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FAMILY OF EBONITE INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTS ALMOST CARRIES SCROGGINS TO PBA PLAYER OF THE YEAR TITLE
Apr 06, 2010
HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. – Mike Scroggins of Amarillo, Texas, might be the most over-looked, under-estimated player on the Professional Bowlers Association Tour, but with the help of all of his friends in the Ebonite International family, he came within an eyelash of becoming the world’s best bowler for the 2009-10 season.
Scroggins, a 46-year-old left-hander, finished second in the Lumber Liquidators Marathon Open in Baltimore Sunday. Pete Weber’s 268-224 victory over Scroggins in the title match ended the Texas veteran’s bid to not only win his third title of the season and the ninth of his career, but the PBA Player of the Year points title as well.
Scroggins came into the Baltimore tournament needing a perfect set of circumstances to have a shot at the Player of the Year title. He trailed co-points leaders Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Bill O’Neill by eight points in the Player of the Year race – where points are only awarded for championship round appearances – and he was a distant third in the overall PBA World Points Rankings, which is used as the tie-breaker in the Player of the Year competition.
What Scroggins needed was a victory. If he won, he needed to have Williams or O’Neill finish worse than second. When O’Neill missed the cut to the Round of 16, he was eliminated. When Williams missed making the TV show, that left it all in Scroggins’ hands because he led the field through the seven-round, seven-lane condition contest by advancing from sixth to first during the Dick Weber final round.
Just getting to the TV show was an extraordinary feat in Baltimore. It took all of Scroggins’ and Ebonite’s resources 5 to overcome the seven different lane conditions used in the 53-game Marathon Open:
● In the opening Cheetah round, Scroggins “struggled” to a 237.89 average using a Hammer Jigsaw Corner, but he sat in 25th place after nine games.
● In the nine-game Shark round, he switched to a sanded Ebonite Mission. He slipped to 32nd place, but survived the first cut to 44 players.
● On the Viper pattern Thursday morning, Scroggins’ next move was to a Columbia 300 Pure Swing. He moved up one spot to 31st.
● On the Chameleon pattern Thursday night, Scroggins used a Columbia 300 Total Bedlam to find his groove and jump all the way to 11th place.
● Friday morning on the Scorpion pattern, he went back to his Total Bedlam and advanced to sixth.
● Friday night on the Earl Anthony pattern, Scroggins maintained his position, going back to his Ebonite Mission.
● Saturday morning, in the final round on the Dick Weber pattern, he used a Columbia 300 Full Swing and rolled into the No. 1 spot for the ESPN finals.
As the top qualifier, Scroggins earned the right to pick the pattern for the TV show, and he selected the Dick Weber. And he used the same Columbia 300 Full Swing in his bid for the title.
“There was a little more separation between the right and left side on that pattern,” he said after winning the top spot and selecting the Dick Weber pattern for the TV finals. “The Full Swing lets me get the ball down the lane with a lot of hitting power. It reads the mid-lane a lot quicker than whatever else I might want to throw.
“Tomorrow will be the biggest game I’ve ever bowled. I need to make 10 good shots, and if I can do that, I think I have a good chance to win.”
In the end, Scroggins made eight quality shots and Weber made 10. And that meant Williams became PBA Player of the Year.
“For the championship match I chose to go with the Full Swing because I had such good luck with it all year,” Scroggins said. “I won with it in Columbus and led the U.S. Open with it so I had a lot of confidence in that ball and it made a lot of money for me this year.
— Ebonite Bowling Balls & Bowling Equipment - Based in Hopkinsville, Kent., Ebonite International is a privately-owned company that currently services bowling centers, distributors and retail outlets both domestically and internationally. The company’s consumer product brands include Ebonite, Hammer, Robby’s, Columbia 300, Track and Powerhouse™. Its commercial product brand is Ebonite Bowling Center Direct.
