Norm Duke has won eight straight championship-round matches. (MT file photo)When the going is good, the last thing you want to talk about is how good the going is. Why jinx it?
No one talks to a pitcher throwing a no-hitter. Streaking field-goal kickers and free-throw shooters seem to miss right after an announcer mentions a streak. Been 15 years since you got a parking ticket? Better knock on wood because it just came up.
Norm Duke has a different viewpoint.
The Hall of Fame bowler is again in the running for player of the year on the Denny's Professional Bowlers Association Tour, and he doesn't mind in the least discussing it.
"I've always said, if you can worry about player of the year late in the year, that's a good thing," says Duke, who hopes to return from a toe injury this week in the Earl Anthony Medford Classic at Lava Lanes. "If you're not worried about it, that means you're having a down year. With two titles, it's something I get to stress over. I'd rather stress over player of the year than whether I can pull myself out of a slump."
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Heading into the season's 11th tournament, Duke is the lone player with multiple victories, having claimed titles during the first half of the season in the Lake County Indiana Classic and, in the final event of the swing, the Columbia 300 Classic in West Babylon, N.Y.
Following the strong finish, it was with high hopes that Duke — who leads the tour with an average of 229.79 — came out of the holiday break.
However, during last week's H&R Block Classic in Reno, Nev., Duke slammed his right pinky toe into a doorjamb in his hotel room and had to withdraw from the tournament.
"When you're thinking about player of the year, there's never a good time to miss a tournament," says Duke, 42, and a full-time tour member since 1983.
He's "day-to-day" and will test the injury when he gets to Medford, where his best finish was runner-up to Mike Wolfe in December 2004. Playing with pain, he says, could cause him to "bowl myself into a slump real easily" by overcompensating and creating a hitch in his delivery.
Duke pulled out of one other tournament, the Etonic Championship in Cheektowaga, N.Y., because of a pinched nerve in his back, then returned the following week for his first win of the season.
Missing the Reno event was troublesome not only because he lost an opportunity to enhance his season portfolio but also because he wasn't able to take what he'd built during the two-week layoff onto the floor.
Duke, who is 5-foot-6, 128 pounds, works hard to keep his core muscles — stomach, back, legs — strong so he can compete with younger, bigger, stronger players.
The midseason break gave him a chance to reinvigorate himself physically and to work on his game.
"I work hard on those so I don't spot the field a strength advantage," says Duke, who is ninth all-time with 25 career titles. "I like to take that advantage with me, and in many cases I do. That's one of my strengths, to know in my head that I'm physically strong."
Age hasn't seemed to lessen Duke's effectiveness.
He's the youngest player to have won a PBA tournament, doing so three weeks shy of his 19th birthday in 1983.
And last year, he put together one of his finest seasons, even though he won only one title.
Duke led the tour in points with 247,926, TV finals with seven, average with a mark of 224.29 and was second in earnings with $211,800.
What he didn't do was finish the deal.
"Out of seven shows," says Duke, "you'd like to think you could get it done more than once.
"You have to make something of the weeks when you're on TV. Then you'll be categorized differently in the end. I had a great year last year, but when it came time to vote on player of the year, it was the guy who won four times."
Duke went six shows without a victory before ending the drought in the Ace Hardware Championship in Taylor, Mich.
Then one streak begat another: The two titles earlier this year came in his only TV appearances, giving him eight straight finals wins, which is halfway to the all-time record of 16 set by Jim Pencak.
Duke decided before this season that it wasn't necessary to make seven shows again, "just be more opportunistic" when the time came.
He defeated Mika Koivuniemi, 236-233, in the final in Indiana and Ryan Shafer, 218-179, in New York.
"If you can't beat them on Sunday, it's going to be a lonely year," says Duke. "If you can beat them, people will call you and want to do interviews, people will want your autograph, it'll be a great year. Those few frames on Sunday are huge."
And having enough experience to discuss them? That's a good thing.
Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail ttrower@mailtribune.com
