Bowlers Journal International - April 2008 - (Page 21)

INSIDELINE but tournament ofﬁcials did not inform entrants. So, when United Arab Emirates bowler Syed Ibrahim tossed a perfecto, he was understandably miffed when his prize turned out to be a Canon printer. The ﬁne levied against the MTBF approximates the value of the advertised 300 game award. The Malaysian federation reportedly paid the ﬁne in order to avoid severe sanctions which could have impacted its national team bowlers. greatest female athlete in Arizona history, Wilkinson is believed to be the only woman to have been inducted into the national Halls of Fame of two different sports. She's a member of both the Softball Hall of Fame and the WIBC/USBC Hall. May 14 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Frank Sinatra, the iconic singer who enjoyed his greatest success during bowling's boom years. Holly Wade won an Illinois Board of Higher Education art competition award for this piece, dubbed "Frank Sinatra's Bowling Pin." Although Sinatra was not what you'd call an avid bowler, he did have ties to the sport if you know how to connect the dots. For instance, Sinatra co-starred in the original movie version of "Ocean's Eleven," and the Ocean's Eleven Casino in Oceanside, Calif., is in a building that formerly housed (you guessed it) a bowling center. 'MR. CLASS' There's a reason Tony Reyes is among the more popular players on the Denny's PBA Tour: He loves interacting with fans, a trait that's traceable to a heartbreaking experience he had as a young baseball fan. Reyes played Little League until he was about 13, when the bowling bug took hold. His best position was pitcher, and his nickname was "Little Fernando," a nod to Los Angeles Dodgers pitching phenom Fernando Valenzuela. At a National League game one day, the young Reyes brought along a collector's card that featured then-Dodgers catcher and current Anaheim Angels manager Mike Scioscia, another player and Valenzuela, taken during their rookie seasons. And he was able to get close enough to the ﬁeld to attract Valenzuela's attention. Recalls Reyes: "He looked at the card, then looked at me and said, 'Nah,' and just walked off. That stayed with me for a long time; I was really disappointed. Now, as an athlete who's lucky enough to have some fans, I can't even imagine treating people that way." Which explains why you won't ﬁnd Reyes hiding in the locker room between squads at Denny's Tour stops. "When fans stop asking for THE 2-SPORT QUEEN Was a Hall of Fame bowler the inspiration for the character played by Geena Davis in the 1992 softball ﬁlm, A League of Their Own? Could be, although Dottie Wilkinson, the 1962 WIBC Queens champion, doesn't think so. Wilkinson told the Arizona Republic that some people make that assumption simply because the Davis character's name was Dottie (Hinson). Considered the my autograph, that will be a problem," he says. A BOWLING PIN PLAGUE Don't know how we possibly could have missed this in last year's "Holiday Gift Guide," but a company in Niles, Ill., sells a set of tabletop pins called the "Ten Plagues Bowling Set," with each of the pins depicting one of the Ten Plagues of Egypt. From the picture of the pins that we saw, it's difﬁcult to ﬁgure out some of the plagues represented. Then again, as any art critic would tell you, illustrating plagues such as boils and lice can be challenging in the bowling pin medium. PEOPLE/PLACES/THINGS According to bowling writer Joan Taylor, shortly after Val Johannessen of Long Valley, N.J., set up an e-mail account with "300" in the screen name, she bowled her ﬁrst 300 game. Tempting fate, she then changed her address to include "800" in the name. Not long thereafter, she recorded an 826 series in the Bergen County WBA Championships Denise Johnson, a four-time New York State WBA champion and multiple top-10 ﬁnisher in the New York Queens, has been elected to the New York State USBC Women's B.A. Hall of Fame Sorry, Chris Paul. In the ﬁrst "Celebrity Bowling Rankings" published by US Bowler magazine, the No. 1 spot went to former Major League Baseball pitcher John Burkett. Jerome Bettis (NFL) and Tom Candiotti (MLB) followed. Paul, a USBC spokesman since March 2007, came in eighth. APRIL 2008 bowlers journal international 21

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Bowlers Journal International - April 2008

Bowlers Journal International - April 2008 Contents Leading Off Letters Bowlitically Incorrect Calendar Par Bowling The Coach Frame of Mind Inside Line The Truth Be Bowled Tournaments Pro Bowling PBA Bayer Classic PBA Pepsi Championship PBA Don Johnson Classic Regional Roundup Cover Story Up Close Senior Tour The USBC Move USBC Convention Pattern Play Anniversary Flashback Time Capsule Media Beat No Holes Barred Shop Talk Spotlight Marketplace Hall Marks Profit Prophet Advertisers' Index Classified Advertising Intelligencer Business Calendar Business People Strikes Me

Bowlers Journal International - April 2008

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