My Nickel’s Worth by Randy Ooney
Bowling Channel
Although I only pay for something called “Choice” which is only two letters away from “Cheap”, I still get about 190 channels on my Direct TV. Of course 25 are evangelists channels, 30 or so are shop from home infomercials or auctions, but there still is a myriad of sports, movies, news, opinions, and reruns of some of my favorite sitcoms.
It’s amazing what has evolved in the last forty years. A 3 hour baseball game is status quo. “60 Minutes” still runs on CBS for an hour each Sunday, but it takes the NFL over 3 hours to run their 60 minute games. Basketball isn’t far behind, but hockey does have less clock stoppages than the other sports. A golf tournament used to have a couple of hours on Sunday so we could watch the leaders finish up the last four holes. Now, if you don’t mind switching from TNT to ESPN2, to NBC or ABC, you can nearly catch the entire tournament, especially the majors.
So what has happened with bowling? In the 60s and 70s, ABC found time to present a stepladder final in a 90 minute spot on Saturday afternoon. Now, ESPN finds time to present a stepladder final in a 90 minute spot on Sunday afternoon, and many times it’s competing with the NFL, and they wonder why the ratings are low. It doesn’t seem fair.
PBA professionals bowl 30-60 games of qualifying and match play in most tournaments and then have only 10 frames on TV with a lot of money at stake. I would prefer to see three game matches, or at least one three game match for the title. Sometimes I think the tournament leader is at a disadvantage. Sure, they get to practice on the lanes, and he or she only has to win one game, but they have to win it against the stepladder survivor who may have some momentum going. If time is a problem, maybe ESPN could cut back a little on Tennis, Drag Racing, or the World Poker Tour and let us have one decent bowling telecast per week.
NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, and Golf all have their own channels now. With apologies to all Roger Federer fans, I am astonished that even Tennis has a channel! If Reverend Billy Joe McBible and Popeil’s Pocket Porta Potty also get plenty of TV time, why can’t bowling have channel 300? I would watch, as long as it wasn’t Pay per View. (Cheap by Choice)
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