This year's PBA World Championship in Taylor, Michigan was interesting theater for more than the usual reasons. Normally, this would be the year ending tour stop with the players discussing plans for the summer, which regional stops to hit, and perhaps which golf courses to play at those regional stops. This year, however, was just a bit different with much, much more on the line. Some instead were discussing whether to bowl the upcoming Tour Trials. Older players below the points-cut line were wondering if it was worth taking one more shot for one more year at the Tour Trials. Others had been talking of plans around a post-tour life. Lots of very interesting chatter, indeed.

     I did have the chance to watch eventual winner Tom Baker roll his first two 6-game blocks and saw first hand the beginning of one of the more improbable victories in PBA history. He rolled a similar line on that first day as he did on the TV finals show. It was a slow smooth arc around third arrow out to about the 10-board at the breakpoint some 45 feet down the lane. Problems came around in the second and third 6-game blocks as players made their adjustments on an already tricky oil pattern. As an example, a fellow competitor, who bowled pretty well the first day, would roll a ball over the 8- board at the arrows and miss the headpin right on a strike ball, go dead flush pocket in the 9-board, and end up barely touching the headpin left on the 10-board; all rolled at the same speed. On a league oil pattern, one may have those three boards, plus three more to hit to get a strike. It was never so easy to roll a 160 game. I'll take missing the first cut by 20 pins as a moral victory.

     So is Pete Weber signing with Nike or what? Well, he was featured in the TV spot with other well known Nike athletes competing in other sports. Is Nike returning to the bowling shoe market for the first time in 15 years? That is unknown right now, but signing PDW would be a no-brainer. He does fit their image very well. He isn't talking now, but you will know about if it does become reality.

     Almost a month ago came a little noticed but nonetheless historic announcement. For the first time, females will be allowed to join the PBA. Read that again. Beginning with regional tournament play the weekend of April 4-5, 2004, women can compete alongside the men in professional competition. Some did pretty well that first weekend, namely former U.S. Open champion Tennile Milligan, who finished third in a PBA Western Region stop. Doesn't look like there will be a separate women's tour run thru the existing PBA.

     And now, here it is. The conclusion of this years Top 25 Moments list.

     10 1974 This Is It For $10,000. Jim Stefanich had done just about everything as a bowler, winning FIQ World titles, capturing two of three PBA major titles as well as Player of the Year honors. On the opening show of the year, he rolled the third 300 game on ABC's Pro Bowlers' Tour series. It was worth a $10,000 bonus plus a Ford Cougar automobile. At this point, five years had gone by since the last TV 300 and next one would not be until 1987.

     9. 1961 No Final Answer Needed Here. Under the watchful gaze of host Milton Berle, Therm Gibson did what no other contestant of NBC-TV's primetime game show, Jackpot Bowling had ever done before. With Chick Hearn describing the action, Gibson rolled six consecutive strikes for a Regis-like $75,000. A legendary picture captures Berle planting a kiss on the cheek of a stunned Gibson.

     8. 1998 Perfection At Last. Twenty-one year old Michelle Feldman had already taken a big step in her pro career. She was the #2 seed for the Virginia Open and ready to win a professional title. Little did she know her match against Carolyn Dorin-Ballard would be over early, resulting in her first title and the first LPBT solo TV 300 game.

     7. 1994 An Unlikely Pairing. Either unique event which took place during the finals of the 1994 PBA National Championship are worthy of this list. But the two of them together put this show in the top ten. In the second match, 47-year old Johnny Petraglia met reigning PBA Player of the Year Walter Ray Williams, Jr. Sixteen years earlier after shooting 298 on TV, he vowed never to shoot a 298 again. Petraglia kept true to his word by becoming the oldest player on the regular tour to shoot 300 on TV. On to Part Two. The next player in line was Dale Traber. In his first tour telecast, he beat Petraglia to set up a most unlikely title match. Dale's brother David had been on tour for almost ten years with several second-place finishes. Dale was a Midwest Regional Player of the Year several times. It would be the first national tour title for either Traber. David beat Dale 195-184.

     6. 1993 How About A Mulligan? In one of the all-time title matches, Hall of Famers Mike Aulby and David Ozio match strikes the first seven frames. In the eighth, Ozio leaves a 7-pin on a light hit and strikes out afterward. Aulby then completed the sixth perfect game on network TV. This match and the Learn-Petraglia '96 Erie show match share the current high scoring match record of 300-279.

     5. 1988 Is This Your First Show? In his first national TV appearance, Bob Benoit faced Mark Roth in the finals of the Quaker State Open. Twelve strikes later, Benoit walks away with his first national tour title and the first TV 300 in a title match. Benoit was more surprise to learn the True Value Hardware $100,000 TV perfect game bonus was still standing, despite Pete McCordic's TV 300 the previous year.

     4. 1994 Sorry, Not Today. After setting numerous scoring records during the week, Norm Duke must have thought one more big game would wrap up the True Value Open at Peoria's Landmark Lanes. Bryan Goebel put a stunned look on Duke's face with an eleven strike 296 game to defeat Duke and his eleven-strike 280 game. Duke's only spare was a 10-pin in the second, while Goebel's was a 3-6-9-10 leave on his final shot. A 300 game on this show would have been worth a $200,000 bonus from True Value Hardware. Duke's 280 game remains the highest losing score in a PBA TV match.

     3. 1987 We Have It! Fourteen years on tour had yielded Pete McCordic no titles and a few close calls. He would not win that first title until 1988, but he gave us one of the first bowling highlights seen on ESPN SportsCenter and CNN Sports Tonight. The day's opening match featured McCordic throwing the first PBA TV 300 since the 1974 Stefanich game and only the fourth overall. As the tenth frame unfolded, we saw what pressure can do in a key moment. A closeup showed McCordic's trembling as he addressed the pins before delivering the 11th strike.

     2. 1991 Did He Really Do That? Del Ballard needs a double and seven to win the Fair Lanes Open. Strike. Strike. Ballard has a much more aggressive emotional reaction after the second strike, thinking the title is his. Keep in mind, he has been bellying the strike ball to the gutter and back all day with a lot of success to this point. Our buddy Bo Burton reminds viewers seven pins are no gimme (the Bo Burton Kiss of Death strikes again). On the last shot, Del rears up early, which sends the ball out toward the gutter much earlier than the others. Yes, something surreal is about to happen. The ball goes splash. Opponent Pete Weber flies out of his chair in disbelief. Ballard tears off the Wristmaster he was wearing in disgust. Unlike many other events in life when you wish you could erase few minutes here and there, Ballard got redemption just two weeks later, by winning the Long Island Open. He even joked about that gutter ball to the crowd and to the viewers at home via his body microphone. CNN Sports Tonight featured the win as its Play of the Day and Sports Illustrated had a sidebar story about the win after the loss.

     1. 1970 The Most Famous 10-Pin Of Them All. Don Johnson finished second, second, and fifth in his three prior Firestone Tournament of Champions appearances and had to believe something would be different this year. The tenth strike in this title match against Dick Ritger locked up the match. The eleventh set up the possibility of the unthinkable; a perfect game to win the tournament of a lifetime on national TV. The last ball left commentator Billy Welu gasping for air. A defiant 10-pin stood and Johnson collapsed face down on the approach. That classic photo of that image was chosen by the National Bowling Hall of Fame as one of the greatest moments of all time. Johnson later wrote a multi-page feature in a 1971 issue of Sports Illustrated.

      I was hoping to add another moment if Steve Jaros had won the World Championship last month. It would have been an absolute fantastic finish to an amazing year, which for about a four week stretch, became the hottest bowler in the world. With three titles in five months and two in the last three weeks of the tour swing, maybe the whining from some area bowlers about him appearing on all these TV finals and not winning can stop now. It's now official. Steve Jaros is a threat to win each week on the PBA national tour, so there.