Bowlers Journal International - January 2008 - (Page 32) UPCLOSE last 45 minutes to an hour. Compared to bowling, that’s an eight- to 10-game marathon. That’s one of the things people who call it a crapshoot recognize. Kind of, but the people who are making the decisions don’t see that. They see it as an exciting event, which it is, but they don’t necessarily care if the guys who played the best that week win. So there are guys who win but shouldn't have, and guys who don't win but should have. Over the long run, it's supposed to even out, but it doesn't really. I’ve seen you at your best, yet lose matches, but in Wyoming, Mich., you weren't close to being dominant, yet you were winning. That’s the luck of the draw you were referring to, no? Yes, but I bowled great in that TV show. What happened was that my reaction was good enough to get to the pocket, but it wasn’t good enough to strike a lot. Fortunately for me, my opponents were in the same boat. I actually dominated that tournament; I out-averaged everyone by 10 pins. It just so happened that my two games on TV were two of my worst games of the week. Couple of equipment questions. Do you feel your game matches up better with asymmetrical balls? I don’t know if it makes a difference, but the equipment I’m using is obviously working. OK, but how much of the ball selection decision is yours compared to that of your ball rep? Well, this week, a new ball came out, and I'm drilling it today. If I like it, I’ll use it; if I don’t, I’ll use whatever I think is going to work. I drilled one of the balls I’ve been using the last month or so before I went to Japan, three of them I drilled at the Masters, and I haven’t drilled a ball since then. I’m the kind of guy who is going to use a ball if I like it. I don’t see the point in having a ball I like and not using it. Some guys like the fresh surface, and there is definitely an advantage to that… the balls will grab the lane a bit better. And as much as I don’t hook the ball, I probably should do that a little more often. For me, though, it’s the guy throwing the ball, and it 32 bowlers journal international helps to have the right equipment. Obviously, I’m getting to the most important question; namely, the fork you use in the Denny’s Tour ad. It looks like the fork tines are straight, yes? No, the fork is a regular fork. They actually had a stunt double there, and he actually went through the same shots I did. I don’t know how many there were, 25-30 shots. If you’ve never been involved in a TV commercial, it’s absolutely amazing. You say this shouldn’t take much longer than ten minutes, and then it takes four hours. They had to have all this food prepared just to look pretty, and then they took this grease, put it on the fork, put it on the egg, and then you had to turn the fork just right so it would come off just right, on camera, and look like it wasn’t on purpose. We didn’t rotate the fork, it just slides off. You have to actually lift it up quite a bit to do that. You can see it in the commercial if you look at it in slow motion. Well, this is one of the few commercials that a bowler has appeared as a non-bowling endorser. But are they showing this commercial when bowling isn't involved? I don’t know that they are. That would be nice, but if it was shown with a non-bowling show, people would probably wonder who I am, especially with the noise in the background. If they didn’t know bowling, didn’t know who I am, it might not mean anything. Well, they do show it a lot. I hope you're getting paid for all the times the ad appears, in a bowling telecast or not. Well, I did get paid, but the deal doesn't include residuals, which is OK. Do you have any goals? To be competitive. If I’m not in the top 20 by the end of the season, I’m going to start thinking if this is really what I want to do. Last week, I finished sixth, which isn’t bad, but I felt like I had no clue, so I was frustrated. When I don’t bowl well, I get frustrated. At the end of their careers, I know Mark Roth and Marshall Holman were not happy to be out here. If I’m not happy, I don’t want to be out here bowling. Well, it goes back to being driven. Exactly. That’s what kept me going. Marshall is a good friend of mine, and I think his drive to be a competitive bowler waned a bit. He just wasn’t as driven as when he was younger. He’s another who got the short end of the stick in the TV finals. He did it to himself, but he probably should have [won] more tournaments than Mark Roth. I believe he made more TV finals than Mark, but for whatever reason, he imploded when he got on TV. He was a volatile guy. One more question: Who would play Walter Ray Williams in the WRW movie? Somebody asked me that a couple of weeks ago. Umm… who would that be? I can’t think of his name offhand. Kevin Costner? He would be a good one, but by the time they got around to doing the movie, he would be kind of old. Ah, I got it Matthew McConnaughey. Thing is, he’s also considered to be one of the sexiest people, and I don’t really think of myself that way. Any final thoughts, something we missed up to this point? Well, I’d like to thank my sponsors. MoRich — I’d like to think at least one company thinks I’m worth something — Dexter, Vise Grips and all the sponsors that support our Tour. It’s a shame we don’t have more sponsors. Hopefully, one day we will have 30 events instead of 20, and the ladies will have their own tour. Bowling could have a lot less in-fighting, and more support for the PBA and other events. The Team USA thing was a good step forward. I’m looking forward to competing next August (at the World Championships in Bangkok). Being on the team doesn’t guarantee that I’m going there… but it’s one step that allows the professionals — or should I say, the PBA members — to participate, because I’ve always considered the amateurs who win money to be professional bowlers. Finally, who is in your Top 5 of the bowlers you consider the best ever? I’d have to list Don Carter, Dick Weber, Earl Anthony, myself and Mark Roth. I know there are so many great players, and some might be offended, but that’s who I would take. JANUARY 2008
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