Track_Fanatic,
I can't tell you how much I miss my 9R Yellow Dot. That ball helped me through college, heh-heh-heh, between 1986 and 1988. Then the shell went brittle on me, a common occurrence I later learned. It's also the last time I've used a polyester ball of any kind.
Interestingly, everyone talk about inflated averages. In 1988, using that Yellow Dot, I had the highest average in the house where I bowled, like a 202, and I shot the only 700 series in that place during that bowling season.
But yeah, we're talking wood lanes. The bowling alley also closed after that season. The last I saw the actual building became a church.