RIP Mark Roth

A cranker, as Chris Schenkel liked to say. And he converted the first 7-10 split on ABC.

Loved those Saturday afternoons with him, Marshall Holman, Earl Anthony and many, many others. RIP for sure.

 

Damn! While I bowled like a young Dick Weber (yeah, I was a stroker), I loved Mark Roth and despised Marshall Holman (and admired Earl Anthony), back when bowling had personalities -- and averaging 200 with a hard rubber ball (not these heavily weighted reactive resins that do all the work for you) was a true sign of an elite kegler.

I'd bowl in the junior league Saturday mornings and then watch Chris and Nelson Burton Jr. as they showed the pros (and give some excellent tips).

RIP, Mark.

 

My mom worked at the Bay Area stop on the televised tour in the late 60s-early 70s. Loved it that the pros would bowl on the same lanes I did in my youth league. She even got us out of school one day to watch one of the afternoon sessions.

Is bowling even on TV any more? It's like college basketball and the NBA have taken over weekends. Last I remember is ESPN showing some tournaments (using the same format ABC did on the Saturday shows) in the 80s, but it was usually up against the early NFL games.

 

I loved bowling in my Saturday morning junior league. Best average I had for a whole season was 172. Fourteen pounds was all I felt comfortable with, so I didn't get the extra pin action of the 16-pounder.

 

When I was a kid, aside from Chris Schenkel and ABC, Fred Wolf had Championship Bowling and Chuck Walby had Beat the Champ, where a pro would face off against an amateur
Stroh’s and Budweiser sponsored bowling teams, featuring guys like Billy Golembeski and Ray Bluth
My favorite bowling moment came on the Detroit Bowling for Dollars show
The host said to a teenager who looked like death warmed over: “I hear you have an unusual nickname. Your friends call you Ghost.”
The kid nodded
Host: “Well, you kids have some strange nicknames these days. I found out my son’s nickname at school is Roach.”

 

When NASCAR first went to Fox and NBC, ESPN picked up bowling to fill the Sunday afternoons. That's where you saw Pete Weber become a maniac, wearing shades inside and all that. Bowling was looking for a heel. PBA is now on Fox and FS1.

Candlepin takes far more skill. Even with the speed, you have to read the lane correctly and get the right curve so that little ball knocks 'em all down.

 

If I've bored the board broadly before with this bowling story, apologies in advance, but my greatest personal sports accomplishment was making the NorCal State Junior finals in 1976.

I had been bowling in leagues for years but hadn't been able to bowl a 200 game or carry an average over 140 until my friend and I -- on a lark -- saw there was house qualifying for the state juniors that spring. In fact, even better, we were the only two graduating seniors at Walnut Bowl, so that automatically qualified us for the regionals in San Leandro, no matter what score we shot. Not expecting much, I somehow cajoled my mother into driving us through the Caldecott Tunnel and down to the lanes, and she went off shopping for a couple of hours.

Well, it was a six-game set in the 9 a.m. wave, and damned if I didn't roll 206 right off the bat, finishing with a 1070 total PLUS 150 handicap pins for a 1220! That was the top score in the morning group for that division, and suddenly I'm getting the attention of the junior coach from our house, who had no idea who I was two hours previously.

I made it to Stockton and promptly crashed back to earth. But finally getting over that milestone really improved my game.

With a new Ebonite Gyro-Balanced ball (which is now a garden ornament in front of the cabin), I averaged 175 in league play at Fresno State with a high game of 233, then averaged 187 with a 258 high game in 1981. (The trophies are gathering dust on a shelf in the basement.)

However, the equipment was changing even then -- and my flirtation with scratch bowling was quashed rather nastily when I joined a league in 1982 that included Hall of Famer Nikki Gianulias (who just happened to win BWAA Bowler of the Year that season) and several other Bay Area pros. I was literally out of my league at that point, and haven't done anything but some recreational bowling since.

 

PBA just signed a contract with Fox and a lot of coverage is on FS1.

 

RIP to one of the greats at toppling the timber.

 

Mark Roth and Earl Anthony were my guys. I remember watching Roth win a Tour Event in 1995 or 1996 in his first TV appearance in almost a decade. It was cool to watch a guy in his mid 40s use his guile and lane knowledge to come back against Walter Ray Williams Jr. in the championship match during a stretch when no one was beating Walter Ray.