Every sport has its own records and accomplishments all players hope to reach and exceed, and part of the reason those milestones are so important is because they happen so infrequently.

As the PBA moves into 2019, there’s a feasible chance we could see multiple players achieve some of the most elite milestones in professional bowling.

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First, let’s get the absurd out of the way: yes, someone could theoretically win 14 or more titles, including all the majors, average 300 and earn over $4,000,000 in 2019. 

That would be fantastic, however, we needn’t be that outlandish. There are some huge moments within reach, realistically, of several players this year.

Someone completes the Triple Crown

Only six players in the history of the PBA Tour have claimed the PBA Triple Crown, and all of them are unsurprisingly in the Hall of Fame. Billy Hardwick, Johnny Petraglia, Mike Aulby, Pete Weber (who has actually earned the Triple Crown twice), Norm Duke and Chris Barnes are the only players in the 60-year history of the PBA Tour to collect the necessary titles.

Why is it so difficult? To win the Triple Crown, a player has to win each of the three original PBA majors: the World Championship (formerly National Championship), Tournament of Champions and U.S. Open, which always have been and still are three of the most difficult bowling tournaments to win.

This year, three players in particular have a chance to claim the third jewel of the crown. EJ Tackett, who won the 2016 World Championship and 2017 Tournament of Champions, nearly finished the job at the 2018 U.S. Open, before falling to eventual champion Dom Barrett in the stepladder finals.

Barrett, who added the 2018 U.S. Open title to his 2013 World Championship victory, is now a Tournament of Champions win away from collecting a Triple Crown of his own. If Barrett can win the Tournament of Champions and Tackett claims the U.S. Open, we could actually see two players complete the Triple Crown in 2019.

There’s one other player – Jason Belmonte – who can viably complete the Triple Crown this year and doing so would simultaneously mean quite a bit more.

Belmonte accomplishes everything at once

Belmonte has won every major championship except one, the U.S. Open, and has a total of nine majors already in his career. If Belmonte is able to win the 2019 U.S. Open, he would not only become the seventh Triple Crown winner (eighth if Barrett wins the TOC in February), but he would also become just the third player ever (along with Aulby and Duke) to win the Grand Slam, which adds the USBC Masters, a title Belmonte has already won four times, to the three Triple Crown events.

Even more impressive, since Belmonte also owns two Players Championship titles, he would join Aulby as the only two players to have accomplished the Super Slam, which includes all five major championships on the current PBA Tour.

All that kicks in at once if Belmonte wins the U.S. Open. However, Belmonte can also tie and/or break the all-time record for PBA major championships in 2019, even before we get to the U.S. Open. Earl Anthony and Pete Weber share the record with 10 career major titles, and Belmonte’s next would be his 10^th. If he can somehow win two majors in 2019, he’ll become the greatest major champion in PBA history.

Of course, if Weber gets healthy and wins a major of his own (his last major came in the 2013 Tournament of Champions), then Belmonte will have a little more work to do.

Weber or Barnes finalize Grand Slam

The hypothetical Barnes-Weber title match in the USBC Masters is getting less likely each year but fans can still hope. The two all-time greats famously lack this title and have combined for five runner-up finishes (three for Barnes, two for Weber).

Players join elite 20-title group

Only 14 players, all Hall of Famers, have won 20 or more times on the PBA Tour. This season, we could conceivably see three players win their 20^th titles. Barnes, who won his 19^th championship at the 2018 PBA Xtra Frame Lubbock Sports Open, is one win away. Belmonte is two wins away as is Tommy Jones, who just extended his contract with Ebonite and is in a career-long game of one-upmanship with Barnes over who currently has the most championships.

Someone breaks the single-season earnings record

As announced in October, if a player bowls a 300 game in the championship match of one of four consecutive live telecasts (Tournament of Champions, Players Championship, Indianapolis Open, Jonesboro Open), that player wins $1,000,000.

Another note on the million dollars is that it counts toward the money list, just as the traditional $10,000 bonus for a 300 game counts.

Yes, it’s unlikely to happen. If it does, though, the winner of the million will also become the PBA record holder for most money earned in a season. Walter Ray Williams Jr. currently holds that record from the 2002-03 season, when he earned $417,450.

Best, most outlandish case: the same person wins all four events, rolls 300 in every title match and banks $4,000,000 on top of the first-place prize money, setting both the single-season and lifetime earnings records, then presumably retires, never to touch a bowling ball again.