Lol see most of the recent threads going on here for your answer. 

I was just browsing ebay and among the Bowling Digest magazines for sale from various different sellers is the Sept/Oct 1993 issue of bowling digest; and on the cover of the magazine is featured.........

"The Resin ball explosion"



"This highly reactive ball can blow a rack to
pieces-------but is it making the game too easy?"



So I guess I am wondering, is verdict in yet??

Brad

Yes, and no.

No to the Prophet, because the same situation that we have now existed back then. I remember back in 1992, which was my first year of Collegiates and my last year of youth bowling. My hometown was still nothing but urethane at that time. Hammers, Thunderbolts, Nitros, Crushes, U2s and urethane Rhinos ruled the entire town. So obviously, my arsenal was only 2 balls: Blue Hammer and Blue Pearl Hammer. So I take those to my first Collegiate tournament...

..and was completely blown away by what every other team was doing with those purple Rhino Pros, Excaliburs, and Turbo Xs. Following that weekend I went straight to my pro shop and had them punch up both a Turbo X and Excalibur, and my average shot up 12 pins alone. Even back then when we only had two major patterns (short oil and long oil), those balls were more forgiving than urethane, making the game a whole lot easier.

Yes to the game question, because the same thing is happening now; ad in the advent of two hands, and it has become stupid easy, especially since most kids nowadays have never seen urethane outside of a Storm Natural or the new Blue Hammer, let alone bowled in the time which that dominated.

If they really want to see how challenging the game is, they should try a whole block with nothing but urethane, and see how things go.

BL.

For some people, resin was a godsend. For others, a curse.  No cut and dried answer.

That's honestly a good point . . know a lot of guys that just can't get used to resin, but they can still kill it with urethane or plastic. 

Only thing I might offer is that reactive bowling balls allow for much faster condition manipulation.  Shot may be tough to start out with, but it won't be after 15 minutes of practice with a couple pieces of chalk. 

That is NOT the case for the masses and it's proven every year at the US open...

Agreed.  I was just commenting on the only difference I could see might be on the professional level, it's easier for people who know what they're doing to open a shot up with reactives than it was with urethane or plastic, but for the general public, you're right.  Whether they throw plastic on a house shot or reactives on a PBA shot, I bet the averages would be within 5 pins of each other. 

Yeah, I understand.  Just offering a small caveat to the whole deal. 

I remember the same talk when urethane hit the market. Go back and someone was probably bitching about the synthetic lanes, or soaker balls, or letting women bowl in pants.

If this game is so easy, why isn't everyone a pro?