We've heard and seen a lot about the sibling rivalry between Venus and Serena Williams on the women's pro tennis tour the least few years. But really, siblings and other family members have also faced each other in past generations in other sports. Al and Bobby Unser in Indy car racing, and Kenny and Clete Boyer were opposing third baseman in the '64 World Series. The PBA has a couple of versions; one is more local than you might have first thought. Mark and Mike Scroggins of Amarillo, Texas have a Touring Pro Doubles title between them from 1993 and Mike made three straight TV finals earlier this season. Mark bowls more PBA Southwest Regional stops now when he's not coaching the West Texas State University women's and men's bowling team. Cedarburg, Wisconsin natives Dale and David Traber have been topflight PBA competitors dating back to the 80's, but only twice have they bowled each other for a title. The first was a Midwest Regional title in Moline, with Dale prevailing. The second match up was just a bit more dramatic, the 1994 PBA National Championship. At the time, it also had a ten-year exemption for that tournament plus a five-year exemption into the Tournament of Champions. By itself, that would make the Top 25 list. But what happened leading up to the match up took this Pro Bowlers' Tour show into the rarified air of the Top 10. Hall of Famer Johnny Petraglia at the age of 47 made a charge during the 56-game long tourney to qualify for the television finals and ended up qualifying fifth in the stepladder format. After disposing fellow lefty Eric Forkel in the first match 237-181, he bowled reigning PBA Player of the Year Walter Ray Williams, Jr. in the second of four matches that afternoon. During the first eight Petraglia strikes, analyst Bo Burton reminded us about another string some 16 years earlier ending with a pulled shot on the last ball, leaving the 2-4 combination for a 298 game. Johnny later vowed never to bowl a 298 game again, although acknowledging the pressure all those years ago was too much. Williams at this point can't buy a strike and the match is over by the eighth frame. Petraglia with a rare second chance came through in the clutch one more time. This one was not worth $10,000, but $100,000 from True Value Hardware and remains the oldest player on the regular tour to roll a TV 300 game, seventh overall in PBA television history.

     So now the semifinal match is set between Dale Traber and Petraglia. With the crowd just on the edge of frenzy, Dale grinded out a 193-188 win to set up for the first and still only brother vs. brother match up for a national tour title. But this is also for one of the four major titles, the PBA National (now World Championship) plus the exemptions. As close-ups are shown of both Trabers, one can see the fire in either's eyes. Fellow regional competitors like myself, had seen that look before Dale to this point is a Midwest Region legend with 15 titles while David has been a touring player for the last eight years with a just as many regional titles, handful of TV finals in the early 90's, but no national tour wins. The match seesawed but David had to mark in the tenth for the win. He did, and prevailed 196-187. What helped make this great television was that for the second straight week, there was more than enough drama where at some point, you did not want to get up out of the recliner. The previous week, Brian Goebel and Norm Duke had their now legendary shootout at Peoria's Landmark Lanes. That was the stop were Duke set numerous still standing PBA scoring records and threw 11 strikes in the title game. But Goebel had the front eleven strikes in a 296-280 win. Yes, that match, my friend. That was also the match Goebel had a chance to snap off the $200,000 True Value Hardware perfect game bonus. $200 Grand bonus? The regular TV 300 game bonus was $100, 000, but if it was in the True Value Open, it was doubled. By the way, both of those shows are in the top 10 of the Top 25 TV Bowling Moments list. The Traber brothers show is #7, the Goebel-Duke match is #4. The rest of the list will be detailed late this winter in several installments here in JPA. Oh, and if you have any suggestions for the list, e-mail me at mark.london@pba.com. There's usually a new addition for each annual list.

     Some have already e-mailed about how different the PBA show is so far this year and doesn't have the life it did last year. Yes, I have noticed it, too. This became all too clear in of all places at a PBA Midwest Regional tourney. While waiting to bowl the Round of 8 one Sunday afternoon, there were two name touring pros sitting talking about what each needed to do to make the limited field of 64 for next year's tour. Fields this year are in the 128-200 range, so there will be a few looking for regular jobs by the summer. Think about that for a moment. Anyway, one of the pros was worried about his armswing and how it hadn't been right for the last few weeks. He finished second, but still was concerned about the armswing. After a couple of days, something fell into place. He bowled pretty well during the week, made it to Sunday, and FINALLY caught a break on the TV show. Congratulations, Steve. Glad June, Evan and Hannah were there to see it.

     Looks like Steve Sanders has formally signed a contract with former PWBA chairman John Sommers to buy the women's tour organization. This will allow him to start negotiations with ESPN for a potential 2004 TV schedule. More will follow as promised in the January column.

     If you haven't seen it yet, you just might be amazed. Driving down West Jefferson Street, it's really hard to miss. There is a new color matrix board featuring constantly moving images and is very eye-catching. One image of a ball heading down a lane looked like recorded video image. Also very distinctive is the ball and pin above the entrance way. This is the latest phase of remodeling at Joliet Town and Country Lanes in Joliet, Illinois. Other centers considering remodeling should look at this center, which opened in 1958. The larger-than-life pin on the roof outside the main entrance resembles the one at Indianapolis' Woodland Bowl. Maybe there might be another award on the way from the Bowlers' Journal magazine architectural contest on the way like the one the Kontos family received for the bar design several years ago? Little did we know the automatic sliding doors at the main entrance were just the beginning.

     Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. See you in 2004.