NORTH CANTON — After the commotion had subsided, the awards had been presented and the congratulatory hugs and handshakes were over, an emotional Sam Maccarone had a moment to himself.
He simply looked to the ceiling at Park Centre Lanes, raised both arms and yelled, “Yes.”
The 67-year-old Williamstown, N.J., right-hander, teaming with Professional Bowlers Association Hall of Famer and PBA50 Player of the Year Parker Bohn III, reached a career goal Sunday during the match-play finals of the PBA50-PBA60 Doubles Central Open.
Maccarone joins a rare list of PBA professionals with at least one title in five decades. Only Johnny Petraglia and Dick Weber have titles in six. The list with five include Tom Baker, Darryl Bower, Roy Buckley, Jason Couch, Dave Davis, Henry Gonzalez, Eugene McCune, Hugh Miller, Gary Morgan, Ross Packard, George Pappas, Teata Semiz, Ryan Shafer and Chris Warren.
“I told Parker one of my goals was I want to win in five decades,” Maccarone said. “I haven’t won a title in six years. In the 2000s, I haven’t bowled well and I’ve been working on my game.
“Just to do this and to think about the PBA’s history and how many guys have done that, I’m in that group. It’s beyond real right now.”
Maccarone and Bohn finished with 7,675 total pinfall after compiling a 6-2-0 record during match play on Sunday, just 15 pins ahead of defending champion Brad Angelo and new partner Tom Adcock.
But the way the pair achieved Maccarone’s ultimate goal came down to 10th frame drama in the final position-round match.
Adcock and Angelo had surged into the lead after seven match-play games by combining for 535 and earning 50 bonus pins in Game 7. Bohn and Maccarone had fallen to second, 106 pins behind with one game remaining after the two teams were tied heading into the final regular match-play game.
“I missed a spare, then I stone an 8-pin and he stones a 9-pin, and we lose that (Game 7) match. Otherwise, we get the 50 bonus pins and it’s another 90 pins overall and we’re even heading into the last game,” said Maccarone, who won his first PBA title in 1988 in Riverside, Calif., beating all-time PBA titles winner Walter Ray Williams Jr. “But everybody gets bad breaks.”
In the position round game, both Bohn and Maccarone left splits in the fourth frame — a 2-7-9 for the former and a 4-6-7-9-10 for the latter — after both started with three strikes.
“Neither of us wanted a split in the fourth frame, especially after starting with the first three,” sad Bohn, a 59-year-old Jackson, N.J., right-hander with 35 career PBA titles and 10 more PBA50 titles. “But it didn’t take the wind out of our sails. We pulled on the string, brought the sail back up and it was full-steam ahead at that point.”
The bad break came for Angelo in the 10th frame when he left an 8-10 split on his first shot to open the door for Bohn, who had struck in the ninth. Faced with a must-strike on his first shot in the 10th, the lefty got help from a messenger pin that took out both the 7- and 10-pins for a strike. He then struck again to close the door.
“We had it, we kind of lost it, but we didn’t give it away,” Bohn said. “They earned it to get to where they were. As much as I would like to say we earned it, we stole it.
“They gave us an opportunity, but we took advantage of it. As a pro, if you don’t take advantage of a situation when you have the opportunity, you’re not going to win.”
For his 16 tourney games, Bohn averaged 243.13 to lead the pair. Maccarone averaged 218.44, but the quality and timing of his strikes were key in the win.
“Even though I struggled today, we get the win. Probably out of the eight games, five of them I struck late after being lost to close the gap and set him up,” Maccarone said. “If I make bad shots or lose points, we could lose the team game, and he doesn’t have that chance.”
Bohn was having none of it.
“For him, it would be too easy to not score well, and say God almighty what am I going to be able to do?” Bohn said. “You could hit a bump there, squeeze it and unfortunately have one more bad shot. He didn’t let that get the best of him. He went up, made a convincing move, then made a quality shot to make it work.”
Maccarone knew what his role was, and accepted it.
“I’m going one frame at a time, make the best shot I can and whatever happens, happens,” Maccarone said. “In the eighth frame, I left a solid 7-pin, but it wasn’t that good of a shot. The ones in the ninth and 10th I threw really good.
“You have to dig in and make the best shot you can possibly make.”
As for the key messenger hit in the 10th, Bohn said, “I didn’t have a shot carry like that all weekend.”
“I was throwing the urethane ball and had a couple of messengers, but not quite like that,” added Bohn, who threw a Track Legion Pearl for the first time all weekend during that game after using Purple Hammers on Sunday.
“I didn’t feel the balls I was throwing were picking up enough in the right way. I figured I could get two-teens to 230, but I figured I needed 250 or 260 and he needed a big game too,” Bohn said. Maccarone used the Track Kinetic Ice and Ebonite GB4 Pearl on Sunday.
Bohn also pointed out, as he did the previous week when he and son, Justin, finished third in the PBA Central Region member-non-member event at Wabash Lanes in New Philadelphia, that it takes two to make a score.
“No matter what we do individually, whatever that number is on the bottom is for both of us,” said Bohn, who was driven to his first PBA Tour stop in Peoria, Ill., by Maccarone 37 years ago. “However we achieve that goal is what we’re trying to get to.
“I think our lowest game all weekend was 430. We didn’t have that pitfall, no matter if Sam hit a bump in the road for two or three frames. Overall, we overcame that.”
The fact Maccarone was bowling with Bohn made this accomplishment all the sweeter.
“To have that opportunity to bowl with one of the greatest bowlers of all time is special,” Maccarone added. “We are good friends, and when you get to bowl with someone like that and you can feed off each other, it goes beyond bowling.”
As they did 37 years ago, the pair drove home together. Only this time, it was as champions, with $3,200 in gas money for the trip.
See complete tournament results here: