Bowling is a unique sport among professional sports that are seen regularly on television. When athletes are suspended from any sport except bowling, they are not allowed to compete in that sport in any game, match, or tournament until the time their suspension is completed.
When controversial Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker was suspended for ethnic remarks made in a Sports Illustrated story that were considered to be unbecoming of a player in the sport of Major League Baseball, Rocker was suspended by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig.
Rocker was not allowed to compete as a pitcher in games for the Atlanta Braves or even the minor league Richmond Braves during that time of two weeks, and there were no exceptions to Selig's suspension.
Pete Weber was suspended in February by PBA Commissioner Mark Gerberich for remarks and conduct considered unbecoming of a PBA member. Yet Weber nearly won a title June 17 in Albuquerque, N.M., during his suspension for the entire bowling world to see since the annual biggest meetings and tournaments were staged in the central New Mexico city.
The "Land of Enchantment" was not the land of suspension for Weber because officials of the American Bowling Congress found that Pete did not violate their rules, and they found nothing unbecoming about Pete's activities when it came to his notorious altercation with bowlers during a pro-am portion of a PBA tournament that resulted in his partial suspension.
Some professional sports officials consider their ability to enforce the rules in their respective sports to be most important. This attitude is exemplified by those who run the Professional Golfers Association Tour who are asking the United States Supreme Court to make a ruling on PGA pro Casey Martin concerning the use of his golf cart during competition. Martin has a deteriorating hip and leg and must use his cart to compete while his fellow golfers walk the courses.
If the Supreme Court indeed hears the PGA Tour's complaint on their appeal from the lower courts that have ruled in favor of Martin and against him in separate cases, the PGA runs the risk of forcing all pro golfers to stop using carts, including the seniors who use carts on their tour exclusively. The Supreme Court could decide that allowing 50-year-old pros on the Senior PGA Tour to use carts and not allowing 49-year-old pros on the regular PGA Tour to use them is just as unfair of a PGA rule as allowing Martin to use his cart.
The winner of a Senior PGA tournament stop can win an average of $200,000, which is substantially more money than Martin makes as a lower-ranked golfer on the regular PGA Tour, and it's oceans more than a typical pro bowler earns. So why should healthy seniors, most of whom could walk the entire course they play, be allowed to use carts on a regular basis?
Even though Weber was suspended from the PBA Tour, he competed as an amateur in the ABC Masters and lost as the top seed to Mike Koivuniemi 236-235. Koivuniemi idolized Weber when he bowled in his native Finland; to beat Pete by a single pin was a dream come true, so he lamented Weber's suspension.
"I wanted to bowl like Pete when I was working on my game in Finland and it was special to beat him in such a close match," Koivuniemi said. "I'm sorry that Pete can't compete against me on the PBA Tour regularly, but rules are rules, and even he has to follow the rules."
Koivuniemi won $35,000 and his first PBA title as the ABC Masters champion, while Weber collected $19,000. But did Weber have a right to win his second-place money?
According to production director Ed Baur of the ABC, they had no problem allowing Weber to compete in the ABC Masters tournament and his participation was justified.
"We know that Pete violated PBA rules by his unbecoming actions at a pro-am on a tour stop in Michigan, but those actions didn't involve our organization," Baur said. "If an ABC member who witnessed Pete's actions had reported them to an ABC representative at the time, then the ABC could have suspended him too for making his comments to other bowlers but no ABC sanctioned bowlers made any such reports and some were there to witness Pete's activities. It makes me wonder just how serious Pete's actions were at the time since no members of the ABC reported it."
PBA Commissioner Mark Gerberich watched Weber compete in the championship match for the ABC Masters from the front row of his seat next to Baur's. What was the commissioner going to do if Weber had won—walk up to Pete and shake his hand on Fox Sports Net and congratulate him for finding a way to sidestep his suspension and win a title while he was suspended from the tour? It would have been an unwanted first occurrence for the PBA and a public relations nightmare for the tour.
Baur said no meetings were held on how the ABC and PBA should be on the same page when it came to Pete Weber and his suspension because they felt there was no need for a meeting.
"We felt the terms of his suspension were clear cut and there was no need for a meeting on what the ABC should decide to do with Pete," Baur said. "The presence of Weber as the top seed didn't bother Mark [Gerberich], and I got the impression that he may shorten or lift Pete's suspension based on his recent good behavior. Pete was very courteous and on his best manners during the Masters. He realizes he was wrong at the Michigan tournament; he wanted to win the Masters, and he has a chance to win the U.S. Open coming up since he's eligible to bowl in that tournament."
Baur said the PBA is glad to get any help it can from the ABC.
"The PBA wasn't in a position to suggest to the ABC who it should allow to enter our tournament," Baur continued. "The reason why the PBA didn't complain to us about Weber was because the ABC paid for the entire production operation of the Masters to Fox Sports Net, and it was financially our tournament. We actually did the PBA a favor by paying for the tournament and also allowing it to count as a PBA title on their tour in the spirit of bowling unity."
Baur added that the ABC and the BPAA are glad to pay for the tournaments they sponsor, but since the ABC will not be moving Bowling Headquarters from Greendale, Wis., to Orlando, Fla., they are also cutting their budget by $1 million.
"Our million dollar budget cut will affect our ability to pay for sponsorship of future ABC/PBA tournaments, so we will not be able to fund the next ABC Senior Masters," Baur said. "But since Chris Peters and his group have purchased the PBA Tour, they will be picking up the TV production bill for the Senior Masters."
According to Baur, Peters and his group intend to funnel $5 million per year for the next five years into the struggling PBA Tour to bolster it economically and make it financially independent so the tour can focus on better productions and better ratings to eventually realize a return on their massive investment.
Baur said that Pete Weber behaving badly is an exception when it comes to pro bowlers doing things unusual enough to merit a suspension. "When you compare the number of suspensions of pro bowlers to those of football, basketball, baseball, hockey, etc., bowlers come out squeaky clean in general," Baur said.
Pete Weber has succeeded in embarrassing PBA officials over his suspension, and for now, his required time off only includes the Fall Tour. Even though the suspension has hit Weber in his wallet, most sports fans still wonder why he can still compete in two tournaments on the PBA Tour when he has been suspended from the same tour. To fans and advertisers who wouldn't immediately consider the reasons for the exceptions explained here, it seems to be a total contradiction that is not characteristic of most high-budget major sports.
According to the PBA's Bobby Dinkins, the reason that the PBA can justify this is because since Pete was suspended, he is not currently a member of the PBA. If he had won the ABC Masters, it would have only counted as an amateur title, not a PBA title. He was bowling in the BPAA U.S. Open as an amateur once again, so if he had won that tournament, it would have also been a non-PBA title. The point of winning the championship is now moot because Pete injured a tendon in his bowling arm during competition, was seen packing it with ice, and had to withdraw from the competition.
All things considered, the facts point to a deeper problem among the ranks of pro bowling promoters. Even though the ABC and PBA pay lip service to the concept of a unified bowling effort, and the ABC pays for some PBA tournaments that the PBA recently could not afford, the two organizations cannot agree on a regular basis what's best to do for bowling in general. They prefer to go in their own directions and do their own things on something as simple as suspending a bowler for misbehaving.
Until bowling organizations come up with a more united effort on rule enforcement, the sport will continue to confuse fans, TV network promoters, and advertisers alike on exactly how bona fide it is as a legitimate sport.
Syndicated columnist Richard Kolb is a member of the Bowling Writers Association of America.