ST. LOUIS.   Stung by criticism that touring pros have it easier than amateurs, the Professional Bowlers Association moved today to put the "keg" back into "keglers" by requiring its members to drink beer when they compete in PBA-sponsored events.

"Your average weeknight bowler has a full load on when he stares down the alley at the pins," said Scott Urquardt, the league's commissioner.  "We should expect nothing less of our members."

Under the new format, bowlers will be required to drink one 12-ounce beer for every fifty pounds of body weight before the tenth frame of each game.  If a match ends in a tie, the winner will be decided by a shoot-out style format in which bowlers attempt to carry a tray with their empties back to the bowling alley's bar without spilling them.

The PBA is headquartered in this city once famous as being "first in booze, first in shoes, and last in the American League" when the St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles) were perennial cellar dwellers.  Urquardt says there is no tie-in to any brewer behind the PBA's new initiative, although he would welcome additional sponsorship money.

Former PBA greats applauded the move, saying it was time pro bowling moved into either the twentieth or the twenty-first century, whichever was currently in effect.  "Bowling and beer go back as far as the ancient Egyptians," said two-time Bowler of the Year Earl Schneidholz as he sipped from a bottle of Old Milwaukee at his Waukesha, Wisconsin billiard/bowling complex.  "Bowlers basically walk like Egyptians when they approach the foul line, so it makes sense."

Copyright 2005, Con Chapman