OK then Bill, here comes the hard part.
Learn to move on from it.
I do not have a grudge against you, nor do I think you should not report the scores in your area leagues and tournaments. What I am saying is, you need to change the perspective of where you are reporting from.
Stop reporting "now vs then" type stuff. What we did was great, but also a bit irrelevant with the way the game has changed, and for you to continue down that path is going to be nothing but detrimental to you.
You, and I, are enthusiastic about the "old days". Problem is, the "old days" are in the past now, and must be viewed that way. They aren't even a reference point anymore, and what happened back then has no bearing on what happens today. Sort of like it would've been for us if people kept telling us that we weren't REALLY good, because we weren't using a Lignum Vitae ball, the new guys get tired of being told that they're not good because they aren't using a polyester ball as well.
People like you, me, and Mr. Taylor are a bygone remembrance of a former time, when things were very different. Mr. Taylor was not listened to then, and we can't/won't be heard today. At least Mr. Taylor was still in a relevant period of time. We are no longer in one.
Bowling stopped being about bowling a long time ago. The focus shifted from bowling, to profit margins and power. When the people in charge (and I don't mean just the ABC/USBC) start to put their personal gains and well being first, and make the actual bowling secondary in importance, bowling can't do anything BUT continue to spiral downwards until it hits the bottom. I believe we are almost there.
Old men (like us) have either gotten out of the way of, or been run over by, the future, for as long as humanity has been civilized.
I (finally) got out of the way. Are you going to move, or get run over?
It is one, or the other, because it sure isn't going to stop OR slow down. It reminds me of the old cartoon I saw as a kid. A guy at the top of the mountain rolled a tiny snowball down the side. By the time it got half way down, it was huge and unstoppable. From there, it destroyed everything in its path, wreaking devastation, and finally destroying itself as well when it hit bottom.
As many others have decided, I would rather watch.
Don't get me wrong, I still care. Just nothing I can do anymore.
Dear Juggernaut:
Thanks for your comments and concerns regarding my bowling coverage, but your perspective is GREATLY skewed -- or perhaps, you've been listening to Long Gone Daddy a little too much.
You and Long Gone Daddy make it sound as if I constantly harp on modern-day scoring levels, and that's A LONG WAY from the truth. I write a weekly high-score report from area centers, but it has been A LONG TIME since any of those reports compared old-time and modern-day scoring. And if you don't believe it, take a quick glance at the subject of all my columns, and it will affirm what I'm saying.
A link to all of my columns ...
www.examiner.com/bowling-in-st-petersburg/bill-heraldYou and Long Gone Daddy are only looking at a small percentage of my columns and making a judgment based on that. And again, just take a look at the contents of my numerous columns -- and I now write well over 100 columns a year -- and even my harshest critics can't logically point to an "agenda" in very many articles. And Long Gone Daddy falsely claims that my article contain a lot of "USBC bashing" ... but if you scan the past several hundred of my article, I feel it's safe to say that you won't find ANY such "bashing."
You strongly imply that I should "move on" ... but keep in mind that I'm not even able to bowl any longer, due to multiple foot surgeries, so I certainly can't "move on" with regard to on-the-lanes participation, and again, I certainly don't harp on the "THS situation" in my columns, and I see no need to change the "perspective" of my reporting.
You also say that my writing style will "be nothing but detrimental to you" ... but how is that possible? On Examiner.com, I can write as often as I want, as lengthy as I want, and importantly, WHATEVER I want ... and NO ONE at Examiner.com edits or censors anything I write. So again, "detrimental" how? To avoid negative comments by posters such as you or Long Gone Daddy? LOL.
Again, I respect your opinions, but for reasons stated above, I feel that your opinions and presumptions are skewed. As for Long Gone Daddy, I could/would never please him, no matter what I write, and even if I did write some things that appealed to him, I doubt he'd ever admit it.