Everyone feel free to add their own thoughts or comments, but make them relevant, please. Here's one of my thoughts.
The PBA, unlike other sports, only showcases 4, sometimes 5, bowlers in one single show, one day a week, less than half the weeks of the year. While it's an individual sport that features a weekly champion, unlike baseball, football or basketball, but similar to golf, it's very quiet throughout the week. More often than not, golf shows every round. However, unlike golf, the championship is not determined by highest total pinfall once all the games are completed, it's decided by a bracket finals similar to the sports with only one annual championship. It's an odd mishmash of different elements, but I still believe that's what makes it unique. However, I believe that despite the benefits, it's also a detriment. Fans of golf that like to see a certain player play more often than not get to see quite a bit of that player the whole tournament. Although the majority of people that are fans of the PBA watch the show regardless of who is on it, there are quite a few who will only watch the show if a player that has their interest has made it. Showing the other rounds on tv would take away from the impact of the championship round a bit, but at the same time, it would open up people to a whole new world.
Imagine golf if you were only able to see a few of them on tv once a week. I for one would have liked to see Andrew Frawley throw more than one game, I'd have liked to see how much different match play is from tv. The TQR and qualifying rounds get us all set up for the rounds of matchplay, that piques our interest for the matchups . . and then we have to watch on the internet . . I'd love to see the rounds leading up to the show weekly. Plus only seeing one or two games on tv lends the audience to all sorts of idiotic or flat out errant assumptions or conclusions. As far as this weekend goes, I spoke to Rick Benoit on Sunday when he was back in town, and he said the lanes played a lot slicker throughout the week, and the reason that Frawley did so well is that he was excellent at keeping a slower speed consistent. I also found out that my conclusions about Wes Malott are wrong. More often than not when Wes is on tv, it looks like he gets down to the bottom of the swing and grabs the hell out of the ball, but Rick gave me a funny look when I asked him how Wes was still so effective, and said Wes really gets it down into the lane pretty quickly. How does Walter make tv week after week if he bowls the same way during the week that he's bowled on tv the last couple times out? He's looked horrible, but yet he still makes it more often than not.
That's my basic thought. Scoring, equipment, all that has to do with it, but I thought of a different angle here.
--------------------
This is Fluffy. He is the Destroyer of Worlds.
