I think it is because the PBA telecast was more fun to watch in the late 80's early 90's. And most of us have nostalgia for how good the tour was then compared to what is has become now. I find myself enjoying the PBA50 tour much more then the regular tour on xtra frame as well.

Hopefully in 8 year when I qualify to bowl the pba50 tour it will still be around and in the form it is today.

If I was forced to choose one I would say Mike Aulby.  Almost effortless and always balanced.  Expanded, favorites include:

Earl
Bohn
Pepe
Scroggins

and

Ozio cause I've got to give the right some love too.

Mike Aulby, always cool under pressure and I believe still the only bowler to win every existing major for the Super Slam. Showed you didn't have to be flashy and throw a ton of speed to get the job done.

The other lefties I enjoyed watching were Parker Bohn, John Mazza, Ricky Ward, and Richie Wolfe. All very smooth and fundamentally sound...which I am unfortunately not. lol

Holman and if I have to pick a lefty it's John Gant.

I would have to say Johnny P and Walter Ray and can leave out Earl . I used to watch these  guys on Saturdays . Those were the days !

Well since I am new and do not know all the greats. My favorites are:  Pete Weber for his ish talking and Belmo.

Dick Weber.

The Arnold Palmer of bowling, great bowler and great ambassador of the game.

Quote from: SG17 on September 27, 2017, 08:42:46 PM

Pete Webber was always my favorite to watch.

I met him once when my dad and I went to the TOC; he was late for a players meeting was an absolute jerk about it when we asked him to sign something.  about an hour later as he coming out to bowl the pro-am event of the tournament he sought us out, apologized for being a jerk.  signed our stuff, chatted with us for a bit.

Later, we are in the hotel bar watching sports on the TV.  Pete was staying in the same hotel, comes in.  He sees us and recognizes us from earlier that day and sits down with us and buys us a round and chats some more while he waited for his friends that he was joining.  He ended up being pretty cool about it.

my other favorites are Danny Wiseman, brian Voss and Amaleto Monaceli

PDW I do believe is often misunderstood and has had issues to deal with.  Probably not so fun being the son of the nicest guy in bowling.  He sure seems less like a horses ass in real life than say Sean Rash.

For a lot of the names here, you really need to watch the movie "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen", as well as ESPN's 30 for 30: Bad Guy of Bowling.

You're right that PDW is definitely misunderstood, but these two movies gets into the WHY that all of these guys are doing this. Pete does have a lot to live up to; When you think about it, the main part of his young life, his father wasn't there. Pete said it himself: his family's Saturday afternoon stopped at 1:30, because his father was on TV. Yes, he was out there entertaining and making a living for them, but that's a lot of time away from their family. And when Pete decided to do this, he had a huge shadow to try to get out from behind.

And his father's passing rocked him. As it would anyone in our sport, let alone family, but it rocked him. That's why that 5th US Open title was huge. Everything that happened to him in this sport, with his father, with is family, with those suspensions, wearing his heart on his sleeve.. everything came up to that moment with that strike, let alone that one fan in the audience pissing him off.

As for the others, WRW had the same issue with chasing title #43 and coming out of Earl's shadow. Chris Barnes doing this to keep a roof over his family's head, especially after one of his kids coming down with juvenile diabetes, and the fall of the PWBA at the time.

So many backstories that we don't know about that make it so hard to choose who our favorite bowler is.

BL.