Author Topic: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong? (Read 16994 times)

JessN16 · « **on:** March 27, 2008, 01:51:48 PM »

This came up on the Lane #1 forum but I think it needs it's own thread. Apparently, there is something wrong with amateurs wearing PBA gear to bowl. Here's my post from over there:

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This is a perfect example of how the PBA doesn't get it.

You can buy PBA jerseys on PBA.com. Those jerseys are marketed towards fans and amateur bowlers. If they weren't, they wouldn't be for sale in a public section.

So now I'm an amateur with two PBA jerseys in my closet. I can't wear them to work. I don't want to wear them to cut grass; they're too nice for that. So where do I wear them? To bowl, of course!

Oh wait, I can't do that. I'm a *POSER* if I do.

Here's what a couple of you don't get: If I wear a jersey to bowl in league, and people see a little "PBA" logo on my shirt -- where it was sewn at the factory before I even bought the da*n thing -- they might ask me what that means. They might ask me if they can see it on TV sometimes. That might open up the opportunity to market the PBA to someone at no cost to the PBA. Who knows?

I don't claim to be a pro, but at least once a month, I bowl league wearing a bought-it-off-PBA.com PBA jersey. Unlike AK47, I don't have my name on the back. I don't have any extra patches at all; I just have the blank shirt.

You know why? BECAUSE I'M A @#&^&#$ FAN OF THE PBA. I'm the guy that you PBA guys need to have in your corner if you want your tour to survive. Because without me and other amateurs who are also fans, your tour is T-O-A-S-T. That's the way ALL professional sports in this country work.

We're not posing, we're trying to help. We're trying to be fans. No one sees guys playing in a church softball league wearing A-Rod jerseys and thinks they're really MLB baseball players. No one is going to watch me bowl for more than five minutes and think I'm a PBA player, either.

So if it's wrong to own these jerseys, take it up with your own organization. Tell them to quit selling and marketing these things online. If it's such a privilege to own your gear, quit making it available.

Or, you could take a step back and realize that what you call "posing" is what some of us call "paying homage to people better than us."

Jess

bluerrpilot · « **Reply #1 on:** March 27, 2008, 10:01:59 PM »

Well, if you bowl in a PBA event or PBA regional, there is a dress code. And if your an amature, guest or current member its a requirement to wear the logo as well as your name and slacks.
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Team HammerHead
2008 USBC Nationals
ABQ, NM

"USBC is concerned that technology has overtaken player skill in determining success in the sport of bowling"

Edited on 3/27/2008 10:03 PM

Edited on 3/27/2008 10:03 PM

JessN16 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 27, 2008, 10:07:55 PM »

quote:
The jerseys don't have the big patch on them....just the dinky little denny's one and PBA tour on the front of the shirt.

When you start buying real polos/ball company polos with your name on it, getting REAL pba/denny's emblems combined with other bowling company emblems than your being a poser tool.

Everything is fine until you sew on a REAL Denny's PBA tour patch. Wear Vise, Turbo, Etonic..etc....that's fine, but once you start wearing something that doesn't belong to you, than I think it's wrong. Your not a PBA member, your not a professional bowler...Don't wear something that gives the impression that you are.

I don't even like, agree with and have voiced my opinion on Ams having to wear the patch during Open events. The patch/emblem should be reserved for PBA members only.

Why don't I just go out and buy a police mans uniform and walk around like I'm paying homage to cops.

As to the question that ends your post, it's specifically illegal to do that, and that's on a whole other level than sports memorabilia. Come on.

As to the jersey thing, I'm not going to add a bunch of add-on patches to my PBA jerseys but if I do bowl a regional at some point, I probably will add my name (I don't really want to, but that seems to be the law).

Regardless, throw that out for a second and go back to the original thing, to something you said in your response:

quote:
Your not a PBA member, your not a professional bowler...Don't wear something that gives the impression that you are.

Where do you draw that line? The NFL sells actual game-legal jerseys in sporting goods stores nationwide. MLB, NHL and NBA do, too. That's not "giving the impression" that you are a pro even if you play the actual sport while wearing that piece.

What would "give that impression" is if someone saw you bowling/playing football/playing basketball in a jersey, asked you if you were a pro and you lied. And I know people who have done that, in golf. It sucks but it happens.

But the vast majority of the rest of us do it for completely different reasons.

There's a team of two men, two women on my league that own three sets of PBA jerseys (all matching) and they rotate them every week. One week they wear black, the next week yellow, the next week something else. Do you want them as fans, or not?

Jess

Sawuser · « **Reply #3 on:** March 27, 2008, 11:44:42 PM »

Bowling, The guy is a new bowler fired about about his new found love of the sport. Let him be!
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Wayne
HARDCORE FOS

Kevspins2 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 28, 2008, 12:06:38 AM »

the pro's bowling shirts are getting so damn lame, a denny's patch, a vise patch, a dexter patch, and bowling company patch, they are tackier then hell.
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I miss Dyno-thane!

tenpin477 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 28, 2008, 01:19:44 AM »

Well they certaintly can't live off what they earn out on tour, they have to make money somewhere. Except for maybe WRW and Chris Barnes and the real top guys, you can't earn enough money just from bowling to support a family. 3 Titles a year(75,000 if they aren't majors) and you make less than most baseball players make per game lol. So of course they have patches all over, they get paid for that.

However amateurs who think they are cool with the PBA Patches and stuff, they don't. As long as your not trying to pass yourself off as a professional, then by all means were a PBA Jersey. Thats why they sell them lol.

Ahhbach · « **Reply #6 on:** March 28, 2008, 05:20:32 AM »

Who cares what people wear to bowl league in. Try to buy something NASCAR related without half a dozen sponsor patches on it.

A 'Real' Denny's PBA patch has adhesive on it. CLASSSSSSSY

And as for a professional taking offense to someone either wearing a patch/name.... Maybe, just maybe this is why the Pros only bowl for peanuts.

Ahh
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'I'm Partial to the Fugue' - Radar O'Reilly

Krakken · « **Reply #7 on:** March 28, 2008, 09:54:55 AM »

This topic is one reason why bowling is dying. Bowling 300 900, what are you 12 years old? Calling someone a poser? Last time I checked this was a free country, let the guy wear whatever he wants. What business is it of yours? You think you are trying to "Protect the integrity of the sport"? You are one of the causes of driving bowlers out of the game.

The PBA sells the official patch to anyone that wants to buy one. You feel like it is an insult to the sport to have amateur bowlers wearing them? Write to the PBA and thell them your opinion, maybe they will stop selling them.

By calling someone a name for what they choose to wear, you are acting like the spoiled kid in school that makes fun of others to feel better about himself.

Grow up, and think of ways to help this sport grow, instead of putting down the people that mean the most to the sport's survival, League Bowlers.

Off the soapbox now.

janderson · « **Reply #8 on:** March 28, 2008, 10:16:53 AM »

As an amateur guest, I have participated in a number of PBA regional events and cashed. As a guest, you are required to purchase and wear an official patch on your right arm sleeve. The patches are sticky and leave residue on the shirt that is difficult to remove via normal cleaning. Since I continue to bowl regional events, I've sewed the patch onto two of my shirts permanently.

My personal choice is to only wear these shirts when participating in a PBA event. Why?

Some argue that there are many PBA card holders that do not deserve the title "professional bowler". I'm aware of one bowler who, despite the rules to the contrary, has held his PBA card for 7 years but has never been to a PBA tournament (not even as a spectator). I've been told I have more right to wear the PBA patch than this person.

Regardless, there are plenty of PBA members that, in my opinion, deserve respect as the professional bowlers they are and should be differentiated from the rest of us bowling mortals. There are too many house bowlers out there who already consider themselves "better than those guys on TV". I won't add fuel to that fire.

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J.J. "Waterola Kid" Anderson, the bLowling King : Kill the back row

Edited on 3/28/2008 10:18 AM

NicholasE · « **Reply #9 on:** March 28, 2008, 10:24:48 AM »

Its just a patch, who cares? I mean all the patch stands for is Professional Bowlers Association. That doesn't say "Because this guy has this patch that makes him a pro player." No, its just like people who where T-Shirts with miller lite on there, that doesn't mean they work for the company or endorse miller lite, it just mean they support their product. Just like this guy, hes supporting what he enjoys. If there is not enough people like that in bowling, none of us is going to have it to enjoy no more.

Just be thankful that someone actually wants to wear a bowling logo! A lot of people doesn't even know that the PBA exsist and if they did they would mock it. Just like WRW said in his ESPN interview where they was talking about bowling wasn't difficult or challenging, which is what most people think. Then he told someone to go and try bowling 50 games in one week and see how it feels.

So, really no one has the respect for bowling and then the ones that do care about the sport, you come on here and put them down. Which is understandable because it seems like an honor that the pros should get, but when it all boils down to it, that patch means nothing. when you walk out of a center with a $25,000 check and a nice little throphy, you will not think once about that patch.
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Throwing hambones since 2005.
www.myspace.com/nestes12

Edited on 3/28/2008 10:27 AM

aguynamedpat · « **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2008, 10:27:30 AM »

Bowling300900, This is the second thread I have seen that you have been VERY close minded in the situation (the first was one of mine). Just like someone said, say some 15 year old kid just started bowling, and LOVES it. Of course he is going to want to go out and get a PBA shirt, why not? Its called the love of the game, and without people who have the love of the game, it would not survive.

If it were so sacred to have a PBA Patch, then they wouldnt publicly sell them. I bet if anything, when most PBA bowlers walk into a bowling center to bowl with young kids like some do most weeks before events, they LOVE to see the people wearing PBA shirts, jersey's, patches, etc. because without us supporting their profession it would not exist.

The whole NFL/MLB/NBA jersey has everything to do with it. ITS THE SAME THING! The NFL logo, the MLB logo, the NBA logo are NOT how you differentiate between professional and amateur, or "poser" in your vocabulary. The thing that sets the pro's aside from others is their talent level, their ability to handle themselves while in the spotlight, and their love of the game. Not something that you wear on your sleeve or a name embroidered on the back of a shirt.

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pop_1 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 28, 2008, 10:39:59 AM »

It is your opinion. I respect that. But i think that people are too uptight. Like I stated in the other thread, I have friends who are exempt and they don't care whether or not some kid has a PBA patch. They feel its good for the sport because he/she will aspire to get their own one day. I think its ok (though I don't put the patches on my shirts). I think we should just cut the kid some slack and let him have some fun.

MAJM · « **Reply #12 on:** March 28, 2008, 10:48:52 AM »

quote:
As an amateur guest, I have participated in a number of PBA regional events and cashed. As a guest, you are required to purchase and wear an official patch on your right arm sleeve. The patches are sticky and leave residue on the shirt that is difficult to remove via normal cleaning. Since I continue to bowl regional events, I've sewed the patch onto two of my shirts permanently.

Unless the rules have changed a guest is not required to wear a patch. It is an option, as a guest, to wear the patch but not required. Only PBA members are required to wear the patch.

As far as the patch being sticky I find it dumb. If it's to go on a shirt then it makes more sense to have it stitched on.
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Join the Revolution
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
http://www.900global.com

MAJM · « **Reply #13 on:** March 28, 2008, 10:50:12 AM »

Maybe the PBA needs to have a special patch for the exempt players and only for them.
--------------------
Join the Revolution
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
http://www.900global.com

EL · « **Reply #14 on:** March 28, 2008, 10:54:52 AM »

Does this mean I can not use the red Denny plastic ball for spares?

Author Topic: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong? (Read 16994 times)

JessN16

Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

bluerrpilot

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

JessN16

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

Sawuser

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

Kevspins2

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

tenpin477

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

Ahhbach

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

Krakken

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

janderson

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

NicholasE

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

aguynamedpat

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

pop_1

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

MAJM

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

MAJM

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?

EL

Re: Is an amateur wearing a PBA jersey wrong?