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Thread: ANDY MORTON: Red, White and Blue Christmas

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    Default ANDY MORTON: Red, White and Blue Christmas

    Folks, it’s that time of year. The time of year when your home and workplace turn into a hotbed of blinking lights, shiny bulbs, and Christmas music. Mine has. I do love this time of year though, but not for any of those specific reasons. This year, I’m particularly happy because the PBA is back in action…LIVE FROM WICHITA, KANSAS! Can you feel the excitement in the air?

    The Red, White and Blue Open was contested this week and it’s more than just a regular tour stop. The PBA is utilizing some new standardized USBC patterns (in cooperation with BPAA) in this tournament that include an easy pattern, a medium difficulty pattern and a hard pattern (It should be noted that none of the patterns were designed to be as difficult as the PBA Experience patterns.) And from the looks of it, the PBA stars are eating up all three patterns with blistering scores. Should we have expected anything to the contrary? These are the best players in the world and they do a pretty good job on a weekly basis of making tough shots look like house shots. So it really doesn’t surprise me that the scores were through the roof.

    Give the best players in the world an extra three boards of area and almost all of them will make it look easy. Heck, give the best players in the world an extra board of area and almost all of them will make it look easy. Give the best players in the world no room for error and a good majority of them will still make it look easy. Have you seen the C.A.T.S. data from the World Series of Bowling? These guys were splitting hairs on the lanes and were still struggling to shoot 200. Not only that, they had to create the right tilt, the right speed, and give the ball a consistent amount of lift.

    As more games are bowled on these patterns, eyes should be opening to the skill and ability of the PBA player. Not only are they bowling high scores, they are dealing with more transition than you would on a normal 3-game league night and they are moving pairs after every game.

    Put your average Joe bowler on these patterns and the ease or difficulty of each should be better defined and much easier to see. And when average Joe Bowler has mastered all three, they can try their hand at the PBA Experience Leagues where you’ll need to split hairs like the pros to be successful.

    In my opinion, the biggest value to the patterns and working with proprietors to implement them is a way for some sense of consistency to occur across the country. To be able to walk into a bowling center that you are not familiar with and see a notice on the door identifying it as a Red center or a Blue center. And the best part to me is that within each center, the patterns won’t play identical to each other since differences in lane surface from center to center can cause the lanes to play differently. As a proprietor, who wouldn’t want to use these patterns? When the bowler complains about the way the lanes are playing, you can finally put the blame on someone else.

    Here are some stats from the first three rounds of qualifying.

    * After eight games on the red pattern (easiest pattern), only six players averaged less than 200 and there were only four players who broke the +400 mark. The cut for 39th place after the first eight games was 234.88.
    * After eight games on the blue pattern (medium difficulty pattern), only five players averaged less than 200 and 10 players broke the +400 mark. The cut average actually went up to 235.00.
    * With the field whittled down to the 39 best players through 16 games, it was time to test the blue pattern (most difficult of the three). Only one player averaged less than 200 while three players broke the +400 mark. And the cut to make it into the top 24 was 236.83 which is technically lower than the 242.25 average it took to be in 24th place after 8 games and the 239.44 average it took to be in 24th place after 16 games.

    THE BIG FOUR

    * Twenty-one years between titles. That’s the combined number of years between Mike DeVaney and Jack Jurek’s first and second PBA title. DeVaney snagged his recent title at this year’s Scorpion Championship. His only previous victory was in 2002 a mere seven years ago. Jurek on the other hand ended his 14-year drought at this year’s Shark Championship. Isn’t it hard enough to bowl on tour when you are winning a title every couple of years, let alone one every 7 to 14 years?
    * Now that Bill O’Neill captured his first PBA title during the WSOB, I think it’s time to crown the new, “Best Player who hasn’t won yet.” My pick? Chris Loschetter. I was tempted to develop some argument as to why Mike Fagan’s doubles title doesn’t count as a singles title, but decided against it. Loschetter has made seven shows in his career and been one of the top contenders week in and week out.
    * The PBA World Championship is LIVE this Sunday. Feels good to say LIVE again in reference to a PBA telecast. Even though I pulled off what many thought was impossible by avoiding the spoilers of all six PBA tournaments that concluded in September. (You can’t see it, but I’m patting myself on the back right now.) Interesting note about the PBA World Championship. Only one of the top 8 players out of qualifying (who got byes into the Super 16) won their match. Players seeded 2nd through 8th all lost. Ouch.
    * Derek Hartnell was the high bidder for the Chris Barnes Challenge presented by Columbia 300 at $1,600. I guess he bowls for Newman University. The bowled in a 3-game total pins match LIVE on Xtra Frame this Saturday at 3 p.m. ET. Just a quick search on www.bowl.com and I find that Hartnell booked a 242 average for 88 games last year. He also had a 238 with 108 games, a 232 with 81 games, and a 231 with 102 games. He did participate in the Red, White, and Blue Open averaging just over 220 which place him in 89th place. I saw the match on Xtra Frame and it was absolutely unbelievable...you really need to have Xtra Frame, by the way.


    MY TOP TEN

    1. Rhino Page (+3) My new top dog. 5th place finish on the Shark and he’s vying for his first major this Sunday.
    2. Chris Barnes (+3) When others have a bad week, he just plugs along. By this time in the WSOB, these top tier players have bowled a ton of games and Chris switches up his game so quick, that his worst finish in the WSOB was 16th place.
    3. Bill O’Neill (-2) Bill got bit by the Shark. Can’t help but wonder if fatigue had started to kick in by now. By missing the cut at the Shark, he got a few extra days to recoup for the PBA World Championship where he’ll be battling for his 1st major and 2nd PBA title of his career.
    4. Sean Rash (+2) Hey, he hasn’t had the best performances on TV lately, but at the WSOB he has been about as good as Chris Barnes, (with one more made show than Barnes). And when O’Neill and Williams Jr. faltered on the Shark, he made match play, and then qualified 3rd at the PBA World Championships before falling like 6 of the other 7 top qualifiers in the Super 16 Round.
    5. Walter Ray Williams, Jr. (-3) A 49th place finish on the Shark and all I could think was that his 49-year old frame needed a little R&R after 5 other grueling tournaments in less than a month.
    ~Brian Hirsch~
    VISE Staff Member
    Bowlingboards.com You're #1 Online Bowling Forums

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    6. Norm Duke (-3) Don’t get me wrong, Duke has been good and he might not deserve this after an 11th place finish on the Shark, but Duke became Mr. Major over the last few seasons and in the biggest event of the WSOB, he finished 54th.
    7. Wes Malott (E) Wes looked pretty good at the Shark final losing to a big game. But now his chance to win his first major comes this Sunday and he gets my top dog right out of the gate. Should be some fireworks in that one.
    8. Jack Jurek (Not Ranked) Jack has been kind of running under the radar much of the WSOB, if not for his entire career. This might come as a shocker, but Jack had 4 top 10 finishes in the WSOB and he broke a 14-year winless streak.
    9. Mike DeVaney (-1) DeVaney struggled at the Shark and missed the cut. Then he qualified 5th at PBA World Championships.
    10. Jason Belmonte (Not Ranked) Belmonte got off to a pretty slow start missing the first two cuts at the WSOB. Then he slapped off 8th, 12th, 2nd and 7th place finishes in four consecutive tournaments. Sometimes it’s not always about winning, but being in the hunt every week.

    (On the outside looking in: Thomas Smallwood (-1), Jason Couch (NR), Ryan Ciminelli (-2)

    QUOTES OF THE WEEK
    “But it was overwhelming. I took a deep breath and thought I had myself under control. But three pins? I thought it was another opportunity I let slip away. I was fortunate (Mike) left a pin on his third shot.”
    (Jack Jurek after winning his first title in 14 years.) Yes, Jurek left the door open, but I didn’t think Fagan had a chance to get three strikes on that right lane after attempts in the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th left him with four single pin conversions on pretty flush shots. Jurek smartly put Fagan back on that lane for the roll-off and Fagan missed the pocket altogether. That was a pretty awesome final to say the least.

    “It’s always fun to strike. I caught a couple of breaks, but all in all, I threw the ball pretty good. But it’s only eight games. I won a sprint in a marathon.”
    (Cassidy Shaub after leading round 1 of qualifying at the Red, White, and Blue Open) Shaub is leading heading into match play too. By marathon standards, he’s at mile 13 of this tournament after 24 games.

    "You're just looking for a little bit of a different ball reaction than what you normally see out on tour. I expect scores to be very high. It wouldn't surprise me if it took high 230s, even low 240s average just to make a cut."
    (Rhino Page quoted in the Wichita Eagle in reference to the Red, White, and Blue Open.) Not a bad guess. The actual cut was a 235 average.

    FORUM TOPIC OF THE WEEK

    Bowler of the Decade
    Bowlers Journal recently named Walter Ray Williams Jr. as the bowler of the decade for 2000-2009. I guess it’s kind of hard to argue against that. He’s nabbed 16 titles, 57 shows, and won Player of the Year honors in 2003. Of his 16 titles, 5 were majors. And did all of that in his 40’s.

    I’d be curious to see how close Norm Duke was in the voting. If I had to argue for anyone else, it would be him. In 19 fewer events over the course of the decade, Duke also had 16 titles; he had 41 shows, and won Player of the Year honors in 2000. He also nailed down four majors in the decade (three consecutively). Probably could have contended for a 2nd Player of the Year award in 2008 if he hadn’t had to fight an injury most of the season limiting him to only 15 events and some events in which he just showed up, threw a ball, and withdrew.

    However, side by side, I can’t really argue with their decision. Walter has been pretty incredible in his 40’s and I think rightfully deserved this award.
    ~Brian Hirsch~
    VISE Staff Member
    Bowlingboards.com You're #1 Online Bowling Forums

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