1984 King Louie Open Skidmore vs Roth Part 1

[sjfinchum]

when mark roth bowl and his left what is that sound is it mark roth hitting the ball return ? or is it mark roth kicking it

[vanni9283]

I can't see why anyone would want to shoot the right hand side when they leave the 4-6-7-9. I think It's a lot easier to make the split shooting after the 4-7.

[ilovesteelydan]

This really shouldn't bother me that much, but I mean, whoever put those ball returns up that far on the approach..... just wasn't thinking. Great post though. Always fun to see Mark Roth bowl.

[brian1969a]

Well, back when they were put in, nobody threw the big hook, so nobody was standing that far left, except perhaps for spares. And, of course, in the old days the balls came back on top of the lane instead of under it, and these were "leftover" from that era. They did eventually replace them with more modern returns.

There's an old center in the town north of where I live, has the same kind of returns to this day...I hate bowling there, for just that reason, lol.

[ilovesteelydan]

And of course it turns out, I wasn't thinking! LOL.. That makes a lot of sense Brian. Thank you for the input. That would be funny if Roth's style was the main factor in getting alleys to change their ball return placements. He definitely left his mark. Not to mention a few footprints on the ball return :-P

[brian1969a]

It was probably 50-50. Roth ushered in the era of the big hook, but technology was changing, too, so they learned how to hide the ball return tracks under the lane. Plus, with the big hook players standing further left, they probably realized that now they could move the returns themselves further back on the approaches.