Who would have believed that televised bowling could be so bad in such a short period of time? The long-awaited and much-anticipated ESPN coverage has been pretty pathetic.
Okay, if you have not been watching, and before you think this is just another negative column, talk to some folks who have seen the first three telecasts—Peoria, Nashville, and Indianapolis.
There have been some bad renditions of our National Anthem, but even Roseanne's crotch-grabbing version was better than what the PBA presented on the opening telecast in Peoria.
Everyone expected that it would take time for the new owners of the PBA to get things rolling, and the bowling community wanted bowling back on television, whether it was prime time or some other time. It didn't matter if it was ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, or ESPN. So, when a deal was made with ESPN, the bowling fans were happy, and most believed it would be good for our sport.
It's not looking so good.
Jim Kelly is a heck of a golf announcer, but he doesn't know squat about bowling, doesn't seem to care, and acts like he would rather be in the lounge at some country club than in the booth broadcasting bowling. He is boring to the point of sleep.
Randy Pedersen is just happy to be receiving a paycheck at a bowling event. The guy who should be putting his knowledge of the sport into the viewer's living room seems content to be a wise guy and bring some Holiday Inn lounge act to the booth. There is nothing wrong with a little comedy once in a while, but when a bowler picks up his spare ball and the best Pedersen can come up with is, "What the heck is that?" maybe he should watch an old Bo Burton or Mike Durbin tape.
Oh yes, ESPN cut from bowling to baseball so we could see Barry Bonds walk. I wonder if the network had been televising baseball and a bowler was rolling a perfect game, would it have cut to bowling? Sure.
In the middle of the match, some guy with nothing to do with the show came on the screen. He looked as surprised as I am sure most of the viewers were. We watched him sitting at a desk, and then we went back to bowling. Kelly said, "We had some technical difficulties." I'll say.
Chris Barnes won the Nashville event, and the award ceremony had no audio. That was not surprising because the audio for most of the telecast was poor.
The Miller High Life Open in Indianapolis started in the seventh frame of the wild card match that ended 195-190.
If quality shots and spare shooting are supposed to improve with the "Sport condition," how do you explain Roger Bowker leaving and missing the 2-8-10 twice, the 3-9-10, and the 4-6-7? Dave Arnold missed a 4-7, Tim Criss missed the 5-9, left the "Big 4" split, and Jack Laffey threw a gutter ball. Scores of 181 and 188 were rolled. And, because they ran out of time, there was no award ceremony televised.
Who is a fault here? If I were the PBA and had a contract with ESPN, I would demand a better product as far as the audio and video portions are concerned. If I owned the PBA and watched the first three telecasts, I would realize that whoever was responsible for picking Kelly and Pedersen should rethink it quickly and act accordingly. If they want to keep Kelly and have him say nice, simple things like Mike Scroggins of Amarillo, Texas is on the approach, then the other talking head needs to say something intelligent about Scroggins, his equipment, his game—something.
It's not just me, folks. The PBA web site even apologized for the National Anthem, and the community section of pba.com has some very unhappy bowlers and viewers.
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Adding to the woes of the PBA is the fact they have lost two tournaments: Brunswick won't sponsor the Tournament of Champions and PBA has cancelled that event, and The Villages has withdrawn as a sponsor for the 2001-02 season.
What's this all about? Well, it depends on who is doing the talking. But, the bottom line is due to the pressures from the economy, the uncertainty of the business climate, and the recent terrorist activity, Brunswick had to reconsider its involvement.
Brunswick will, however, continue to back the PBA Johnny Petraglia Open.
The Villages made its decision after watching the first televised ESPN show. (See, I wasn't the only one who didn't like it!)
The Villages' folks, who claim to believe in the PBA, intend to take a year to reevaluate their national marketing plan.
Although I really enjoyed The Villages event, I won't miss it nearly as much as the Tournament of Champions. Let's hope that another sponsor steps up and grabs this prestigious and historic tournament.
On another note, the PBA has delayed inductions into its PBA Hall of Fame to reevaluate the criteria for induction.
Sounds like another Hall of Fame I know.
See you on the lanes.
Don Wright is a member of the Bowling Writers Association of America. Visit his home page.