It's funny the guy has made like 75% of the telecasts, has won another major, and is the leading earner on tour but people still ask if he should win player of the Year. Yes, he is player of the year by a longshot
Exactly! No matter who wins, unless EJ finishes the TOC in the bottom 5, no one can catch him in points. I can't believe how many people only look at titles and not top finishes, games, average, consistency, etc. It's just silly lol #BacktoBackPOY
It's hard not to say he is the current leader. He leads in the three major categories. Points, money and average. Thats pretty impressive to lead all three categories this late in the season. Also tied for first with two titles. There is still one more major and several tournaments left including the PBA playoffs, PBA tour Finals. So things could change.
Fantastic bowling channel, man. Love your commentary, the different topics you select for the videos, the editing, the fact you don't add loud annoying music, etc. Subscribed, and cheers from Maryland!
Great video! A suggestion topic for future videos I think would be neat would be analyzing how a player's form changed over the years. For example, Jason Belmonte was all about power when he first came on tour, but now it seems he's dialed back the power a bit and focused more on accuracy
@The Right Lane Well he did tie a record by making five straight TV appearances (shared with Earl Anthony, Chris Barnes, Walter Ray Williams Jr, Don Johnson and Jason Couch) so .... that's cool. Also one thing I've noticed is the amount of PBA events has decreased dramatically over the years. In their peak 70s/80s years, there would be seasons they would have 30+ national events. Now it's less than two dozen. I'm aware that pro bowling has really fallen off the radar but still sad to know.
Earl Anthony 3-peated the National Championship (now the World Championship) twice. The first being from 1973-1975 and the second being from 1981 to 1983.
If O'Neill, Troup, Simonsen ,Belmonte and maybe Kent were to win the TOC this week then they would be right in the player of the year race for sure, but otherwise I don't see how as of now you can't have Tackett as the leader being he leads in points, money and average as well as tied for first in total titles.
yeah but the playoffs and the tour finals will also declare whether or not any one of them still perform consistent, even if they don't win a title, they still might have a shot for a player of the year.
@@foxwolf316 Troup isn't even close. Other than his 1 major and 1 other title, he has been way off and didn't make any other shows. Troup finished 36 in the Players Championship, 51 (Out of only 64!!) in the Illinois Classic, 38 in the Missouri Classic, 13 in Delaware Classic, 39 in the Masters. Whereas Tackett has made what...5 shows in a row? And after that won a major and one other title. He has been in the top 5 for nearly all tournaments. Troup isn't in the conversation for POY.
@BornIn1500 I agree Troup has been the most inconsistent of the top 7 players in points. His average is at least 2 pins lower than the other contenders, but he is in 3rd place in points currently and if he were to win the TOC with three titles, two of which would be majors and would be top 2 or 3 in points and money he would definitely be in the running. It would make an interesting conversation for sure. It would bring up the conversation about what's more important, winning majors or consistency. It's also interesting that the only player in the top 7 in points, 5th place Belmonte is the only one to not win a title. That shows his consistency of finishing high each tournament without winning.
@@jcookster74 Well, now Troup didn't make the top 24 cut for match play in the TOC. I'd say he's out of the POY award. EJ is in 2nd going into match play.
I think we are starting to see the effect of all the younger guys coming into form. Usually we’d be seeing some combination of Belmo/Simo/Troupe/O’Neil/Tackett in the stepladder. We saw so many new faces over the past couple weeks and the dominance of the big names seems to be getting smaller.
And certainly events like the World Series of Bowling helps that, because this year, there were five different tournaments, the finals for each of which were televised live, with two rounds of stepladder action for the World Championship (seeds 5-9 on the first day and the the final five on the second day). That alone would figure to result in new names and faces getting in on the action, but then to see some of them do as well as they did under the lights only adds to that. One thing I think would be good to see is a summer tour, like what used to be done when ESPN had that, which would give the fans even more opportunities to see the best players in more tournaments. There was once a time when there were over 30 tournaments a year, and now there are fewer than 20. But events like the WSOB can do nothing but help the sport grow, especially if what happened there this year is a sign of things to come in the future.
@cjs83172 Yeah even not that that long ago they had an abbreviated summer swing for several years. It was kinda like a miniature World Series of bowling if you will. They went to one center l, Oklahoma comes to mind for at least a few seasons and they bowled 3 animal patterns (Badger, Wolf and Bear) and then the final event featuring all of those patterns for a total of 4 events. That would put another 4 titles up for grabs and they would be able to do it in like 10 days and it would keep travel costs down for the players only having to go to one place. I hope they bring some kind of summer swing back again. Another pipe dream would be a fall swing as well.
@@jcookster74 Believe it or not, there was once a time when the PBA had not only a summer tour, but also a fall tour, in addition to the traditional winter/spring package that's been in existence for decades. Of course, ABC Sports always did the winter/spring package back then, but ESPN picked up the summer events, and the fall events were done by NBC Sports in what was essentially a replication of the ABC Sports format of the PBA Tour followed by their own version of WWOS, NBC Sportsworld. And they were full-scale touring seasons. The NBC package went away in the early 90s (don't know the year, exactly), and ESPN picked up some of those events. At it's peak, the schedule had about 35 events one season and 30+ for several years with the the winter/spring, summer, and fall tours combined.
@cjs83172 Yes I actually remember those days. I started watching in 1984. 16 week winter tour on ABC, 10 week summer tour on ESPN and 5 week fall tour on NBC. That didnt count the ABC Masters either as that was kinda a seperate from the PBA back then. Those were the days for sure.
@@jcookster74 And the ESPN figure also doesn't take into consideration the Senior Tour events they did, or the women's events they did during that same period. And I thought the NBC Sports number was more than five, but the numbers you posted add up to 31 PBA Tour events in a given season (32, if you count the Masters, which only in recent years became part of the PBA Tour). Now certainly special events have filled some of that gap in recent years, and certainly gives the players an opportunity to compete, but at the same time, have a bit more fun without the grind of regular tournament play (for instance, those that made the 9-man stepladder at the World Championship each bowled 61 games just to get to that point, and that doesn't even take into consideration how many games they bowled in the other events at the WSOB).
He completely ran away with it at the WSOB. All the other contenders like O'Neill, Troup, Simo all had bad tournaments which pretty much handed it to EJ barring a 2nd major win from Troup/O'Neill
It's funny the guy has made like 75% of the telecasts, has won another major, and is the leading earner on tour but people still ask if he should win player of the Year. Yes, he is player of the year by a longshot
Exactly! No matter who wins, unless EJ finishes the TOC in the bottom 5, no one can catch him in points. I can't believe how many people only look at titles and not top finishes, games, average, consistency, etc. It's just silly lol #BacktoBackPOY
It's hard not to say he is the current leader. He leads in the three major categories. Points, money and average. Thats pretty impressive to lead all three categories this late in the season. Also tied for first with two titles. There is still one more major and several tournaments left including the PBA playoffs, PBA tour Finals. So things could change.
Just bowled a 300 on the tough conditions at the TOC. The guy is amazing.
Fantastic bowling channel, man. Love your commentary, the different topics you select for the videos, the editing, the fact you don't add loud annoying music, etc. Subscribed, and cheers from Maryland!
EJ will end up being player of the year
Great video! A suggestion topic for future videos I think would be neat would be analyzing how a player's form changed over the years. For example, Jason Belmonte was all about power when he first came on tour, but now it seems he's dialed back the power a bit and focused more on accuracy
After the WSOB he should be a lock in
@The Right Lane
Well he did tie a record by making five straight TV appearances (shared with Earl Anthony, Chris Barnes, Walter Ray Williams Jr, Don Johnson and Jason Couch) so .... that's cool.
Also one thing I've noticed is the amount of PBA events has decreased dramatically over the years. In their peak 70s/80s years, there would be seasons they would have 30+ national events. Now it's less than two dozen. I'm aware that pro bowling has really fallen off the radar but still sad to know.
Only Anthony, Roth, Walter Ray, and Belmonte have ever won Player of the Year more than twice. EJ can join them.
Earl Anthony 3-peated the National Championship (now the World Championship) twice. The first being from 1973-1975 and the second being from 1981 to 1983.
If one of the other contenders wins the ToC it will be debateable, but right now it's Tackett.
Russo had to not been watching his ball go thru the pins. Every shot except for the two that struck deflected hard left and break hit the 5 pin.
Don't forget about bill O'Neal kyle troup and EJ teammate marshall kent there also favorite to win player of the year award.
If O'Neill, Troup, Simonsen ,Belmonte and maybe Kent were to win the TOC this week then they would be right in the player of the year race for sure, but otherwise I don't see how as of now you can't have Tackett as the leader being he leads in points, money and average as well as tied for first in total titles.
yeah but the playoffs and the tour finals will also declare whether or not any one of them still perform consistent, even if they don't win a title, they still might have a shot for a player of the year.
@@foxwolf316 Troup isn't even close. Other than his 1 major and 1 other title, he has been way off and didn't make any other shows. Troup finished 36 in the Players Championship, 51 (Out of only 64!!) in the Illinois Classic, 38 in the Missouri Classic, 13 in Delaware Classic, 39 in the Masters. Whereas Tackett has made what...5 shows in a row? And after that won a major and one other title. He has been in the top 5 for nearly all tournaments. Troup isn't in the conversation for POY.
@BornIn1500 I agree Troup has been the most inconsistent of the top 7 players in points. His average is at least 2 pins lower than the other contenders, but he is in 3rd place in points currently and if he were to win the TOC with three titles, two of which would be majors and would be top 2 or 3 in points and money he would definitely be in the running. It would make an interesting conversation for sure. It would bring up the conversation about what's more important, winning majors or consistency. It's also interesting that the only player in the top 7 in points, 5th place Belmonte is the only one to not win a title. That shows his consistency of finishing high each tournament without winning.
@@jcookster74 Well, now Troup didn't make the top 24 cut for match play in the TOC. I'd say he's out of the POY award. EJ is in 2nd going into match play.
I think we are starting to see the effect of all the younger guys coming into form. Usually we’d be seeing some combination of Belmo/Simo/Troupe/O’Neil/Tackett in the stepladder. We saw so many new faces over the past couple weeks and the dominance of the big names seems to be getting smaller.
And certainly events like the World Series of Bowling helps that, because this year, there were five different tournaments, the finals for each of which were televised live, with two rounds of stepladder action for the World Championship (seeds 5-9 on the first day and the the final five on the second day). That alone would figure to result in new names and faces getting in on the action, but then to see some of them do as well as they did under the lights only adds to that. One thing I think would be good to see is a summer tour, like what used to be done when ESPN had that, which would give the fans even more opportunities to see the best players in more tournaments. There was once a time when there were over 30 tournaments a year, and now there are fewer than 20. But events like the WSOB can do nothing but help the sport grow, especially if what happened there this year is a sign of things to come in the future.
@cjs83172 Yeah even not that that long ago they had an abbreviated summer swing for several years. It was kinda like a miniature World Series of bowling if you will. They went to one center l, Oklahoma comes to mind for at least a few seasons and they bowled 3 animal patterns (Badger, Wolf and Bear) and then the final event featuring all of those patterns for a total of 4 events. That would put another 4 titles up for grabs and they would be able to do it in like 10 days and it would keep travel costs down for the players only having to go to one place. I hope they bring some kind of summer swing back again. Another pipe dream would be a fall swing as well.
@@jcookster74 Believe it or not, there was once a time when the PBA had not only a summer tour, but also a fall tour, in addition to the traditional winter/spring package that's been in existence for decades. Of course, ABC Sports always did the winter/spring package back then, but ESPN picked up the summer events, and the fall events were done by NBC Sports in what was essentially a replication of the ABC Sports format of the PBA Tour followed by their own version of WWOS, NBC Sportsworld. And they were full-scale touring seasons. The NBC package went away in the early 90s (don't know the year, exactly), and ESPN picked up some of those events. At it's peak, the schedule had about 35 events one season and 30+ for several years with the the winter/spring, summer, and fall tours combined.
@cjs83172 Yes I actually remember those days. I started watching in 1984. 16 week winter tour on ABC, 10 week summer tour on ESPN and 5 week fall tour on NBC. That didnt count the ABC Masters either as that was kinda a seperate from the PBA back then. Those were the days for sure.
@@jcookster74 And the ESPN figure also doesn't take into consideration the Senior Tour events they did, or the women's events they did during that same period. And I thought the NBC Sports number was more than five, but the numbers you posted add up to 31 PBA Tour events in a given season (32, if you count the Masters, which only in recent years became part of the PBA Tour). Now certainly special events have filled some of that gap in recent years, and certainly gives the players an opportunity to compete, but at the same time, have a bit more fun without the grind of regular tournament play (for instance, those that made the 9-man stepladder at the World Championship each bowled 61 games just to get to that point, and that doesn't even take into consideration how many games they bowled in the other events at the WSOB).
Let’s not ignore the fact that EJ bounced out a pin off of a mixer strike.
Yes.
He completely ran away with it at the WSOB. All the other contenders like O'Neill, Troup, Simo all had bad tournaments which pretty much handed it to EJ barring a 2nd major win from Troup/O'Neill
Good to see a non 2 hander win
How come ABC doesn't carry bowling anymore
EJ must have gained 20 pounds that day after eating everyone else's lunch!!
EJ TACKETT NOT THE FAVORITE. I SAY KYLE TROUP IS THE FAVORITE ONE TO WIN.
Belmo's done.
first??????
who cares
STOP THROWING THE BALL 90 MPH AT THE 10 PIN!!
SENSELESS