what’s shakin’

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Sposato, a native of Solvay. “I averaged about 208 in the nationals, which is good,” Macri reported. “It’s a hard-lane condition.”

From his Mattydale location, Sposato ships 12,000 to 13,000 balls a year all over the world. “We wholesale to pro shops, bowling centers and distributors worldwide,” Sposato said, “Japan, Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, Egypt.” While balls and other products are designed, marketed, sold and shipped by a local staff of eight, the balls are manufactured by a company in San Antonio, Texas.

Sposato, who has won two PBA regional titles, started Lane #1 in 1990, marketing a ball drilling system called the Gravity Balance Driller, before introducing his revolutionary ball in 1992. He was recovering from a car accident when he started designing bowling products. “I was laid up for a year-and-a-half with a shattered leg,” he recalled. “After I got out of the hospital, I got a settlement and bought into a pro shop. I was drilling balls for a lot of the top bowlers around locally and learned a few things. I designed this gravity balance system to drill a bowling ball and balance it better.”

As he drilled balls developed by various manufacturers, Sposato got an idea for a design that made his business a major player in the industry. “A new product came out, the hammer ball, which pretty much had a round ball in the center with two knobs on it,” he explained. “One night I was home, just drawing and drew this diamond shape, and like a light bulb went on. It just hit me that this was the optimum shape for a bowling ball. I went and talked to my patent attorney. His son was a physics major at Syracuse University and he ran some mathematical equations and found that this was the optimum shape in the laws of physics and generated 20 percent more energy than any other shape. Because of that, you’re going to get more strikes and you’re going to get them faster and bowl higher scores.”

It’s worked for Macri, who cites Lane #1 products for improving his scores significantly. “I began using them about 11 years ago,” reported Macri. “I’ve used probably eight or nine of his bowling balls over the years. It helps the reaction of the ball hitting the pins a lot, no doubt about it. I had about 20 300-games with his balls and about 10 800 {series}. I set the record average in the area back in 2004, averaging 241.”

Although Sposato showed impressive ability as a member of a top-ranked squad at West Texas State University and a part-time professional on the PBA tour, competing against such famous high-scorers as Walter Ray Williams and Pete Weber, his invention has proven especially popular with amateurs looking to polish their game. “It’s helping the bowler who doesn’t have as good a technique,” he said. “These balls really hook a lot, so somebody with really good technique, it may be too much, they can’t control it. Where for the average person that couldn’t get the ball to turn, it turns just right for them and they’re striking and they’re scoring higher. It’s definitely changed the game.”

With the colorful polyurethane shells bearing such descriptive monikers as the Pink Panther, Boom-R-ANG, Time Bomb and Massacre Red Death, Lane #1 balls range from 12 to 16 pounds and are among the highest-priced on the market, retailing for $199 to $269. Some of them are on display at the temporary pro shop set up by the USBC in the Oncenter for the women’s open championships that continues daily through July 21. “When they were here bowling the Queens,” Sposato said, “{high-ranked bowler} Dana Miller-Mackey—I drilled her a ball and she used it throughout the finals.”

Sposato knows a little about women bowlers and not just as customers. “My mother, Carolyn Grund, was the first Syracuse woman to bowl a 300 game,” he boasts. “It was in 1976 at the Ukrainian Center.”

While the visibility of the world’s finest kegglers rolling Lane #1 balls is highly desirable, it’s a challenge for all but the biggest companies. “We’ve had our ball on the pro tour,” Sposato acknowledged. “A lot of pros are using it. There’s a lot of politics involved in that. They try to keep the small companies out. In recent years they’ve started to charge the manufacturers a registration fee so the pros can’t use your ball unless you pay them, like $80,000. For a smaller company, it’s hard to compete on that level. We focus more on the league bowlers. They’re the ones that buy the balls.”

—Kevin Corbett