PBA Spare Shots

RED SOX STAR MOOKIE BETTS TO RECEIVE BPAA MEDIA AWARD

Boston Red Sox star Mookie Betts, after an American League Most Valuable Player season that included earning his first World Series championship ring, also will be honored by the bowling family in late June when he receives the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America Media Award for the significant mass media coverage he has generated for bowling over the past three years.

Betts, an accomplished bowler, participated in the 2015 and 2017 PBA World Series of Bowling in Reno, highlighted by a 300 game he bowled in the 2017 Scorpion Championship. That unique accomplishment led to an on-field presentation of a PBA 300 ring by PBA CEO and Commissioner Tom Clark at a Red Sox game at Fenway Park last summer.

Ever since he began competing in PBA-level competition, Betts’ athletic skills as a bowler have accompanied almost every media conversation about his talents on television, radio, social media and in newspaper and magazine stories. He also has participated in NBA star Chris Paul’s popular CP3 PBA Celebrity Invitational bowling event that airs on Super Bowl Sunday. Betts will be a participant for the third consecutive year when the 2019 event airs for the first time on FOX on Sunday, Feb. 3, at 2 p.m. Eastern.

SHEDDING A LITTLE LIGHT ON THE SUBJECT

Jacques Darden has been providing the lighting services for professional bowling telecasts for 33 years, but like everything else in today’s world, technology has changed his contribution to the sport.

Darden is in the process of converting his vast array of lights to LED, which veteran players have already noticed because LED lighting is much cooler and cleaner. Because LED lights don’t generate heat, they don’t affect lane conditions like tungsten lights did in the good ol’ days. Observant television fans might also notice the lighting is much closer to “daylight white,” and Darden said some of his new LEDs include color options that allow him to change lighting to red, blue, green or whatever special effect the situation might call for, just by making some subtle adjustments.

PBA REGIONAL UPDATE: PAVONE WINS FIRST TITLE AS PBA REGIONAL ACTION RESUMES

Skip Pavone of San Jose, Calif., won nine of his 12 matches to post a winning 22-game total of 5,552 pins Sunday in the PBA50 Patton Amusement West Senior Open at West Valley Bowl in Tracy, Calif.

Pavone, who won his first PBA Regional title and the $1,800 first prize, defeated Bob Rosenau of Redding, Calif., by 142 pins. Pavone had a 9-3 match play record and 5,410 pins to earn the $1,000 second prize.

● The PBA Central and Southwest Regions will hold their first events of 2019 over the Jan. 18-20 weekend. Legend Lanes in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, will host the PBA/PBA50 Don Vay Memorial Central Doubles while South Plains Lanes in Lubbock, Texas, hosts the Lubbock Sports Southwest Open presented by Ebonite.

● The only regional event on tap for the Jan. 26-27 weekend is the PBA Japan Region’s Roto Grip Cup and Shark Open at PBA Fuji Bowl in Iruma, Japan.

● For complete PBA Regional schedules, rules and entry information, visit pba.com, open the “schedules” tab and click on PBA Regional Tours to find the event(s) in your area…and remember, you can follow “live scoring” for all PBA Regional events on pba.com (easily accessible for Apple and Android device users using the PBA app).

QUICK NOTES:

• Fans can follow the points status of eligible PBA Tour players competing for berths on the U.S. and European Weber Cup teams as the 2018 Go Bowling! PBA Tour season progresses on Twitter and Facebook by clicking on the following links”: Twitter: https://twitter.com/webercup/status/1085141731685945344 or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeberCup/photos/a.643454192442977/2027287540726295/?type=3&theater

• Creating the Difference, an educational company offering products and services for the bowling industry, has become product registered with the PBA as an accessory company, CEO Ron Hickland Jr. has announced. Creating the Difference offers ball cleaning products and ball restoration products, and recently introduced sanding pads to its product mix. For more information, visit ctdbowlig.com.