Sometimes the best ideas do not end with the best results.

Last season the PBA decided to change the way it selected its Player of the Year in order to create more interest.

The PBA dropped its voting by members after the season ended to a running point system that would produce more publicity throughout the 2007-08 season.

It worked in January, February and through mid-March as two of its super stars – Walter Ray Williams and Chris Barnes – traded first place as the tour entered the home stretch.

But then the two front runners stumbled, especially in the closing U.S. Open Championship and all of the excitement disappeared.

Barnes wound up with two more points than Williams and will back into PBA Player of the Year honors.

The sad part of all this to me is the fact that I think that Norm Duke should be crowned PBA Player of the Year for recovering from injuries that forced him to miss six tournaments in time to win the final two Major tournaments – Denny’s World Championships while he was sick and U.S. Open where he had to win three matches.

In my mind, if you can win two of the four major tournaments while competing in only 15 events then you are in a league of your own.

No question about it, both Barnes and Williams had more impressive seasons than Duke. But neither won a Major championship.

Barnes had a golden chance to win the third Major of the season -- the H & R Block Tournament of Champions at the Red Rock in Las Vegas back in January. Barnes had a comfortable 52-pins lead with four frames remaining before losing to Michael Haugen Jr, 216-215.

That would be the equivalent to a sprinter leading by three yards with 10 yards remaining in the 100-yard dash and losing in a photo finish.

I have always heard and believed that it does not count how you start a race or game or life...but it matters most how you finish the course.

In my book, Norm Duke overcame physical problems and finished best and deserves PBA Player of the Year recognition.

I think he won on true grit as much as ability.

I also think a lot of people will disagree with me.

Did you know that there are two bowling lanes located somewhere underneath the White House?

I visited them along with fellow writers many years ago and was delighted to read and see pictures of presidents Harry Truman and Richard Nixon using the two lanes.

Later proprietors in Hot Springs, Ark., showed me pictures and stories of Bill Clinton as a junior league bowler.

So I presume that he and Hillary did some bowling together during his eight years as President of the United States.

All of which leads me to my point.

For more than 50 years I have noticed that politicians seeking all kinds of public offices would stroll up and down bowling centers soliciting votes from league and open bowlers.

I remember the picture of the first President Bush stumbling and fouling while bowling before his election.

Which leads us up to this presidential campaign.

First came a national cable channel covering a bowling outing by a presidential candidate in Milwaukee.

But no political bowling outing has brought bowling more attention and respect than presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama trying to bowl during a stop in a Pennsylvania bowling center.

He didn’t have bad form on the one gutter shot I saw on TV, but I understand why he stopped after seven frames since he had knocked down only 37 pins.

Many times bowling stories will say that a person knocked down 200 pins but in reality they may have only knocked down 183 but had garnered a few bonus pins from a spare or strike.

In Obama’s case, I am confident he really only knocked down 37 pins on 14 shots.

His presidential rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, immediately challenged Obama to a bowling match to decide a lot of their controversial disagreements.

I have never paid to watch a bowling match, but I would be willing to pay to see the two presidential heavyweights vie in a duel of bowling lightweights.

But seriously, since Obama has labeled by the media as a decent basketball player then we know he has athletic skills.

So his futility in bowling should reveal to a lot of Americans that bowling is truly a challenging sport.

Oh by the way, if some promoter arranges the bowling duel of the century between Obama and Hillary, then I hope it is held in USBC President Jeff Boje’s new bowling center near Tampa.

Florida deserves to be the host to a bowling tournament that could decide the country's fate after the chad fiasco eight years ago and the illegal Florida primary back in January.

Vegas oddsmakers say they would make Obama the 5-2 betting favorite he probably would seek coaching tips from Fred Borden, Jeri Edwards and John Jowdy, who currently is recovering from knee replacement surgery in a San Diego hospital.

It probably has happened, but I can’t remember a major player in the old ABC or WIBC or new USBC jumping from the amateur ranks to the pro ranks.

But that is what is going to happen May 15 when Tom Clark, the USBC media director who has done wonders at getting bowling events back on television, will move to the Professional Bowlers Association as vice-president and chief operating officer.

Clark came over from USA Today to the USBC three years ago and promptly made a TV name for himself with last year’s five U.S. Open Women’s telecast and the upcoming Bowling’s Clash of Champions that will be taped in Kansas City May 8-9 and carried by the CBS network May 10-11.

"I am thrilled to have Tom join the PBA," said PBA Commissioner and CEO Fred Schreyer. "During his tenure with USBC, Tom has demonstrated a flair for generating excitement and attention for our sport and its stars and I believe that will immediately translate into a major benefit for our fans, players and sponsors."

In my way of thinking the hiring of Tom Clark by the PBA is good news in three ways:

1. Since the PBA is making plans to celebrate its 50th anniversary next season then that means there will be a next season....which is great news.

2. If the PBA is already making plans for the 2008-09 season by hiring Tom Clark, then that probably means the new PBA made a little profit for its three owners last season although this fact won’t be announced until the end of April.

3. Since Tom Clark’s creative thinking led to the women’s series last year in Reno and then four PBA telecasts that featured the 16 U.S. Women’s high scorers, my trusty crystal ball is predicting that women will play a key role in the PBA tour next season.

I have to trust my old crystal ball since it told me last January that Tom Clark would be leaving the USBC to go with the PBA but I decided to ignore the tip.

When Fred Schreyer sidestepped my question in Las Vegas last January about the possibility of the PBA hiring Tom Clark, I decided to sit on the potential story that my crystal ball kept insisting was going to happen.

Then when the USBC decided to move from Milwaukee to Arlington in a meeting March 9, I knew Tom Clark was checking on schools in the Seattle area.

Since the USBC wants the PBA to be successful and the PBA wants the USBC to be successful, I am certain that Tom Clark’s golden TV touch will help both organizations and all of bowling.

Email address: Evans121@aol.com