Radical Bowling Adds Two Balls

Radical Bowling released information on their new offerings.

Radical Bowling released details of their first ball in the mid-price category. The Times Up is designed for medium to dry lane conditions. Featuring the "Bulls-Eye" symmetrical core (RG- 2.533 and Differential .041). A blue pearl cover wraps the Times Up finished to 1500 and polished.

The follow-up to the Slant entry is the Slant Solid.  The orange and black solid reactive coverstock adds the "Soaker" additive to help remove oil from the ball surface. Finish on Slant Solid is 4000 Abralon. The "engine" of the Slant is the "Booster" core. A company representative offered "the design intention was to offer strong mid-lane motion but the Booster core will retain energy for more hook and more power on heavier oil." The Booster core has Radius of Gyration (RG) of 2.47 and RG Differential of .045.

Who Gets the ESPY For Best Bowler?

Reigning PBA Player of the Year Mika Koivuniemi; PBA’s newest triple crown
winner Chris Barnes along with Bill O’Neill, and Jason Belmonte have been
nominated for ESPN’s  “Best Bowler ESPY” for 2011.

ESPN recently announced nominees in 33 categories and fan voting is now underway 
through 11:59 p.m. ET on July 9 at espn.com/espys. To vote, click on the “click 
to get started” tab on the ESPYs homepage, then click on the “vote by category” 
tab and scroll down the list to locate the “Best Bowler” category.  Click on the 
image of the player to vote.

The winners will be announced during the 18th annual ESPYs, live on ESPN at 9 
p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 13 from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.

Koivuniemi had a career season in 2010-11 winning the PBA Tournament of 
Champions for his ninth career title and third major while also finishing second 
in the Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open.  He earned $330,040 becoming only the 
fourth player in PBA history to earn more than $300,000 in a season.

Barnes won the PBA World Championship to become the sixth player to win PBA’s 
Triple Crown. The 13-time PBA Tour titlist also finished second in the inaugural 
Dick Weber Playoffs.

O’Neill won his third career title in the Pepsi Viper Championship and finished 
second to Barnes in the PBA World Championship.

Belmonte, the only player with a two-handed delivery to win a Lumber Liquidators 
PBA Tour title, had seven top 10 finishes in 2010-11 including finishing third 
twice.

ESPY BEST BOWLER AWARD WINNERS
2010 – Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2009 – Norm Duke
2008 – Norm Duke
2007 – Norm Duke
2006 – Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2005 – Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2004 – Pete Weber
2003 – Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2002 – Pete Weber
2001 – Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2000 – Parker Bohn III
1999 – Walter Ray Williams Jr.
1998 – Walter Ray Williams Jr.
1997 – Bob Learn Jr.
1996 – Mike Aulby
1995 – Norm Duke

900 Global Wins PBA Geico Team Shootout

San Antonio, Texas-based 900 Global pulled off the biggest upset in the five-year history of the Lumber
Liquidators PBA Tour’s summer series special events, winning the Manufacturers Cup to conclude the GEICO PBA Team Shootout at 10pin bowling lounge in Downtown Chicago.  

The finals of the annual summer-season team competition aired Sunday on ESPN, capping a series of 15 half-hour programs. 

Sparked by anchor bowler Steve Jaros of suburban Yorkville, IL, No. 4-seeded 900 Global defeated Brunswick, 206-194; defending champion  Storm Products, 258-255, and top-seeded Ebonite International, 215-191, for a three-match sweep of the Baker Team format stepladder finals. 

“Our new name is Team Bottom Feeders,” said 900 Global’s Robert Smith. “That’s what we looked like for the first 12 matches. We were our own rally-killers.” 

“We couldn’t get anything going in the preliminary matches,” Jaros said. “But we figured if we could manage our TV lane the right way and make good shots, we could get the job done and that’s what happened. For whatever reason, the other teams kept putting us on the left lane and that’s the lane we would have chosen if we had been able to pick the one we wanted.” 

In the Baker Team finals, each team bowled its entire game on one lane. Each player bowled two frames to complete a game. Because 900 Global was the lowest seeded team in the finals, its opponent had the right to select the lane it preferred – and all three opposing teams opted to bowl on the right lane. 

“During the stepladder finals, we got relaxed, got the momentum and rode it,” Smith said. “It was fun to get more than two strikes in a row.” 

In the opening stepladder match against Brunswick, 900 Global alternated strikes and spares until the seventh and eighth frames, when 2011 USBC Queens champion and two-time PBA Regional title winner Missy Parkin – the only woman in the event – and Smith finally posted back-to-back strikes. That double proved to be the difference. 

In the semifinal match against the powerful Storm Products team, Storm’s Pete Weber, Ryan Shafer, Wes Malott, Norm Duke and Jason Belmonte all struck to take a 30-pin lead after five frames, but 900 Global answered with a string of seven strikes, including a decisive double by Jaros on his first two shots in the 10th frame that decided the match. 

With momentum on their side, Michael Haugen Jr., Parkin, Smith and PBA Hall of Famer Brian Voss struck to give 900 Global a 47-pin lead after four frames against Ebonite International. 

Ebonite put together a four-strike string of its own late in the game, but couldn’t overcome three earlier open frames. 

“We decided to stay on the same lane where we shot 290 the day before with the same lineup,” said Ebonite International coach Jason Couch. 

“We just didn’t bowl very well and (900 Global) bowled a really good game.” 

“I’m as excited for 900 Global as I am for myself,” Parkin beamed after throwing four strikes and converting two single-pin spares in six attempts during the three games. 

“Normally throwing the ball harder is my A game, but I found out after the first doubles match that throwing it hard and straight wasn't going to work, especially bowling with the guys. I had to keep the speed down so the ball would roll sooner and get the corner pins out, and it worked.” 

“Even though this wasn’t as intense of a competition as regular Tour events, it was for bragging rights among the ball manufacturers,” Haugen added. 

“And of course you always want to win. We don’t have team competition on Tour, so that was fun, too. It’s nice to share the win with teammates. 

“Being fourth in the finals, we had our work cut out for us,” Haugen said, “but you could tell we had good team chemistry. We made all the right moves when we needed to. We had the talent and we had the equipment to get it done.” 

“After a frustrating day and a half, it was a great way to end things,” Voss, a PBA Hall of Famer, noted. “We got some help from (Ebonite’s) slow start, but we got it going, too. I love to win. It’s very cool.” 

The GEICO PBA Team Shootout preliminary matches included singles, best ball doubles, alternate shot doubles, Baker team and “eliminator” formats where each team earned points to determine the stepladder finals positions. 

At the conclusion of 12 matches, Ebonite International and Storm were tied for first place. Ebonite/Hammer’s Bill O’Neill won a one-ball roll-off with a strike to claim the No. 1 seed after Storm’s Belmonte left an 8-10 split. The preliminary matches produced other highlights, including: 

● Storm’s Shafer fired a 300 game in his singles match against Ebonite/ Columbia 300’s Chris Barnes, Brunswick’s Chris Loschetter and 900 Global’s Parkin, and teamed up with Belmonte to shoot another 300 game in their best ball doubles match against Barnes and O’Neill, who shot 280 in a losing cause. 

● After Barnes’ first-frame spare, Ebonite International rattled off 11 strikes in a row for a Baker Team 290 game in Match 7. 

● In a showcase alternate shot doubles match between Storm and Brunswick stars, PBA Hall of Famers Weber and Duke teamed up to bowl a 244-244 tie against Parker Bohn III, another PBA Hall of Famer, and Sean Rash. 

● A flare-up between Brunswick’s Rash and Storm’s Belmonte over a plastic water bottle-crinkling episode during the Eliminator match. The entire GEICO PBA Team Shootout series will be re-broadcast on ESPN2. Multiple half-hour shows will air on Saturday, July 9 at 1 p.m.; Sunday, July 17 at 1 p.m.; Saturday, July 23 at noon; Sunday, July 24 at 1:30 p.m.; Sunday, July 31 at 2 p.m., and Saturday, Aug. 6 at 1 p.m. All times are Eastern.

United States Bowling Congress Inducts Six Into The Hall of Fame

Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Hall of Famers Del Ballard Jr. and Wayne Webb, along with veteran PBA Regional standout Jeff Richgels, were among six individuals inducted into the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Hall of Fame at the Gaylord Texan Friday.

Ballard, who turned 48 on Friday, is a 13-time PBA Tour champion who also owns four major titles and compiled nearly $1.3 million in career earnings.

“Welcome to my birthday party, and I’ll cry if I want to,” said Ballard, who underwent treatment for tonsil cancer last year. He thanked USBC President Darlene Baker for the phone call to tell him he had been selected to the hall of fame “because anybody that’s close to me understands I’ve been through a little bit of a rough time the last year or so, and it could not have come at a better time.”

Webb, 53, of Columbus, Ohio, is a 20-time PBA Tour title winner including two majors. He was elected to the PBA Hall of Fame in 1993.

Webb currently is bowling on the PBA Senior Tour where he won the 2010 USBC Senior Masters and was named the 2010 PBA Senior Player of the Year after capturing back-to-back Senior U.S. Open titles in 2008 and 2009. Webb joined Mark Roth as the only players to earn PBA Tour and Senior Tour Player of the Year awards during their careers.

“Last year I was very fortunate to win the Senior Masters and two other titles which basically filled my bucket list,” Webb said. “There were only a couple of things that I had left that I wanted to do in bowling – being Senior Player of the Year and this, being inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame.”

Richgels, 48, of Oregon, WI, is the first person to be inducted in the Outstanding USBC Performance category. Richgels owns 29 PBA Regional titles, is a four-time USBC Open Championships title winner and the only player in USBC Open Championships history to complete team, doubles and singles without an open frame. His “90 clean” performance came in 1997 when he won the Regular All-Events title.

Richgels also won the 1985 Team USA Trials to earn a spot on Team USA and represented the United States at the Federation Internationale des Quilleurs (FIQ) American Zone Championships in Bogota, Colombia, where he won gold medals in team and trios.

“I always thought that there could be a place for guys like me, and there are so many of them out there, between the amateur category and the great stars of the PBA Tour,” Richgels said. “I’m very proud to be the first inductee in this category. It’s a great honor.”

Also inducted were Australia’s Carol Gianotti, 43, a 16-time Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA's) winner; Cheryl Robinson, 59, of Placentia, CA, and former Women’s International Bowling Congress executive director Roseann Kuhn.

Professional Bowlers Tour Kicks Off in Las Vegas in November

The third annual Professional Bowlers Association’s (PBA) World Series of Bowling will introduce new events and new concepts in ESPN coverage when it returns to South Point Casino, Hotel and Bowling Center Nov. 4-20 in Las Vegas. 

The PBA World Series of Bowling (WSOB) will include three events open to 2011-12 PBA Tour exempt players only, and four “open field” events which includes The PBA World Championship; the seventh WSOB event. 

The PBA World Championship television finals will include the top 16 match play finalists competing in four telecasts. The Earl Anthony Touring Players Championship will produce two television shows (doubles and singles). All televised rounds will be conducted on specially-installed lanes in the South Point Arena Nov. 17-20. 

In 2010, the PBA World Series of Bowling reaffirmed its position as the sport’s most popular and prestigious event for the international bowling community, with a sold-out field of 256 players representing 14 countries. 

Highlights of the 2011 World Series of Bowling include: 

●The Viper Open, Chameleon Open and Scorpion Open will be open to PBA Tour, regional and senior members and international players. The combined qualifying totals from these three “open” events will serve as the initial qualifying rounds for the PBA World Championship, the fourth open event. 

● The Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship, a new Carmen Salvino Classic and the Earl Anthony Touring Players Championship will be open to exempt players only. The combined qualifying totals from the Salvino and Anthony championships will determine the cashers for the Touring Players Championship (TPC). An additional qualifying round will determine 16 players who will compete for the TPC title as well as pairing up for a new TPC Baker Doubles Championship. 

● All WSOB winners will earn berths among the players who will advance to the 36-player final qualifying round in the end-of-season PBA Tournament of Champions. 

● The World Tenpin Bowling Association’s World Bowling Tour Finals, presented by the PBA, will be conducted as part of the WSOB television session. The WBT Finals will feature three-man and three-woman stepladder finals based points earned in WTBA international qualifying events. 

● All World Series rounds, except the television finals, plus bonus coverage will result in more than 75 hours of live coverage on pba.com’s Xtra Frame, the PBA’s exclusive online video streaming service. WSOB coverage will be part of more than 250 hours of exclusive coverage available to Xtra Frame subscribers during the new season. For subscription information, visit pba.com. 

● A new Xtra Frame “All-In Showdown” with a $5,000 entry fee is in the planning stages for Sunday, Nov. 6.

Hulsenberg Defeats Kulick for Womens US Open Championship

Hall of Famer Leanne Hulsenberg of Roseville, CA, topped defending champion Kelly Kulick of Union, NJ, 218-183 to win the 2011 Bowling's U.S. Women's Open on Thursday. 

The championship round was contested on lanes constructed on the 50-yard-line of the famed Cowboys Stadium before a crowd in excess of 6,000, making it among the most well-attended events in bowling history. 

Competing in the most unique venue in the history of women's bowling, Hulsenberg claimed her first title in nearly a decade and earned $50,000 for the victory. The event, presented by the brands of Ebonite International and conducted by the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA), will be broadcast on Saturday at 6 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2.

"I'm actually sitting here thinking I can't believe this just happened to me," said No. 2 seed Hulsenberg, a 27-time professional champion who won her last pro title Sept. 19, 2002, at the Three Rivers Open in Pittsburgh. 

"This win means so many different things to me. For my family it's a very special day because I met my husband after I stopped bowling full time. On a bowling level, it's special because I've been with Ebonite for 20 years and they had so much to do with this tournament." 
 
"With the pressure of playing on one of the largest stages there is - Cowboys Stadium and on national TV - Leanne rose to the occasion and delivered an exceptional performance," said Steve Johnson, executive director of the BPAA. 

"This is an incredible moment in a year that has seen bowling flourish in popularity among women and continue its incredible resurgence as the nation's number one participatory sport. Speaking on behalf of the bowling industry and the 71 million bowlers across the United States, I congratulate Leanne for demonstrating everything that makes bowling great and for showing what a champion is made of." 

Top-seeded Kulick, who won the 2003 and 2010 U.S. Women's Open, got off to a shaky start in the match, only striking on one shot in the first six frames while leaving the 4-6-7-10 split for opens twice. The 183 game was the lowest Kulick shot in her 49 tournament games. She entered the championship match averaging 241.35 for the event. 

"Unfortunately, my feel just wasn't there tonight," said Kulick, a seven-time Team USA member who is the only woman to win a title on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour. 

"The humidity level was very high, and I never got a comfortable fit with the ball. There never was a happy medium. It wasn't that I was lost on the lanes. I went in and did the best I could." 

In the semifinal, Hulsenberg escaped with a narrow victory over No. 5 seed Lynda Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, 247-246, after Barnes went high and left the 6-10 on her final shot of the game. Hulsenberg, who trailed by 42 pins at the halfway point of the match, rebounded by closing the game with seven consecutive strikes. 

Barnes began the second match with seven consecutive strikes in eliminating No. 3 seed Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, NY, 259-225. Johnson left a 4-6 split for an open in the fourth frame and eventually trailed by more than 60 pins, a deficit from which she would never recover. 

In the opening match, Barnes defeated Shannon O'Keefe of Arlington, Texas, 268-166. O'Keefe, the fourth seed, failed to strike in the first five frames as Barnes jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. The U.S. Women's Open featured a record-breaking field of 286 of the top female bowlers in the world competing for a total prize fund of $225,000.

Saturday, July 2: 4:30 - 6p.m. ET Sunday, July 3: 2:30 - 4:30p.m. ET

You thought the PBA Team Shootout was all fun and games; bowling outside under rollercoasters in shorts and hats.   Not this summer!  Sparks will fly when the pros hit the lanes in Chicago.