If you’re a bowling fan who has been thinking about giving PBA’s Xtra Frame live streaming service a try, you’ll never have a better opportunity than signing up for the $7.99, 30-day subscription package by February 1.

The February series of PBA events scheduled to air on Xtra Frame includes all of the preliminary rounds of two majors and two non-majors, the 2018 PBA League Draft and the PBA 60th Anniversary Celebration Dinner, which will include the PBA Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and presentation of awards to 2017 PBA Player of the Year Jason Belmonte (left), Rookie of the Year Matt Sanders (right), Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award winner Chris Loschetter and PBA Tony Reyes Memorial Community Service Award winner Del Ballard Jr. The Pre-Tournament Qualifier for the PBA Tournament of Champions also will be covered on Feb. 5 from AMF Riviera Lanes in Fairlawn, Ohio.

The 30-day subscription package schedule includes the TOC PTQ (Feb. 5), qualifying and match play rounds of the PBA Tournament of Champions (Feb. 7-9), the Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic (Feb. 13-16), and the Barbasol PBA Players Championship and the Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship presented by BowlerX.com (Feb. 20-23). The 2018 PBA League Draft will air on Xtra Frame on Saturday, Feb. 17, at 10:30 a.m., and the PBA 60th Anniversary Celebration Dinner will be covered Saturday evening beginning at 6:30 p.m. All times are Eastern.

As a 30-day subscriber, you also can access all of Xtra Frame’s extensive archives including first-look at the new series of PBA Player’s Perspectives, and previous events you may have missed (including the just-completed DHC PBA Japan Invitational that aired in the early morning hours in the U.S.).

While modern technology allows fans to watch Xtra Frame on their smartphones as well as on their computers, it’s also easy to hook up casting video devices to stream Xtra Frame’s high-def content to your big-screen television set.

Xtra Frame also offers a low-cost three-day subscription for fans who want to watch a specific weekend event for $3.99, or a full-year Season Ticket that covers a full 12 months for about $1.25 a week. Complete information and enrollment information is available by visiting xtraframe.tv.

Beyond Xtra Frame, the PBA Network offers fans a wide series of options to follow the action coming in February and later in 2018.

Motown, Brooklyn announce players protected for PBA League Draft

The last two managers to protect players from their 2017 rosters for the 2018 PBA League Draft have made their selections. Motown Muscle manager Del Ballard Jr. has locked in EJ Tackett, Francois Lavoie and Anthony Simonsen while Brooklyn Styles manager Johnny Petraglia has retained a veteran trio including PBA Hall of Famers Parker Bohn III and Walter Ray Williams Jr. along with future hall of famer Sean Rash.

Before the PBA League draft takes place (on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 10:30 a.m. at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis), when managers will fill the two open spots on their rosters, all eligible PBA members who want to enter the draft will have to declare their intentions.

The eligibility list will consist of PBA members who are in the top 75 PBA on the National Tour/WBT earnings list for 2017 plus 2018 events through the PBA Tournament of Champions which ends Feb. 11. Eligible players must then declare their intention to participate in the draft by Feb. 12.

The 2018 PBA League Draft will be live streamed on Xtra Frame. The draft order will be reverse order of finish from last year, beginning with No. 8 Brooklyn followed by Motown, NYC, LA, Philadelphia, Silver Lake, Portland and Dallas.

The complete list of protected players includes the following:

• Dallas Strikers: Player-manager Norm Duke, Tommy Jones, Bill O’Neill
• Portland Lumberjacks: Ryan Ciminelli, Wes Malott, Kyle Troup
• Silver Lake Atom Splitters: Chris Barnes, Jesper Svensson, Tom Daugherty
• Philadelphia Hitmen: Dom Barrett, Tom Smallwood, Ronnie Russell
• L.A. X: Jason Belmonte, Stuart Williams, Martin Larsen
• NYC WTT KingPins: Pete Weber, Marshall Kent, Sam Cooley
• Motown Muscle: EJ Tackett, Francois Lavoie, Anthony Simonsen
• Brooklyn Styles: Parker Bohn III, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Sean Rash

Players currently eligible to participate in the draft, in order of their combined earnings for the eligibility period, include the following. Any player who qualifies among the top 75 at the conclusion of the Tournament of Champions also will be added to the eligibility list:
Dick Allen, Andrew Anderson, Pontus Andersson, Brad Angelo, DJ Archer, Zeke Bayt, Josh Blanchard, Kim Bolleby, Charlie Brown, Jakob Butturff, AJ Chapman, Jeff Evans, Graham Fach, Trey Ford, Daniel Fransson, Andres Gomez, Muhammad Rafiq Ismail, Liz Johnson, AJ Johnson, Shota Kawazoe, Nick Kruml, Yannaphon Larpapharat, Thomas Larsen, Brian LeClair, Chris Loschetter, Francois Louw, Shawn Maldonado, Danielle McEwan, Matthew McNiel, Brad Miller, BJ Moore, Brandon Novak, Matthew O’Grady, Greg Ostrander, Rhino Page, Osku Palermaa, Anthony Pepe, Connor Pickford, Kristopher Prather, Matthew Sanders, Kyle Sherman, Bryon Smith, Jason Sterner, John Szczerbinski, Darren Tang, Richie Teece, Chris Via, Chris Warren, Cameron Weier, Zacharay Wilkins, and Dave Wodka.

The PBA League will return to Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine, in April. After the PBA Xtra Frame Maine Shootout April 17-18 (a PBA Tour title event), all PBAL teams will bowl an eight-game Baker “seeding tournament” on April 20. The PBAL quarterfinals will take place on April 21 with the No. 1 seeded team vs. No. 8 and No. 4 vs. No. 5 on the first ESPN show that airs on April 22, followed by team No. 2 vs. No. 7, and No. 3 vs. No. 6 in the show that will air on April 29. Semifinal and Elias Cup final matches will be contested on April 22 to air on ESPN on May 6 and 13, respectively.

Five new CP3 red carpet interviews debut on YouTube this week

Leading into Sunday’s telecast of the 2018 State Farm CP3 PBA Celebrity Invitational presented by GoBowling.com (ESPN, 2 p.m. EST), PBA’s YouTube channel will post the last five red carpet interviews in its series of conversations with participants in the special event. Interviews making their YouTube debuts this week include: Terrell Owens, Monday; Pete Weber, Tuesday; Oscar Nunez, Wednesday; Mookie Betts, Friday and Bill O’Neill, Saturday.

Already available on YouTube are interviews with tournament host Chris Paul (pictured with PBA CEO and Commissioner, Tom Clark, left); Norm Duke, Sean Rash, James Harden, EJ Tackett and DJ Archer.

To view all of the CP3 red carpet interviews, or any of dozens of other PBA video clips, click here.

Tom Daugherty offers “PBA Player’s Perspective” on 2016 Wolf Open victory

Florida’s Tom Daugherty (pictured above) isn’t one to hold back his emotions when he wins in PBA competition, and his victory in the 2016 PBA Wolf Open was no exception. Daugherty will weigh in on that event on Thursday in the newest edition of PBA Player’s Perspective on Xtra Frame.

The Xtra Frame Player’s Perspective series presents a new inside look at PBA competition every Thursday, followed a week later by availability of the exclusive interview on PBA’s YouTube channel.

Recent Perspective’s posted on Xtra Frame and YouTube include Pete Weber re-living his emotional victory in the 2012 U.S. Open; Rhino Page‘s insights into his win in the 2017 Xtra Frame Kenn-Feld Group Classic and Chris Barnes‘ victory in the 2016 DHC PBA Japan Invitational. Additional perspectives will be announced in the coming weeks.

PBA Regional Update: “Challenge” doubleheader coming Feb. 9-11

Next up on the PBA Regional calendar will be a PBA South Region doubleheader, PBA and PBA50 Break Point Alley Challenge events, both open to players who have not won a PBA title. Break Point Alley in Tavares, Fla., will host the doubleheader over the Feb. 9-11 weekend.

The PBA South Region’s second weekend of competition includes the PBA50 Dave Edwards Toyota Spartanburg South Open at Paradise Lanes in Spartanburg, S.C., over the Feb. 16-18 weekend.

For complete PBA Regional schedules, rules and entry information, click here to find the event(s) in your area.

Quick Notes

PBA Hall of Famer Mike Aulby (right) of Carmel, Ind., the first player in PBA history to complete the so-called “Super Slam” (winning titles in the U.S. Open, PBA Tournament of Champions, PBA World Championship, USBC Masters and PBA Players Championship), has been elected to a two-year term as president of the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame Board of Directors. He is the first bowler to serve in that role; all previous IBM/HF presidents have been industry leaders representing manufacturers or bowling associations.

Related Articles

2018 PBA Spare Shots #4 – January 24, 2018
2018 PBA Spare Shots #3 – January 20, 2018
2018 PBA Spare Shots #2 – January 12, 2018
2018 PBA Spare Shots #1 – January 6, 2018
2017 PBA Spare Shots