Football is the marquee sport in America. Yes, baseball is considered “America’s Pastime,” and as big of a baseball fan as I am, I cannot say that baseball is the sport in America. It’s not. Nascar has its turnouts, as does basketball and golf. Who the hell watches bowling? Bowling — remember that sport where you roll a ball down the lane into some pins? That’s bowling. Well, I watch bowling.

It lacks the passion of a contact sport, but bowling — at the professional level — is actually entertaining. Like many sports, the PBA has its fair share of characters. To watch a bowling match is to embrace the history of bowling. Seven bowlers have won 30 or more PBA Tour Titles:

Dick Weber (30), Norm Duke (32), Parker Bohn III (32), Pete Weber (34), Mark Roth (34), Earl Anthony (43), Walter Ray Williams, Jr (45).

Today’s stars in bowling are youthful in their age, but very aged in their command of the different oil paths they encounter.

Chris Barnes, 38, was the PBA Player of the Year in 2007-2008 and finished 2nd in the world in points to the legendary Walter Ray Williams, Jr.

Jommy Jones, 31, has 12 PBA Tour Titles and 21 career PBA 300 games.

“The Big Nasty,” Wes Malott, 33, finished the 2007-2008 season ranked 3rd in the PBA and has thrown 20 career PBA 300 games.

Professional Bowling doesn’t get the respect it deserves. No, it’s not a contact sport and, like Nascar, has a select fan base. Most of us have enjoyed bowling time and again — especially when there are $2 games and plenty of beer involved. I feel for bowling and I would like for the PBA to gain the necessary sponsorship to propel bowling into some sort of limelight — within reason, of course. It’s a fun, interesting game that requires a degree of skill, but where bowling may ail, consequently, is its lack of identity as a sport.

Give it a shot, learn the lingo, enjoy its grace. If nothing else, marvel at the two-handed bowling wonder, Jason Belmonte.