Having read this post, I must say, all you guys(no pun intended) do, or should, know that reviewing balls is a HIGHLY subjective thing.
I have balls that work great sometimes. At those times they would get an unusually high rating, but sometimes they don't work well due to lane conditions. The poor performance is due to the lane conditions, not the ball or anything to do with it.
I have a ball in my arsenal that I thought I would hate the first time I tried it. There was lots of carrydown and I had been told that this was a strong ball with lots of backends. I didn't see any of that the first time and figured I had another loser. Then in league, with fresh backends, I shoot 258(should have been 300 except for operator malfunction), 260, 231(open in the 9th frame) for a 749 that could well have been 800 with just a couple more good shots on my part.
So remember, every ball is different for every bowler on every lane condition. What one guy simply HATES, another will simply LOVE.
P.S. And as far as coverstocks needing to "break-in", am I the only one who thinks this about storm pearl covers?
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Just call me Stan, it's much easier to say!