Oh man, a rubber ball with today's oil will irritate many a mechanic. Certain plastic balls are tough enough, especially if they're highly polished. Even when I was using low viscosity oil, my AMF 82-70's had a tough time bringing them back. We had older ball returns, but still, even where my wife works now, the A-2's have a tough time with them. And don't even think about rolling a Gem-Tek.

Sorry the mechanics are just going to have to deal with it. Its all for the integridy of the game ya know. Certainly that's worth the hassle of some mechanics and more wear and tear on the machines.

But then if they really want to go retro they'll just hand spray the lanes with not nearly the amount of oil seen today. Not too much you can do about the new fancy lane surfaces.

Erin

If there was any more sarcasm dripping from that post, I'd need a towel to wipe my screen off. I think that bowlerjim's latest reply hit you just about as well as it hit me, Erin. He sounds like some of the cantankerous bowlers I have to deal with sometimes.

Is that dead horse only a spot on the ground yet? Sheesh.

Retro Night,
Sounds great, just replace the machinery and get some kids to set the pins. Have the bar well stocked with Pabst and Black Label beer, maybe whiskey sours for the ladies. Fill the place with smoke....AHHhh The Good Ole Days.

You guys are great!

It will never get that far because there's to many people who think they deserve to average 200 and will rationalize easy conditions anyway they can in order to keep that average. they don't want a challenge. They want easy scores.

Just an update. Today I read in the paper that last night there were 7 300 games bowled on the citys 5 lanes in our town of 120,000. Wow what new technology will we go to next in this era of higher scores to make things easier and require less practice.A remote controlled ball sounds cool, that you can adjust on its way down to the pins. That way instead of having a 5 board miss area you could have a 10 board miss area. And why are people still willing to go to the golf course in huge numbers when the average scores havent gotten better, while in bowling scores have gone up but people have left the game to find a real challenge. What does this generation do when it beats the easy video game it goes out and buys another one. Bowling is the easy video game.

bowlerjim, why don't you send a letter to USBC? Maybe have a chat with the manager and/or proprietor of that easy house? Talk to the bowlers and tell them they're ruining the sport? It's obvious to me that they don't care too much about merit and are just looking for the "easy scores". That's their choice. There's nothing that you or I or anyone else but them can do about it. Griping about the actions of others that you have no control of is getting pretty old right about now.

The majority of people on this board know that some shots are too easy, but there's not a lot we can do about it. That's a decision the proprietor makes. It's all about the Benjamins to them. You either deal with it or just don't participate in it. It's your choice. The only thing that you as a bowler can do is personally discredit those scores. USBC obviously has no qualms about it if they're still giving out awards to those people.

At any rate, those people with their inflated averages usually find out pretty quick if they're good or not, just like Dennis mentioned in another post about high averages. Take some solace in that if anything. The more you complain, though, the more you come across as bitter. There's no reason to be bitter. Roll your eyes or laugh at them if you wish (as I do) but complaining about it gets you nowhere. Most of them are "superstars in their own minds" anyhow. Let them live in their fantasy world. It really doesn't affect you or me a whole lot.

Just let it go, man. Just let it go.