Here's the latest article from the Bowling site at BellaOnline.com.

Bowling Is Alway Practice
Our life and times in the sport of bowling is made up completely of experimentation. As doctors and lawyers "practice" their profession, so do we bowlers "practice" continuously trying to improve our scores and overall game.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art170525.asp

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bill Vint | PBA Media Relations
Professional Bowlers Association | 719 Second Avenue, Suite 701 | Seattle, WA 98104

PBA Spare Shots

TWO MAJORS HIGHLIGHT LUMBER LIQUIDATORS PBA TOUR¡¯S FEBRUARY SCHEDULE
The final two major championships of the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season will be on line as the PBA Tour heads into the February leg of its schedule.

The stars of the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour will convene in Reno, Nev., Feb. 7-13 for the United States Bowling Congress Masters at the National Bowling Stadium. Defending champion Walter Ray Williams Jr., will attempt to join fellow PBA Hall of Famer Mike Aulby as the second player to win the Masters three times. Williams, Aulby and Pete Weber also are tied with eight career major titles ¨C two behind leader Earl Anthony. Weber would like to break that second-place tie by winning his first Masters title, and join Aulby and Norm Duke as the third player in history to complete the PBA Grand Slam. First prize in the USBC Masters is a guaranteed $50,000.

The Masters finals will air live on ESPN on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 3 p.m. Eastern/noon Pacific. Qualifying and match play rounds will be covered live on the PBA website. Xtra Frame video streaming service.

Following the Masters, the Tour takes a week off before heading cross-country to Brunswick Zone-Carolier in North Brunswick, N.J., for the 68th Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open, a $400,000 event (based on 480 entries) with a guaranteed $80,000 top prize ¨C the second-richest first prize of the season. The U.S. Open, which gets underway on Feb. 22, is traditionally one of the most challenging tournaments of the year and features not only a world-class field of PBA stars, but many of the world¡¯s best amateurs.

The U.S. Open will feature three days of live television coverage, concluding with the four-player stepladder finals live on ESPN on Sunday, Feb. 27, at 3 p.m. Eastern. ESPN2 will carry live coverage of the match play rounds on Friday, Feb. 25, at 6 p.m. Eastern and Saturday, Feb. 26, at 10 p.m. Eastern. In addition, pba.com¡¯s Xtra Frame will be on location for wall-to-wall coverage of the U.S. Open.

Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, and Mika Koivuniemi of Hartland, Mich., are the winners of the season¡¯s first two majors. Barnes defeated Bill O¡¯Neill of Southampton, Pa., 267-237, to win the PBA World Championship and complete the PBA Triple Crown on Jan. 16 at South Point Bowling Center in Las Vegas. Six days later, Koivuniemi defeated Tom Smallwood of Saginaw, Mich., 269-207, to win the $250,000 first prize in the PBA Tournament of Champions at Red Rock Lanes in Las Vegas.

CHRIS PAUL CELEBRITY INVITATIONAL AIRS SUNDAY AT 4 P.M. EASTERN
February¡¯s television schedule kicks off with the Super Bowl Sunday presentation of the Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational, taped in December in New Orleans. The third annual special event, benefitting Paul¡¯s CP3 Foundation, features Grammy award-winning hip-hop artists Lil Wayne and Nelly along with New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush and Paul bowling with Storm Products¡¯ PBA stars Rhino Page, Wes Malott, Pete Weber, Norm Duke and Jason Belmonte. The special event will air at 4 p.m. Eastern on ESPN, leading into the Super Bowl telecast.

A 35-second YouTube promo for the Chris Paul event which debuted this week on pba.com¡¯s home page, and Lil Wayne¡¯s Facebook page drew 58,000 hits in the space of 10 hours earlier this week (up from an average of 1,200 hits).

POINTS AT A PREMIUM AS TOUR HEADS TOWARD DICK WEBER PBA PLAYOFFS
Not only are February¡¯s two major championships important financially, but they also will play a key role in the competition points race heading into the season¡¯s final event, the new Dick Weber PBA Playoffs. The Playoffs, with a $320,000 prize fund (based on 180 entries) and a $50,000 guaranteed first prize, will feature a field of 108 PBA regional qualifiers competing against the top 72 players on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour points list. The Dick Weber PBA Playoffs are set for March 8-13 at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis.

The PBA Playoffs will feature 18 top regional competitors from six PBA Regional groups (East, South, Central, Midwest, Southwest and West/Northwest), based upon competition points earned during the 2009-10 season. Based upon a full field of 180 players, 102 of the contestants will cash.

Not to be overlooked is the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship March 1-6 at AMF Thruway Lanes in Cheektowaga, N.Y. This is the third annual special event where all players will use throwback ¡°plastic ball¡± technology in a contest of physical and mental skill. A Tour Qualifying Event for non-exempt players will get the Plastic Ball Championship underway on Wednesday, March 9.

KOIVUNIEMI, O¡¯NEILL TOP LUMBER LIQUIDATORS PBA TOUR STATISTICS
Thanks to his record $250,000 PBA Tournament of Champions prize, Mika Kovinuniemi is the easy leader on the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour earnings list with $270,940. TOC runner-up Tom Smallwood is next in line with $112,200.

Bill O¡¯Neill is the early leader in both scoring average (223.69) and competition points (102,547) after eight events. Chris Barnes is runner-up in both categories (222.99 average and 82,560 points).

Complete Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour statistics are posted on pba.com every Monday following a PBA Tour event.

CIMINELLI MAKES IT 3-5 FOR TOP QUALIFIERS ON TELEVISION
Ryan Ciminelli of Cheektowaga, N.Y., not only became the third first-time PBA Tour champion of the season when he won Sunday¡¯s One A Day Earl Anthony Memorial in Dublin, Calif., but he also became the third No. 1 qualifier to win in eight stepladder finals conducted thus far in the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.

Earlier in the season, Eugene McCune of Munster, Ind., won the Brunswick Pro Bowling Cheetah Championship from the No. 1 rung on the stepladder and rookie Scott Norton of Costa Mesa, Calif., captured the Chameleon Championship as top qualifier. Norton and South Korea¡¯s Yong-Jin Gu (Scorpion Championship) are the other first-time winners.

WEBER MAKES 124TH CAREER TELEVISION APPEARANCE IN DUBLIN
PBA Tour fans know Walter Ray Williams Jr. is the all-time leader in television appearances (172), but did you know:

¡ñ Hall of Famer Pete Weber is runner-up? Weber made his 124th career appearance in Sunday¡¯s ESPN2 finals of the One A Day Earl Anthony Memorial.

¡ñ Only six players in PBA history have made 100 or more TV appearances? In addition to Williams and Weber, the other four are Earl Anthony (114), Parker Bohn III (107), and Norm Duke and Marshall Holman (105 each).

¡ñ The player with the best winning percentage among these six is Norm Duke? Duke has won 55.81% of his TV matches. The worst winning percentage: Holman¡¯s 42.85%.

¡ñ The player who is closest to joining the elite 100 appearance club is Amelto Monacelli? Monacelli has appeared on TV 95 times ¨C two ahead of Mark Roth.

NORM DUKE IS THROWING ¡°STRIKES FOR SY¡±
PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke is throwing ¡°Strikes for Sy¡± this season in an effort to raise money in support of Sy Harger, a four-year-old who lives near Duke¡¯s home in Clermont, Fla., who suffers from Eosinophilic Esophagitis, a rare medical condition which prevents him from eating solid foods.

To help Sy¡¯s family deal with his extraordinary medical bills, Duke has launched a ¡°Strikes for Sy¡± campaign, asking people to pledge a penny a pin, or whatever they decide, for each strike Duke rolls during Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour competition for the duration of the 2010-11 season (including January¡¯s PBA Tournament of Champions and Earl Anthony Memorial). Duke projected that, for the balance of the season, he would throw between 700 and 1,100 which would convert to between $7 and $11 based upon a penny per pin.

During the PBA Tournament of Champions, Duke threw 379 strikes in 58 games and during the One A Day Earl Anthony Memorial, he added another 129 strikes in 23 games.

To sign up in support of Duke¡¯s ¡°Strikes for Sy¡± benefit, visit the website at strikesforsy(dot)com.

¡°THE PAIN CHANNEL¡± FEATURES PBA PLAYERS¡¯ BATTLES WITH INJURIES
How professional bowlers have learned to overcome pain and injuries is explained in a full-length feature on ¡°The Pain Channel,¡± a new online and custom-market video service. Pain Channel crew members covered the PBA World Series of Bowling and the PBA Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas in depth to create their behind-the-scenes story.

To view the Pain Channel feature visit painchannel(dot)tv.

ALLENTOWN SENIOR TOUR EVENT TO HONOR PBA HALL OF FAMER MARK ROTH
In addition to the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship March 1-6 at AMF Thruway Lanes in Cheektowaga, N.Y., the new Allentown, Pa., event in the 2011 PBA Senior Tour schedule also will honor the PBA Hall of Famer from Fulton, N.Y. The PBA has announced the May 21-24 event at Playdrome Rose Bowl will be named the PBA Senior Mark Roth Allentown Open.

The 11-tournament PBA Senior Tour season gets underway April 17-21 with the PBA Senior Don Carter Open at Carter Family Bowl in Winter Garden, Fla.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Lucas Wiseman
IBC Communications
(414) 412-6214

BOWLING'S MAJOR WOMEN'S EVENTS TO AIR IN HIGH DEFINITION ON ESPN2

ARLINGTON, Texas - Women's bowling will be featured in high definition for the first time when the United States Bowling Congress Queens and Bowling's U.S. Women's Open take place later this year.

Both events will be held in arena settings and air on ESPN2, with the Queens taking place April 27 and the U.S. Women's Open airing July 2. The Queens will be shown live from the Oncenter Complex in Syracuse, N.Y., while the U.S. Women's Open finals will be taped at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

"Women's bowling will be showcased in grand style this year," said Bowling Proprietors' Association of America Executive Director Steve Johnson, whose organization is spearheading the U.S. Women's Open. "We're excited to elevate the event even further by providing it to fans in high definition."

For the second consecutive year, Dave LaMont will handle play-by-play duties, while Team USA member and 13-time Professional Bowlers Association winner Chris Barnes will do color commentary.

"We are very pleased to have Dave and Chris back again this year to bring these major events to a national audience," USBC Executive Director Stu Upson said. "They worked very well together last year and bring tremendous credentials and experience to the broadcasts."

The Queens will take place April 22-27 with the televised finals beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern on April 27. For more information on the Queens, including online registration, visit the USBC website.

The U.S. Women's Open, sponsored by the Brands of Ebonite International, is June 24-29 at AMF Showplace Lanes in Euless, Texas. Action will shift to Cowboys Stadium for the finals on June 30, which will be taped for broadcast on July 2 at a time to be determined. For more information on the U.S. Women's Open, including online registration, visit their website.

About International Bowling Campus
The International Bowling Campus (IBC) is the headquarters for the bowling industry and directly serves the more than 71 million bowlers in the United States. The IBC houses the resources of the United States Bowling Congress, the governing body and membership organization for the sport; the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America, representing the business interests of bowling centers; Strike Ten Entertainment, the marketing arm for the industry; the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame; The Bowling Foundation; the International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association; the Bowling Writers Association of America; the Bowling News Network; the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America; and the International Training and Research Center.

Please visit Bowling.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Bowling.

To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Bowling located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=145

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Clyde Higa, Bowling Editor
http://Bowling.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com