With the Record Book Closed, Bowling Is Boring - suggested changes would allow records to be broken

Bowling Digest, August, 2001 by Dick Evans

IT'S TIME THAT BOWLING enters the 21st century and realizes that records are made to be broken, even if it means slightly altering the strike rules.

Almost weekly, you read about individual records being set in swimming, track and field, horse racing, sailing, auto racing, baseball, basketball, skiing, and even mountain climbing. Think how boring the Olympics would be if the athletes couldn't break individual records. Even in golf, which is very similar to bowling in that there is no defensive maneuver in the game, records can be broken. As a matter of fact, these days golfers are breaking records all over the place, and no golf writers are crying about the game losing its integrity. Take Annika Sorenstam, the LPGA's hottest golfer. She won the Standard Register Ping in February by setting a 72-hole scoring record at 27-under par. In the second round she shot a record 59, the first sub-60 round in LPGA history. Instead of hiding its head in shame that a historic record had been shattered, the LPGA sounded the trumpets. So did the writers, because they understood that times change. Today's golf balls, clubs, and courses are made better. Golf recognizes one important factor: Records are made to be broken.

The tragic thing about bowling is that there are no individual records to break. A high game of 300 and set of 900 only can be tied. Bowling's 300 and 900 maximums are bad for the game. We live in an era of space-age technology from an equipment standpoint; the 300 game and 900 set maximums were established more than a century ago, when wooden balls were being used. It's time for a change.

In 1895, the ABC was formed, establishing the rules we still use, a 300 maximum individual score (12 strikes over 10 frames), a league session of three games (comprising an individual's league set), and 36 consecutive strikes making a perfect 300-300-300--900 set.

Those maximum individual score rules of 300 and 900 now haunt the game. Today official ABC and WIBC bowling records only can be tied, and it's happening so often that purists are yelling foul.

In retrospect, the founders of tenpin bowling could have decided that each game would consist of 20 frames, requiring a 600-600-600 for a perfect score of 1,800. But they didn't, so Ernest Fosburg of East Rockford, Ill., bowled the first ABC-sanctioned 300 game in a five-man team league way back in 1902. In 1930, Jenny Haverson Kelleher of Madison, Wis., became the first woman to bowl a sanctioned 300 game.

Bowling a perfect game was considered a rare feat until the mid-1980s, when it went from a headline story to an afterthought. Everyone jumped on the 300 bandwagon, thanks primarily to easy lane conditions, technically improved bowling balls, and flying pins.

Still, no one had bowled a sanctioned 900 score until collegian Jeremy Sonnenfeld strung 36 strikes on February 2, 1997. Suddenly there were no more individual scoring records to be broken. Today, the ABC 900-series record is shared by five men, with hundreds of others waiting in line to tie it.

Why stop a bowler after 36 consecutive strikes? Bowlers should continue to bowl until they fail to strike. It would be a crying shame if a bowler competing in a national ABC or WIBC tournament bowled 300-300-300--900 in doubles and then started singles with three strikes (39 in a row) and only "officially" got credit for 36.

Imagine the stories that a record string of strikes would garner worldwide:

MONTREAL, 9/20/2002--Curt Pezzano rolled a record 37 consecutive strikes and signed a million-dollar movie contract to act as John Travolta's stand-in during a remake of the bowling movie "Dreamer."

MIAMI, 8/9/2010--Walter Ray Williams Jr. rolled a world-record 40 consecutive strikes but lost the tournament title to a lefthander. The ABC says no recount is necessary in Florida, anointing Williams the country's "Kingpin."

I have gotten some interesting feedback about my consecutive-strikes campaign from people like Roger Dalkin, the ABC's executive director, PBA president Steve Miller, PWBA president John Falzone, and Jack Kelly, the chief executive officer of the BPAA. They recognize that proprietors keep their lanes in better condition than ever, bowling balls are better than ever, pins are kept in top-quality condition, and bowlers are more mentally and physically skilled than ever. Put all those factors together and you have more bowlers rolling more strikes.

Adding a division to bowling's record books--consecutive strikes--would mean that once bowlers reach 36 strikes they can continue to roll strikes until the streak is stopped, producing extra excitement at every level.

Each league could have its own yearly consecutive-strike leader--the champion would get a watch chain with a link for every consecutive strike. Every bowling center could have its own consecutive-strike leaders--leaders could get a free beer for every consecutive strike--and pretty soon, centers would have their own record-setters, like golf courses.

Each city and state association could keep a running tally of the consecutive-strike leaders each year, with winners automatically getting free entry to as many ensuing tournaments as they rolled consecutive strikes. Both the PBA and PWBA could establish a consecutive-strike division and list its record-holder in the media guide, with the leader each year earning a $1,000 bonus for each consecutive strike.