Now the question could be how do we get the word out to more of the outside world about the PBA? One answer could be at your local electronics store. As you walk by the seemingly hundreds of TV sets, what do you see? These retailers plus the manufacturers want to show off the clarity of these ever-growing bigger picture screens by showing something breath-taking An outdoor scene? OK, that's good start. What else ? Sporting events. This is not only shown on a few of the screens, either. It's on all of them. Depending what store you frequent, it could be hundreds of sets ranging from 6" portable ones all the way to the largest flat screen and plasma sets getting larger by the month. Most of the larger chains like Best Buy and Circuit City have all if not most of these sets showing the same image using an in-store DVD amplified to have a strong enough signal on all the screens. What about a DVD showing off the current PBA stars on one of these? Simple enough idea, huh? Ok, ok, I'm sure it requires some fee to supply the hundreds of stores in a given chain to play that disc a preset amount of times in an agreed upon amount of time. It may also cost an untold amount of money to supply this DVD to the big box chains stores. Maybe not. Could a potential sponsor or advertiser be approached to underwrite such a thing? Of course. The sponsors gets its name out there as well as the PBA gently reminds everyone to watch. You might be surprised to find out many casual viewers don't believe the PBA is on TV since disappearing from network TV ten years ago.

     This leads me to my next point about exposing new and prior casual viewers. We have as an industry that has only started to scratch the surface from a marketing perspective. Bowling has always had a hardcore audience, but that's it. The number of casual viewers can grow the most and the fastest, but can also drop off the radar just as fast. So why go after them? Advertisers want them really, really bad. They have spending power advertisers love to reach with consumer goods through occasionally wacky ads everyone talks about the day after the Super Bowl. Just that simple, right? All someone has to do is figure out how to cultivate more casual viewers for the weekly ESPN show. That's the challenge facing the PBA and other sports leagues and organizations right now. One of the first things considered as you might expect is how much is this going to cost. The next might be choosing a plan of this advertising. Who are we targeting? How much disposable income do they have? What most don't do anymore is reenforce the hardcore group. It will watch no matter what. It's the casual viewer the marketer is aiming toward. The dilemma is how much money and how long will a plan be followed.

     Now that the PBA has joined the big leagues of sports and marketing, the concern is how the questions are being addressed. Advertisers and potential sponsors have to look at how the PBA can help get its brand more exposure. What has been happening is when a brand name needs more exposure than the PBA can give, that advertiser moves on to a bigger name up the sports food chain. That may explain why a few of the sponsors that were around a few years ago no longer have their names attached to tournaments. In case you were wondering, the DVD example has been submitted to Seattle for consideration.

     I heard our editor was looking for whom has the most 300 games in the area. How about 800 series? That person probably is pretty close to the top on that list, too. That lead me to think about another streak you may not have heard about in the north suburbs. Mitch Sacks had a streak in January and February that quite frankly, I've never heard before. At Hawthorn Lanes in north suburban Vernon Hills, he had not one, not two , but five league series of at least 800 in a four week span, topped off was the new Illinois state record of 889 (290-299-300). That's 34 out of 36 possible strikes. Only a pair of 7-pins, one in the first frame of Game 1 and another as the fill ball of Game 2 cost him a perfect 900 series. That's worth a mention alone, but think about it for a moment. Maybe two in a row, but five? A Monday mens league, a Friday mixed league, five 800's. Oh yes, there was a 854 two weeks after the 889 set. I almost forgot to mention there was a 846 earlier in this season. He also leads the national USBC Sport Bowling average list at 218. Sacks' 246 Friday mixed league average is on pace to set the Lake County USBC record for average, currently at 242. These days when you hear of a rash of high scores, it's usually one house where everybody scores better for a given period of time. But this streak? Simply amazing. And you read it here first.

     Sacks is not the only midwest U.S. bowler getting the spotlight lately. Unless you are from St. Louis, you may not have heard of Mike Mineman. He manages the Bowler's Shoppe inside St Clair Bowl in downstate O"Fallon, the site of the boy's IHSA State tournament the last few years. Always a consistent PBA Midwest Region player, he shocked the tour regulars by becoming only the second player to win a tour title after making it out of the Tour Qualifying Round. He can play other parts of the lane pretty well, but playing by the right gutter when most move in after it dries up is his bread and butter game. Starting in October, he becomes an exempt tour member for next seasons PBA Tour at age 48. Another shout has to go to Springfield's Jeff Carter, a current exempt tour player. After winning the PBA Midwest Region points title a year ago, he parlayed his dream of becoming a touring bowler into a 3rd place finish in the recent U.S. Open, his first TV finals. You may have first heard of him five years ago when he set the USBC single season average record with 261.74 at Springfield's Kingpin Lanes. In fact, dedication might be this guy's middle name. In 2005, he bowled in 55 PBA Tournaments on both the regional and national tours. That's no misprint, fifty-five. Making the show on the U.S. Open is not an easy task, considering it is the toughest oil pattern they face each season. Forty feet of even oil from gutter to gutter, no hold area whatsoever. Those four bowlers earned those spots. That guy who won isn't too bad, either. Pete Weber is setting a benchmark for the next generation of better bowlers with his performance of late, becoming the oldest to win the Open title at the age of 44. That title gets a leg up on the one achievement he has yet to do in his Hall of Fame career, be named Player of the Year. One more TV finals appearance, probably. One more win and it's his outright.

     Next month, a primer on PBA Experience leagues, this year's hot summer league. You can bowl on the five patterns PBA touring and regional pros bowl on each week.