Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Salute!
A Caribbean vacation package, tickets to the 2008 Super Bowl, a Professional Bowlers Association tour event exemption and a Mort Luby painting featuring bowling legend Andy Varipapa were among the intriguing auction items that helped generate approximately $100,000 for the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame at the 2007 Salute to Bowling. The annual fundraiser, held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in conjunction with the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America International Bowl Expo, also saw the induction of former major league baseball pitcher Tom Candiotti into the Celebrity wing of the Bowling Hall of Fame. "We're thrilled with the money generated from this year's event," Salute chairperson Keith Hamilton said, "and we appreciate the generosity of the more than 400 bowling enthusiasts who attended. "We also recognized that all was not perfect at the 2007 Salute," Hamilton continued. "We were especially disappointed with the food presentation and the auction checkout procedures, and the committee already is working to significantly improve these areas for Salute 2008." Candiotti, whose nearly impossible-to-hit knuckleball carried him through 16 seasons in the major leagues, was recognized for his continued promotion of bowling through mainstream media. Candiotti, a radio analyst for the Arizona Diamondbacks, also is an accomplished bowler, carrying a 200+ average and boasting a certified 300 game in March of this year. The International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame collects and preserves the rich history of bowling, and uses that information to help promote the sport worldwide. For more information about the Museum or its Salute fundraiser, call (800) 966-2695.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Hey Coach!
USBC Coaching is pleased to announce an upcoming Silver coach certification conference in Flint, MI. If you or someone you know is interested in this conference, please see the attached flyer with registration form.
The attached form is in the Adobe Acrobat format. If you do not have ability to view files in this format, you can download the Adobe Acrobat reader for free by clicking here http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
The attached form is in the Adobe Acrobat format. If you do not have ability to view files in this format, you can download the Adobe Acrobat reader for free by clicking here http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Give it a shot...
Over the years you've supported MDUSBC with your voice, your energy and your dollars. Now, we're proud to say, it's time to give you something back!Metro Detroit USBC Association has a new membership service that actually puts the "fun" in fundraising...and it won't cost you a penny. I know you've heard that one before. But, this time it's true!
Metro Detroit USBC Association now has its own travel website at www.mdusbctravel.com!
This new service is like having our own Expedia® just for MDUSBC supporters and friends! Everything you need is right here. You get access to the same airlines, hotels and rental car companies, cruises and vacation packages you find on all the other major travel websites, and, best of all... you get some of the lowesttravel prices on the internet!
Getting great travel prices for you is fantastic, right? But, how is this going to help raise funds for MDUSBC?Here's How it Works - if you don't know, every time you use a travel website like Expedia®, the travel companies pay BIG commissions for your reservation.
Well, now when you book travel on our website, Metro Detroit USBC Association will get a whopping 40% of those commissions! Any way you look at it, this is a win-win situation. You get great travel rates and you help funnel dollars from the travel companies into Metro Detroit USBC Association to advance our cause. With your help and other MDUSBC supporters like you... we can raise THOUSANDS of dollarsfor Metro Detroit USBC Association to help support our cause! I know you're probably in the middle of planning your summer vacation or maybe looking ahead to plan travel for a fall getaway. Why not take the travel website for a "test drive" right now? I'm sure you'll like what you find and it would be a great way for us to kick off this new service.
Try out our new website at:www.mdusbctravel.com
Use our new travel website and while you are flying to some exotic locale, you'll know you are supporting Metro Detroit USBC Association! It’s that simple!Oh, and one more thing, please bookmark our new website. That way you'll be able to use it anytime you need travel. Thanks for your commitment to Metro Detroit USBC Association and for trying out our travel service at www.mdusbctravel.com.
Metro Detroit USBC Association now has its own travel website at www.mdusbctravel.com!
This new service is like having our own Expedia® just for MDUSBC supporters and friends! Everything you need is right here. You get access to the same airlines, hotels and rental car companies, cruises and vacation packages you find on all the other major travel websites, and, best of all... you get some of the lowesttravel prices on the internet!
Getting great travel prices for you is fantastic, right? But, how is this going to help raise funds for MDUSBC?Here's How it Works - if you don't know, every time you use a travel website like Expedia®, the travel companies pay BIG commissions for your reservation.
Well, now when you book travel on our website, Metro Detroit USBC Association will get a whopping 40% of those commissions! Any way you look at it, this is a win-win situation. You get great travel rates and you help funnel dollars from the travel companies into Metro Detroit USBC Association to advance our cause. With your help and other MDUSBC supporters like you... we can raise THOUSANDS of dollarsfor Metro Detroit USBC Association to help support our cause! I know you're probably in the middle of planning your summer vacation or maybe looking ahead to plan travel for a fall getaway. Why not take the travel website for a "test drive" right now? I'm sure you'll like what you find and it would be a great way for us to kick off this new service.
Try out our new website at:www.mdusbctravel.com
Use our new travel website and while you are flying to some exotic locale, you'll know you are supporting Metro Detroit USBC Association! It’s that simple!Oh, and one more thing, please bookmark our new website. That way you'll be able to use it anytime you need travel. Thanks for your commitment to Metro Detroit USBC Association and for trying out our travel service at www.mdusbctravel.com.
Friday, July 6, 2007
On the tube...
Match play in the GEICO PBA All-Star Shootout hosted by Six Flags on ESPN will continue Sunday, July 8 at 3 p.m. ET. Winning matches last weekend were 2006-07 PBA Player of the Year and defending USBC Masters champion Doug Kent along with partner 2004 Masters champion Danny Wiseman. The team of 2000 Masters champion Mika Koivuniemi and USBC Sport Bowling spokesperson Chris Barnes also won its match. The special doubles event features 16 of the PBA’s biggest stars teaming up in a round-robin group play format. The top team in the Dick Weber Group and the Earl Anthony Group advances to the championship round.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
I'd still take one!
Why a 900 Series Just Isn’t What It Used to Be
By NEIL AMDUR, NY Times
Twenty-five years ago today, Glenn Allison bowled three consecutive 300 games, the first to record the feat in a sanctioned league. But nothing has been the same in the sport since Allison’s 36 strikes in a row were initially heralded, then, after a protracted legal fight, disallowed because of what officials cited as noncomplying conditions at La Habra 300 Bowl in California.
High-tech balls and synthetic lanes have replaced the plastic and wood of Allison’s era. Higher scores and dwindling memberships are dividing purists and recreational bowlers over the sport’s priorities. Even the once-sacred 900 series and the 300 game have become so common that bowling parties have upstaged late-night leagues. In the last 10 years, 12 sanctioned 900 series have been bowled, including two by Robert Mushtare, an 18-year-old from Carthage, N.Y., who also rolled a third that was disallowed by the United States Bowling Congress. But the most startling statistic is the number of 300 games: 51,162 in 2004-5 and 56,212 in 2005-6. In 1981-82, the total (which did not include the few 300 games by women and children) was 5,949.
“It’s easy conditions that’s kept my average up, not excessive talent,” said Allison, 77, who was averaging 215 and 227 in two summer leagues. He added, “I’m truthfully a 190 average now.”
Even Mushtare, who said he tried to bowl 10 games a day, found himself having to defend the three perfect series he rolled at the Pine Plains Bowling Center in Fort Drum, N.Y., from November 2005 to February 2006. “They thought I cheated and was lying,” he said during a telephone interview last week. “I can understand where it was coming from. Jealousy is a factor, too.” Four other bowlers as far back as 1931 preceded Allison with 900 scores, but none were in a sanctioned league or under tournament conditions. Allison said he was not upset that noncompliance with oil distribution on his lanes left him as an asterisk in bowling record books. If Allison rolled a 900 series in a league tonight, it would be approved without an inspection. Rule changes now allow for season-long certification of lanes, another accommodation that rankles traditionalists. But as tennis and golf have had technical and tactical shifts in their sports with the introduction of new equipment, science has found bowling. Allison used one ball for every shot, but many league and pro bowlers now have three or four. The new balls “grip the lanes better,” he said, creating a coefficient of friction that is much higher than years ago. “You can buy a hook with these new balls, and it’s so much easier,” Allison said. La Habra 300 Bowl is commemorating the anniversary of Allison’s achievement with a tournament this weekend. Allison, who has been working the desk there for the last seven years and is affectionately known as Mr. 900, will join in the celebration. “It’s an altogether different game,” said Mickey Curley, who has worked at the lanes for 44 years and whose son Dennis bowled with Allison on the night of his perfect series. “Fitting and drilling bowling balls now is a science.” Roger Dalkin, the chief executive of the United States Bowling Congress, said: “One of the difficulties we have as a governing body is trying to manage the technology and not eliminate it. There’s always a debate: What’s too much, what’s too easy?” Registered membership in the bowling congress fell to 2.7 million last year from close to 10 million in 1982. But according to Simmons Research, 70 million Americans (37 million men, 33 million women) bowl at least once a year, and many are prepared to spend $10 a game and more for the lively social activities at places like Bowlmor Lanes in Manhattan. The bowling congress has also initiated Sport Bowling, a division that tries to emulate pro tour-type conditions for more serious competitors. Begun three years ago, it has 40,000 members and has doubled in membership each of the last three years. “Thirty years ago, 90 percent of bowling was leagues,” Mark Miller, a bowling congress spokesman, said by telephone from Las Vegas, where the Bowl Expo, which ended Friday, attracted 5,000 exhibitors, including bowling center proprietors and product manufacturers. “Now, 60 percent of all bowling is recreational. The game has changed, and you can’t go backwards.” Allison is adjusting with the times. He uses a 14-pound ball instead of a 15-pounder. Mushtare, who prefers the 16, said, “If you can throw 16, throw 16.” Allison, a member of the Bowling Hall of Fame, recently moved into ninth place for career pinfall with more than 103,000 and has his sights set on the leader Joe Norris’s 120,000-plus total. While teasing Allison as the Old Man, Curley praised his longevity. “He’s the greatest,” she said. “Some things change in our sport, but the place wouldn’t be the same without him.”
By NEIL AMDUR, NY Times
Twenty-five years ago today, Glenn Allison bowled three consecutive 300 games, the first to record the feat in a sanctioned league. But nothing has been the same in the sport since Allison’s 36 strikes in a row were initially heralded, then, after a protracted legal fight, disallowed because of what officials cited as noncomplying conditions at La Habra 300 Bowl in California.
High-tech balls and synthetic lanes have replaced the plastic and wood of Allison’s era. Higher scores and dwindling memberships are dividing purists and recreational bowlers over the sport’s priorities. Even the once-sacred 900 series and the 300 game have become so common that bowling parties have upstaged late-night leagues. In the last 10 years, 12 sanctioned 900 series have been bowled, including two by Robert Mushtare, an 18-year-old from Carthage, N.Y., who also rolled a third that was disallowed by the United States Bowling Congress. But the most startling statistic is the number of 300 games: 51,162 in 2004-5 and 56,212 in 2005-6. In 1981-82, the total (which did not include the few 300 games by women and children) was 5,949.
“It’s easy conditions that’s kept my average up, not excessive talent,” said Allison, 77, who was averaging 215 and 227 in two summer leagues. He added, “I’m truthfully a 190 average now.”
Even Mushtare, who said he tried to bowl 10 games a day, found himself having to defend the three perfect series he rolled at the Pine Plains Bowling Center in Fort Drum, N.Y., from November 2005 to February 2006. “They thought I cheated and was lying,” he said during a telephone interview last week. “I can understand where it was coming from. Jealousy is a factor, too.” Four other bowlers as far back as 1931 preceded Allison with 900 scores, but none were in a sanctioned league or under tournament conditions. Allison said he was not upset that noncompliance with oil distribution on his lanes left him as an asterisk in bowling record books. If Allison rolled a 900 series in a league tonight, it would be approved without an inspection. Rule changes now allow for season-long certification of lanes, another accommodation that rankles traditionalists. But as tennis and golf have had technical and tactical shifts in their sports with the introduction of new equipment, science has found bowling. Allison used one ball for every shot, but many league and pro bowlers now have three or four. The new balls “grip the lanes better,” he said, creating a coefficient of friction that is much higher than years ago. “You can buy a hook with these new balls, and it’s so much easier,” Allison said. La Habra 300 Bowl is commemorating the anniversary of Allison’s achievement with a tournament this weekend. Allison, who has been working the desk there for the last seven years and is affectionately known as Mr. 900, will join in the celebration. “It’s an altogether different game,” said Mickey Curley, who has worked at the lanes for 44 years and whose son Dennis bowled with Allison on the night of his perfect series. “Fitting and drilling bowling balls now is a science.” Roger Dalkin, the chief executive of the United States Bowling Congress, said: “One of the difficulties we have as a governing body is trying to manage the technology and not eliminate it. There’s always a debate: What’s too much, what’s too easy?” Registered membership in the bowling congress fell to 2.7 million last year from close to 10 million in 1982. But according to Simmons Research, 70 million Americans (37 million men, 33 million women) bowl at least once a year, and many are prepared to spend $10 a game and more for the lively social activities at places like Bowlmor Lanes in Manhattan. The bowling congress has also initiated Sport Bowling, a division that tries to emulate pro tour-type conditions for more serious competitors. Begun three years ago, it has 40,000 members and has doubled in membership each of the last three years. “Thirty years ago, 90 percent of bowling was leagues,” Mark Miller, a bowling congress spokesman, said by telephone from Las Vegas, where the Bowl Expo, which ended Friday, attracted 5,000 exhibitors, including bowling center proprietors and product manufacturers. “Now, 60 percent of all bowling is recreational. The game has changed, and you can’t go backwards.” Allison is adjusting with the times. He uses a 14-pound ball instead of a 15-pounder. Mushtare, who prefers the 16, said, “If you can throw 16, throw 16.” Allison, a member of the Bowling Hall of Fame, recently moved into ninth place for career pinfall with more than 103,000 and has his sights set on the leader Joe Norris’s 120,000-plus total. While teasing Allison as the Old Man, Curley praised his longevity. “He’s the greatest,” she said. “Some things change in our sport, but the place wouldn’t be the same without him.”
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