PBA Gears "Down" for Plastic Ball Championships

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship March 24-28 at AMF Babylon Lanes in West Babylon, NY, is the one event on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour that turns back the clock on bowling ball technology so that players will have less reliance on today’s high-powered equipment.

This year’s Plastic Ball Championship is named after PBA Hall of Famer and native New Yorker Mark Roth who used plastic ball technology to win most of his 34 Tour titles, which ranks him in a tie for third all-time with fellow Hall of Famer Pete Weber. Roth, who suffered a stroke last May, is planning to attend the event.

Plastic (polyester) balls like the ones that will be used in this tournament are used today almost
exclusively for spare shooting due to the balls’ proclivity to go straight on the majority of today’s lane
conditions. Plastic was the most popular material used in bowling ball construction in the 1970s and
early 80s. Today’s most popular balls are made of a resin material with exotic weight blocks, which
enhance the balls’ ability to hook.

In addition to using equipment that emphasizes a player’s ability to make adjustments without being
able to rely on the technology built into today’s more advanced bowling balls, the Plastic Ball 
Championship equalizes the playing field much like auto racing’s former International Race of 
Champions (IROC) series that required drivers to race the same type of car.

In 2009 Jeff Carter of Springfield, IL, won the GEICO Plastic Ball Championship in Wheat Ridge, CO,
for his first career Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour title by defeating Hall of Famer Pete Weber, 235-
213, in the championship match.

“Actually, I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t have a lot of confidence going into the tournament,”
Carter said. “But as the tournament went on I found that a lot of the variables, mainly having to worry
about what equipment to use, were eliminated.  It kept things simple so I could concentrate on making
the right physical adjustments and make good shots.”

The Plastic Ball Championship will require all 64 players to use two identical special Mark Roth
custom-designed bowling balls manufactured by OntheBallBowling.com. These will be the only balls
they will be able to use throughout the tournament.  A limited number of balls also will be available for
sale with a portion of the proceeds going to Roth’s continuing medical expenses.

The tournament is one of the Tour’s four Extreme Swing events.  It will be conducted on the Tour’s
Shark lane conditioning pattern, but with a lower volume of oil applied to the lane surface than normal.

Among the field of 64 players competing will be Australian two-handed star and 2008-09 Rookie of
the Year Jason Belmonte, who made PBA Tour history last season at AMF Babylon Lanes, by
becoming the first two-handed player to win a PBA Tour title, as well as native Long Islander Mike
Fagan of Patchogue, NY, who won his second PBA Tour title at the Dick Weber Open in Orange
County, CA, in January.  Also competing will be Hall of Famer and time 14-time Tour titlist Johnny
Petraglia of Jackson, NJ—a contemporary of Roth’s—who received a commissioner’s exemption for this
event.

As the PBA Tour heads down the homestretch, as the second to last event of the 2009-10 PBA
Tour season, the Plastic Ball Championship could be a determining factor for Player of the Year
honors.

Currently Bill O’Neill of Southamption, PA, leads the Player of the Year race with a four-point lead
over Hall of Famer and all-time PBA win leader Walter Ray Williams Jr. in second and an eight-point
lead over Mike Scroggins of Amarillo, TX, in third.