PBA World Championship runs gamut from young to old

This year in the PBA World Championship, Toledo, Ohio, Feb. 25 - March 3, the PBA’s youngest and oldest members will meet on the lanes to try for the $120,000 first-place prize, the highest first-place check in PBA history.

On the young end of the spectrum, 17-year-old Billy Plane, Battle Creek, Mich., is the youngest person to join the PBA and bowl in the PBA World Championship. He joined the PBA on February 22nd, nine days after his 17th birthday. Plane is bowling in the PBA World Championship as his first PBA event. He bowled as an amateur in the 2001 U.S. Open, Fountain Valley, Calif., and finished a respectable 139th out of 257 entries. Plane is the youngest to join the PBA by a couple of months. The second youngest to join was PBA Hall of Famer Pete Weber, who joined the organization three months after his 17th birthday. The youngest person to win a PBA title is Norm Duke, who won in Cleveland in 1983 when he was 18-years-old by 345 days.

On the other end of the spectrum, several PBA legends will compete with the young guns this week. PBA charter members and hall of famers Dick Weber and Carmen Salvino are among the 292 professionals entered in the event. Weber, 72-years-old, is the oldest athlete in the tournament. The 26-time PBA titleholder recently won his first senior regional title in Taylorville, Ill. Salvino, 68-years-old, is a former champion of the PBA National Championship. In 1962, Salvino won the third of his 17 PBA titles in the PBA National Championship in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Should Weber or Salvino win the event this year, they would be the oldest PBA member to win a national title. Currently, the oldest person to win a national title is John Handegard, who won in 1995 in Kennewick, Wash., when he was 57-years-old and 139 days.

PBA Bowlers prove practice makes "perfect"

Last week in the PBA Flagship Open in Erie, Pa., 17 professionals achieved one of bowling’s hardest feats, the perfect game. Overall, there were 19 300 games, three by three-time titleholder Chris Barnes. The tournament had the most 300 games so far in the 2001-2002 season. The most preceding Erie was 13, which was in Daly City, Calif., in January of 2001.

The number was five shy of tying the PBA record of the most 300 games in one event. The record of 24 in a single tournament was set in 1995 in Peoria, Ill. In 1999, the event in Erie came close to breaking the record when there were 22 300 games at Eastway Lanes. Eastway Lanes is known as one of the best maintained center in the country and as a result the pin carry is always excellent.

Since the PBA instituted the new single-elimination format in September of 2001, the most 300 games in one event before Erie was five, which was in Las Vegas.

POY race coming to a head

With three tournaments remaining in the 2001-2002 season, the race for prestigious PBA Player of the Year honors is heating up. Parker Bohn III, voted recipient for the first time in 1999, has a leg up on the competition with the lead in nearly every statistical category.

However, since the new, single-elimination match play format took hold in September, Pete Weber won three titles (no one else has repeated), which has promised to make the race interesting. Bohn has won four times total this season, with the only other multi-champions being Ricky Ward (two), Weber (three), and Williams (two). Jason Couch, the season’s early favorite, is beginning to settle in a groove again with three of the last four finals appearances.

A win in the season’s lone remaining major by any of the leading candidates could sway the voting PBA membership. Weber has never won the award in his 22-year, hall-of-fame career. Williams has won the award five times (1986, ’93, ’96, ’97, ’98), which ranks second to Earl Anthony’s six. Neither Couch nor Ward has won the honor.

2001-2002 PBA Season Stat Leaders as of 2/25/02

2001-2002 Point Rankings

1, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., 355,569. 2, Jason Couch, Clermont, Fla., 311,409. 3, Ryan Shafer, Elmira, N.Y., 299,615. 4, Chris Barnes, Dallas, 297,115. 5, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla., 296,074. 6, Bryon Smith, Roseburg, Ore., 287,700. 7, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 279,925. 8, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 272,965. 9, Tommy Delutz Jr., Flushing, N.Y., 258,790. 10, Steve Hoskins, Tarpon Springs, Fla., 253,315.

2001-2002 Money Leaders

1, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., $204,700. 2, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., $162,625. 3, Jason Couch, Clermont, Fla., $154,475. 4, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla., $154,450. 5, Mika Koivuniemi, Finland, $153,050. 6, Chris Barnes, Dallas,$140,165. 7, Ricky Ward, N. Fort Myers, Fla., $132,650. 8, Ryan Shafer, Elmira, N.Y., $127,700. 9, Patrick Healey Jr., Mexico, $119,208. 10, Steve Wilson, Lake Worth, Fla., $112,575.

2001-2002 Average Leaders

1, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J., 221.42. 2, Jason Couch, Clermont, Fla., 221.24. 3, Chris Barnes, Dallas, 219.22. 4, Ryan Shafer, Elmira, N.Y., 218.26. 5, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 217.79. 6, Patrick Healey Jr., Mexico, 217.35. 7, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla., 216.88. 8, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 216.83. 9, Brian Voss, Atlanta, 216.25. 10, David Traber, Woodstock, Ill., 215.79.