A long time ago, a famous New York sports editor would write an occasional column entitled "No One Asked Me, But...."
This column falls into that category. Probably nobody cares what I think, but I have some pet peeves when it comes to the sport of bowling.
For example, the No. 1 thing that bothered me this year occurred last spring when proprietors publicly criticized ABC and WIBC officials for hiking annual league dues a couple bucks. Many of these are the same proprietors who had their hands outstretched in gleeful acceptance when the ABC and WIBC agreed to pour money into Strike Ten Entertainment. Over a three-year period, the ABC extended loans in the amount of $2,666,474 including interest. The WIBC loans were about $2.9 million.
However, the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America, a full partner in the Strike Ten Entertainment adventure, contributed only $226.163 including interest. That's about 2.4 million bucks less than the ABC loaned to the futile Strike Ten Entertainment fiasco.
In my eyes, the group that benefitted most from the little Strike Ten accomplished were the proprietors. If the proprietors didn't want the ABC and WIBC to increase their league fees last spring, they should have returned part of that $5.5 million that the bowlers contributed to Strike Ten.
Pet Peeve No. 2
All this fuss about the so-called "Gold Coaches" organization: How can any organization claim to represent the greatest coaches in America when missing from the Gold Coaches list are such names as Dick Ritger, Bill Taylor, Tom Kouros, and John Jowdy? To me, they are four "golden coaches" of this modern-day bowling era.
I guess they are not listed as gold coaches because they did not come up with the fees to join the Gold Coaches organization. I know it's not because they haven't taken a course or exam because several writers heard a Gold Coach official tell an attractive former PWBA member that she didn't have to take the test because of her track record.
Give me a break: She couldn't come close to filling the coaching shoes of Ritger, Taylor, Kouros, or Jowdy—and probably many others.
Pet Peeve No. 3
I think bowling is so starved for attention that it goes out of its way to make heroes of human beings from other sports.
The greatest example came when the National Bowling Council paid gymnast Mary Lou Retton all kinds of money to be the spokesperson for bowling. She didn't know the first thing about the game and made a fool of herself and the proprietors during a BPAA U.S. Open in Venice, Fla. Even the legendary Chris Schenkel was startled at her snub of the writers.
It's not like the proprietors didn't have some great bowlers sitting in the wings and willing to help for a lot less money—like Brian Voss with his All-American body, Dick Weber will his All-World personality, and Mike Aulby with his All-Hemisphere charm.
And every time I look around, bowling magazines and bowling papers are running pictures or stories of famous athletes from other sports every time they go bowling or throw a bowling party. But you never see golf or tennis running pictures of bowlers like Walter Ray Williams Jr., Pete Weber, Brian Voss, Kim Adler, Wendy Macpherson, or Ann Marie Duggan when they play golf or tennis.
Then again, you never see the PGA or United States Tennis Association run bowling tournaments during their national conventions, but you will see the BPAA run a golf tournament during its national convention each year.
If bowling doesn't respect its own sport or own heroes, how can you expect the American public to think bowling is the greatest game in the world?
Come on, proprietors: You need to be making heroes out of pro bowlers.
And I think the new CEO of BPAA, Jack Kelly, is the man to lead the proprietors out of the dark ages and bring new respect to the industry. I know he already has taken giant steps to mend broken fences with the Bowling Writers Association of America.
The next thing you may see is Kelly convincing BPAA members to prominently display schedules and results of PWBA and PBA events, to tape ESPN telecasts and then run them on their lane monitors at all times, to display pictures of pro bowlers all through their centers so they become household names.
Dick Evans is a member of the ABC and PBA Halls of Fame.