What a difference a year makes. This time last year, we were marveling in the season Steve Jaros was having on the 2003-04 PBA Tour. Five shows, three wins, and a solid candidate for Player of the Year. Jaros made the Round of 8 at last year's PBA World Championship, which put him within a couple of games of becoming the second Will County resident to be named Player of the Year in 36 years. But in the spring of 2005, Jaros was fighting for his tour life. No wins so far in the season, not even a show since last spring's glorious run, and too many weeks of not making it out of the Thursday 14-game qualifier blocks. He had not accrued enough points to guarantee a trip to next year's tour, unless he made the Round of 16 in the World Championship And then came the events of Sunday April 10th.

     I had chronicled this moment some 18 months ago, but basically it went like this. In November 2003, Jaros was in the midst of a slump and openly wondering if he could make it to the 2004-05 PBA Tour. He was bowling a Midwest Regional finals and told me he would be spending the next two days further fine-tuning his approach on video to see what had caused the current slump. Evidently he found something. After winning that weeks tour stop, he was on his way to two more wins and runner up finish in Player of the Year voting. But it was the mention of a serious practice session that stuck in my mind. More on this in a moment.

     There were far less individual stories of drama than last year, with this being the last stop before the all-exempt 64-man tour. Over 300 bowlers took to the lanes, many looking for that last big payday. As the week wore on, talk became more frequent about looking for a real job the following week. Those who knew the end of the road existed in the back of their minds saw it arrive like an oncoming truck. There was no miracle finish for this group. They would be relegated to weekend regional play with thrice a year visits back to the tour with the ABC Masters, the U.S. Open, and the PBA World Championship.

     With a smaller field of 208 this year, thoughts were more realistic. Did I choose the right arsenal of balls? Which qualifying block would be the most troublesome? Does this name shirt really clash with these slacks? One situation that does come up is how to handle oil pattern transition. It happens so much faster out here on the big road show, it can really take your breath away. If you are not used to moving much during league play, adjusting to this would make your head spin. Throw a 160 game in somewhere, and it often takes two games just to get back those lost 40 pins. Granted we do throw two games on freshly oiled patterns, but if the tour guys with a ton of revolutions are playing on pairs ahead of you are playing where you plan to play in two more games, problems with ball reaction are on there way.

     I had the privilege of bowling next to Brian Voss for the first 18 games. His line was started inside of second arrow and gradually moved left. He ended those games at +400 or so over par, or about a 224 average. So Voss' blowup during the on the TV semifinal and the PBA Forum explanation thereof remains a bit of a mystery. What we saw at home was 4-6-7-10 leave late in the match which put him in a hole from which he could not recover. What we did not see at home was his opponent Chris Loschetter warming up before the show using a dull particle ball. His shots were not hitting the 1-3 pocket, but just the 3-pin. Why you ask? What I am about to divulge is one of the lesser-known secrets of TV finals play. Players now even in one of the best of three, five, or seven have about 10 minutes warm up on their pair of lanes. A strategy of some, but not all, is to create a drier area to help guide (usually a tamer) ball back to the 1-3 pocket. The idea is to gradually open the area to give oneself a larger margin of error down the lane. In this case, Voss, being the only other right-hander on the show chose not to use this area to his advantage. He must have known about this practice which dates back a number of years, but his response to Loschetter in the 'Players' area in the pba.com message boards is more astounding. He acted like it was some devious ploy by some higher power against the game as a whole, blaming Loschetter, his ball rep, and the PBA for allowing this to occur. My response is this; Brian, who are you fooling? You have been on tour since the first Reagan administration and are a member of the PBA Hall of Fame. What is the real reason for this, anger? I really don't know. If I do find out, we'll let you know.

     This was how this column was supposed to end. But wait. Oh yeah, the practice session reference from earlier. Jaros was back at Fox Bowl in a 3-hour practice on a Sunday afternoon the week before the Grand Rapids tour stop. Once again, I heard talk about having to find a real job if things didn't go well the next couple of weeks. A TV finals in Grand Rapids, a Round of 16 finish in Taylor, and now, a 248-242 win over the 1994 T of C winner Norm Duke for his first major title. After the solid 8-pin late in that title match, I thought back to all the bad breaks on TV over the years. Another solid 8-pin in the '96 TPC finals, losing to Parker Bohn III's 299 game in Las Vegas were the first to come to mind. But not today. Like Pedersen said during the show, Jaros didn't flinch leaving that 8-pin after a six-bagger. Spare, spare, then a pure dead flush pocket strike on the first ball in the tenth after Duke split in his tenth frame to wrap up the match. At least he was featured in the much maligned Six Questions portion of the show. But where his character lies was revealed in one of those six answers. Which three people would he like to have dinner with? Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods to ask all about fame and it's trappings, and his late father who would have loved to see his son achieve his own fame.

     It's just fun to see classy things happen to classy people.