By Darrin Hill

To steal a phase from Limp Bizket's frontman, Fred Durst, "These guys keep rollin', rollin' rollin'. Rollin', rollin' rollin'. These guys keep rollin', rollin' rollin'." When a traveling band of gypsies known as the PBA Tour comes to your town, you just have to check them out. They are the best thing going in sports today. A sold out crowd at Taylor Lanes on October 23 can't be wrong. Most of them were seated 90 minutes before the finals took place. With a $1 milion set design and a brand new scorboard, PBA Tour commissioner Ian Hamilton is a very happy man. "Look at this crowd," Hamilton said during a post-tournament interview. "I wish that the crowds at all of our stop are as enthusiastic as the crowd here in Taylor." Guess the home viewing audience was enthusiastic as well. According to ESPN, the Greater Detroit Open telecast was the PBA Tour's highest rated event with a 1.16. The Battle at Little Creek tournament that was held at Virginia Beach, Va. previously held the high mark for 2001 at a 1.1 rating point.

I'm still in shock seeing that Pete Weber's run at perfection made ESPN's Sportscenter the night that he won the Great Lakes Classic at Spectrum Lanes in Grand Rapids. Weber told me that along with being a HUGE Golden Tee golf player (These guys had their own ATM cards to keep track of all of their stats), he enjoyed watching the World Wrestling Federation. He's a big fan of The Rock and The Undertaker, but he thinks that Battle Creek's Rob Van Damm will be a superstar soon. Don't be surprise if P-D-W pops up on a WWF broadcast of event hanging out with R-V-D. That's called smart marketing and great public relations. It's also something that old Petey could use alittle of every once in a while.

This was the first time that I got to check out the PBA Tour's new format. I liked it. It is completely unpredictable. This was also the first time that I attended a tournament from start to finish. I was exhausted. You had to check out every round every day or you might miss something. "With this new format, everybody from the top seed to the 32rd seed is on a level playing field," said Robert Smith of Simi Valley, California. "The top seed can't just run away from the rest of the field now."

Here is a perfect example of that fact. Who would have imagined that the number one ranked bowler in the world and the top seed going into the round of 32, Parker Bohn III would be ousted by the number 32 seed, Walter Ray Williams, Jr, 3-2. Bohn was up 2-1 in the fourth game and had Williams packing his bags in the tenth frame. All Bohn had to do was mark in the 10th, to show Williams the door. But, he threw a horrible shot, leaving a split. Bohn lost the 4th game, 269-265. After Williams gave his wife the lucky horseshoes in his pocket, (Joke) he took advantage of his second chance by winning game five, 278-240. Bohn was quick to reply regarding his defeat. "You can't win all of them," said Bohn. "Besides, I haven't been home in months. I like Detroit, but I'm heading for Jersey ASAP." Williams' good fortune took him all the way to the TV finals where he lost to U.S. Open champ Robert Smith in the wildcard match, 247-231. This was payback for Smith. He had lost to Williams in the round of 8 3-1. But, because of Smith's matchplay record of 7-3, he made the TV finals as the wildcard.

Jason Couch, ranked the number two bowler in the world, made his return to the PBA tour at Taylor after missing the Great Lakes Classic. "I really haven't fared very well with this new format, so I took a week off to regroup," said Couch. The best Couch has done in the past five weeks was make the top 64 cut at The Peoria Open and The Miller High Life Open in Indianapolis. Couch survived qualifying to finally reach match play. "I believe that this new format is suited perfectly for me," says Couch. "I have a tendency to get emotional on TV. This will be the first time that I've bowled in the new arena setting. I'm looking forward to it." And with Bohn III a early elimination victim, Couch was back in the hunt for the PBA Player of the Year title. After the first half of the season, Jason Couch was battling Parker Bohn III tooth and nail. Couch had a higher average than Bohn, but Bohn was tops in all other stats including victories and money earned. That was before the new format began. Now the playing field is alittle more level, and Couch is on the attack. "It's a horse race between me and Parker," said Couch. "We're both neck and neck. Whoever wins this race will win by a nose." Unfortunatly, Couch was given his marching order in the round of 16. He lost to Jason Hurd, 3-1.

I spent a lot of my time talking to the guys. No longer a wide-eyed fan for me. (Yeah, right. Where is Marshall Holman?) This tournament had alot of fan favorites packing their bags early. Warren's Kurt Pilon was an early casuality. Pilon was dismissed after only nine games, finishing in 84th place. One of the guys that I really felt bad about missing the cut was Dave Wodka. The defending Greater Detroit Open champion didn't have his "A game" at this event. Having retired from touring back last year, Wodka returned to Taylor to defend his only national title. "I just wanted to hear them announce me as 'The Defending Greater Detroit Open champion' in the introduction during the pro-am," said Wodka. "After 11 years on tour, I finally won a title. Now, I'm spending more quality time with my family and getting a paycheck every two weeks." Wodka finished 96th out of 144 bowlers. But, he will still be in the record books as part of the first mother/son team to win national championships in bowling history.

Other local bowlers who received their walking orders were: Robert Shackleford, Tom Campbell and Dave Tulak of Detroit, Michael Eaton, Jr. of Wyoming, Anthony Moses of Inkster, Bruce Falcon of Bay City, Brian Hatcher of DeWitt, Bill Gates and Dale Strike of Saginaw, Travis Raskey of Farmington Hills, Jimmy Levondowsky of Grand Rapids, Sean Quinn of Holland and Curtis Odom of Coldwater. Chesterfield Township's Chris Sand made the round of 32, but was ousted by the 'Wolverine slayer' Jason Hurd, 3-0. At the Great Lakes Classic, Hurd dismissed Pilon in the same manner, 3-0.

With this new format, bowling fans saw some great matches. It was also interesting that two things were missing that used to be normal for a PBA Tour event. (1) NO COACHING. The various ball representatives that was there couldn't help their pros. Oh, well. (2) NO BALL CADDIES. Back in 1999, it was so cute to see the pros use kids to carry their bowling balls from lane to lane during qualifying. I think that's a great way for youngsters to meet their bowling idols. Bring it back. All it would cost the pros are a couple of balls. I would rather see a kid get a ball than some of these adults asking for a ball that they can go out and buy themselves. Kids are the future of bowling. If giving a kid a bowling ball will help them out, so be it. But, that's just my opinion.

That's enough ramblin' for now. I'm currently in the middle of two other major projects for the benefit of the Detroit bowling community. One of them will be reveled within the next couple of months. The other one is alittle closer to my heart. Darren Strausborger, Dan Ladouceur and myself have created "Motor City Bowling News". It is the bowling website of the future. It is located at: http://www.motorcitybowling.com My site will be the hub of all of Detroit's bowling-related websites. The media blitz will be on shortly. But, you can check it out now. Drop me an email with any thoughts regarding our site at: motorcitybowling@hotmail.com. I'm OUT.

Darrin Hill is a freelance writer. You can contact him at:motorcitybowling@hotmail.com.