It seems like just a couple of weeks ago leagues wrapped up for the summer and the ball bags went into the closet as the golf clubs and fishing rods came out to take their place. Now as reminders of back to school sales fill the airwaves and other newsprint, that means something else. Your league officers have contacted your teammates and want you back to start league play for another season. But you take the slightly dusty bag out of the closet and look at a ball seeing its first light of day since league payout night and wonder if it can take another season. Now, take a breath and visit your local pro shop. See if the ball needs a basic cleaning, resurfacing, or anything else put off since April. Don't be afraid to ask your pro shop operator any other questions about the care of your ball. Remember, you paid a pretty good price for it and want it to last as long as possible. Might want to check those finger inserts as well. Why? First thing is they get harder with age. That alone may make you grip the ball harder, making it rotate slower down the lane. Also, look for worn areas anywhere on the lip. Inserts last about 100 games, so there's your once a year limit, based on one night of league play for a season. For a nominal fee (around $10 per pair), keep that comfortable feel in the ball. Now you've taken care of the inside and outside of the ball. The rest is up to you.

     Questions come up via e-mail every month now about marketing of the PBA and why is it so different than before. Here's your answer: new viewers. The biggest problem an organization faces is its audience growing old. Mass media outlets constantly fear this fact. Bigger name advertisers are geared to some portion of the 18-49 year old bracket. If an audience appears to grow old, that means few younger consumers are welcomed to that activity. If you watched this year's MLB All Star game, you may have noticed the coverage looked like a video game. This is no accident, my friend. Much of the twentysomethings age group has grown up from the crib with these life-like games, with all the rapidly-changing video images included. For those of you over 50, well, we are just that much further away from Pong. The point is this-marketing to the next generation is different to the preceding generation. Go back if you will and look at advertisements from a century ago. A lot of elaborate typeface written in a style of American-style English very foreign to us now, but proper at the time. Shocking as it may seem, print media ruled the day while movies were extremely new (like satellite radio is now) while radio and television were still being dreamed by the dreamers. The slices of the sports and entertainment pie are constantly becoming thinner, and the smart leaders of these organizations know this fact. The dilemma comes from the tug of war in trying to manufacture a trend verses letting one take over on its own.

     Now, if I mention the first name of say, Tiger, you already know of whom I speak. Tiger Woods brought in such a new audience to PGA golf for awhile, the association did not know what to do for awhile. At this point, crowds are more into the flow of a Sunday afternoon, especially if he is on top the leaderboard. Why not? He might do yet something else we have never seen or imagined. Nowadays, every shot can be seen via a satellite dish or cable modem before it's seen on the 10:00 news or ESPN SportsCenter. Since Tiger, even PGA golf gets mentions on sports talk radio around the four annual major tourneys. Bowling? Maybe. That's the dilemma faced by the braintrust in Seattle. How can the PBA be packaged for NEW fans to enjoy it like the rest of us already do? The answer may be painful, but it's better than disappearing from the pro sports radar screen yet again, like NHL may find out if their impending work stoppage happens next month.

     There just is something unique about those who have a passion for what we do, you know the bowling thing. Unfortunately, most who bowl don't know about these folks and what they have done until it is too late. All of us know a few who not only consistently, but constantly go the extra mile. One of those folk was called home just a couple of weeks ago.

     The news broke suddenly Saturday July 31 as A Squad began Game 2 of qualifying at our annual Springfield regional stop. Numerous PBA Central Regional players had a that stunned deer-in-the-headlights look that usually means the worst has happened. PBA Central Region Tournament Director Dan Ottman had posted on a PBA website message board July 28th he was scheduled the following week to see if he would need a pacemaker. Recent heart problems had given him a shortage of breath caused by his heart speeding up in its beating. It wasn't that he also ran the highly successful Michigan Junior Masters Association scholarship tournaments for nearly 20 years and the PBA Central Region tourneys for the last five, it was the way he ran them Ottman expected respect from competitors not only for the sport they were representing, but for themselves. A strictly enforced dress and conduct code was always the rule rather than the exception, which later was applied to the pros. His rationale was simple--a professional sporting event with professional athletes, so treat it as such. Some resented his letter of the law approach to tournaments, but as the years went by, more fully appreciated and understood what he was doing. The respect shown by former and current MJMA bowlers and was there in private, but look up the PBA Central region message board now. Hundreds have expressed their feelings and respect at the passing of a true bowler. Even a website has been started in his honor. How strong can others identify with what principles Ottman stood for? The website received 3,000 hits in the first TWO DAYS and well over 8,000 in its first week. How many websites can claim those numbers? Here's more proof. Just read those tributes to Ottman. It will take awhile, but that will give you an idea of his sphere of influence. Every area has a handful of these folk: passionate about what they do while positively guiding the youth to be more responsible and the pros to be as professional as possible. Rest in pece, Dan. You are already missed.

     Next month, a tribute to a living legacy on the golden anniversary of a radio show you may not have known as been on that long. Seriously, stay tuned.