Show some bloody EMOTION

[SeanGothe]

I just finished watching the Qubica AMF Masters Promotion tournament on Youtube. This event is a PROMOTIONAL event. It is to PROMOTE the sport of Bowling. A field primarily made up of USA PWBA players and European players from both sexes. Now I was not intending to single out 1 particular individual but I do find it painful to watch (or rather stay awake) when Danielle McEwan is competing. There are a number of incredibly dull competitors in today's game but Danielle whilst a great player is less fun than watching paint dry. Danielle is 31 years of age, has 8 PWBA titles including a US Open so she is no inexperienced nervous Rookie. I am more animated and show more emotion when sweeping the kitchen floor. Now I am not suggesting that everyone has to behave like Marshall Holman or Pete Weber but give us a reason to watch and take an interest. When you are bowling on TV it is not the same as attending a funeral. Sponsors and broadcasters expect to see a level of excitement from the competitors. If the players can't show emotion how do the viewers ever become interested? You are not working in a Call Centre or shoveling asphalt into a pothole - you are competing to win a sporting event on television and supposedly trying to promote the game to a wider audience. The bowlers of the 60 s, 70s, 80s & 90s had personality and were on network television achieving excellent ratings. Earl Anthony, Walter Ray Williams, Mike Aulby, Aleta Sill, Lisa Wagner & Carolyn Dorin-Ballard were not exactly extroverts but you definitely knew they were there to win and that the result meant a lot to them. I can't tell if Danielle McEwan is mowing the lawn, having a tooth extracted or trying to win a bowling tournament. If I was a sponsor or a television broadcaster running a promotional tournament I would want someone capable of showing me that they really want to be there and desperately want to win. The PWBA has just announced former collegiate star Hope Gramly as its 2023 Rookie of the Year. Just possibly this very well educated young player maybe what bowling needs. It needs an injection of emotion or the PWBA will disappear again - this time never to return.

 

[willey]

My god Sean, your not easy to please, just because Danielle does not jump around when she gets excited means she is too boring for you. I have known Chris Batson since the early 70's and I have never seen him get excited when he bowls, do you find him boring too. So now Danielle is on your hit list with Belmonte, who you think should not be allowed to win a Tournament from 6th place, wow, I would say that Belmonte is the best match play bowler in the World, considering his many achievements in the Masters, which is nothing but match play. Maybe you should watch a different sport, I wouldn't recommend Golf or Lawn Bowls, unless your having trouble sleeping.

 

[SeanGothe]

I want to see the sport of bowling grow and flourish. The Prizemoney isn't worth getting out of bed for at the present time. It is actually embarrassing what these people play for. It isn't a genuine living. The girls all require other sources of income just to survive. Whether you like it or not you need to have some degree of personality and emotion to get noticed. Broadcasters and sponsors have that expectation. How you present yourself plays a huge part. I actually don't agree with it but unfortunately that is how life is. Ana Ivanovic wasn't anywhere near the tennis player Ash Barty was. Which one made $millions more than the other from sponsorship deals with a far inferior tennis career. It certainly wasn't Barty.
Secondly, I do not have a hit list as you call it. I have always rated Jason Belmonte as one of the best 3 bowlers of his generation along with EJ Tackett & Anthony Simonsen. Belmonte is great but some of the more recent PBA formats are absolute garbage which allow players who do not perform near the best all week to still win after far too many single elimination games on TV. The Masters is a one off event each year as is Queens - they are raffles. One raffle per sex per year is quite enough. Now, what I am saying is that the PBA should not invent garbage formats which allow the 6th or 7th best player that week to win an event. Full credit to Belmonte for winning - that is his income source. I just like seeing the best bowers in a particular week actually win. I don't want anyone winning (Belmonte or anyone else ) when they are nowhere near the best player that week. If you can't understand that I can't help you. What are we going to do next - give less talented students calculators to use in exams and take them away from the brighter students to give the weaker students an advantage? I don't want to see the 6th or 7th best bowler in a particular week given an opportunity to win. I also hate assignments being used in academic assessments. It means weaker students can benefit from outside assistance. Good students don't need outside help. Lock everyone in the exam room and find out who not only knows their stuff but can perform under pressure when left to their own devices. There is nothing funnier than watching people squirming in front of an exam paper. Life wasn't meant to be easy but it should be fair and equitable to all.
Perhaps you might listen to someone with the intellect of the late and great Charles Darwin rather than throwing in the old ''My God'' line. I am a bit old for fairy tales.

 

[willey]

I think you mean Anna kournikova, what a honey. They want TV ratings, so the more the merrier. I have seen the American style of Golf coverage where they only show the first 5 players, I'm watching thinking I wonder how Norman is going because they don't show him, than he gets a birdie, guess what he was playing next to the guy they were showing for a couple of hours but not any of his shots, in the mean time the show a large tree whilst the top 5 are not hitting and hardly ever show how the whole field is going. I have seen Belmonte, this year, miss the show by 1 pin and have to play off to miss the show one time, this was a problem years ago because there were different winners every week and the audience did not recognise anybody, unlike the days of Marshall, Roth, Anthony and Ritger etc

 

[SeanGothe]

No I did not mean Kournikova and I certainly wouldn't categorise anyone in the way you crudely did. I was merely equating the way sponsors & broadcasters treat athletes differently (a person's sporting talent is sadly often not the main driver for sponsorship dollars or airtime). I used Ana Ivanovic & Ash Barty as examples because they are both quite recent players who received very different treatment from sponsors.