Bowling Video of the Day--Bowling Ball History

This week, the intrepid participants in the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship will be leaving their modern reactive resin and less modern urethane balls in their bags and returning to bowling's equivalent of the Dark Ages by using only special polyester or "plastic" balls. Even with the lower volume of oil that will be applied to the lanes this week, these balls won't hook nearly as much or carry strikes nearly as well as newer equipment does.

It should be a very interesting tournament. I'm inclined to think that those, like Jason Belmonte, with the most powerful releases wedded to at least decent accuracy and consistency will fare best this week. "Mr. 260 League Average" Jeff Carter won the inaugural event last year.

In the meantime, this seems an appropriate time to post a video of bowling ball history from the Stone Age of wooden and mineralized rubber balls to the high-tech missiles that bless or curse the sport today. The video comes from a segment of the Modern Marvels program airing on the History Channel.