Regionals: Bring back stepladder!

PBA regional tournaments need to bring back the stepladder finals and get rid of the current format where total pinfall determines the winner. With total pinfall, usually one person runs away from the field on the first day, and it makes it impossible for the bottom qualifiers to win the tournament. Even if you’re one of the higher qualifiers, too much emphasis is on scoring big rather than consistency or winning matches because there is always some bowler who shoots around 230 every game, with a really high game or several sprinkled in. And that means, if you want to win, you have to keep pace with that person.

But with stepladder finals,

Spare Thoughts: My first taste of professional bowling

I’ll never forget walking into the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada (“the biggest little city in the world”) for my first time. It was June, 1999, and my parents took me out of fifth grade early on the last day of school to start our trek towards our first professional bowling tournament, one last birthday present for me.

When we entered the stadium with the iconic silver globe at the entrance, radiant with the setting sun, I was in awe. Large bronze statues beckon you on the first floor, and then you go up an escalator to the second floor,

Spare Thoughts – How I bowled my best

I’ve realized I bowled my best when I had the most fun, the days when I would show up for league and I was just as excited to see all of my good friends as I was to bowl three games. And maybe I would even be having a sleep-over to look forward to that night with one of my friends and we’d be staying up until the wee hours of the morning playing our favorite video games, and that would keep me in a good mood the whole night, even if I wasn’t bowling that great.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved bowling. My whole life I’ve always wanted to be a pro bowler. But in those days (middle school and high school), I wasn’t as score-oriented. Of course, I wanted to shoot as high a score as I could and I wanted to win, but that wasn’t the prevailing thought. I would show up to my Thursday bowling lesson every week