During league last night, one of my team mates had some pretty severe damage to his ball. There were several chips(but more like quarter size chunks about 1/8th to 1/4 inch deep) in his ball. By the end of the night, there were 8 to 10 of these on the ball. There were also the usual burn/abrasion marks that balls get at times and there were quite a few of them too. I've never seen so much damage to a ball in three games of bowling. Ironically, none were in his track. The ball had never been used before last night. He picked it up from the pro shop just before shadow began.


There were 6 of us on the pair (trios) and no other ball showed any burn marks or chips.


The ball was a Legends Yea Baby!, not the new one, but the original from 2004 or 2005.


Is it possible the cover somehow became weak and therefore more susceptible to this kind of damage over time? The ball was kept in a plastic bag in the box until it was drilled.


I even know which lane it was happening on, but find it odd that no other ball had any thing other than the occasional belt marks that can be rubbed off with your finger.

My initial thought was a screw had loosened in the pit or ball return, causing the damage.....however since his is the only one with damage, it seems something specific with the ball (or really bad luck!).  I've never seen or heard of this before, but who knows???

If it's bad luck, it's the worst I have seen. LOL

Yea, it's something about the ball, but I just can't figure it.

I am not sure if i am right but i have seen something like this before.  It can happen if you loft the bowling ball out on the lane about ten feet.  The first part of the lane is sinking when the ball hits the lane and the next part of the lane has an edge and this cuts the ball.( The lane is synthetic for this to happen ) The bowling center can fix this  easily but it is important that the players let them now when something like this happens so they can do something about it, its not funny when this happens to your favorite ball 

Yes i think you are right.  I read you post again and noticed the depth of the chips.  It could be a kickback plate that is damaged , but strange that his ball was the only one that got damaged.....

Does he set it short?  Wood approaches?  If they are quarter sized flat spots they are from the foul line being too high.

No, he gets it about a foot out on the lane. But they are wood approaches with Pro Anvil lanes. I've never seen it on any other ball he has thrown though. There are some spots where it looks like very aggressive sandpaper has been used, but the big ones look to have been thrown against an exposed corner of something metal.

 Check the ball for size.

 I had one once that was so big that the test ring would just barely go down over it if you pushed it on, so it was maximum diameter. That ball always seemed tp get more abuse from the machines than any other ball I had, or anyone elses ball either.