Hi everyone,
Like a couple of others, I am looking into the 900 Global Black Ops versus the Special Ops. I became an AMF guy in about 2006 after a bowler I thought highly of was throwing all AMF. I then bought the Velocity, and fell in love with it. I shot my high game of 299 with it. Unfortunately, it cracked, and I had to send it to AMF to get another one only to have that one crack as well. So I no longer have the ball as a memory.
I bought the Max Velocity and Terminal Velocity as well but none were quite like the original. I took a few years off bowling and started again during the summer. I hadn’t purchased a new ball in about ten years and was led to two Brunswick balls – the Fanatic and Fanatic BTU. I ended up buying both and I do like them but I’m still curious about the AMF/900 Global side and would like to have one of those as well.
Someone on the forums recommended the Black Ops given I liked the Velocity. I was now wondering about pin up versus pin down. I’ve googled this dozens of times. When I bought both the Fanatic and Fanatic BTU, the stronger of the two (regular Fanatic) was drilled pin up, and the BTU was pin down. I was basically told pin up makes the ball start grabbing onto the line quicker, which makes it hook faster. I was told with pin down, it doesn’t move a whole lot on the way down but on the backend, it moves and hits hard.
At first, I liked the BTU – my first game was a 279. Now I’m finding the regular Fanatic to be the better ball of a sudden. The Fanatic might curve a tad bit more than I’d like, as I’ve left a lot of 7-10 splits with it after NEVER leaving any before.
About the only thing I can go by as far as hook-ability is bowlingball.com’s perfect scale, which I hear mixed reviews about. It states the Black Ops is a 186.8 versus the Special Ops, which is 182.3. The Fanatic is 192.1, so based on their scale, either would hook less. I am a down and in, second arrow kind of guy. I do not put a lot of spin or revs on the ball and throw somewhere between 12.5 and 14.5 MPH on my first ball.
I am now stumped on the pin up versus pin down thing. When looking at my balls of the past, I have several of each. What's best for a down and in guy?
Jason