i have to agree, the taped shows are different to say the least. as a kid i grew up watching the PBA on abc, with Chris Schenkel and Bo Burton, and for me it hasnt been the same really since they left ABC. I miss the Arena finals, nothing for me these days even comes close to watching Bob Learn Jr. put on the strike display in Erie, PA in front of close to 10,000 people rooting for their hometown hero. I dont think anything the PBA of today could muster up could come close to that excitement. Add to that John Gant's TOC win at the National Bowling Stadium as well. I give them kudo's for trying to stay afloat, we dont know how much longer the current owner's are willing to take a loss, so the PBA brass are doing what they have to do in order to at least break even, or perhaps actually turn a small profit.
I guess we should be thankful we still have bowling to watch, with the current situation it could be worse. But i will say that when the PBA sticks it to the players like they did in Detroit (withholding payouts for over a month!), i find it very hard to take up for anything the PBA brass does these days. Without the players, their would be no PBA. Those guys are already scratching by to begin with, then making them wait for almost a month to get paid, sounds like the PBA is worse off than we thought, so we may not have anything to complain about before too long.
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Taking your lunch money, one strike at a time....
