Has the game changed THAT much?!

[hudman]

Having been a product of the era Aslan speaks of, I can tell you that "back in the day" there was a premium on ACCURACY. When you threw your strike ball, you would need to be looking at a particluar board - a single board. The best bowlers I ever knew could place a dime on the lane and hit it with their ball at will. TODAY, you look at AREAS, not boards. The oiling patterns regualrly referred to as a THS (tyical house pattern) would have never been allowed. I bowled an 856 about 30 years ago (along with a 300 in that series) and the ABC threw it out and refused to sanction it because the oil pattern was crowned too much. Have you ever seen a score thrown out in your life? Probably not.

There has been a great deal done to try to re-popularize bowling as a sport and pass-time. Perhaps the greatest effort has gone into making the sport easier. Everybody loves to throw strikes, so why not make it easier to throw them?! Back in the 70's, the odds against throwing a perfect 300 was approximately 32,000:1. Nowadays, it is 11,500:1.

Would Earl Anthony score and win TODAY like he did if he were to throw the same polyester equipment he was so accustomed to throwing in his prime? No. But hten again, that would be placing him at an unfair handicap, since he would be bowling against great bowlers with more modern equipment. But give him the same advantages as your modern pro and he would still be a dominant force. Same goes for Mark Roth, Don Johnson, Dick Weber ec etc...

Jay

I agree 100%.

I would also add that modern bowler gets more strikes thanks to the new ball technology but they are not as good pick up spares. There is no trick ball for spares. LOL

[Zaxmazr]

I just wish we still had the gold pins!

[dnhoffman]

Equipment sure has.

[Zaxmazr]

Just think if Belmonte traveled back in time and shot a live tournament. People would go nuts lol

[Mudpuppy]

I think you have a lot of good points here and good comparisons - it has me intrigued (smoke coming from my ear lobes). As I think back like 10 years or maybe even a couple more than that when the ball technology really took off there was a massive increase in 300 games. I remember reading about it somewhere. That was when a lot of the alleys started switching oil patterns and going to synthetic lanes to make it more difficult and the whole sport bowling was born as a result as well. But it would be interesting to bring Earl Anthony into the modern day and do a side by side comparison with a 200+ average league bowler or 1 step further against someone like Walter Ray. I do think in the past you did have to be a better bowler technically to shoot 200+ games. The old bakelite balls were like trying to throw a clothes iron down the lane. They would last forever but straight is all they would ever do.

[JerseyJim]

Earl did join the Senior tour in 1988, and won another 7 titles then. I think he won the last tournament in 1997. I remember that the cores were really starting to change around that time.