PBA, OnTheBallBowling.com Team Up
for Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship

It was a matter of days after the Professional Bowlers Association decided to re-name its most unique tournament the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship – in honor of the Hall of Famer who revolutionized the sport with plastic bowling balls – that a sad twist of fate gave the event special meaning.

Roth, at age 58, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his left side and ended a bowling career that saw him win 34 PBA Tour titles – tied for third best in PBA history – including a single-season record eight titles in 1978. Roth introduced a high-revolution power game in a plastic-ball era that led to an evolution in bowling technique and completely transformed bowling ball technology.

As a tribute to Roth, the PBA has joined hands with OnTheBallBowling.com, an Illinois company that has developed a technique to create custom designs on bowling ball surfaces. OnTheBallBowling.com has created a unique Mark Roth plastic bowling ball that will be used exclusively by all 64 competitors in the 2010 PBA Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship, an event that will require all players to use the same “old school” bowling ball technology. It will focus attention on player skill, both physical and mental. It’s the tournament concept Roth himself would have designed.

Beyond the tournament, however, the unique OnTheBallBowling.com Mark Roth ball has taken on a new life as a fund-raising tool to help the Roth family deal with their enormous medical bills. All of the Mark Roth balls used in the tournament will be autographed by Roth and sold to help raise money for the Roth family’s medical expenses.

In addition to the ball used in the Plastic Ball Championship, a limited number of Mark Roth custom balls are being offered to the public by OnTheBallBowling.com for $100 plus shipping and handling. A number of these balls already have been used in bowling center raffles to generate even more money for the Roth support fund.

To order a Mark Roth ball, visit pba.com or OnTheBallBowling.com. In addition to helping the Roth family, contributors will have their names placed on the “Help Mark Roth Wall of Fame” which will be posted on several industry websites in the coming weeks.

All proceeds from the sale of Mark Roth balls will be donated to the Mark Roth Fund in care of The Bowling Foundation, which is coordinating fund-raising efforts of behalf of the bowling industry. Contributions also can be made directly to the Mark Roth Fund in care of: The Bowling Foundation, 621 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX 76011.

“The naming of this event in Mark Roth’s honor, partnership with OnTheBallBowling.com to create balls with Roth’s image on them, and working with The Bowling Foundation to manage proceeds from the sales of these balls elevates the most talked-about event of the 2008-09 PBA Lumber Liquidators Tour season – the Plastic Ball Championship – to another level,” said PBA Deputy Commissioner Tom Clark.

Last year’s inaugural Plastic Ball Championship, won by Jeff Carter of Springfield, Ill., created a great deal of discussion, including a debate between ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” co-hosts Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser about contemporary athletes being required to compete using 1970s technology.

The PBA Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship is scheduled for March 23-28 at AMF Babylon Lanes in West Babylon, N.Y. It will be the 20th event on the 2009-10 PBA Lumber Liquidators Tour schedule.

About the PBA
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) features the best bowlers in the world competing in National, Regional and Senior Tour events and awarded over $4.3 million in prize money during the 2008-09 Lumber Liquidators PBA National Tour. The organization has more than 4,000 members spanning 13 countries, and nearly one million viewers tune-in to watch the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour every Sunday on ESPN throughout the season. PBA sponsors include Bayer, Brunswick, CLR, Denny's, Etonic, Flomax, GEICO, Go RVing, H&R Block, Lumber Liquidators, Pepsi-Cola and the USBC, among others. For more information on the PBA, log on to www.pba.com.


About OnTheBallBowling.com

OnTheBallBowling.com LLC is the only company in the bowling industry that provides consumers with the unique ability to create and design their own “one-of-a-kind” bowling ball or bowling pin using an easy-to-use “Design Wizard” to upload a full-color photograph for placement on a bowling ball or pin. The company also has hundreds of pre-designed themed and licensed ball and pin designs. OnTheBallBowling.com LLC is a privately-held company headquartered in Broadview, Ill.