Strider,
I'm not sure what happens but plastic balls do start to hook more as they get older and there is often nothing you can do about it. I don't know if they get soft or what.
When I was using 15 lb balls, I actually replaced by old Blue Dot with a new White Dot and the White Dot went a lot straighter. Now realize that I'm not jack schmuck here. I do quite a bit of spinner work with balls. Of course, I sanded the Blue Dot to a very fine grit level, about 2000 grit, and put a large heavy dose of polish on it. In fact, I did this procedure twice in full and several times partially to try to get it to stop hooking. No "permanent" dice. It goes straight for a short while, but soon starts hooking again, too soon to re-surface it again and again. It still hooks more, if I throw it as I throw my strike ball. Heck, I even re-tried 15 lb balls for a week this past Summer. The old Blue Dot was still hooking. I'm still saving it for sentimental reasons.
trash heap,
Realize that many of these specialy plastic balls like the Brunswick ViZ-A-Balls and possibly the Globe, are much harder than the standard polyester balls like the White Dot, T-Zone and Maxims. My friend has used a Coca-Coal Viz-a-Ball for years now. Its track is all scratched up and it still goes VERY straight.
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