This is a perfect example of how the PBA doesn't get it.

You can buy PBA jerseys on PBA.com. Those jerseys are marketed towards fans and amateur bowlers. If they weren't, they wouldn't be for sale in a public section.

So now I'm an amateur with two PBA jerseys in my closet. I can't wear them to work. I don't want to wear them to cut grass; they're too nice for that. So where do I wear them? To bowl, of course!

Oh wait, I can't do that. I'm a *POSER* if I do.

Here's what a couple of you don't get: If I wear a jersey to bowl in league, and people see a little "PBA" logo on my shirt -- where it was sewn at the factory before I even bought the da*n thing -- they might ask me what that means. They might ask me if they can see it on TV sometimes. That might open up the opportunity to market the PBA to someone at no cost to the PBA. Who knows?

I don't claim to be a pro, but at least once a month, I bowl league wearing a bought-it-off-PBA.com PBA jersey. Unlike AK47, I don't have my name on the back. I don't have any extra patches at all; I just have the blank shirt.

You know why? BECAUSE I'M A @#&^&#$ FAN OF THE PBA. I'm the guy that you PBA guys need to have in your corner if you want your tour to survive. Because without me and other amateurs who are also fans, your tour is T-O-A-S-T. That's the way ALL professional sports in this country work.

We're not posing, we're trying to help. We're trying to be fans. No one sees guys playing in a church softball league wearing A-Rod jerseys and thinks they're really MLB baseball players. No one is going to watch me bowl for more than five minutes and think I'm a PBA player, either.

So if it's wrong to own these jerseys, take it up with your own organization. Tell them to quit selling and marketing these things online. If it's such a privilege to own your gear, quit making it available.

Or, you could take a step back and realize that what you call "posing" is what some of us call "paying homage to people better than us."

Jess

just reading all the replies and getting caught up on what all everyone is saying. first off "posing" c'mon now what are we all back in high school again?

and i agree with what was said, if the pba doesn't want people to wear their product then 1 don't market it and 2 why be selling it to john q. public in the first place.

i think all the pba seriously cares about is about the fans that love the game like ak for example if it was not for fans like that then the tour would become toast.

because fans like that love watching the pros repeat shot after shot make shows back to back they get caught up in the moment, and that makes them want to go out and bowl more buy more equipment practice more and join more leagues to hopefully get that good enough average to pay their dues and go join the pba and then when a tour qualifier comes to their neck of the woods or a regional go bowl it for the hell of it just to see what its like out there.

and who knows they just might make it all the way to the top and win the tournament i know mathematically you have better odds at winning a pba event then you do of getting hit by lightning or winning the power ball lottery drawing.

here's another example i prefer Pepsi as my favorite brand of soft drink and i needed a new plastic spare ball so i seen a good deal on a Pepsi one and got it and i got a pepsi patch for my shirt as well.

why did i do that? its not cause i wanna be Chris Barnes jr (hell i wouldn't wish  looking like that guy on my worst enemy) it's cause i like their product and im a supporter of their product and in a way im actually promoting their product by doing this cause when someone sees certain words or hears certain stuff or sees something its called stimulation marketing.

its been going on for years this is how companies make money

and yea i do own stock in Pepsi so any chance i have to increase their sales reflects good for me cause that means my stock will be worth a little more