Just what professional bowling needed...?

Red Sox vs Yankees, Packers vs Bears, and Badgers vs Minnesota, all well known rivals in their respective sports leagues, well it may soon be time to add Sean Rash (pictured above) vs Jason Belmonte of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) to that list of heated rivals.

Not known as a sport where intensity shines such as in football. Under the pressure of the bright ESPN tv lights, total focus is a must and even the slightest distraction can throw a player off and cause them to make a bad shot which cost them the title, a load of cash, and maybe even player of the year. Enter Belmonte and Rash in the 2011 Geico Team Shootout, the following video link is what started the entire rivalry between these two, two of the best bowlers on the planet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4-ypFE72c What Rash is complaining about in this video is that he says Belmonte made crinkling noises with his water bottle during his approach and release, althought Rash threw a good shot and struck, this was not the first time that Belmonte had been called out by a competitor for such aquatic actions. In a tournament a year earlier PBA pro Brad Angelo also called out Belmonte for his bottle crunchin antics, although he did not go to the extent Rash did, it was again brought up after this incident.

To further escalate the budding rivalry, the two were clearly the two most dominant players at the 2011 World Series of bowling qualifying for a majority of the TV shows to be tape delayed on ESPN. Because of their success on the lanes at the WSOB, they were often paired together during match play where they were made to behave. Common courtesy in bowling tournements is that the player who finishes the game first marks both players' scores on the scorecard if no PBA scorer has been assigned. During match play of a WSOB event, Belmonte was finishing first of the two of them on their pair but refused to mark Rash's scores. This breaking of an unwritten rule frustrated Rash who alerted a PBA official and the matter was taken care of.

It should be interesting over the WSOB telecasts to see how the two interact with each other as they have at least 4 tv matchups. In a sport that doesn't get much national attention in telecasts or show much interest in the professional sports world, this rivalry may be able to put professional bowling on the map, something I as an avid fan and bowling would like to see, it is also big for those already involved in watching the PBA because these two routinely make the cuts at tournements and will have matches and pairings in the future and it will be interesting to see how both players move on and feel toward each other on the lanes.