BATON ROUGE = It is an interesting proposition that the Professional Bowlers Association has put together that started this past week of determining the Best 25 PBA players of the last 25 seasons.

In the last 25 seasons, according to a PBA release, more than 500 champions have been crowned and two players who had not yet been born in 2000 bowled each other for a major title.

It was 2004 when Finland’s Osku Palermaa made the U.S. Open finals as a two-hander and then in 2008 came Jason Belmonte and the real start of 1) his dominance of the Tour and 2) the full two-handed revolution among a generation of bowlers. Belmonte has since won 15 major titles and was Player of the Year seven times.

But take a look at the last 11 years. In 2015, Jesper Svensson, Kyle Troup, EJ Tackett and Anthony Simonsen each won their first title. Those four bowlers have a combined 69 wins and five POY honors.

So the PBA has decided to determine the best. No voting, no computer rankings, no committee (you know like the College Football Playoffs). The PBA decided to awards points based on top fives in standard and major events and points for standard and major titles. Plus there are bonus points for being Player of the Year.

The list of players 21-25 opened the group this past week with Ryan Ciminelli (21st, 83.5 points), Marshall Kent (22nd, 81.5 points), Ryan Shafer (23rd, 80 points), Rhino Page (24th, 76.5 points) and Kris Prather (25th, 76 points).

So over the next few weeks, the PBA will be announcing on its web site and social sites the rest of the top 25. Belmonte had his huge run, but he hasn’t been as able to dominate the last couple seasons and Tackett has become the latest dominate bowler. It seems likely that one of them will be the No. 1 on the list and more than likely, the other will be No. 2.

Just counting Belmonte’s seven POY and 15 majors that gives him already more than 215 points without top fives or regular titles added in.

Remember the past 25 years included Chris Barnes, Parker Bohn III, Norm Duke and Wes Malott that dominated a lot of bowling in the early part of the last 25 years before the torch was taken by the Sveinsson, Troup, Tackett, Simonsen and Belmonte quintet.

It should be interesting to see where the list goes from here. Keep an eye on PBA.com for more.

Who Will Call The New PBA Broadcasts?

I was watching some football and basketball recently and I saw broadcaster John Fanta in his new role for NBC and Peacock. When last seen, the FOX Sports broadcaster was seen calling primarily basketball, but also over two seasons, he appeared to be gradually being moved into a primary play-by-play spot for the PBA Tour on FOX.

The PBA has begun on social media rolling out their commercials for the new 10-week series of PBA broadcasts on the CW starting Feb. 22 every Sunday at 3 p.m. They are calling it Championship Sundays.

We’ve talked about the great decision to put every tournament on the same day at the same time, making it appointment television.

The question is who will call the action in 2026? Fanta as mentioned is now with NBC/Peacock. Rob Stone isn’t leaving Fox. Will Dave Ryan be allowed to get away from CBS for 10 straight weeks. If I’m Commissioner Tom Clark, I would have already called Dave Lamont and tried to get him lined up. He’s called the men’s and women’s tour off and on, including several events on Bowl.com most recently.

It would be assumed Randy Pedersen and Kimberly Pressler who are tied to the PBA broadcasts for years and not to a particular network will be laneside again in 2026. It would certainly make sense. I would be shocked if those two are not on the first broadcast in February.

We will see what develops here in the next couple of months on that front.

Finally, before we go a note we heard from Bowlero Kenner. This past Thursday, 92-year-old Earle Foley rolled a 622 scratch. With handicap 841. All I can say is “wow!”

Back with you next Monday.

                 Until then, good luck and good bowling,

                                                                  Kent Lowe