You probably don't remember. Don't worry, only three of our eight regular readers do remember. There was a list in this space some months ago about what things needed to take place to get bowling closer to the mainstream sports flow of information and attention. Shockingly, low and behold, call the neighbors, wake the kids; some have actually happened.

     Whew, let me catch my breath. One of the items was bringing back the 1970s TV show, "Celebrity Bowling." It was almost queasy show watching third level celebrities bowl against each other in a weekly syndicated battle of one-liners from everything from Richard Nixon to the latest Florence Henderson Wesson Oil commercial to whatever Linda Blair was throwing up in "The Exorcist." I do remember a post "Get Smart" Don Adams trying to talk his way thru a painful performance to the emcee, who may have been Bert Convy. Anyway, it brought the game to a different audience this show was usually seen in the late afternoon or in a time slot between the 6 o'clock news and the evening's primetime schedule. There may have been a small prize fund involved, but it was never talked about very much. Two specially constructed lanes were built in a Hollywood TV studio with several season-long tournaments conducted over the length of the series. Never once was Pro Bowlers' Tour show or any current pros mentioned. Perhaps Eddie Elias may have wanted to get involved some how to get more press for the PBA, but one will never know. Now to this version. ESPN has this on Tuesdays at 7pm with today's third level celebrities in a halfway competitive series of matches resembling what the old Championship Bowling shows of the '60s. Some names you have heard before, most you might be hearing in the next three years, and others, well........ somebody's press agent is trying to get you to remember a name. The clincher of this show is prize money. Read that again, please. This group of celebrities are competing for current pro tour-style prize money. Guess it took a bit to get these folks to show up or better yet, sucker some sponsor into it. Anyway, this show is more for your once-a-year bowler to watch and enjoy.

     Another item took place in all the media hubbub concerning Storm's scented bowling balls. First, Storm has been adding the various scents in the last six years, but yet whichever Associated Press intern who picked up this story thought this idea was brand new. The brainchild is co-owner Bill Chrisman. The former cleaning solution salesman certainly has all the faithful, or StormChasers as they are called, waiting for the latest release, but what scent is included.

     But the moment I refer did not unfold as I had planned. The Storm scent story was reported in the Weekend Update segment of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" the week that ABC's "Good Morning America" added video to the original AP report. Co-anchor Amy Poehler read the story without much of a punchline. My idea was to get a PBA bowler create enough of a media buzz to host the show and perhaps get the chance to utter those seven familiar words, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night."

     The final item is something that I have been accused of taking on in a personal crusade. Besides myself and numerous contributors in the PBA website forum, some previously aired shows have been on ESPN Classic. A smattering of the best regular tour and senior shows have dotted the cable TV mid-morning landscape the past few weeks. Included have been a perfect game or two, a sudden-death roll off for a title amongst two veterans, and the world premiere of PDW. This current batch originally aired on ESPN over the last ten years, but none from the Chris and Bo or Chris and Billy days on ABC-TV. I have heard thru a few sources that those shows will not be seen anywhere anytime soon. The rights to those shows do not belong to ABC Television as previously believed, but to another party. This group is allegedly holding out for more money, which may not exist right in any form now. So the videotape record of the glory years of this sport, some of which became an even-more distant memory with Dick Weber's recent passing, remain a hostage of greed and a dwindling market audience slowly dying off. And you thought just hearing the name Steve Bartman makes you roll your eyes in disgust. By the way, the magic time is 9am Central. Check the TV Schedule tab on the PBA website main page to find which shows air and when.

     It is May and that means PBA Midwest Regional play hits full stride for the summer. What is new for this year? Those oil patterns have been tweaked yet again. Rather than using the national tour patterns, we now bowl the Senior Tour patterns. Those who knows the spreadsheets of how much oil is applied and where may tell you these patterns play a bit easier, with more defined oil in the middle of the lane. Time will tell on that one and more details will follow as the summer progresses. Coming up the first weekend in June is the 2.0 version of the PBA Tour Trials in nearby Merrillville, Indiana with the top 10 bowlers after five days of competition heading to this year's national tour. If you thought there were a few surprises from last year's Tour Trials, there will probably be more this year. As usual, stay tuned.