Bowlers Journal International - November 2008 - (Page 44) ProBowling Results, Schedules and More For those who ever watched ABC Sports’ “Pro Bowlers Tour,” this was a shot they usually saw sometime during every telecast. Burton provided the color, and his broadcast partner, Chris Schenkel, was the play-by-play commentator. They kept people glued to their sets. It’s going to be an interesting year in several other respects. They are really shaking things up on the Tour. I like some of the things they’ve got planned. I really believe in what [PBA Chief Operating Officer and Vice President] Tom Clark is doing, although some people have criticized him. But I gave him the highest compliment [when I said] he’s a little bit like Eddie Elias, trying something new and innovative. He’s a brilliant journalist, and he looks at it from that point of view. Now I’m sure some of the veteran pros — even the young guys — won’t like what they see this winter, but I think the innovations are sensational. Take your magazine — if you kept running the same bowlers on the cover and ran the same stories every month, you wouldn’t [draw any interest]. OK, which one of these formats do you like the most? I would think the most interesting one would depend on the lane conditions they put out to match up. For instance, I find the plastic ball tournament idea a compelling one. But if they put out some weird shot that doesn’t fit it — plastic balls weren’t meant for the gobs of oil they have out on the lanes now — it might be a problem. But if they put out the type of condition they had, say, in 1978, it’d be interesting. I also like the match-play event. There isn’t much pure match-play competition now. The Ultimate Scoring event — where they essentially put up the Chinese wall to make sure the guys score through the roof — has drawn some criticism. Well, you can try anything once. But we all know that the primary organizations in bowling — like the PBA and the USBC — come up with new concepts and ideas, and don’t always test them. If they test it, and they find they have to tweak it, that’s fine. But there’s no doubt that the PBA players, en masse, are the Bowlers Tour’ telecasts that some people might not even know you anymore? A: Well, then we’ve got some new fans. I don’t know yet if we’ll be able to actually introduce everybody. Obviously, we want to mention everyone’s name, but time constraints may limit [the extent of] the introductions. How many of the Top 50 will you unveil each week? I’d like to have as much time as possible to help them sell it. However, we are going to have to [introduce] five players just about every week, and of those, I believe we are going to feature one of the stars, including filmed highlights. We don’t have time to do justice to all five guys. 44 Bowlers Journal International | November 2008 www.bowlersjournal.com http://www.bowlersjournal.com
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