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PBA Announces its 2008 Senior Award Winners
Baker wins fourth consecutive PoY honor, Webb is RoY, Baldwin receives sportsmanship award
The PBA announced today that Tom Baker won 2008 PBA Senior Player of the Year honors, Wayne Webb was named PBA Senior Rookie of the Year and Fred Baldwin was awarded the first Dick Weber Sportsmanship Award. The awards for the 2008 PBA Senior Tour season were voted on by PBA membership and national media.
Baker, of King, N.C., won PBA Senior Player of the Year honors for a record fourth consecutive season. Although he did not win a tournament in 2008, he led the point standings with 137,165 and appeared in the championship round in three events. He also was among Tour money leaders and tied Kenny Parks with nine Match play appearances in nine events.
The only PBA Senior Tour player who is exempt on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour, Baker has had the most dominating four-year run in PBA Senior Tour history. He was named both the PBA Senior Player and Rookie of the Year in 2005, becoming the first bowler ever to win both in the same season. In 2006, Baker tied a record with four titles – which came in just nine events – and won both Majors. In 2007, he won three titles, including his second consecutive USBC Senior Masters. In his four seasons on the Senior Tour, he has eight career titles.
Baker’s march to a fourth Player of the Year award wasn’t easy as a strong rookie class joined the Tour, including PBA Hall of Famers Webb and Mark Williams, as well as top bowlers Kenny Parks and Brian Brazeau.
"Probably the past few years, it had been kind of a runaway, but this year there were a number of guys who were in the running," Baker said. "I could have won the Masters and the U.S. Open and I was pretty close, but overall I was pretty consistent. To win it at all is great, but to win it four times is unbelievable."
Webb, of Sacramento , Calif. , was named PBA Senior Rookie of the Year after capturing one title, the 2008 PBA Senior U.S. Open, which came in his second career PBA Senior Tour event. He led the Tour in earnings ($30,575) and average (224.08) and finished fourth on Tour in points. He also had six match-play appearances, which ranked tied for fourth on Tour. The 20-time Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour titlist also finished second in the Player of the Year voting behind Baker.
"Obviously it’s a great honor," Webb said. "Being on the Tour for 30 years, then quitting for three years, and then coming back on the Senior Tour this year and doing as well as I did ….I kind of re-sparked my life with bowling again."
Baldwin, of Sturgis , Mich. , was awarded the first PBA Senior Dick Weber Sportsmanship Award which is given to the senior who demonstrates the highest level of sportsmanship during the season. To be eligible, bowlers must have competed in at least 50 percent of the 2008 PBA Senior Tour events.
The award is named in honor of the late PBA Hall of Famer Dick Weber, who was not only one of the greatest bowlers in history, but was also the sport’s top ambassador and by all accounts displayed the ultimate sportsmanship. In addition to his 30 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour titles, Weber won six PBA Senior Tour titles and three PBA Senior Regional titles, one of which in 2002 made him the only bowler in PBA history to win a title in six different decades.
"I was surprised … there were five other guys nominated, who had all won championships," Baldwin said. "I’m just an old guy out there having the time of his life. It’s the best honor I’ve ever had in my life."
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LeBron James and Jason Couch Win Inaugural Chris Paul Celebrity Invitational
Viewers enjoyed a unique treat on ESPN as they watched recent Olympic gold medalists and NBA stars Chris Paul, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade headline pairings with stars of the PBA in the inaugural Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational presented by the brands of Ebonite International. The event kicked off the 2008-09 50th Anniversary Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Season which will air Sundays on ESPN.
Viewers watched as Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James and Jason Couch won the Invitational by defeating No. 1 seed New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul and 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year Chris Barnes, 214-195 in the championship match.
"I had a lot of fun. I love to bowl and wanted to come out here for a good cause and help out Chris (Paul) with his charity event," James said of the event, which was taped for broadcast Sept. 20 in Paul’s hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
"When I found out that I was going to be a part of this event, I was ecstatic," Couch said. "I love basketball and being able to team up and compete against these NBA players was a dream come true. I’m excited to start off the season with this win, especially after taking almost all of last year off to recoup from knee surgery."
In the stepladder format, No. 4 seed Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant and teammate Mitch Beasley gave the competition a run for its money. They defeated No. 5 seed Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade and 2005-06 PBA Player of the Year Tommy Jones, 199-141, then went on to defeat No. 3 seed Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay and 2006-07 PBA Player of the Year Doug Kent, 190-178, before ultimately falling in the semi-final to No. 2 seed James and Couch, 175-132.
The event was held in conjunction with the Third annual Chris Paul’s Winston-Salem Weekend, the signature fundraising event of the CP3 Foundation. Paul, who grew up in Winston-Salem and was an All-American at Wake Forest, is an All-Star guard on the New Orleans Hornets. All of the proceeds from the Invitational and the weekend-long charity event will support a variety of charities and programs in Winston-Salem and New Orleans.
It marks the first time professional athletes from other sports partnered with professional bowlers for a bowling event with a dedicated telecast.
"This gives me an opportunity to show a part of me and it also gives an opportunity for the world to see how big of a sport bowling is," said avid bowler and U.S. Bowling Congress spokesman Paul. "I think a lot of times people see bowling as just something fun that you can go do on Friday night, Saturday night or something like that. But bowling is a competitive sport and something that I'm very, very involved in, and I love it.
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USBC BEGINS RESEARCH ON BOWLING BALL ENTRY AND EXIT ANGLES
Study seeks to find out how modern bowling environment affects pin carry
When a heavy bowling ball rolls down a lane, it hits the pins and knocks them over. That’s all there is to it, right?
The United States Bowling Congress knows there’s more to it than that.
That’s why the sport’s national governing body has started a multi-phase study to expand on earlier research and gather data about how bowling pins - the 3-plus pound, 15-inch tall objects that stand at the far end of a lane - interact with bowling balls in today’s bowling environment, which has changed dramatically over the years.
For 25 years, the USBC and its predecessor organizations have studied how the angles that bowling balls hit the pins affect a bowler’s ability to strike. That alone, however, doesn*t tell the whole story. USBC researchers now are venturing into new territory by examining what happens to pins when balls enter the pocket, roll through the pins and off the back of the pin deck.
The other part of USBC’s expanded research is to study how the modern bowling environment plays a part in pin carry. The combination of recent advancements in lane oiling machines, lane conditioners and cleaners, bowling balls, lane surfaces and player skill allows today’s bowlers to create steep angles of entry into the pins, resulting in higher strike percentages as balls roll through the pins after impact.
The aim of USBC’s research is to find new ways to precisely measure how modern bowling balls rolled with different amounts of speed and hook enter and exit the pin deck and how those ball paths influence how pins fly upon impact.
"It’s important that, in today’s setting, USBC better understand what exactly happens when a bowling ball hits the pins from different positions and angles," said USBC Technical Director Steve Kloempken. "We have never before studied a bowling ball’s impact on the pins after it goes through and off the pin deck. In the big picture, this research is important because it impacts scoring levels in our sport."
The first part of the study was recently completed at the USBC Headquarters testing facility in suburban Milwaukee. To simulate
real-world bowling conditions and cover a variety of ball angles into the pocket, bowlers of varying revolution rates and ball speeds rolled hundreds of shots down a test lane.
USBC research engineers used a high-speed camera (250 frames per second) to record the exact positioning of the balls as they entered the pocket and traveled through and off the back of the pin deck. Video clips were analyzed to conclude the study’s first phase.
The next step will involve further analysis of the collected data and explore new testing methodologies to find precise measurements of entry angle (measurement of a bowling ball’s angle as it enters the pocket) and exit angle (where balls roll off the pin deck after hitting the pins).
"The work in our department, such as this entry and exit angle study, is being done by top engineers with a strong passion and dedication to the sport of bowling," Kloempken said. "The USBC Equipment Specifications and Certification department is committed to being on the cutting edge of testing in our sport as it exists today and in the future."
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BOWLING WORLD RECORD: MORE THAN HALF A MILLION GAMES PLAYED IN ONE DAY
548,721 Games Played Across 808 Centers in a Single Day as Part of National Bowling Day Challenge
National Bowling Week 2008 came to an exciting conclusion Aug. 30 with the establishment of the world record for most games bowled in a day. Thanks to 808 participating centers, 548,721 games were played in the 24-hour period that concluded the eight-day celebration.
"This new world record is a great milestone for the sport of bowling and an exciting day for our industry," said Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America President and United States Bowling Congress Director Jim Sturm. "The hundreds of thousands of people who visited bowling centers to help set this record is a testament to the incredible popularity that bowling is enjoying and the continued resurgence of our sport.
"This follows a trend that has seen bowling participation continue to increase every year, with more than 67 million people having bowled in 2007 alone. We’re already looking forward to setting new records in 2009 and beyond."
The bowling world record is recognized by the BPAA, USBC, Strike Ten Entertainment, the International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association and Professional Bowlers Association. This was the third year of the bowling industry’s rededication to National Bowling Week.
In addition to the world record effort, bowling centers hosted a variety of events, games and parties. These included free coaching clinics, free game passes, community days, special tournaments, Bowling Blast-Off youth events and quick and easy league sign-ups.
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