A match to bowl you over

By Ron Kantowski

Monday, Jan. 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.

You didn’t have to be a member of the Raccoon Lodge bowling team, bowled for dollars on TV or even seen “The Big Lebowski” on cable to know that Michael Haugen Jr.’s 215-214 victory against Chris Barnes in Sunday’s H&R Block Tournament of Championships at Red Rock Lanes was something special.

Haugen had trailed by 52 pins after six frames. Nobody — not even Earl Anthony in his crewcut days — comes from 52 pins down to win a PBA major.

But Haugen did. Barnes missed a routine spare in the ninth frame that opened the door for one of the most amazing comebacks that anybody could remember.

“I’ve been covering bowling for 55 years,” said Joe Lyou, the veteran bowling writer, in the press room after the match. “I have never seen a game like that.”

It was the first major title of Haugen’s career and just his second overall.

A PBA spokeswoman put the day in perspective when she made an announcement about Barnes’ availability for interviews.

“Chris will come by after the doubles,” she said. “If he doesn’t jump off a building first.”

1

Although Haugen has been throwing strikes and spares on tour for 14 years, he didn’t win his first title until last November, in his 200th start. “That gave me confidence I can win,” he said. “A lot of people say your career doesn’t begin until you win your first title.” He had made the finals at Louisville in 2001 and threw a 279. Too bad Pete Weber shot 289. Barnes opened the match with a strike. So did Haugen. The fans on the risers applauded, this time without the TV producer telling them to. So who would flinch first?

2

It would be Haugen. He left the 4-6-7 and couldn’t cover the split. Sure, it was early. But sometimes you don’t come back from an open frame, especially against somebody who was rolling the ball like Barnes was this week. Barnes made 12 TV shows without winning a title in 2000 and was zero for his last seven on TV before beating Ryan Shafer in Sunday’s semifinals. “TV lights can do a lot of things to lane conditions, the pressure to win,” Haugen said of Barnes, who also qualified for the TV show in the PBA Exempt Doubles Classic running concurrently with the Tournament of Champions. “But he bowled his (butt) off this week.”

3

Bam! Barnes’ ball sent the 10 pins scurrying, like roaches in a tenement when you turn on the lights. Three strikes in a row for the handsome Texan. Haugen made a spare. He was still in the match. Sort of. But something wasn’t right. He lists dancing among his hobbies but his ball couldn’t decide if it was doing the Mashed Potato or The Jerk. But nobody said these Grand Slam events were easy. “This is the Tournament of Champions,” Haugen said. “That’s the way it is supposed to be.”

4

Haugen struck in the fourth. Barnes made a spare. Two silver loops hanging from Haugen’s ears wobbled like 7-pins under the TV lights. I wonder if Carmen Salvino, the PBA Hall of Famer who was sitting a few seats away, ever thought he’d see the day where a bowling champion would compete with not one but two earrings? Blame it on his Southern California upbringing, Haugen said. “The college kids said if I wanted to be hip, I had to do this. I guess I’m still a kid at heart. Either that, or I refuse to get old.”

5

Haugen, who now makes his home in Cave Creek, Ariz., just north of Phoenix, used to live just across the 215 beltway from the Red Rock Casino. He probably still would be grooving to Zowie Bowie, he said, were it not for a “personal issue.” Haugen wouldn’t elaborate, other than to say it wasn’t gambling, and that they were getting along fine now. Now he travels with somebody else — a buddy named Ralph. They stayed out all night playing poker on Tuesday. When Haugen woke up Wednesday, he had a golf ball in his throat. His tonsillitis had flared up, making it difficult to talk. Much less pick up another split, this time the 4-7-10..

6

After that spare in the fourth, Barnes knocked ’em all down with one ball in the fifth and sixth. His lead was now 52 pins. This was like the Patriots vs. the Bills. Barnes was Tom Brady and Haugen was the Buffalo secondary. “You can’t give up,” Haugen said. “You just want to make good shots because the last thing you want to do is embarrass yourself at the Tournament of Champions.” The second-to-last thing you want to do at the T of C is change balls in the middle of the match. On both lanes. But that’s just what Haugen did. Anything to keep from embarrassing himself.

7

Haugen recently signed a 5-year endorsement deal with AMF, which makes bowling balls and used to make Harley-Davidsons. In the seventh, Haugen began to rumble like a chopper on the road to Sturgis. He threw a strike. Barnes threw a spare. It was 167-126 heading into the eighth but switching balls — Radical Lock on the right lane, Maximum Velocity on the left — gave Haugen a jolt of confidence. Plus, while Barnes was still rolling the ball well, he wasn’t striking anymore. Maybe, Haugen thought, that would be the start of something.

8

It was. Haugen struck again in the eighth. Barnes did not. Maybe those TV lights, the pressure of winning a major was starting to get to him. “If he doesn’t strike again,” Haugen said about his mind set, “he’s 220 and if I strike out, I’m in the two-teens.” Sure, it wouldn’t be enough. But at least it would look better on TV. “You want to make him think about it,” Haugen said. “Then you just hope.” For what? Lightning to strike? Divine intervention? A missed 10-pin in the ninth frame? Yup, a missed 10-pin in the ninth frame.

9

It was a tap-in for birdie, a can ’o corn to center field, an extra point when you are up by three touchdowns. And Chris Barnes missed it. When his ball slid into the gutter without brushing the 10-pin, Haugen pounced like a hungry panther. “When he missed the 10-pin I said, ‘You can’t give me that, you just can’t,’ ” Haugen said. With only the 10th frame remaining, Haugen now trailed 195-186. Game on.

10

If he was Bill Murray and this were golf, Haugen might have muttered something about being a young Cinderella from out of nowhere, tear in his eye, I guess, about … to become … the Tournament of Champions champion. Only at 41, he’s not that young anymore, those silver hoops dangling from his earlobes notwithstanding. Plus, he still needed two more strikes to win. And for Barnes not to throw two. Which is exactly what happened. And didn’t happen. Afterward, Haugen said he could get crazy and spend the $50,000 on one spin of the roulette wheel and it could be gone before he even left the building. “But the trophy, they can never take that anyway.”