"It's all fun to me with its newness," said Seibel, 45. "I have always been a fan of bowling. I have bowled in leagues before, quite a bit as a kid, so I have some knowledge of it. In my early 20s, I bowled in several leagues and carried a 170 average, and I'm glad to be involved in it now."

Seibel and Holman think the new format on CBS will hold the attention better for fans at home than the old top-five format.

"I think the new format lends itself to the new one-hour broadcast," Seibel said. "If they tried to do it with the old format, there would be no time for it. Altogether, the whole package will work well."

"I agree," Holman said. "It's a matter of changing what was not working as well in the past as it once had. Of course, there's the old saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it,' but the PBA top-five format was not working, and there were some things that needed changing and made more exciting. I think the new format will do just that for us."

Holman, 43, claims there are similarities between the two network productions, and the main difference is ESPN still uses the old top-five format that ABC used. CBS has a tighter agenda, and it goes with the new top-four format where the winner of the three bowlers competing in the opening match bowls the top seed in the championship match. He wants the presentation on CBS to bring new fans to the sport.

Holman, the "Medford Meteor," is now the premier commentator for the PBA since he does the telecasts for the tour on both ESPN and CBS with his colleagues Mike Bush and Seibel. Holman and Seibel now have taken the slots that Bo Burton and Chris Schenkel occupied for all those many years on ABC. Burton is the new commentator for the PWBA telecasts on ESPN, teaming with Jan Schmidt.

Holman was glad to have won his 22^nd career tournament in Michigan back in October of 1996, but he now prefers the microphone to the bowling balls on the PBA Tour.

"I like being in the broadcasting position I'm in right now," said Holman, "but I may want to bowl more frequently again and join the PBA Senior Tour in six more years. People ask me if I miss bowling, and I don't miss it right now because I've bowled enough. I won the tournament in Detroit right after I got the ESPN broadcasting job, and I wasn't bowling very well, so the only thing I had left was my mind remembering what it was like to win. When I did get myself into that position, I drew a lot on my past experiences to take it all the way."

Holman enjoyed sitting in as a musician with Paul Shaffer's CBS Orchestra on "Late Night with David Letterman" and thought the numerous cameo appearances of pro bowlers on his show helped promote the tour on CBS.

"I think David Letterman really likes bowling," Holman said. "He makes fun of it, and he had Mike Aulby and Dick Weber on there a number of times bowling at silly objects, but it was good exposure.

"I would have liked having more to do on his show than to play a pretty mean air guitar in Paul's band. He was very nice, and I sat between two regular guitar players. I didn't have much contact with Dave, who is a busy boy. He has a lot to do on his show."

Holman has positive but cautious hopes for the future of the PBA Tour on CBS.

"We don't know what next year is going to bring," he said. "It's an option year in our contracts, so we'll see what happens. If we do come back next year, I believe there would be at least one new stop added. More expansion is definitely being discussed."

Seibel notes that many TV sports contracts are structured in this fashion.

"I've done a lot of horse racing for ESPN and CBS, and that's the way many contracts for events go—one year at a time," Seibel said. "ABC had Chris Schenkel and Bo Burton do these broadcasts for them and now their relationship has ended and the torch has been passed to us to continue the tradition at CBS, and we hope to do it again next year.

"If it was up to us, I would say we definitely would be back next year. But it’s actually up to the executives at CBS, and we hope they decide to bring it back again."

Holman feels the PBA Tour needs to be on Saturday afternoons in the spring and summer so that fans who don’t have cable TV or a satellite dish can watch the pros on TV and bowling won’t get lost in the massive media of sports. He hopes the regular exposure will encourage fans to learn from watching the pros and then try out what they have learned by going bowling themselves.

Enjoy it in May and June while you can, fans at home, because you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. If it doesn’t work, some may need to tear down their bowling centers, pave paradise, and put up a parking lot.

* * * *

Speaking of Letterman liking bowling, Dave displayed more evidence of Holman’s claim on the April 13 "Late Night" when Letterman interviewed at his desk Mark Berlin, a league bowler from Oswego, Wis., about his 300 game, which wasn’t just any perfect game—and a sanctioned one at that.

As Berlin explained it, he actually threw his final strike ball into the pocket in the dark. The bowling center encountered a power failure shortly he released his final ball for the 300, and Berlin took time out as members of his league went to their vehicles to retrieve flashlights to help him see down his lane.

Letterman had Berlin repeat the feat on his stage inside the darkened theater. Through the magic of television, Berlin bowled a strike in the dark once again.

Syndicated columnist Richard Kolb is a member of the Bowling Writers Association of America.