Their sole purpose, according to Al Vanderneck, of the American Bowling Congress, is to look pretty. Part of Vanderneck’s job is to check the specifications of bowling equipment and he reports that without the stripes, the pins “just look funny.” The area where the stripes are placed is known as the “neck,” and evidently a naked neck on a bowling pin stands out as much as a tieless neck on a tuxedo wearer. Actually, we almost blew the answer to this Imponderable. We’ve thrown a few turkeys in out time, and we always identified the red stripes with AMF ins: the other major manufacturer of bowling pins, Brunswick, used a red crown as an identification mark on its pins. So we assumed that the red stripes were a trademark of AMF’s. AMF:s product manager Ron Pominville quickly disabused us of our theory. Brunswick’s pins have always had stripes, too, and Brunswick has eliminated the red crown in their current line of pins. A third and growing presence in pindom, Vulcan, also includes stripes on their products. We haven’t been able to confirm two items: Who started the practice of striping the necks of bowling pins? And exactly what is so aesthetically pleasing about these two thin strips of crimson applied to battered, ivory-colored pins? Submitted by Michael Alden of Rochester Hills, Michigan |
