Randy's use of the terms "Vortex" and "Don't tase me, Bro" are not connected to bowling and do not infringe upon the bowling lexicon that includes such time honored terms as "four bagger". Randy probably talks like that when he is not behind the mike. As for excitement in the game, there is real excitement such as needing to strike out in the tenth frame to win by one pin. Then there is Rob Stone trying to manufacture excitement and making bowlers like myself cringe when he starts yelling "Hambone".

I was watching an older broadcast on Classic, and Marshall Holman said three-bagger instead of turkey. HOW DARE HE infringe upon the bowling lexicon that includes such time honored terms as "turkey".

On a slight tangent, I am getting tired of people lamenting how the game is not what it was 30 or 40 years ago. Guess what? The game 30 or 40 years ago is not what it was 30 or 40 years before that. Nothing is what it was 30 or 40 years ago. Nothing is even what it was 5 years ago. Things change. Get over it.

Bowling is nowhere close to the same game it used to be.

Back in the day you either knew how to bowl, or you didn't, there was no big hooking ball technology or coaching to help you get to a higher level.

Now a days you can go to any number of internet sites and find books and coaching is available almost anywhere, of course you have to know much more than you did back in the day, but a few years of studying will help you learn all you need to know to be successful.

Back in the day you had to be accurate, and everyone threw the same hard rubber ball and you didn't have lane conditions set up to steer errant shots to the pocket.

Now a days you have to move and change your line every few frames, back in the day you could stay in one spot all night throwing the same shot all you had to do is not miss your target, that sounds pretty easy to me. If you bowl on a sport pattern these days you have to be accurate and versatile and know what ball to throw.

Back in the day every pattern was a sport pattern, but there was a worn area called the Track that was a grove to the pocket, modern synthetic lanes don't wear that way, so it is not like the shot was very difficult back then, all you had to do was play the way everyone else played which was a full roller straight up the 10 board. The modern game can be played from multiple angles, there is no "One Line to the pocket", or one way to bowl.

Lane conditions were not as difficult as they would like you to believe, and they are not as easy these days as they would like you to believe.

Have to agree with CoachJim. 30 years ago, a 195 bowler was a pretty accomplished bowler. Buzz Fazzio led the PBA for 2 consecutive years with a 196 average.

Today, ball Companies have made it easier. Lane conditions have made it easier. No where 30 years ago, did you have 5-8 board variance to hit the pocket. There was NO dry to bounce off of. Big hooks were non existent.

As the Coach said, shellac then laquer lane surfaces were it, and bowlers wore a Track in the lane, not the ball. The conditions bowled on every day were the same as the Pros bowled on. There were NO Sport leagues to make it tougher with oil patterns. There just were higher competitive leagues with better bowlers, Classic Leagues and travel leagues. If you want a comparison, shoot the Shark pattern every day at your center. The playing surface will be the same for everyone, and the scores will drop radically.

Virtually all the terminology we talk about today, has been created in the past 25 years. Some say there is a science in the game today. I seriously wonder. I don't see too many scientists bowling.

30 years ago the game was repetition and accuracy. Today, it's a premium priced ball, especially made for specific lane conditions. It's like the kids game of Concentration.... Match the right ball with the right lane.

I go back further than Marshall and even back then "turkey" and "three bagger" were in vogue and interchangeable.

I would like to think that I have changed with the times. Sometimes I think that I am ahead of some of the members of the leagues I have belonged to in the last 10 years.

There is nothing wrong with change as long as it is an improvement to the game. I'm not sure that all of the technological advances in the last 15 years are an improvement. When I read about 12 year old kids rolling perfect games I've got to think that the equipment available today might have had something to do with that perfect game. There was a time when a 300 game meant something. 30 or 40 years ago the world's record for the number of 300 games was 26. Now there are a bunch of local classic league bowlers who have 40 - 50 300 games to their credit. The game is constantly changing but I think we have passed the point where it is more about having the right equipment rather than the skill of the bowler.

John that is kind of what I was trying to point out is how the game has evolved and how different it is now compared to back then, but if you were to bowl on a sport pattern with enough oil to keep the ball from hooking so much, like back in the day, things wouldn't be much different score wise.

If you were to bowl with an old rubber ball on a modern sport shot on a synthetic lane, that would take phenomenal skills to shoot a 300 on that, with modern equipment it is the same thrill that it used to be and takes the same amount of skill and much more knowledge to do it too, but the knowledge is out there and easy to come by, not locked away in a vault.

If you were to have the same oil pattern on a wooden lane with a Track worn in it it gets a little easier, if you were to use a plastic ball it gets easier, a soft plastic ball even easier, a urethane ball easier still.

Next replace the old wooden lane with a synthetic lane with no Track worn in it, not quite so easy, a house oil pattern makes things a whole lot easier, a reactive urethane ball easier yet, even more oil in the middle of the lane makes it easier still, an oil absorbent reactive urethane ball with textured surface with an asymmetrical core makes it the easiest ever.

I still blame Mark Roth for a lot of the way things are now, if he didn't have so much success hooking the snot out of the ball, so many of us wouldn't have tried to copy him and taught so many others how do hook the ball too, then they wouldn't have had to change to thicker oil and improve the equipment to match. If we were all still tossing a full roller, we would probably all still be throwing plastic balls straight up the 10 board for our strike shot. I am just waiting for the kids to see Jason Belmonte bowl, they will make the game change even more, or make it disappear.

Coach,

I agree with you that Mark Roth popularized cranking the ball and started the rev race although a contemporary of Roth's, a stroker, beat out Roth for the most titles - 41 to 34 - you know who I am referring to. However, the one person that I feel had the most influence as to how bowling balls and lane conditions are today is Don McCune and his Soaker - softening up plastic balls by immersing them in methyl ethyl ketone creating greater ball surface-to-lane contact and therefore a more effective ball. From McCune it just snowballed - softer plastic so that finally the ABC had to impose a hardness rule - I can't remember whether it was 73 or 75. From there it went to urethane to reactive resin to reactive resin w/particles. With each advance in ball technology(and hookiness)the amount of oil used on the lanes increased correspondently.

Excuse me if I feel a bit of nostalgia for the "good old days" when I toted only one ball to the lanes.



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So, what do you think would happen if someone like Michael Fagan, or Tommy Jones, or even Belmonte was bowling on those old lanes (we'll say late 60s) with that old equipment, and the style they have developed now? I would bet that they would beat the pants off everyone else.

Look at the senior tour. The shape of shot that those guys throw is still the same. Gene Stus is the only guy that I think I can remember really hooking it much. The rest all threw a regular old stroked up 10 shot. Roth plays the same line/amount of hook that he's always played.

Settings leagues aside for a minute, and looking at the pros, I think it is more the style of bowler that has changed, and if they are scoring higher now, it is more because of that than it is because of the equipment.

cgeorg, the equipment and lane conditions allowed the bowler to change style. That couldn't have been done on the older shellac lanes with rubber balls. I don't care how man revs a bowler had, outside of 10 was out of bounds, and all the way down. There were no dry outside boards. The pattern was flat.

Put yourself on a flat, lacquered surface for 60 feet, and tell me what your ball would do. Then use a solid rubber ball. That is why I equated older bowling to bowling on the Shark. It is the longest, flattest pattern in today's world.

Now, the National shot of 44 feet, with 70+ units of oil will come closer. Talk with bowlers who recently have come back from Albuquerque. They will all say it is much, much tougher. You can't give an opinion unless you have bowled on it. It is an experience every bowler should have.

I know many older bowlers who have recently come back from there. They are 210-220 average bowlers. They are really happy with a 560 for any set. And, that's with the newer equipment.

There is no doubt that equipment and lane surfaces changed the sport. And, as CoachJim said, made it easier.

Actually, CoachJim said that at the highest level, the game is the same.



Bold added for emphasis.

Is bowling easier for us, the house bowlers? Yes. But, I bet more than half of the exempt pros would average over 200 if the bowled on the US Open pattern for a season. And I bet that if you took them and stuck them on the conditions that were bowled on in 1966, when Wayne Zahn led the tour with a 208.63 average, a good many of them could/would top that.

I want the PBA to do this Get some old lacquer lanes and rubber balls, and, have a PBA shootout on it. Put this issue to rest. Heck, the USBC should do this, if it wants to prove that the sport still has integrity. Show the world that these guys are the best there has ever been.