BOWLING / PBA RIVERSIDE TOURNAMENT : Leader Genalo Still Best Remembered for TV Gutterball

Pro bowler Don Genalo is destined to go down in the history of his sport for this mistake: He rolled an infamous gutterball on national television eight years ago.

“People always remember me as the guy who blew the title,” Genalo said Wednesday after taking the early lead in the Kessler PBA tournament at Town Square Lanes. He is 141 pins ahead of Texan Wayne Webb after 12 games.

Genalo opened with games of 204, 255, 268, 242, 247 and 236. His second set was games of 224, 268, 213, 258, 245 and 226.

Pete Weber, another favorite, was fourth. The highest Southern Californian was Jess Stayrook of San Diego in ninth.

Genalo’s “most embarrassing moment” happened on the 1983 summer tour in the Southern California Open at Gable House Bowl in Torrance.

In the 10th frame of the title match, he needed only a strike and eight more pins to win. However, he thought he needed two strikes.

“I got the first strike,” he recalled. “But the second delivery left the 4-6-7-9-10 split. Figuring I had no chance, I lackadaisically threw the ball. It went into the gutter. Not until someone yelled, ‘He blew the tournament,’ did I realize my mistake. I could have crawled under a rock.”

Genalo lost that match, 214-212, to Jimmie Pritz.

Since then, Genalo, 32, who bowls right-handed, has won six titles, “none of which is remembered as much as the title I lost,” he said.

Bowling Notes

Collectors of sports cards will get a new sport in September. That’s when the first pro bowler cards will be marketed, according to Mike Sands, PBA Tour press director. The 1990 edition will be a 100-card set, he said. . . . Missing from the field is Mark Baker, leading Southern Californian on the 1990 tour. He withdrew Wednesday morning because of a back ailment.