Burning up the pattern during practice has been around for many years.  If some of you remember, Brian Voss wrote a huge comment complaining about this on the PBA forum years ago.  Bowlers go out there and burn a shot for themselves and sometimes try to ruin the shot for the others bowlers.

Lets face it, the PBA allows this because they do not want to see low scores on TV.  The problem this past weekend is that everyone except O'Neil tried to play the middle of the lane where Valenta burned them up. O'Neil was the smart one and threw a rocket to the pocket with accuracy and won.

"Ruin the shot for other bowlers"? What does this even mean? Its a disturbing thought process.

Why don't we just go back to throwing hard rubber balls?
 
Things have changed, bowling has changed. You can't stop it from happening. Some of you should read "Who Moved my Cheese", and maybe you'd have a new perspective. What you saw here is a direct result of the PBA trying to develop new patterns. They have Badger now, 52 ft....but in order to make it playable, the volume is relatively low. If you remember back to the Wolf telecast, they showed a fresh lane with Wolf and a fresh lane with Badger. The Wolf lane was a much much darker blue color than Badger. You allow any length of practice time on a low volume pattern, even with balls at 4000, you are going to burn up the pattern. As far as Valenta goes.....no one was complaining 10-15 years ago when Robert Smith was doing the same thing. Why complain now? There were many stops where Smith was lofting the left gutter during the week and more than one occassion where he did so on the Telecast. I do agree as a proprietor, I would not want that happening week after week. The solution, is to put more oil down so the high rev players (both 1 and 2 handed) don't have to to do that. I fail to see the big deal or why some people are so up in arms about this. It's not new.

I don't get it.  If the shot is ruined, why is it that someone like Norm Duke, or Walter Ray Williams can stay right, ball down, change their release and score.

These guys are making choices about where they think they can score best. Just because they move deep or loft the gutter cap, does not mean that that is where they should be playing to win.

Why don't we outlaw being left handed while we're at it

Sorry, but I don't advocate surface restrictions because I want easy shots.  I want surface restrictions so the challenging shots maintain their challenge a bit longer.  I have bowled for 50 years competitively.  Have won as much or more with modern equipment as with the old stuff so nothing I say is sour grapes.  Indeed, with my game I can often stay right of the boomers who blow up the pattern.  My comments were what I consider to be in the best interest of the game at a high competitive level.  Note that the junior gold and some other high level national junior tourneys were limiting finalists to urethane and plastic, so it is not horrible to suggest that PBA competitors wouldn't be ruined by doing something similar. 

I don't agree that we should limit surfaces or ball types but I do think re-oiling between championship matches is a good idea. It would be interesting to watch the scores drop.

Its not that the guys are doing anything wrong or illegal.  The point is that we have allowed the equipment to become so strong that it alters the condition in a manner unintended.  It is sad that technology has allowed us to have lane machines that can put out challenging yet fair conditions, but the balls basically destroy that pattern so quickly.  Why bother owning a 38K lane machine when the balls blow the shot up in 20 minutes of practice.  Just mop a bunch of oil on the lane, because they blow a hole in it in no time.  Again, not a slam on the bowlers, and this has nothing to do with the scoring level.  A more competitive environment where your success is less dependent on the guy you cross behind would be good for the game. 

The cream rises to the top. More oil or longer lasting oil will benefit some, and hurt others. The best bowler is the one that can repeat shots, and figures out the best way to play the lanes in the moment. Figuring out how to adjust to the playing environment matters in all sports. So, no need to whimper and whine about the lane conditions, or balls with too much surface. Figure out how to knock all ten pins down with your balls on the surface that you play on and you win. If you can't figure out how to knockem down and the other guy does, he beat you that day. You loose. It's really that simple.

The beauty of it is that we all can roll the ball down the lane and knock ten pins down, no matter what the lane surface is or ball chosen. Over time, the best win the most.

So, for all of you crying because of the lane conditions, or balls having too much surface or left handers having an advantage or two handers having an advantage, send me your mailing address, I'll send you a hanky.