…Continued from the previous post.

Most casual fans of bowling know that rolling three strikes in a row is called a Turkey. It is now my pleasure to add to that body of knowledge by sharing with you that four strikes in a row is called a Hambone.

Why? I don’t know – nor did anyone sitting near me at the World Series of Bowling. But each time a bowler recorded a fourth consecutive strike, the “Hambone” signs and cheers invariably went up in the bleachers.

Your curiosity now piqued, you may ask “What is five strikes in a row called?” Simple – “Five strikes in a row.” Or in my case, “Impossible.”

My trip to Las Vegas for this event was timed to miss all of the qualifying play that had been going on for almost two weeks at the South Point Resort’s Bowling Center. In each of the five Championships that make up the WSOB, bowlers had been progressively keggling through 12 games of medal play to narrow the field to 16, and then 9 match play games to finalize seeding.

I skipped all that and went right to the dessert – the Championship Finals, which featured the five bowlers who had accumulated the most points during that 21 game grind. And I took two helpings of the good stuff, plunking down $20 each to be part of the studio audience for the taping of the Viper and the Chameleon Championships.

Which reminds me…SPOILER ALERT!

I am actually going to reveal to the entire IGTS universe the identities of the two Championship winners. So if you’ve already cleared your calendar and selected the appropriate libations with which to enjoy ESPN’s coverage of the Viper (December 5^th) and Chameleon (December 12^th) Championships, cease and desist from reading further and proceed immediately to a closet in need of a thorough cleaning.

Are they gone? OK, here’s the skinny…

The finals have an interesting “stepladder” format. To start off the festivities, the #4 seed plays a single game against the #5 seed. The winner advances to play the #3 seed, and so on. Win and you keep playing. If that seems too random, consider that the body of work turned in during the 21 qualifying games does come sharply into play, because the higher you are ranked, the fewer games you have to win to claim the Championship. The #1 seed has merely to win a single game before popping the bubbly.

But it is bowling after all, and there’s always the chance that a hot hand will emerge to buck the odds.

As “Exhibit A” I give you Bill “The Real Deal” O’Neill, who halfway through the Viper Championship was looking damn near unbeatable playing out of the #4 seed. He started his second round game against #3 seed Mike DeVaney with six straight strikes before “falling apart” with a spare in the seventh frame. His final score of 242 was actually not even indicative of how well he bowled, because after mathematically securing the win, his concentration waned a bit in the tenth frame and he did not mark. No matter – the point was made.

Sure enough, The Real Deal completed the longest possible path to the Viper title, book-ending wins against South Americans (Amleto Monacelli of Venezuela, and Colombia’s Andres Gomez), around victories over bowlers from opposite coasts of the U.S. (Californian DaVaney, and Tommy Jones from South Carolina).

O’Neill, who hails from Southampton, PA is exactly the kind of champion I would want were I promoting the PBA Tour. He’s young, photogenic and quick with a smile – and he’s a newlywed to boot. His very cute wife Christi was there on hand to both root him on and kibitz with sideline reporter Kimberly Pressler. As soon as he steps onto the lane though, he is an intimidating figure that makes bowling look about as macho as is feasibly possible.

The finalists in the Chameleon Championship were also a particularly telegenic group, much to the delight of ESPN and the Tour, I’m sure. All were athletic, good-looking and playfully outgoing. One, Sean Rash, sneaked up on commentators Randy Pederson and Rob Stone as they were taping an intro to his match, and planted a kiss on the cheek of the latter – much to his dismay.

Starting from that same #4 seeding that had been so good to Bill O’Neill, Rash made quick work of Finland’s Osku Palermaa in the first round. In his second match, against PBA veteran and WSOB poster boy Chris Barnes though, things started out a little sideways.

Neither bowler could muster much in the way of strikes, and before the game was half over, both had actually turned in an open frame (neither strike nor spare). On one shot, Rash actually got his thumb partially stuck on the release, creating the kind of airborne thudder that’s standard fare at your local Saturday night Rock & Bowl outing.

To add insult to injury, they both had to take an ESPN-dictated break in play, during which they had no choice but to sit and watch as television monitors showed ESPN’s replays of each of their poor shots. I’m sure everybody had the same deliciously unspoken thought – “Hey, I could do that”, especially when Barnes had struggled to a 106 through seven frames. For his part, Rash righted the ship and closed out the match before play was even complete in the ninth frame. He went on to dispatch Wes Malott in the next match almost as quickly.

As the day had worn on, I was still waiting for that tension-packed moment in which an entire match – and ideally an entire Championship – came down to a single pressure-packed roll in the tenth frame. That drama that I craved finally arrived in the Chameleon title match, between Rash and Scott Norton, who is a PBA Tour rookie, a lefty, and the son of Women’s Hall of Fame bowler Virginia Norton.

The youngster was also white-hot, having won seven of his nine match-play qualifiers to vault from 13^th place to the #1 seed. All it would take to seal the deal on his very first professional victory would be one more good game.

If he was nervous, he didn’t show it in the first frame. Or in the second, or in any of the first seven frames, which he completed with seven perfect shots. This was the longest string of strikes of the entire day, and the thought that we might witness a 300 game stirred a buzz in the TV audience.

While people had been freely using their cell phones and similar small recording devices during breaks in play, up to this point nobody in the stands knew for sure whether we were prohibited from recording the actual competition. So it was comical to see virtually everyone in the bleachers (including yours truly) start to surreptitiously reach into pockets and purses for their cell phone or video camera.

And when Norton notched another strike in the eighth frame, there was no pretense about it anymore – everyone was poised to capture for eternity the historic moment at hand.

For his part, Rash hung in gamely against this onslaught, but by the ninth frame the only question remaining was whether Norton could secure his first win with a perfect game. Alas, it was not to be, as his first ball in the ninth frame left two pins standing – which he quickly dispatched with on his second shot.

Having already secured the Championship, an indifferent tenth frame left Norton with a winning score of 256, a hug from his Mom, an interview with Kimberly Pressler, a nice little trophy, and a winner’s check for…

Well, I don’t know what for.

The event program had listed the standings and stats of the 16 qualifiers in each of the five Championships – including the amount of prize money that they had been awarded in their unsuccessful pursuit of making the finals. The highest seeded non-finalists made $2,400. Since the five finalists had yet to complete the competition, their prize money was listed as simply “Advanced”.

Curiously enough, we were never told what that “advanced” amount was for each bowler. There wasn’t even one of those oversized winner’s checks for those of us in the studio audience to “ooh and ahh” over. Maybe it’s just me, but if the winning amount was an impressive figure, wouldn’t it have helped the PBA Tour’s image to have had as many people as possible know that?

If it wasn’t…well, that’s a larger problem.

Next Up:  Lopez vs. Marquez – The WBO Featherweight Championship