Springtime in translated in the JPA world means yet another installment of Pro Shop 101. On ESPN cablecasts this season, Randy Pedersen mentioned two words numerous times about a technique not well known or understood outside a pretty closed circle. 'Dead hand' refers to a good way of getting today's aggressive reactive and particle resin balls to skid on the driest areas of the lane. It involves minimal grip pressure in the ball. Why? Gravity along with approach momentum allows physics of the both lane and ball to induce the least amount of friction. What also helps is a loose armswing and consistent timing. The timing should allow the ball to be just behind the ankle once the slide foot stops sliding. This, my friend, is how you throw the piece of raw meat past the hungry piranha. With minimal grip pressure, gravity can do what it does to help the thumb exit the ball sooner than it would with a tighter squeeze or forced release. If you want to try this, check the timing first. Make sure you know where the ball is when the slide foot stops, then work on the non-existent grip pressure. You will probably need a friend or camcorder to show where the release is actually happening. If the ball feels like it is falling off too early and skidding down the lane a little bit farther while making a stronger backend move, you've got it. The ball actually takes longer to slow down, thus grabbing the backend later and saving the hitting power for where it counts. A tighter grip means the thumb stays in the ball as you flick it off like you're throwing a Frisbee. That worked fine back in the 70's with three-piece equipment that needed Mark Rothian power to get controllable backend reaction, but not in today's instant hook-in-a-box game. If you feel the thumb hang as it exits, the release may be in front of the slide foot. Some have decided to forget the thumb altogether and just support the ball and mega-twirl it for what I call the Cosmic Kids release. It looks pretty, but you'd have better luck controlling a tricycle at 60 m.p.h. If not, you look like a fool trying to defy the laws of physics to keep the ball on the lane. It may work once in a while, but for the long haul, do us all a favor and put the thumb back in. Don't kid yourself, my friend. The one guy on tour (Mike Miller) who has bowled like than for the last ten years has had more physical injuries and problems because of the stress involved in throwing the ball that way. Three league or cosmic games a week is more than enough for most, but bowling against the best in the world 30-50 games week after week is a different story.

     Is it time to bring back Celebrity Bowling? Yes, it is and here's why. Two generations have grown up without knowing this syndicated TV show of the late 60's and early 70's even existed. For those of you 35 and younger, four celebrities bowl a doubles match with a smart-aleck commentator talking to one of the celebrity bowlers not throwing a ball. The Ted Mack Amateur Hour has returned as American Idol and according to more than a few under the age of 25, it is the only TV show they will watch. You think advertisers know that? You betcha. Put on the contestants from these shows along with Survivor, The Batchelor, any other reality show rejects, current TV sitcom stars, or anyone who's had a video on MTV or BET in the last five years, and bingo, there's your mid-season replacement hit on the WB or UPN. If the ratings are huge enough, there's always Saturday night on CBS. From a demographic standpoint, it's a marketing slam-dunk. Men and women 18-34 are the most desirable group advertisers covet. Rotate a good looking (and younger) PBA or PWBA tour player as color commentator to ask the competitors question about their latest CD, video, concert tour, book signing, or public appearance and that should easily fill a half hour per week. Set up a couple of lanes almost anywhere, in a mall, theater, even outside. The Via Bowling Products people provide lanes for the PBA arena finals, they would be glad for more exposure. The bottom line is bowling would get more visibility to a wider audience without the Cosmic stuff and without clowning up a regular tour telecast. Maybe Joan Rivers would comment on a Cathy Dorin-Lizzi stylist outfit. Well, maybe not that much exposure. Each of the celebs could wear a Danny Wiseman retro shirt and then wear it in a soon-to-be-legendary music video. R.D. Miller could get more airtime than he did as a bit player on Days of Our Lives. Then you would see some of those same celebs at a PBA tour finals as genuine fans. Marketers call that cross-promotion. It would be a lot better than the Comedy Central effort, Let's Bowl. That's right, Chopper, it sure would.

     Another thing the new PBA has done well is to remember the legends. Carmen Salvino is a regular contributor at pba.com. When Earl Anthony tragically passed, the PBA web site immediately posted the news and sent e-mails to media outlets. The afternoon of May 4th saw another quick posting. Hall of Famer Don Johnson had passed at the age of 62. He was a dominant player in the 60's and early 70's(the Stefanich era) winning 26 PBA titles, and started the first nationwide bowling instruction camp, Professional Bowling Camps. The camp gave thousands of youngsters of the 70's and 80's a chance to have their games examined and fine tuned by one of the masters and other big time pro bowlers. Many of those made or are still making their mark on the sport like Mike Aulby, Kim Adler, Team USA Head Coach Jeri Edwards, PBA marketing exec Chip Zielke, and yes, even a certain columnist in a certain Joliet-based bowling newspaper filed our way through North Bowl or Lakeshore Lanes in Sheboygan, Wisconsin all those years ago. His son, Jimmy, has been a touring player the last ten years or so, and won the old World Open at Brunswick Zone Glendale Heights in 1990, the same tourney his dad won some twenty years earlier.

     But he might best remembered for THAT solid 10-pin left on the afternoon of April 4, 1970. A mutual friend of ours told me some eight weeks ago he had a conservation with Johnson in which they discussed the current state of the sport. In During their chat someone recognized Johnson and of course that match involving THAT 10-pin was mentioned. As souvenirs from that day, Johnson said, he kept THAT pin and the ball that didn't knock it down. He thought it awkward at times people would remember him for the 299 game, but still appreciated the gesture. The fact remains that 33 years after it occurred, his 299-298 title match win over Dick Ritger in the 1970 Tournament of Champions remains atop the annual Top 25 TV Bowling moments list and veteran bowling writer Lyle Zikes recently called Johnson's face in the approach reaction to the standing 10-pin bowling's Kodak Moment.

     It's going to be with sad heart when I'll be with the other the PBA Midwest Regional bowlers walking up to Jimmy offering him our condolences at the Central Region's Merrillville tournament at the end of May. It won't be us as a group saying goodbye to a legend and mentor, but feeling the pain of a young man losing his father.