Did someone suggest that Pete Weber shows class and respect? You haven't been following bowling for very long have you?

Marshall Holman is another that was arrogant and hated during his time, but hey, keep thinking it's the new guys who act that way.

My complaint about Wes was like Jim said. He complained about the tourny, changed his story on TV and never stopped talking about it on the show. If he said his piece one time and stuck to his guns and didn't keep harping on about it then that would've been okay.
Arrogant young bowlers? I've seen them. But I've seen arrogant middle aged bowlers and arrogant older bowlers too. It's a personality issue, not an age issue. You can be a clown at any age.
If I were on the show, you would see a confident bowler also. I get emotional when I bowl. Just trying to cheer myself on. Never to degrade my opponent.

Are we going to overly critize one bowler; Wes Mallott, for one moment of possible arrogance? I've watched and admired Mr. Mallott for years and he's always been a model of decorum on the lanes via TV and as far as I know off the lanes too. He does NOT have a hot headed or arrogant reputation.

Yet we have one incident and now he's been crucified.

If you were to put yourself in Wes' place two weeks ago. "Should I bowl, should I now bowl?" "well, i'll have to change this, I'll have to change that", "I know I've been doing so well, I don't need to throw a wrench in the recipe", "Next week is going to be tough, marathon bowling on multiple patterns, I need to be on my game".

"I'm sitting out this week". .........

Along with some other well known bowlers. Geese, now I'm in this boiling pot of technology vs the game. All over one tournament he choose not to bowl in. He was honest when questioned about it. I'm sure everyone on the tour was thinking the same thing, some choose to participate and some did not. Do you think that any one of the tour players thought "Gee, a plastic ball tournament, this is my big chance". because I'm so good with using a plastic ball as my strike ball on a challenging shot. Or maybe they thought, "I'm sticking it out, things might go my way and this might be my chance". It was a great event and one that I think everyone enjoyed. Congrats to Jeff Carter, for showing us what we already knew....he's a one heck of a bowler. But whether Wes Mallott choose to bowl or not is not dependant on his mental status/confidence or versatility on the lanes. He made a decision to not bowl, as did others. He has various reasons for that.

Is the resulting drama good for bowling.......we'll see.

Erin

Erin, I totally agree.

I had to make a huge change to my game to go from a huge back swing & heavy cranking to a longer, smoother follow-through to toss the reactive stuff and not have it over-react.

While I would welcome the challenge to competitively throw a plastic ball it's not something I *should* do, as who knows what reverting to the cranking would do to my game.

I actually have permanent wrist damage from one night when the machine clearly spilled oil on my pair (lanes 1&2 when even 3&4 had a normal line - clearly a malfunction) and i had to jump back to cranking straight up the 1 board (with a sanded flare no less) to get to the pocket. While it worked and I was the only one even remotely close to my average on the pair I have lived with the damage for going on 8 years now.. even missed a solid 2 years of bowling due to it.

This is why he had an unfair advantage and shouldn't have been allowed to bowl last week in the marathon tournament. Do you think the others didn't have the same thoughts going through their head? They all had to change their game to bowl on with the plastic balls and do well, and then change a bunch of things back to be able to do well in the marathon as well as take the extra wear and tear that trying to get a plastic ball to carry will put on your hand, but they did it, they "Shoed UP" and bowled without complaint.

I bet many of Malot's fans in Colorado, that have been waiting all year to see him bowl were happy for him that he didn't bowl. I remember when the tour used to come to the DC area and half the guys on tour would take off that week which always ensured we would see Ernie Schlegel, Bobby Knipple or Guppy Troup.

The tour is a grind, these guys to through a lot for our entertainment and I'm not begrudging anyone a week off, just don't make a big stink about it and get fussy when you get called out on it and have the decency to take off the Marathon event too since you are all rested and your competition is running on empty.

We didn't hear the actual interview that Wes did with the Colorado paper. We got a few quotes. What he said could have been taken out of context. We will never know. As for Wes going after Wilbon, I don't blame him a bit. I get called out on TV by a guy who has never been in my shoes, I am going to be [censored].

I still don't see how it is an unfair advantage. Players take a week off all of the time. Duke took the week off and I would venture to guess that he has more fans that Wes.

Again, I go back to golf and Tiger. He takes weeks off so he can be better refreshed for the following week. Plus, he is good enough where he doens't have to be out there week in and week out for a paycheck. Wes is having a great season and taking a week off before the end of the year swing to get the player of the year probably did him a world of good.

Is being at the top of your sport and having the ability to take a week off and still be on top an unfair advantage? I don't think so.

Since the PBA didn't make that particular tournament mandatory (or any that I know of), it was up to each player if they wanted to participate. The other players had the same choice.

Erin

I completely agree here. Every bowler was given the opportunity to bowl or not, some might be forced based on sponsorship requirements but the majority could elect to not participate if they wanted. Wes Malott took the week off just as many others have done throughout this season and rested for what he thought was going to be a much harder tournament. To me Wes Malott played it smart and took a week off in between two grueling events, the ones that take off other odd weeks just don't get chastised for it.

For all you Malott haters he posted a 137 this morning in the first round.

http://www.pba.com/livescoring/Qual_Ind_Results.aspx?ContactId=8642&tournamentId=1585

Really picking it up though, last 3 games in the 270s.

By the way I am a fan. I used to be able to move my wrist like he does. I wish I had conditioned better. Everybody always said I was going to [censored] up my wrist doing that.

wow malott is killing it in the second block.


hows he doing compared to other bowlers whats his chance of making the show? looks pretty good if he keeps it up.