Company Selling Scented Bowling Balls

[matcom]

<snip>

MILWAUKEE -- Odors associated with bowling traditionally include smelly feet, cigarette smoke and beer. But what about grape, amaretto and cherry? One bowling ball manufacturer -- Storm Products Inc. -- is putting fruit and other popular scents into its mid- to high-end bowling balls, resulting in a steady increase in sales.

More than half the bowlers on the Professional Bowlers Association tour last year used them, including four-time PBA champion Ryan Shafer.

Shafer, who has a contract with Storm, said he may have won a match two years ago in Kansas City because an opponent was distracted by his black licorice-scented ball.

"He asked me if I had to use that ball and I said, 'Yes, this ball is working' ... and I think that is why I won," he said.

Storm Products' first scented balls -- green apple and citrus -- came out in the spring of 2000. Since then, the company has produced about 40 scents. The current scents are black cherry, chocolate, lemonade, plum, blueberry, grape, banana, cinnamon, orange, amaretto and cherry.

"It's just a real good feature of our equipment that gets the average consumer really hooked on our stuff," said Steve Kloempken, technical director for Storm Products Inc.

These aren't balls you currently find in your corner bowling alley, but they're often in the bags of professional or league bowlers.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/03/14/bowling_balls_come_in_different_scents/

[asthmaticeog]

1. Huh.

I personally fail to see the point of scented toilet paper, though respectable arguments could be made for that. But bowling balls? It's American decadence gone amok -- AMOK, I sez!

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. that's quite unfair to use a black licorice-scented ball

God, that's like the most god-awful smelling candy ever made

[sniffa]

3. you wanna sniff my baLLs?

[Spinzonner]

4. I'm not exactly pining for them

[flvegan]

5. "I'll distract you with my balls." Now THAT is the way to win.

Heh heh heh...he called it "equipment" heh heh.

[peekaloo]

6. I'm sure Walter Sobchak would wail about this:

"I didn't watch my buddies die face down in the mud so people could sniff my balls at the alley."

But I bet the Jesus digs it.

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