There's still professional bowling to be had this summer, starting at the end of the month with the GEICO PBA Team Shootout for the Manufacturer's Cup, but as for official PBA Tour events, the season ended with Dick Allen's PBA Playoffs Championship.

Overall, this season didn't compare to the previous season, in which Kelly Kulick became the first woman to win a PBA Tour event (and major, the Tournament of Champions) and Tom Smallwood not only came off the assembly line to win the PBA World Championship but also started what's becoming a successful career as a bowler.

However, just because last season was full of memorable moments doesn't mean this season isn't worth mentioning. So, let's mention it. Here are some opinions, facts and information on the 2010-2011 PBA Tour season:

• 2010-2011 PBA Tour Season Recap - a collection of my blogs related to this past season's television shows.
• 2010-2011 PBA Tour Winners - a list of all the winners over the course of the season.
• 2010-2011 PBA Tour Top Averages - the top 20 bowlers, based on high average, for the season.
• 2010-2011 PBA Tour Money Leaders - the top 20 bowlers, based on money earned, for the season.
• 2010-2011 PBA Tour Awards - winners of the season's PBA Tour awards.

At my bowling center of choice, the month of May comes with the beginning of the Tough Shot League, which is nothing more than a moderately creative name for the USBC-sanctioned sport league. There are a lot of reasons to love a sport league, most of which I outlined in a blog from November of 2009: What's a Sport League?.

If you've never bowled in a sport league or don't know what a sport league is, I recommend reading the blog to get a general idea and, more than that, I recommend actually joining a sport league. The main drawback is your scores will be lower than you're used to. However, with that comes the main benefit: you will learn more about bowling and get better at it. When you return to the house oil in the fall, you might even think it's too easy.

Do you bowl in a sport league? Have you ever? How does it compare to a standard house league?

There are a lot of ways to clean a bowling ball, many depending on the cover stock and the bowler's preference and any number of subjective strategies. But, for those of you who just want a very simple way to drain the oil from your ball, I give you the immersion method.

For bowling balls with porous surfaces (namely reactive resin) that don't seem to be gripping the lanes like they used to (or for routine maintenance), you can bring life back to the ball as long as you have a bucket and access to hot water.

For a simple, step-by-step process on how to soak the oil out of your ball, see this article: How to Clean Your Bowling Ball - Immersion Method.

One of the many non-bowling items to come out of the Dick Weber PBA Playoffs, now more than two weeks in the past, was the backlash at the vuvuzelas in the bowling alley during the final telecast.

I, then and now, loathe vuvuzelas, and I did write in this blog a minor rant on the horrible horns. However, I am against them because the sound annoys me. That's it. Because they were never blown during a bowler's delivery (but incessantly after every shot), they didn't really affect anything except the serenity of my ears. A lot of other bowling fans went much further with their disdain.

Mike J. Laneside posted an excellent column titled Is a Little Fun Really the End of the World? in which he outlines the real issue here: fans having fun watching bowling. Essentially, annoying or not, if the fans are enjoying the vuvuzelas, how is that harmful?

I said at the time I liked the PBA taking the initiative to try something different, and I love the fact they're looking to get fans more involved. Due to personal distaste for those hideous horns, I hope fans can find other ways to have fun between shots. Regardless of your opinion on the horns themselves, or even if you're of the these-things-will-kill-pro-bowling attitude, Mike J. Laneside's article is worth a read. I'm not telling you to agree or disagree with him, but he makes a lot of good points.

I support the PBA trying to find new ways to bring in fans. I hate vuvuzelas and hope to never hear one at a PBA event again. However, if giving horns to fans helps grow the sport of professional bowling, and if the fans continue to respect the bowlers by not blowing the horns during shots, I suppose I have to support that, too. As long as I have some industrial-strength ear plugs, that is.