PBA Xtra Or the tale of his fi rst TV appearance in
a title match, when he faced Patrick Allen for the 2005 PBA World Championship and lost 235-210 to a guy then well on his way to Player of the Year honors. Loschetter told himself all the right
things after those losses, the kinds of things a champion tells himself when he is down. “It was still an honor to bowl for a title,”
Loschetter told himself after that 2007 loss to Williams. “How many people can say they’ve done that?” But it is easier to tell yourself those things when the guy who beats you has beaten everybody. Even Allen, whose re- cord falls far short of the heights attained by Williams and Duke, still won three titles in the 2004-05 season alone and fi nished in the top fi ve of all four majors in the meantime.
But when the guy you lose to knows the tales of the vanquished as well as anyone, then what do you say to yourself? There again was a question whose answer Loschetter preferred not to hear. This time, though, it was too loud to ignore. “That was the hardest one, just because
I thought it was going to be my time, and it wasn’t,” Loschetter says of losing to Brad Angelo, 256-214, at the 2008 PBA Pepsi Viper Championship. Despite winning Rookie-of-the-Year honors in 2003 and making three TV appearances during that debut season on tour, Angelo, like Loschet- ter, still was looking for his fi rst PBA Tour title in 2008.
TALES OF THE VANQUISHED
The PBA’s Longest-Tenured Non-Titlists With his win at the 2013 PBA Lucas Oil Wolf Open, Loschetter removed his name from the most undesirable list in professional bowling—those who have bowled on tour the longest without winning a title. Here are Loschetter’s thoughts on those whose names remain on the list—for now.
CHRIS LOSCHETTER
“That was disappointing because
I really thought that was going to be it,” Loschetter says. “It was the beginning of the season. I had worked really hard that summer, and I thought it was my time to win. The three years after that I really had a big downfall. I just wasn’t bowling with that conviction I had before. I had to really learn to talk myself out of that.” Loschetter had every reason to
Joe Ciccone (winless in 220 PBA Tour events) “I would say Joe has kind of moved on a little bit. I know he’s working with the production crew for ESPN and does some of the shows. So I think Joe is a great bowler, but I don’t think he’s really focused on that anymore.”
D.J. Archer (winless in 145 PBA Tour events) and Dino Castillo
(winless in 131 PBA Tour events) “D.J. and Dino have been out there for a while and they’re bowling good. You never know. They’ve actually started bowling better lately. It wouldn’t surprise me if D.J. or
Dino came out and won. It’s just a matter of catching one tournament and getting hot, and any of these guys are capable of that.”
Nathan Bohr (winless in 157 PBA Tour events) “The guy that’s really improved, I think, is Nathan. Nathan has really worked hard on his game over the last 10 years and he’s been there; he just needs that one tournament where he gets hot. I’d like to see Nathan win and have a good run.”
believe, once again, that the 2013 PBA Lucas Oil Wolf Open was his time to win. There he was, 154 events into his PBA Tour career, and without a single title to show for it. Surely, by now, he was due for one win. But the event carried with it just as much potential to become another tale he rather would not have to tell. “It would have been really miserable
on me, just to know that I let them down,” Loschetter says of the possibility of losing with his wife, Erin, in the crowd and his parents watching back home. Instead, Loschetter defeated Bill
O’Neill, 264-231, for his fi rst title. Finally, he was the one shooting 260s, the one prompting the other guy to wonder why a 230 game was not good enough. Finally, Loschetter had an answer he could live with. “All I needed was for someone to not
throw a seven-bagger at me,” Loschetter says.
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July 2013
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