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Author Topic: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts  (Read 5310 times)

Ramtart

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Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« on: December 02, 2005, 02:01:48 AM »
Hey guys, just wondering if anyone else thought about this. I have a few friends that bowl on the PBA Regional Tour (Western Region). They consist of Filipino (I'm an American Born Filipino myself), Caucasian, African American, Chinese, Spanish, etc.

Of course Ethnic Background participation can vary in different regions.
Though the minority contingency looks to be pretty well balanced and represented on a Regional scale, I don't see that many minorites on the National Tour.

I remember guys like Mark Thayer (Native American), Purvis Granger (Filipino & Caucasian mix), Adam Apo (Asian/Pacific Islander American) African Americans Curtis Odom and George Branham III (Only African American to win a PBA Title) were frequent guys at the National Stops in the 80's & 90's. Oh yeah, who can forget Venezuelan Amleto Monacelli. Also,  I believe Chris Warren is Half Asian.

With only 60+ spots to fill on the National Tour (Exemption Era), I've noticed we haven't seen too many minorities try out for the Tour Trials.

Minorities that stand out in my mind right now on the 05-06 PBA Exempt Tour.
Mike Edwards - Native American
Dino Castillo - Filipino & Spanish
Amleto Monacelli - Venezuelan
Tony Reyes - Mexican American

International Bowlers
Andres Gomez - Spanish/Colombian
Mike Koivuniemi - Finn
Tore Torgerson - Swedish

I just thought this would be a neat topic.
If the tour wasn't in "Exempt Mode" and we saw the huge fields like "160+ bowlers" during qualifying in the past, would we see more "Minorities" on tour? I guess this depends on many factors like area demographics and the such.

If you bowl the PBA Regional Stops, do you see a minority contingency in your area? If so, how big is it?

Anyways, would love to hear your take on this!
Regards,
Ram


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Edited on 12/2/2005 11:06 AM
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DP3

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Re: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« Reply #1 on: December 02, 2005, 03:05:36 PM »
There's a fairly large Minority contingent in the Eastern Regionals.  Easily 10%, which isn't huge by any means but I've seen about 10 or 12 tops at some eastern stops.  Being black and an ex collegiate player and current tournament bowler, I've had to deal with being the only minority in the center at plenty of places around the country.

I will say though the minority bowling population is on the rise and within 5-10 years you should see a huge talent boom of minorities in the PBA(hopefully exempt) level, especially from looking at the Collegiate scene for the past 5 years and the "professional amatuer" and team USA scene.  I would love to see more minorities on TV.  I remember once, a very good exempt player(who will remain nameless) asked me who my favorite bowlers were and I told him, "growing up through bowling I didn't look up to the guys I saw on TV, I looked up to the guys in the bowling alley that I was in, who looked like me and I could relate to them."  I then gave him a list of names and he replied "That was the best answer I've ever heard in my life, you're going places in the future".  Hopefully that still stands true.
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shelley

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Re: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2005, 03:20:51 PM »
quote:
Amleto Monacelli - Venezuelan


He's hardly a minority in Venezuela.    I'd've put him under International since he still lists his residence as Barquisemeto, Venezuela.

You're right, though.  There are very few minorities on tour now, nor were there ever really many to begin with.  I've seen a couple of black guys on the senior reruns on ESPN Classic, and they've shown a couple of the Branham shows.

Now that it takes a lot of backing to chase the tour around for PTQs with little chance of earning a paycheck or compete regularly in regionals, it seems unlikely that there will be many minorities on tour for some time.  10 years, when the current crop of old white guys is nearing retirement and we see a lot more newcomers in Tour Trials, maybe we'll see more minority representation.

Really, of the list of minorities you mentioned, Monacelli and Reyes are the only two that are even near the top of the pile, career-wise.

SH
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Ramtart

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Re: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2005, 04:44:57 PM »
Keep it goin' guys, would love your take on this =)

Regards, Ram
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nd300

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Re: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2005, 06:42:45 AM »
I'd agree with the answer about financing becaus eof trying to maintain a full time job,travel,lodging,food,entry fees,etc. You ahve to be in the top five just to cover these expenses. That hurts anybody,much less minorities.
 I think that in time there will be more minorities in our sport,but when that will happen is something that I'm not sure of.
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onlybowling

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Re: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2005, 10:24:34 AM »
A bit off topic, but thoughts about minorities led me to ramble.  

Todays pros started their bowling experience years ago.

In my town the black to white balance is such that white skined people are the minority by a large margin.  The city manager has reported a nearly 8 to 2 ratio, and by looking at previous census reports, it is clear that there has been a steady increase of non-white skined races living here - hispanic heritage is on the rise.  My bowling center has suffered a steady decline in the number of bowlers.

I estimate the number of non-white league bowlers is about 10% - probably less.  

Basketball,Football, and Baseball are the kings where I live. These are the sports supported by the school system.  Any kid can do something with these 3 sports at school - without leaving the neighborhood - and with almost no money. Basketball,Football, and Baseball supported by every school and every T.V. set in nearly every home.  These dreams are encouraged.

Why aren't there more bowlers period?  Do your parents and friends bowl? Is bowling  offered in your high school, or Jr. college?  There is no required exposure to bowling here.  Few parents bowl and kids don't have an opportunity to choose bowling even if they wanted to because there is not a school supported bowling program.

Compaired to basketball, football, and baseball - bowling is very costly.  Bowling dreams are not encouraged.

How may years did you bowl before turning pro?  How many years did you bowl before you were able to cash in a pro event?  How did you keep your dream alive?  How did you afford it?

 It is true that I don't bowl for a living.  I bowl because: I am in love with working on the flawless technique, I am in love with the feel and the sounds,  I am in love with my effort to be perfect 12 times in a row.  I get a lot of pleasure out of seeing others making an effort to do the same thing.

Where are the minorities?  It seems to me that they are in school supported programs.

 

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wulfpackbwlr

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Re: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2005, 02:42:29 PM »
Very interesting topic here.  Really made me think about what I remember hearing about leagues and such during the 80's.  Myself being 23 dont remember this but heard of numerous minority bowlers in my area in leagues, a couple of which attempted to bowl professionally with not much success.  Around here the majority of minorities that bowl are african american.  The 2 that attempted to bowl professionally during the early 80's said they experienced a good bit of racism while out on tour.  Now the truth in this i do not know but considering things werent quite as acceptible then as they are now I could see it as true.  Even in leagues in my home town (Shelby, NC) the minorities are becoming few and far between.  I'm talking maybe 12-15 total in all the leagues at the local center.  Even in travel league which has 24 5 man teams only have maybe 12 african americans, one or 2 native americans, and a couple from asian decent and that's it.  Heck in the junior league here I believe there is a single african american and that's it.  It's a shame that there arent more as many other sports are becoming more diverse, including what would be considered one of the more "red-neck" sports...NASCAR racing.  Professional wise you listed the main minorities who bowled, the only PWBA member i remember is Kim Terrell who just joined the PBA.
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DON DRAPER

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Re: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2005, 09:57:29 PM »
not to nit-pick but several of these players mentioned are caucasian( white ), yet why are they listed as minorities ?

mika koivuniemi
amleto monacelli
tore torgerson
andres gomez


these players are foreigners but are still caucasian( white ). this is an interesting topic but i assumed there would be more talk of players who are native american, african american, japanese, etc.
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supernoodle

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Re: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2005, 01:56:25 PM »
In order to encourage more "Minorities" to participate I feel there needs to be a "World" tour with more more.This would involve stops in all the different Continents.This would encourage people to "Have a crack" as In order to be able to afford to bowl on the PBA tour you have to be a) Based in the US and b) Quite Successfull,Which is unlike say the PGA where even the odd cash is enough to sustain a golfer for a year.
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I would have got away with it if it was not for those pesky kids (Behind my lane) and those blasted 10 pins.

ausbowler

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Re: Minorities on the PBA Tour - Your Thoughts
« Reply #9 on: December 06, 2005, 09:28:47 PM »
As a bowler not living in the US, who knows a few people who have made the attempt to bowl pro in the US, it really isn't easy to be an international bowler on the pro tour.

For starters, you have to pay income tax on your winnings (as all pro's do) but the difference is, internationals have to pay tax both in the US and their home country. ouch.

never mind the cost of relocating to another country, followed by living and travel expenses, and the difficulty of obtaining Visa's and such, although I'm not on exactly how difficult that is...

You would need to have probably a 6 six figure nest egg saved before even attempting going on tour in the US to be able to stay there long enough to start making a living.
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