Bowlers Journal International - February 2008 - (Page 64) BY J.R. SCHMIDT BY J.R. SCHMIDT TIMECAPSULE FLASHBACK 10 YEARS AGO BARRY ASHER'S INDUCTION into the ABC Hall of Fame couldn't be more convenient. He's scheduled to bowl in the ABC Tournament on induction night at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno Tim Criss and Carol GianottiBlock win the $40,000 first prize in the Merit Mixed Doubles in Las Vegas Paeng Nepomuceno wins the Santa Claus Open in Singapore for his 111th international tenpin title The International Bowling Pro Shop & Instructors Association Board votes unanimously not to merge its annual conference with BPAA's Bowl Expo The Showboat Hotel, Casino and (106-lane) Bowling Center in Las Vegas is sold to Harrah's Entertainment Inc. JOHNNY SMALL'S MANHATTAN PROJECT IF NOT FOR A RECALL, WE MIGHT ALL BE USING RUBBER BOWLING BALLS TODAY. EVERYBODY KNOWS THE ORIGIN OF THE high-tech bowling ball. In 1973, Don McCune discovered that soaking a plastic ball in a certain chemical substance (generally misidentified as MEK) improved the lane-gripping qualities of the ball’s surface. Thus began the age of ”chemical bowling.” But McCune was not the first person to demonstrate the scoring potential locked in the shell of a bowling ball. For that part of the story, we have to go back a bit further in time. In May 1939, the Raybestos-Manhattan Company began to make bowling balls. The firm was an old, established manufacturer of rubber products, and the booming bowling market provided a logical opportunity for expansion. The new Manhattan ball, the company's ads promised, would be the finest rubber bowling ball ever made and “offer greater resistance to wear and maintain its original spherical shape longer than any pellet ever offered to the ten-pin world.” In Chicago, radio broadcaster Sam Weinstein had just gone into the bowling supply business. He became the first distributor for the Manhattan ball. The factory sent Sam a batch of 100, and he sold most of them. Then problems started to develop. The new balls had an excess of static electricity. And as we learned in junior high science, rubber that has an excess of static electricity gets sticky. “Those balls gripped the lanes like no other ball ever did,” Weinstein remembered years later. “But they really got dirty and the bowlers couldn’t keep them clean.” That didn’t bother Johnny Small. A member of Joe Wilman’s Budweiser team, Small was one of that large group of bowlers who ranked just below the elite — “a good team bowler,” the expression went. He was a rugged competitor who rolled so many pot games that friends called him “The Marathon King.“ Two things about Small stood out. His backswing was ridiculously short. And at just past 30 years of age, he was almost completely bald. FEBRUARY 2008 25 YEARS AGO THE "BOWLING CHAMPIONship of the World," scheduled to be held in Las Vegas and boasting a $250,000 prize fund, is canceled when barely 100 entries are received The inaugural Hoinke Super Classic in Cincinnati draws 235 bowlers, and the $5,000 title is won by Carl Compton A new magazine called Bowling Digest, published by the same company that produces Baseball Digest, is scheduled to hit newsstands in March Rich Wonders is named Amateur Bowler of the Year Mike Hennessy is named to succeed the late Sam Levine as Secretary of the Ohio State BPA. However, Levine's Cleveland Kegler newspaper will not continue All structural steel is now in place for the National Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Louis. A grand opening is planned for the spring of 1984. 50 YEARS AGO IN WHAT IS BEGINNING TO sound like a broken record, Don Carter wins the fabled All-Star Tournament for the fourth time. At the Minneapolis Armory, he outdistances Buzz Fazio, Ed Lubanski, Carl Richard and Ray Bluth. In the Women's Division, the reign of Marion Ladewig is ended by Merle Matthews, who doesn't knock down as many pins, but compiles a far superior match play record The first 300 game at South Bay Bowling Center in Redondo Beach, Calif., is recorded by a woman, Judy Seki, who is rewarded with a 1957 Ford Thunderbird — a nice enough prize, except for the fact that Seki does not drive Thanks to the sponsorship of two companies, including the local Pepsi bottler, 2,000 youngsters in the Greater Detroit area receive paid memberships in the state BPA's Junior Bowling Club and the AJBC, and are outfitted in bowling uniforms. Small had purchased one of the new balls from Weinstein. He was in the electrical business himself, so presumably he understood why his Manhattan got greasy so quickly. What mattered to Small was that he suddenly was cleaning up in all his money matches. At a time when the best bowlers averaged just over 200, he was regularly rolling 240s and 250s. Meanwhile, Manhattan had been working to correct the rubber problem. The company issued a recall on the “electric” balls, replacing each one with a new model. At first, Small didn’t want to turn his in. Weinstein finally convinced him, and Small got a different ball. Just as he'd feared, his game reverted to its previous level. Now Small went back to Weinstein to retrieve the original ball. A search of SAM WEINSTEIN the shop revealed that it had been shipped back to Manhattan. The factory was contacted, and a search of those premises was undertaken. The news came back — the magic ball had already been melted down. The next part of the tale should say that Small spent the next 30 years, and thousands of dollars, trying to replicate that lost ball. Maybe he did. But if he did, he never admitted it. Manhattan continued to manufacture bowling balls for many years. Sam Weinstein’s bowling supply business became a success. Johnny Small’s bowling resumé eventually included three ABC eagles, a share of the BPAA Doubles title, and an eighth-place finish at the All-Star Tournament. Of course, we may presume that Small would have done even better if he had managed to keep that certain special ball. Had that been the case, today we might all be using rubber bowling balls. And washing our hands between frames. 64 bowlers journal international
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.