by Randy Ooney
My Nickel’s Worth by Randy Ooney
Pepe
“Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas” touts a sign a mile or so south of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. Head south a couple more miles, on the way to the car rental terminal and you may come across South Point Hotel and Casino. Included in the complex is a new 35 million dollar bowling center which hosted the first televised PBA Event this season. The ESPN telecast commentator stated the center had 60 lanes, however I checked the website and and it claims to have 64 state of the art lanes with back to back 32s in the format of some of the newer Brunswick Zones. Since I have a Las Vegas Trip scheduled in a few weeks, I promise to visit South Point and count the lanes to verify the discrepancy.
In case you missed the Cheetah Championship tournament finals, it was a treat to watch. It appears that the PBA has again changed the TV final format, and a four person qualifying field was on the air. Brad Angelo, Liz Johnson, and Anthony Pepe bowled in the semi final with the high score advancing. Sodie would be proud because Pepe, in his first televised match, ripped the front eleven then left the 2-4-6-7-8 for a 295. He was fortunate to trip out the 10 pin and escape the left handers full Sodie. Randy Pederson still does not know what to call that split. I was going to explain it to him at Smilin’ Carl’s demo day, but I never saw Randy. Maybe I’ll catch him next summer at Treasure Island.
So, by virtue of his huge score, Anthony Pepe went on to bowl against tournament leader, Dick Allen. Not the recently shunned by the baseball Hall of Fame Golden committee, White Sox star Dick Allen, who along with Tony Oliva needed 12 votes to be inducted, and each received 11, but that’s another story. PBA star Ritchie Allen owns three titles and a number of TV appearances. The final match was one for the books. Anthony Pepe was playing the Cheetah around the three board and walking it up the left side into the pocket. Since he was the only leftie in the finals, the oil pattern had not changed much, but he missed the pocket a couple of times, lost his carry, and missed a 7 pin by a couple of boards. Allen was starting it around the 8 board and going all the way out to one or two, but bringing it back to the pocket and by the end of the 7th frame he had a 40 pin lead. Then disaster struck Dick Allen as he got the ball to the dry a little early and it over reacted and he opened the 8th with a full Sodie, (Which Randy called something else), opened the 9th with a 6-7, Then hit the pocket in the 10th and was treated to a 7-10 split. The meltdown cost Dick the title match as he was defeated by Anthony 224-206.
So we have a new tour champion in Anthony Pepe. The lefty’s style reminds me a bit of his namesake Earl Anthony, and our local prodigy, Matt McNeil. Welcome to the show, Mr. Pepe.
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