by Randy Ooney
My Nickel’s Worth by Randy Ooney
My Nickel’s Worth by Randy Ooney
RBB
Three letter acronyms are common these days, and maybe you can guess this one. The USBC Masters was held in New Jersey a couple of weeks ago and I was not surprised by the outcome. The Masters pattern challenges everyone and a couple of my friends from the Classic league at Texa Tonka, Kris Stevens and Matt McNiel worked hard to average around 200 for the tournament.
Congratulations to the two handed wonder from down under, Jason Belmonte for bringing home the Masters trophy, in spite of leaving about seven splits and converting half of them including a full Sodie, which Randy Pedersen insists on calling a “four through the middle.” I hope Randy shows at Treasure Island for the PBA50 event next August. I promise to clue him in on the name of a certain split.
No more football, so being the bowling junkie that I am, I tuned to ESPN again Sunday for a match in the PBA league. The format seems a bit boring to me, with the singles, Scotch doubles, trios and then a Baker match. The point system, a total of six, is inviting a tie. I hope they did not contact the NFL for a tiebreaker system.
The first match, singles, pitted Chris Barnes against Norm Duke. Barnes performed like a pro with the front nine, while Duke could not find the proper adjustment to carry the ten and he removed himself from the match after five futile frames. Barnes eventually contributed his faux paux with a split in the tenth, and whiffing a four pin in the doubles match.
I have bowled for many years and I like the league concept of a team consisting of three to five players, each of which bowls a ten frame game and matches up against scores of another team. I have never liked the Baker format, although it has taken hold at the college and high school level, and now with the PBA league. My issue with the format is that a player has a problem getting zeroed in when he/she gets only two frames per game. Likewise, it is impossible for an individual to make up for an early open with a four bagger.
I think it was evident watching the first ball all over the place, blue oil, spare shooting team event in last weeks’ PBA league presentation, and if you have not guessed the acronym yet, how about Really Bad Bowling.
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