(Source: Professional Bowlers Association)

A win in the 2010 PBA One A Day Dick Weber Open this Sunday at Fountain Bowl would have special meaning for Pete Weber.

Pete, who finished third in last season’s Dick Weber Open and qualified third for Sunday’s live ESPN2 telecast at 1 p.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Pacific), will be looking for his 35^th Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour title, which would put him third alone on the all-time list. He is currently tied for third with another bowling great, Mark Roth, with 34 titles.

The Dick Weber Open is named after Pete’s legendary father who passed away in 2005. Dick is also in the PBA and United States Bowling Congress Halls of Fame, and for Pete, winning this tournament would be as significant as any major title.

“If I couldn’t win this tournament in St. Louis (the Weber’s hometown), this is where I would want to win it,” Pete said about competing in Southern California and Fountain Bowl.

Dick was ranked No. 3 on the PBA’s 50 Greatest list behind only Earl Anthony and Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Pete is ranked No. 4. Dick’s 30 PBA Tour titles ranks seventh all-time and he was the only bowler to win a PBA title in six different decades.

Pete will have his work cut out for him, however, as Sunday’s finals will include Williams, the Tour’s all-time win leader with 46 titles who qualified second. The top qualifier is Mike Fagan of Patchogue, N.Y., who is seeking his first individual Tour title.

Opening up the Sunday’s stepladder final will be No. 4 qualifier and four-time Tour titlist Ryan Shafer and No. 5 qualifier Bill O’Neill, who won his first Tour title earlier this season.

In last Sunday’s ESPN-televised finals of the PBA Tournament of Champions, Kelly Kulick of Union, N.J., made sports history by becoming the first woman to win a PBA Tour event.

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(Source: Professional Bowlers Association)

The Professional Bowlers Association is the home to the best bowlers in the World. Last Sunday, Kelly Kulick broke a barrier for women in professional sports by winning a PBA Tour tournament. We should all be celebrating this monumental occasion.

However, it’s become apparent that some people just can’t come to grips with the fact that an extremely talented female bowler like Kelly Kulick won a PBA Tour event. How much have we really evolved in equality if we still have to read about how women cannot compete with men in professional sports?

David Whitley of www.fanhouse.com apparently gets paid to write about it. You can read his article here.

At least he clearly identifies himself as a male chauvinist pig. Whitley lacks any understanding of what it takes to win a professional bowling tournament, let alone the PBA Tournament of Champions and therefore loses all of his credibility in evaluating bowling as a sport. His flawed logic begins early in his article when he reduces the unofficial best bowler in the world to Bobby Riggs in goofy shoes. It continues as he compares Kulick’s one match against Barnes as rivaling achievements of Earl Anthony and Dick Weber. Really?

Then he makes an ignorant generalization. According to Whitley, rule No. 1 in determining whether an activity is a sport: If the best female in the world can beat the best male in the world, it doesn’t qualify.

This kind of arrogance and broad generalization of gender is the same kind of arrogance that got Al Campanis fired from the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1987 when he made his broad generalization. In an interview with Ted Koppel in 1987 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s Major League Baseball debut, Campanis was asked why, at the time, there had been so few black managers and no black general managers in Major League Baseball. Campanis replied that blacks “may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager.” He also said that blacks are often poor swimmers “because they don’t have the buoyancy.”

There are three notable differences between the two statements by Campanis and Whitley. One, its 2010, not 1987 so we’ve progressed 23 years since Campanis’ statement and instead of celebrating a racial barrier being broken, we’re trying to celebrate a gender barrier being broken. Two, Whitley is talking about inherent gender inequality while Campanis was talking about inherent racial inequality. And three, Campanis made his comments in a live interview while Whitley had plenty of time to think about the comments before he sent it out to print.

It’s not so much how he’s trying to define bowling as an activity that bothers me. It’s more or less how he uses gender and the inherent inability of women to compete with men as his basis for that definition. No matter which way you swing it, it’s sexist and degrading to women.

Kulick has been competing against the men since 2006 so this isn’t her first time in the big show. Women in general have only been permitted to compete on the PBA Tour for seven years once the Women’s PBA Tour ceased operations in 2003. She throws a 15 pound ball upwards of 18 miles per hour and puts about 300 revolutions on it…comparable to many of the top touring men.

Kelly Kulick’s victory is not meant to take any credibility from the sport of bowling. In fact, it should elevate it in the world of sports. You don’t have to bench-press 300 pounds, or have a 40-inch vertical. You don’t have to run the 40-yard dash in under five seconds or be able to crush a baseball 450 feet into the upper deck. Brute strength and sheer athletic ability does not define sport.

The perceived belief that a woman can’t compete with a man is a belief that has passed its time; It’s a belief that resides alongside the belief that women should be stay-at-home-moms and stick to cooking and cleaning for their husband; A belief that women have no business running a business or running for political office; A belief that men are inherently better than women overall.

Women have been participating in most sports for far less time than men, which may in some way describe why there have not been more breakthrough performances like Kelly’s up to this point. No doubt, that in years to come, whether it’s 10, 20, or 50 years, women will catch up. And hopefully, they will look back on Kelly’s performance and define it as a breakthrough moment for women in sports.

Just curious Whitley, but how do you define fast pitch softball? According to you, it’s not a sport if women are better than men.

THE BIG FOUR

• I could compile a list of links here for all the stories that ran on Kelly Kulick, but that would be too time-consuming. You can find most stories, including the one that ran in our rinky-dink local paper’s sports section by searching “Kelly Kulick” on Google.
• Don’t underestimate the value of that two-year exemption for Kulick who already has one year of exempt status on her resume’. Just ask John Nolen who got his two-year exemption last year at the Masters. Nolen is learning the curves of the PBA Tour sitting in 54th place on the points list. Think that will be the case next year for Nolen with a year’s worth of additional experience?
• Interesting stat of the week for me. Chris Barnes is now 2-7 when bowling from the top seed on television. At some point, I’m wondering if we’re going to realize that it’s almost punishment to be the #1 seed at the end of the tournament. Percentage isn’t much better for #1 seeds not named Chris Barnes.
• Was it just me or was there no reference to the Hambone this week? I know there were some four-baggers thrown.

MY TOP TEN: (Most recent Tournament finish in Parenthesis. Last tournament completed was the Earl Anthony Memorial.)

1.) Chris Barnes (2nd ) He earned the #1 seed for the Tournament of Champions and ran into a 265 game. One-game roll-offs for titles will do that to you.

2.) Rhino Page (4th) Led most of the tournament only to stumble towards the end to a 4th place finish. Back to back shows at the TOC.

3.) Sean Rash (11th) I remember when Rash blew up on the PBA scene in 2006 and when Rhino took over in 2007. It’s fascinating that with all the shows the two have made in the last 3 seasons, they’ve not yet faced each other on TV.

4.) Walter Ray Williams, Jr. (12th) Might finally be starting to slow down a bit. Hasn’t won yet in 2010. (That was a joke). Could get one this Sunday after qualifying second at the Dick Weber Open.

5.) Wes Malott (7th) Wes is starting to look more like the Wes of 2008-2009 fame. 5 of his last 6 tournaments have ended in top 7 finishes. Just looking to find the winner’s circle this year.

6.) Tommy Jones (8th ) Another top 10 finish and creeping closer to ending that 32 event winless streak over the last two seasons.

7.) Bill O’Neill (27th ) If you don’t count his 3 shows, Bill is averaging a 41st place finish in his other 7 events. But another show this Sunday will likely move him up on the list next week.

8.) Tom Smallwood (37th ) OK Tom, your story of going from hard luck to PBA Tour star has been shelved for a little bit while the media works the Kelly Kulick angle. Time to bowl and shake off the last three tournaments.

9.) Mike Scroggins (25th ) Just missed match play by four pins in T of C and again at the Dick Weber.

10.) Jason Belmonte (45th ) Belmonte after two rounds of qualifying at the T of C was in 17th at +308. After the 8 more games, he was in 45th at +235. The 8th worst 8-game block of the tournament.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“Kelly Kulick’s win today at the PBA Tour’s Tournament of Champions is not only historic, it serves as a motivational and inspirational event for girls and women competing at all levels all around the world.”

Billie Jean King, Women’s Sports Foundation founder and tennis superstar quoted after Kelly Kulick won the TOC. Not only is this historic, but Billie Jean King is often the first person brought into the discussion when debating men verse women in sports. And she beat a 55-year old in an exhibition. Kelly just beat a guy in the prime of his career and 62 other bowling champions over a grueling 48-game tournament.

“I believe this can only mean bigger and better things for the sport. If in any way this can be a boost for women sports and bowling, I’m willing to do my part.”

Kelly Kulick after winning the TOC.

“When it comes down to one game, a combination of factors have to come together and they just didn’t for me.”

Chris Barnes commenting after being defeated by Kelly Kulick at the TOC.

FANTASY BOWLING CORNER

Through 16 games last week I was looking great with four out of my five players well within the cut. After 24 games, two more dropped out of the cut. Oh well.

This week I’m going with Wes Malott, Ryan Shafer, Tommy Jones, Brian Kretzer, and Stevie Weber.

Best of luck to everyone.

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