Graaille

Most anyone who knows me knows I throw Legends/Lanemasters exclusively, well, since I got serious about bowling. I'm one of those people who does research and checks out reviews, compares and contrasts, and expects things to last. Which is a serious consideration given the fact that I'm hurling a 15 pound object at 17 miles an hour towards 30+ pounds of wood between 36 and120 times a day. I'd taken bowling in college and still had my old 13# Ebonite Gyro drilled conventional, but when I was asked to join a league, my inquisitive nature got the better of me and I started looking around for what was out at the time that might be better.

When it came down to it 4 years ago, the choice was actually between Brunswick, Storm, Legends/Lanemasters, and Visionary. I had already heard interesting things about Ebonite, Elite was out of the price range, Hammer was still touting the Hawgs (BW's hadn't come out yet), Morich just seemed too technical to figure out an asymmetrical ball, and Roto wasn't on my radar yet.

My first two balls were the World Class Particle and the Black Pearl (which had just been released the prior month). Within 3 months, I'd picked up the World Class Reactive used, had the thumb plugged and moved, and I haven't looked back since. That Christmas I worked a deal where a bowler on another site was looking to move up in weight after his arm injury healed, and he had 4 LM balls for sale, and I picked up all 4 for $250. Great condition and spans were relatively close. (Actually still have one of them in the lineup today.) 3 of them were traded away in 2 for 1 deals and I was the owner of 6 LM balls and 3 Visionary balls.

4 years later, if you count the 2 balls my wife has, and the 2 I was given from my Mom's bowling days - I've got 42 bowling balls, of which 34 are Lanemasters/Legends. Most of them are now 1-1/2 drills, where I've moved the thumb, and I've paid full price for only 4 of them. The others were trades were I ponied up 1-2 balls and got back 2-5 balls (My best was 2 NIB balls for 7 first drills - thanks John D.) I still have 1 Visionary ball, 1 RotoGrip ball, the faithful Ebonite Gyro and Maxim, one Morich, an Azo (which technically was producted when LM bought Azo), and my Mom's 2 Brunswick rubber balls.

"Ok" you may ask "so why Lanemasters?" 2 piece construction -- the coverstock goes right to the core, there's not a filler layer in the balls. When the coverstock goes right to the core, it' takes a lot to have a crack form in the ball -- none of mine even have a cracked bridge. The second thing is that you won't (or at least I don't) get a huge skid/flip reaction from the equipment, nor will you get a strong over/under reaction - they're very predictable, and just don't have oil-drinking coverstocks. Not saying that oil won't soak into the coverstocks, but not in any quick fashion - I've never been able to bleed more than a pittance of oil from any of my equipment, even after 30-50 games. Granted, I wipe them off between shots, but I've heard many stories about other manufacturers who have 'soaker' coverstocks that have a reputation for 'ball death'.

The Visionary balls I drilled up and used didn't react as well for me as the Lanemasters/Legends did, but then that was a couple of years ago -- it may be time to give them a try again. But if I had a list of balls I'd like to try (and those who know me well know I have such a list) there are about 2-3 balls from every manufacturer I'd love to have on my racks so I could give them a try - now that my games improved enough to provide a better assessment of how they work w/my game.

Do I really *need* that many balls? I've been asked that more than once, at the lanes when I bring a 3 ball roller with a joey, by my wife when a box arrives that a ball would be able to fit into, etc.... Well, as I've kept saying to those who shake their head in disbelief "How many golfers do you see with just one club in their bag?"