If you’re looking for a “feel good” story in sports for this joyous holiday season, look no further than the story of unemployed auto worker-turned-professional bowling champion Tom Smallwood.
About a year ago, the Saginaw, Mich., resident was laid off from his job as an assembly line worker with General Motors. An on-again, off-again competitor on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour, he decided to give it another shot, and came up big when he earned a year’s exemption on the Tour by placing third in the Tour Trials.
Then at the World Series of Bowling in August and early September in nearby Detroit, Smallwood showed that he packed a lot of punch in his 5-foot-6-inch frame. He finished third in the Scorpion Championship before reaching the semifinals of the World Championship, which was put on hold until this past Sunday.
In Sunday’s live televised final round of the World Championship from Wichita, Kansas, Smallwood wrote the perfect ending to this rags to riches tale by knocking off reigning PBA Player of the Year Wes Malott of Pflugerville, Texas, 244-228, for the $50,000 first prize.
The victory lifted his financial status, and also gave Smallwood, 32, his first PBA title, first Major title, a two-year exemption on the Tour and the opportunity to bowl in next month’s PBA Tournament of Champions.
I got a chance to watch Smallwood at the World Series of Bowling and was impressed by the way he rolled the ball. Because he didn’t insert his thumb all the way into the thumb hole, he sort of cradled the ball in his left arm as he approached the foul line. This gave him a lot of revolutions on the ball, without sacrificing accuracy.
Against Malott, he kept his emotions in check, and came through in the 10th frame with a clutch strike on the first ball to secure the win.
Smallwood had advanced to the title match by defeating Bill O’Neill of Southampton, Pa., 211-159, while Malott advanced by upending Rhino Page of Wesley Chapel, Fla., 203-191.
During the TV show, viewers learned that Smallwood actually received a call from someone in personnel at GM, offering him a chance to return to his job.
“The lady who called asked me if I wanted to come back to work, but I told her no,” he said. “She asked what I was doing. I told her I’m now a professional bowler and that I’d be on ESPN this weekend. At first she didn’t believe me, but the lady sitting next to her was a bowler, so I wound up talking to her for a while. Now I think the people at GM are fans.”
The PBA returns to ESPN on Jan. 10 with the taped finals of the Pepsi Red, White and Blue Open presented by bowl.com. Bowled on the new USBC oil patterns, the tournament turned into a shootout as several scoring records were set.
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WALTER RAY, LIZ GET NOD
Among the multitude of emails in my Inbox this week was one from US Bowler magazine asking me to vote for the male and female “Bowler of the Decade.” As another decade winds down, and the magazine’s editors seek an answer to the question: Who were the greatest bowlers of the 2000s?
Fortunately, the email included a list of bowlers with capsule summaries of their achievements to jog the voters’ memories. The magazine will tabulate the results on a weighted scale using all ballots submitted by Bowling Writers Association of America writers and PBA and PBA Women’s Series professionals to come up with the top five men and women bowlers.
After considering several factors, most notably PBA or USBC titles, earnings, major titles and Player of the Year awards, here are my choices:
Male Bowler of the Decade – Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla.
During the decade, Williams captured 17 of his PBA Tour-leading 46 tournament victories, and led all bowlers with $1.5 million in earnings, five major titles and 63 television appearances (tied with Chris Barnes for TV time). Furthermore, Williams has made over $100,000 in each of the last 10 seasons, except for 2008-09 when he earned $99,680. His $419,700 in earnings in 2002-03 is a PBA record.
The Best of the Rest – Norm Duke (16 titles, four majors, 2000 POY); Chris Barnes (10 titles, two majors, 2007-08 POY); Patrick Allen (13 titles, two majors, 2004-05 POY); Tommy Jones (12 titles, two majors, 2005-06 POY). For the record, Newark’s Doug Kent would be eighth on my list, after the aforementioned five and Parker Bohn III and Pete Weber.
Female Bowler of the Decade – Liz Johnson, Cheektowaga, NY.
From 2001, when she rolled the third televised 300 game in PWBA history, through this year, when she captured the USBC Queens championship, Johnson has been a dominant force in women’s and men’s professional bowling. She captured five PWBA titles, two PBA Women’s Series titles, the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open and, in 2004, was the first woman in history to qualify for a PBA event. The following year she reached the championship match of the 2005 Banquet Open, losing 219-192 to Tommy Jones.
The Best of the Rest – Kelly Kulick (Queens, U.S. Women’s Open, PBA Women’s Series titles, and first woman to earn a PBA Tour exemption); Wendy Macpherson (two Queens titles, 4 PWBA titles, 1 PBA Women’s Series title, and only female bowler to win a USBC Open Championships title); Carolyn Dorin-Ballard (11 PWBA titles, 2 PBA Women’s Series titles, Queens title); Michelle Feldman (nine PWBA titles, 2 PBA Women’s Series titles, bowled 300-300 PWBA tie match vs. Kim Terrell in 2000).
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HIGH SCHOOL INTEREST?
People in the know have indicated that at least one Genesee Region high school athletic director is interested in the possibility of forming an interscholastic bowling league in our area.
Apparently the A.D. and officials of the Genesee Region USBC Association are working together to form a committee on high school bowling, and will be reaching out to other A.D.s.
That’s good news to all those kids who have ability outside of the so-called mainstream sports. And, I’m sure the costs involved in running a high school bowling program are considerably less.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwaanza. Pin Points takes a holiday break next week, but returns to The Daily News on Dec. 31 (New Year’s Eve).
(Mike Pettinella’s Pin Points bowling column appears every Thursday during the bowling season in the print and online editions of The Daily News. If you have an item of interest for his column, contact him at mikepett2002@yahoo.com, at 343-3736 or by mail at 55 Edgewood Drive, Batavia).