If you ask me.. you will see more Pros using urethane and mid-price balls on the house shot pattern then high end balls unless they are drill with a weak layout. Should be interesting to see with one thing for sure that I can count on is seeing a lot of solid 10 for righties and 7 for lefties. I can visualize a lot of high games but I am sure we will all get a good laugh with some unusual split.

I just read the full article on these changes this year and I like them. I can't wait to watch.

My only disappointment is that the TQR for the Plastic Ball Championship is bowled with regular equipment.

Yeah thats not cool, even the TQR should be plastic.

This season is going to be a groundbreaker for these reasons:

1) It will challenge the players to bowl on an even bigger variety of different oil patterns, including up to two different patterns used simultaneously during match play and the TV show.

2) I will say that the all-plastic ball event is very unique, especially in this day and age of reactive resin and particle bowling balls, players will be catapulted 30-35 years back in time, to the days I grew up watching on ABC telecasts during the 70's, when plastic was exclusively used so there will be a bigger premium on spare-making, because the pin carry will cause lower scores mostly due to the pins being heavier now than back then (3 lb., 6oz today, compared to the old standard before 1985 (3 lb., 2 oz.). Expect lower scores due to those factors, more of a grind out, and more appealing to the hardcore PBA fan who can relate more to low-scoring telecasts than most casual fans who expect 220-240 scores from the best players in the world every week.

3) But, where are the sponsored tournaments, how about the official PBA sponsors being the namesakes of some of the events? This sounds too generic to me to not have any sponsored events that will definitely appeal to more fans tuning in rather than what they are currently thinking of, how about the H R Block TOC, the Denny's U.S. Open, or perhaps the Etonic Championship?

Without sponsor-named events, the ratings for this season will certainly be low.

4) I am glad they finally brought the seniors back to TV for the first time in ages, I remember watching the Senior PBA Tour back in the late 80's-early 90's, watching players like Gene Stus, John Handegard, and other great PBA stats and Legends like the greatest ever to grace the lanes himself, the late great Dick Weber, and also some of the great touring champions I used to watch on ABC during the 80-90s show that they still have it.

Kudos to the PBA for bringing the greats of old back to the tube, and for making the PBA still worth watching when everyone else would rather tune in to the NFL or NASCAR (aired on the same time slot as the PBA). Now if they can only get sponsors to name the events after in order to draw more fans to the sets.

The exempt players (ie already qualified for the plastic ball tourney) didn't get there with plastic, so why should the others have to get there with plastic?

Actually, I think this is a sham. The balls and the lanes are so juiced, bowling as a sport has to result to gimmicks. It used to be accuracy and consistency that got you to the top. Now, with newer equipment, many, including myself, have a 4 board width to get a strike, and the entry angle can be from 2-6 degrees. Plastic may be the only way to really show any skill in today's game. Remove the oil and see what that brings.

Even Baseball did a study and found that Aluminum bats, in the hands of a professional, had a sweetspot twice as large as a wooden bat. And, the impact of a ball hit by an aluminum bat hits with 4 tons of force. 1 1/2 time that of wood. They would produce monstrous homer totals, hits and every record would have to have an asterisk. For those reasons, you will never see newer technology in bats in Baseball.

Dennis, do you have 4 boards on a sport shot? On the US Open shot?

If you watch the pros, they are putting the ball on the same board with the same release every time. Sometimes they miss half a board and pay dearly. Get half a mile/hour slow, big split. I'm sorry - the game may be easier for house hacks, but the PBA players are not getting a break.

That is why normally a 220 average on a house shot equals about a 170 average in PBA terms, we should expect tougher conditions/oil patterns for the guys we watch on TV every Sunday, imagine Tommy Jones on TV if the PBA ran a house shot on their tournaments, it just doesn't make sense, and would draw less fans/viewers to the sets.

That's why they are the best players in the world, and because of it, we have to make the conditions/oil patterns tougher for these guys, in the same way the PGA pros get the tougher courses than what the club players play on. Otherwise, who would tune in? We already suffer a severe shortage of viewership due mostly to ESPN and the PBA (deliberately) putting the telecasts opposite the NFL and NASCAR every Sunday, and it would literally kill our sport as a televised one altogether if they weren't tougher.

On some Sport shots, yes, I have 4 boards at the pocket, but generally, not at my target. But, my point is, 90% of bowlers never bowl on Sport or PBA shots. All they know is the House shot. And, another large % don't really know the difference between them. It.s only the few who participate on them that can really see the difference. Otherwise, the vast majority of bowlers are content with the high 200 averages, and don't want the challenge. They don't bowl tournaments, and don't care.

The sham is that we have made it too easy to score with ball technology and lane oiling, that we have to make the game harder. We created limits of bowling balls. We developed more difficult oil patterns. And, now we are reverting to Plastic ball tournaments which don't necessarily match those lane conditions.

I don't see the attraction to plastic balls on PBA shots to the average bowler. This is something they will never come up against, nor do they want to.

I couldn't tell you how many league bowlers there are in my main house. Maybe 800 plus. And, the PBA Summer league was cancelled for lack of interest, with only 10 signing up. That is a dismal %. The rest have NO interest.

Pretty much exactly the same at my house, except the league went on with 5 teams of 2 bowlers. This was the first time they had the PBA league. I would have done it, but I needed it to be on a different night than when they had it.



I can deal with the ball and oiling technology changing. I feel that the measures taken to deal with it are wrong. All of the changes have resulted in the pins being overpowered, yet changes to pins to deal with the changes have been mild at best. I still believe that a considerable change in the mass of the pins and distribution of the mass in the pins are necessary to reduce carry and close up the pocket.

Mark