Ridiculous at the very least!  There is no way in hell anyone involved with making this rule ever thought about magic marker when they were worrying about foreign substances added to the ball. Go ahead and use the ball with the writing on it, I guarantee nobody will complain.

Who peed in your corn flakes this morning? Obviously , you just dislike the USBC.

 I fully understand the no engraving left on a ball, because more than likely if the ball has no engraving left on it, it no longer meets the minimum circumference standards. Magic marker on a ball will never in any way affect the way the ball reacts on the lane and the marker will not affect the cover the way acetone does. The USBC including magic marker is just another ridiculous rule on the books. You can put three finger holes in a triangle, use no thumb and grip the ball in several ways and that's legal, but write on your ball with a sharpie and your a rule breaker. Yep, makes sense to me!!

I was at a tour stop and wanted to get some autographs; but, on short notice, all I had with me for autographs was my plastic spare ball.  I don't like paper goods for autographs - they tend to get thrown away/lost over time.  Given the feedback here, I decided to forego the signing. Thanks.

Quote from: TDC57 on May 09, 2016, 10:12:46 PM

I fully understand the no engraving left on a ball, because more than likely if the ball has no engraving left on it, it no longer meets the minimum circumference standards. Magic marker on a ball will never in any way affect the way the ball reacts on the lane and the marker will not affect the cover the way acetone does. The USBC including magic marker is just another ridiculous rule on the books. You can put three finger holes in a triangle, use no thumb and grip the ball in several ways and that's legal, but write on your ball with a sharpie and your a rule breaker. Yep, makes sense to me!!

I am pretty sure there isn't a minimum circumference requirement for the bowler.  For the manufacturer, yes.  If a bowler has resurfaced his ball enough times to where the serial number is gone, they can engrave their own serial number.  Just as long as it can be identifiable.

And USBC doesn't specifically say a marker is illegal.  They say any foreign substance is illegal, which marker falls under.  As it has been said before, it is significantly easier to enforce a rule that encompasses everything (any foreign substance) than it would be to list all things that are illegal/legal.

The rule does specifically state marker as an example of a foreign substance that is not allowed. 

The whole rule is definitely silly.  Perhaps it should be rewritten to state no foreign substances that provide a performance advantage to the bowler or cause a disadvantage to other bowlers on the same lanes being used at the time.

So instead of continuing to debate this, just contact USBC. 

So, after reading through these posts, I decided to ask USBC itself.  I wrote:

Hi,

There seems to be this big debate going on about using an autographed ball.  It is known that a USBC rule bans the use of markers on a ball, but why?

And following is USBC's response:


The use of a marker on a bowling ball would be considered a foreign substance on the surface of a bowling ball which is against USBC specifications.  The surface of the bowling ball must be clear from all foreign substances to protect the integrity of the game.  There is no grey to the rule, it is black and white to make it easy to enforce.

Should you have any further questions, feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Michael A. Spridco
Senior Director
Rules/Bonding

So if I get a belt mark on a ball during play, and don't clean it off, then the ball is automatically illegal for use?

Belt marks fall under the same category as nicks and scratches from normal use. 

AMF300bowler, I love a little pee on my corn flakes and don't have some huge distrust of the USBC, but they do have many ridiculous and inane rules. Bowlers shoot 900 series on legally blocked shots or shoot 900 when an individual is prebowling for a team league and it's okay! No loss of integrity there! Bowl in a league and for some reason you decide to leave before the nite is done and they can and usually will suspend you. Magic marker on your ball and you've ruined the integrity of the game! I can go on with those type of things that have made the sanctioning body look like the clowns driving the mini-bike in the parade. The integrity of the game is long gone and not coming back. At least that's what the purists always give as the reason membership is barely a 1/4 of what it was at it's peak!!!