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Author Topic: 1001 with Orange Dot  (Read 6622 times)

Mankow

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1001 with Orange Dot
« on: March 01, 2005, 06:25:17 PM »
Hi all,

Not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but I just shot 1001 scratch for 4 games with a 15lb. Orange Dot.  That's 233, 269, 256, 243.  I know this is considered one of the worst balls of all time.  A genuine turd by most acounts.  I have owned 3 of them so far and really like them.  So I had to post this.

I have been struggling lately and decided to go back to basics.  Since I started law school I've only had time to bowl in one league.  It's a second-shift Doubles league at Bleekers on the southwest side of Chicago.  The house used a water-based coating on the lanes when they cut them this summer, and the scores have been plummeting ever since.  The heads just soak up the oil because they are so soft.  The league before us is a group of guys who throw old  urethane and plastic balls and blow the lanes to H-E- double hockey sticks.  I have a high rev rate, lots of speed, and basically too much hand for my own good.  I have tried to change, but it just isn't fun.  I have dropped from 226 to 189 over the season, and finally have found something that works.  Tonight I brought out the relics to see if I could improve on the 600 and something I shot for 4 games last week.

I pulled out all the plastic tonight, hoping that I could over power the shot by whacking up on an old ball.  I brought the Blue Dot, pre-"new formula" hard as a rock and super glossy, the AMF Poly Classic (worked down to a burgundy Scotch Brite with a Grey and a Green coming first), and the Orange Dot (the particle plastic beauty, green Scotch Brite followed by 3M Perfect-It II Rubbing Compound), figuring that a relic would force me to make good shots.

Boy was I impressed.  I got lined up with the Orange DOt and never looked back.  I had the world.  I could tug the ball up 18 and carry or send the ball to the 3 board and watch it charge back and get the "swish strike".  I was throwing messengers and tripping 4, 5, 7 and 10 pins.  It was amazing.  My only major mistake, which cost me some money, was when I tugged the ball in the 10th frame of the 1st game (right up 18, with a lot of hand, left a 6-7-10 and almost sent the 6 into the 7 with my Blue Dot).  I went 30 clean for the next 3 games.  I really think I had a shot at 800 if I didn't blow that 10th frame.  Needless to say I had 502 going into the 3rd game with a certified, toasted marshmallow.

Like I said, I don't want to be slapping myself on the back, but I am a huge proponent of throwing old stuff when the going gets tough.  i have an extensive collection of old stuff, both drilled and NIB (White, Bronze, and Moss Green Red Dots, Sur-D, Shore-D, Yellow Dots, white dots, multiple Rotos, Cobras, Magnums and other urethanes, rubber balls like the Lt-48, 3-Dot, Power Balls and the like).  Sometimes I think I am the only one keeping some of the eBay guys afloat.  Reactives, urethane, and particles are just too over under on a truly burned up, inconsistent, "oil, we don't need no stinking oil" type of shot.

I really think there is a place for old technology when lane conditions get really tough.  I just wish that the manufacturers would catch on to this.  Not every center wants to flood the lanes and let guys use the newest hook monsters.  I think that we need more controllable balls that hook little, but still hit well.  The XXXL, Clear Wolf, and Blue Gargoyle are good starts, but Columbia was the originator and innovator of Polyester technology.  I really wish that they would go back to their roots and bring out a few plastic balls that have a good motor hiding inside.  I have tried for years to get my hands on one of the Clear Poly Aftershocks that were made, or one of the plastic Sumos (which I think were made by Columbia for AMF).  But to no avail.  They are all too precious to ever drill.  I really want a strong poly ball that isn't made by the Big B.  The Trooper is not a good replacement.  I want a two-piece polyester ball.

Although it isn't a two piece, the Orange Dot is the best thing I have found so far.  The particles in it even out the reaction enough to make it work on the truly rot-gut, over-under conditions, that some of us have to face.

I'm sorry that this is really long and rambling.  I may have had a few too many "oat sodas" since I cleaned up on the pots with my "Brown Beauty" and made many a cup "flowith over" at the bar.

Columbia, please bring out a good plastic ball.  Yoy discontinued the Black Knight.  You besmirched the Legacy of the Yellow Dot by making the misbegotten, Hard shelled "Legends" of the late 80s and early 90s.  Where has the Velvet Touch gone.  You have made the Blue Dot nothing more than a silver version of the White Dot, instead of the legendary rock that it once was.  You took the opportunity to make a poly-Beast and made a three piece, solid white-Dot, instead of the light-buld cored polyester monster that you should have made (I know that this is ironic since the poly- Beast is the closest thing to a Black Knight replacement, but the shot at a two-piece plastic ball was still missed).  You wrapped the light-buld core on every other coverstock through your Columbia/AMF/Track empire, why not polyester.  For Shame!  

Please come to your senses and make a potent polyester ball.  You waste your time making multiple versions of every other ball, even if they only hook a few more boards than their predecessor.  How many times does the Nuke need to be remade, whether it is a Slam, Hawk, or any of the other versions with a nugget (a.k.a MJ Slam, Nighthawk SPT..., Hexplosion, etc.)  Please, suck it up and make a good plastic ball.  Wrap the Beast in Polyester.  Put the simple Power Torq or Pulse core in a plastic shell.  Heck, make a plastic Cuda, Throttle or any other line.  You could even make a polyester Drive series ball and call it the Bias-Ply or "Slick".  Sure, only me and a handful of other guys would get the joke, but those same guys would gladly pay $150.00 for a polyester ball that has a good core in it.  Come on, you could have the very first assymetrical plastic ball.          

Yes, Mankow has just blown all of his credibility by writing a long, rambling, probably drunken, open letter to Columbia.  I can accept that, as long as I can carry the torch of Columbia's polyester past.

Once again, I'm sorry for the novel, but I had to get this off of my chest.

Sincerely,

Mankow

 

J_Mac

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Re: 1001 with Orange Dot
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2005, 01:05:27 PM »
Sorry to burst your bubble dude.  Ebonite beat Columbia to an asymmetric polyester ball long ago.  And JPF had an asymmetrical Axe that was plastic as well.  It came in three colors.

http://www.bowlingballreviews.com/ball.asp?ballid=70

http://www.bowlingballreviews.com/ball.asp?ballid=273
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American beer is like making love in a canoe. It's f*cking close to water. - Monty Python

Why is American beer served cold? So you can tell it from urine. - David Moulton

Strider

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Re: 1001 with Orange Dot
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2005, 05:24:05 PM »
Clear Wolf wasn't until 10/97.  Couldn't find JPF listed; maybe it wasn't ABC approved?  I didn't see the Orange Dot listed for some odd reason, but it was released way before '97.  Did the Orange Dot have an asymmetric core?  I thought it was a pancake.  I thought it's "claim to fame" was that it was one of the first "particle" balls.

Anyway, great scoring with an ancient "boat anchor".
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Overhand

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Re: 1001 with Orange Dot
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2005, 09:00:07 PM »

Having been the disgusted owner of an Orange Dot, I am suitably impressed.


--------------------
"Heres a Llama, Theres a Llama and another little Llama, Fuzzy Llama, Funny Llama, Llama Llama Duck. Llama Llama, cheesecake Llama Tablet, Brick, Potato Llama Llama Llama, Mushroom Llama, Llama Llama Duck. I was once a tree house, i lived in a cake, but i never saw the way the orange slayed the rake. I was only three years dead, But it told a tale, And now listen little child, to the safety Rail. Did you ever see a Llama, Kiss a Llama on the Llama? Llama Llama's, Taste of Llamas, Llama Llama Duck.
Half A Llama, twice a Llama, Not a Llama, Farmer Llama. Llama in a car, Alarm a Llama, Llama Duck Is that how its told now? Is it all so old? Is it made of Lemon juice? Doorknob, Ankle, Cold. Now my song is getting thin, I've run out of luck! Time for me to retire now, and become a duck! "
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

LuckyLefty

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Re: 1001 with Orange Dot
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2005, 09:19:22 PM »
Threw my XXL with a righties grip on it5 1/2 X 6  from lane 1 on an oily shot and it was fine.

REally no grab in oil and needs a lot of dry to react!  No ball really turned the corner in fact my entry angle looked a lot like a full rollers with reactive, but lots of strikes anyway!

REgards,

Luckylefty
It takes Courage to have Faith, and Faith to have Courage.

James M. McCurley, New Orleans, Louisiana

stanski

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Re: 1001 with Orange Dot
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2005, 09:26:44 PM »
Look at the popularity of all the recent "dry lane" urethane and plastic balls that have come out. Its simple, sales drive products to be made. If more people bought black messangers and the like, more would be made. There just isn't much of a market at this point for these balls.

Good shooting btw, Best I've shot is 712 with a snuffy on an easy house shot.
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stanski

Traumatize

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Re: 1001 with Orange Dot
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2005, 09:27:23 PM »
I have 2 16# purple passion plastic Sumo's sitting in the storage room of my pro-shop, along with a bunch of other 16 pound relics.  I also have semi-new 16# stuff like Meteor Storms, Attack Zones, a Speed Zone, a bunch of Battle Zone Missiles, and a 15# Gyro pro teal reactive.  I also have 16# Fuze Raging Red, Navy sparkle, and Purple Pearl.  If anyone is interested please message me and I can work out a deal.
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Buffalo bowlers are the best all around in the country.

Mankow

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Re: 1001 with Orange Dot
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2005, 09:29:59 PM »
Overhand, Thanks!

Strider, the Orange Dot and the JPF Axe are both golden oldies.

J Mac, I never said that the Orange Dot was asymmetrical.  I only said it was particle.  

That's why I started grabbing them when they popped up on eBay.  They supposedly have a mix of mica and the glass bead particles that Columbia used in the Chaos.  From what the guys around here say, the first batch of balls were awesome, but Columbia wasn't able to re-create the formula consistently.  My driller said that they had to be sanded often to keep up any kind of reaction.  This was also the days before regular guys had spinners in their basements.  Also sand paper, and not scotch brite pads like we use now.  The sand paper tore the heck out of the particles just like the early TEC balls, leading to a quick and dramatic loss of reaction.  Consequently they burned up really early and had no drive.  Hence the fact that everybody hated them, used them as boat anchors, and came up with creative names for them that were related to their hideous dull brown coverstock.

I have had a few Black Axes.  All great balls.  I wish I could find one of the plastic ones on eBay.  There have been quite a few two-piece plastic balls, the Axe, the Pinnacle (we had cases of them at my old center, I learned how to hook a ball with one of those barely legal blue beauties), the Track Enforcer, the purple Sumo, most recently the XXXL and of course the wolf series by Ebonite.  I know the history of bowling balls.  I don't think I made any mistatements about the old Columbia stuff.

When I said "innovator" I meant the invention of polyester bowling balls.  I'm pretty sure they had the idea first.  Ever seen one of the old, semi-translucent green or orange Columbia balls from the 60s.  A flood of other plastic balls came out later, but the Columbias always set the standard.  The Velvet Touch Yellow Dot was the plastic ball.  The Shore-D and Sur D were both monsters in their respective days.  Nobody could catch those balls in their time.  My drunken rant was brought on because I was depressed that Columbia never stuck with the coverstock that made them great.

They had a chance to reinvent themselves with the Clear Aftershock, but the ball never made it into production.  Come on, a huge flaring poly ball with a ceramic nugget.  What could be better?  It would have blown the clear wolves off the lanes.

I rant about this topic often, mainly because I get suckered into bowling in pits that don't take care of their lanes.  It's easier for me to strap up on a plastic ball than it is for me to change my whole game so I can throw the newest hook monster on fried lanes.

I just wish that someone other than Lane #1 was currently making a plastic ball with a real core.

Mankow

J_Mac

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Re: 1001 with Orange Dot
« Reply #8 on: March 03, 2005, 02:00:48 AM »
I know you didn't say it was asymmetrical.  What you said was that Columbia should be the first company with a plastic asymmetrical ball.  I was simply stating that they couldn't be that company with the Wolf from Ebonite and the JPF Axes already having been released.

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American beer is like making love in a canoe. It's f*cking close to water. - Monty Python

Why is American beer served cold? So you can tell it from urine. - David Moulton

Mankow

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Re: 1001 with Orange Dot
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2005, 05:51:43 PM »
J Mac, sorry, I guess I did say that.  I was a little tipsy when I wrote that.  I was thinking of the first asymetric since they started marking the mass bias.

Mankow