palermaa was sitting in 4th place and needed a decent game and a win against Pete Weber to stay on the show. Unfortunately, his 258-205 position round loss left him 10 pins shy of TV. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Barnes and Williams were tied to the pin for 1st? The Xtra Frame coverage was so dramatic that droves of fans proclaimed that they’d already gotten their entire year’s subscription worth of value from that single broadcast (which made me feel nice, but also a little nervous about how we’d be able to top it). It was indeed a perfect start to the WSOB and set the stage for our move over to the massive (and historic) Thunderbowl Lanes venue, where the rest of the action would unfold.
STORYLINE #2: THUNDERBOWL AND MODIFIED PBA OIL PATTERNS
Once the World Series tent moved over to historic Thunderbowl (the enormous venue where the National Bowling League kicked off back in the late ‘50’s) the question was how the lanes and a series of modified PBA oil patterns would play. The Cheetah Championship saw a return to the good old-fashioned scorched gutter setup which forced everyone into one place and yielded the usual batch of eye-popping scores. This tournament was also contested under a different format, where the ESPN cameras roamed free all week to cover every round of competition in order to present the entire competition in a reality-style format.
The next three events showcased modified Chameleon, Viper and Scorpion patterns, each of which offered players a number of different choices for how to play the lanes. The result was 11 different players qualifying for the 12 slots on the three telecasts (Sean Rash is the only player who qualified for two shows…Chameleon and Scorpion).
The final animal pattern event featured a higher-volume, more-OB-heavy Shark pattern, which ate up the players on Day 5 at the Tour Trials this summer, but isn’t likely to play quite as tough here (take that Jeff Mark…heeeyaaah!). And once the Shark concludes there will be the World Championship getting underway with its own special pattern.
The biggest controversy surrounding the lane conditions has undoubtedly been the different surfaces between the Main Bay (where Men’s qualifying action takes place) and the Arena Bay (where Women’s Series and Men’s late-round Match Play unfolds). The Arena Bay surface hooks quite a bit more than the Main Bay, so players are required to significantly adjust their plan of attack once they move from one side of the house to the other. We’ve seen quite a few unusual strategies employed (some successful, some not) including the use of old-school urethane balls, drastic line changes (like jumping from 6th arrow to the gutter) and controversial pre-match practice strategies (like the one Tom Smallwood utilized to take the gutter away from Norm Duke in their Scorpion Championship Round of 8 match).
STORYLINE #3: RYAN CIMINELLI = RHINO PAGE CIRCA 2007
Each new season on the PBA Tour gives us a chance to see an exciting new star emerge. The past two seasons, we’ve been lucky enough to see two such phenoms explode onto the PBA scene with Jason Belmonte in ’08-’09 and Rhino Page in ‘07-‘08. Page’s rookie season saw him set nearly every TQR and rookie record in PBA history, as he qualified for five shows and won his first title to seemingly come out of nowhere (of course, that’s not quite true given his celebrated amateur career) to jump right into the position of one of the elite players on Tour (and he’s certainly shown no signs of a sophomore or even a junior slump).
Here at the World Series, it looks as if we’re about to have another great young star emerge in the form of Ryan Ciminelli, an athletic lefty from Cheektowaga, New York. Ciminielli absolutely dominated early action at Thunderbowl, finishing top 3 in an early sweeper event, then scoring top 2 finishes in each of the first three TQRs. He parlayed those into two consecutive TV finals appearances in the Cheetah and Viper Championships, and is looking to secure his exemption later this month by winning one of those events in the ESPN finals. Even if he doesn’t win, he has a huge leg up on earning his exemption through the point list, and he plans to continue his march when the second half resumes in January. Plus, having spent an hour talking to him the other day, he’s a great kid and is exactly what the Tour needs.
STORYLINE #4: XTRA FRAME COVERAGE
OK. This one here I may be a little biased about. But when the PBA hired me to help out with the Xtra Frame coverage here at the World Series, I was very much aware of the notorious past of the subscription service and my goal here was to simply prove that Xtra Frame could be a viable product that fans could get excited about.
Of course, the fact that we’ve had incredible and dramatic tournament action has helped, but the fan feedback we’ve received from the nearly hundred hours of content we’ve produced so far has been fantastic. In fact, Jeff “The Bowling Doctor” Mark, who expertly handles color duties on our Xtra Frame live streaming tournament broadcasts, has told me that he no longer fears angry fans coming up to him at tournaments and threatening bodily harm because their Xtra Frame stream doesn’t work or that the production quality is subpar. In fact, the feedback in the PBA Message Boards and on Mike J. Laneside’s Facebook page has been so positive, we’re half expecting a meteor to fall out of the sky and crush us and all of our production equipment because we just can’t believe how well everything is going.
But believe me, we’re not resting on our laurels whatsoever. Every night, after the action concludes, the XF posse (we actually do call ourselves that) meets to discuss ways to make our productions even better (like how to incorporate live scoring into the broadcasts…we’re getting really close on that one) and how to make everything about the product better for you fans. The World Series has also lent itself perfectly to the kind of extensive coverage the new Xtra Frame is now equipped to bring you, with either live tournament action or a new episode of PBA:39x60 coming to you each and every day. We’re all very excited about the future and the potential that Xtra Frame has to help generate awareness of what goes on at these amazing tournaments each week and we plan to continue to make strides toward making the product bigger and better.
STORYLINE #5: A TRUE WORLD SERIES
And our final storyline, although certainly not the least important (and maybe even the most important) is the infusion of diversity that this World Series has brought to competitive bowling. Exposing the world bowling community to International players competing with all of the best in one place has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that bowling is truly a global sport. The success at the WSOB of players like Jason Belmonte, Osku Palermaa, Andres Gomez, Amleto Monacelli, Martin Larsen, Stuart Williams, Clara Guerrero, Shalin Zulkifli and Aumi Guerra shows that the United States no longer has a stranglehold on the best bowling talent in the world and that entire legions of fans in other countries will no doubt be instrumental in growing awareness of the PBA and the world’s best bowlers in years to come. Perhaps one day, the World Series of Bowling will take place in Tokyo or Paris or Sydney or any number of other great cities where bowling now thrives. When that happens, no one will be able to say that this concept, which only a few short months ago was merely a figment of the imagination, was not the best possible thing that could have happened for the sport of bowling.