The PBA Tour will return to the "CBS Sports Spectacular" after a contract was signed to televise the tour from April through June for the next two years. CBS Sports will add another telecast to total 10 each year, and the location and sponsorship for the new tour stop still is open to negotiation.
Something which is not open to negotiation are the remarks made about bowling by syndicated sports talk show host Jim Rome after Walter Ray Williams Jr. won this year’s U.S. Open.
Rome spoke about an article published in the sports section of USA Today in April about Williams, featuring quotes from Walter Ray concerning his reactions to finally winning a major tournament on the PBA Tour. Rome used this story on his national radio show as an excuse to blast every aspect of bowling as a sport.
Rome also used the same rehearsed comments on a nationally televised sports talk TV program which he co-hosts with two other sports commentators on FOX Sports Net. He made the same comments about bowling again on NBC’s "Later."
Rome’s most memorable claim to fame was the incident that occurred on his old TV show on ESPN2 where he interviewed NFL quarterback Jim Everett. Rome proceeded to tease Everett by calling him "Chris Evert" in reference to his anemic production on the gridiron. This also was an insult to Chris, one of the best female professional tennis players of her era.
Everett responded by saying, "If you call me that name one more time, I’m coming after you!"
Rome replied with another "Chris Evert," and the outraged quarterback knocked over the interview table and promptly tackled Rome, tossing him to the floor. So much for the interview.
Keeping in mind this episode in the life and legend of Jim Rome, the following is what Rome said about bowling on all of his broadcasts.
For starters, he mixed the characteristics of league bowling with those of pro bowling. Rome says bowling is not a sport but a recreation.
"How can you call bowling a sport when the more drinks you consume and the more smoking you do, the better you become at it?" Rome asked. "What difference do so-called lane conditions and what balls you use make in bowling? USA Today has this story about what’s his name … Walter Ray, Walter Ray Williams Jr. … and what it means to him to win his first major tournament in bowling. This poor guy thinks bowling is a sport!"
Rome says bowlers who have their own equipment might as well hang it up.
"Bowlers who buy their own balls are losers, and if they put their names or initials on them, they are even bigger losers. Those who buy extra balls to make spares are idiots. Some of them even wear wristbands, thinking those will help them bowl better. Bowling is a recreation and not a sport because you can take one ball and keep drinking the beer and smoking the cigarettes, and you can bowl as good as anybody else can bowl. So how can it be a sport? It’s something you do when you go out on a date. It’s like playing miniature golf, and there’s no difference between bowling and miniature golf, so it’s not a sport."
Rome has spewed his venom about bowling with regularly on his syndicated programs, including his original core broadcast base of California. His ignorance about bowling is surprising at the very least since he is knowledgeable about most sports which the media covers, although his insults are predictable.
As I have mentioned previously, it’s in vogue for sportscasters to chop up bowling. The bigger name you think you have in this business, the more you chop to maintain sportscasters’ status quo when it comes to bowling.
You would think that Rome would at least check the facts about bowling before he speaks. He obviously doesn’t want to bother to take the time to investigate bowling because he doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter to him that bowlers on the pro tours are not allowed to drink or smoke during competition, and he also displays his ignorance about using different surface balls for changing lane conditions the way golfers change clubs. It doesn’t matter to him that you actually bowl better with your own equipment.
Lumping all amateur and professional bowlers together with all the old clichés intact is the biggest mistake in judgement Rome makes when it comes to bowling as a sport.
Considering all that Rome has said about bowling and why, in his opinion, it is not a sport, I have a challenge for him: PBA Public Relations Director Dave Schroeder should invite Rome to spend a week on a typical tour stop and allow him to compete as an amateur.
Since Rome says anybody can bowl as well as the next person with some beer and some smokes, let him drink some beer and have a smoke before every block in the 42- or 56-game totals for the week. Have Rome bowl all of the games with the same ball, which will be an old, plastic 16-pound Columbia White Dot (if he can lift it) because he says the ball doesn’t make any difference. Rome also will use rented bowling shoes with no wristband.
At the end of this week, just before the TV finals, total his scores for the entire week against all those pros who are bowling for recreation and profit since they can win as much as $50,000 in the tournament’s title match.
After Rome gets totally annihilated in endurance and scores at the end of the week of competition on the PBA Tour, Schroeder then can ask him if he thinks professional bowling is a recreation or a sport.
I bet Chris Evert is a better bowler than Rome.
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Sportscaster Chris Thomas of WFLA-TV and radio in Tampa Bay, Fla., jumped into the "make fun of bowling" media frenzy when he recently responded to a caller on his radio show who compared soccer to bowling. The caller said he found World Cup soccer boring, and he thought the new format of the PBA Tour on CBS was much more entertaining and fun to watch. Thomas was quick to respond to the magic word "bowling."
Caller: "The PBA now has a new seating arrangement where you surround a pair of lanes with fans, and they’re right on top of the action."
Thomas: "You mean they can spit on the ball as it rolls by?"
Caller: "That’s right, and the balls come in all different colors and the pins are gold, which adds to the viewing enjoyment."
Thomas: "Colored balls and gold pins, really?"
Caller: "Yes, and the format has been shortened to an hour so they have three bowlers in the opening game. The winner bowls the top seed for the championship, so it doesn’t drag on for hours without a score like soccer does."
Thomas: "Thanks for your call. You know, it sounds like the caller has been taking stronger medication than I’ve been using lately!"
Syndicated columnist Richard Kolb is a member of the Bowling Writers Association of America.