I really thought Steve Wiles was pulling my leg last week when he told me about “baking” his bowling ball to get the oil out of it.

Steve also said he sometimes stuck the ball in the dishwasher to get the same result.

I could almost picture Jean, Steve’s better half, cringing as Steve shoved the ball into the oven. I envisioned oil dripping onto the bottom of the oven, creating quite a mess.

On the chance that Steve was being truthful, I got on the bowl.com Web site and discovered that you can, indeed, bake a bowling ball, providing the ball is a reactive resin one.

According to the website provided by the United States Bowling Congress, one of the problems with reactive balls is the characteristic of the shell soaking up so much oil and dirt that the reactive characteristics seem to fade away.

Because reactives soak up so much oil, there comes a time where even surface cleaning and even sanding doesn’t affect the ball. The oil has soaked into the shell so deeply that none of the traditional cleaning methods have any effect.

Some experts believe that baking may actually prolong the life of the ball. Baking involves placing the ball in an aluminum pie plate in an oven on low heat (200 degrees) and wiping the oil off the ball as it oozes to the surface. This procedure can be time consuming depending on the amount of oil in the ball. Experts recommend having plenty of clean towels and rubbing alcohol handy.

After a minute, check the ball to see if it has a shiny or wet look. If it does, the oil is starting to bleed. Working quickly, remove the ball from the oven and wipe the surface with the alcohol. Repeat until the ball no longer bleeds oil.

The Web site indicates that the dishwasher method gets the same results without the mess and time involved. Simply place the ball on the lower rack and run it through a cleaning cycle. The hot water and heat draws the oil off the ball, and the water rinses the oil away.

Idle thought: I wonder if getting the oil out of the ball’s shell will help those of us who leave a lot of corner pins on pocket hits. Hmmmm…

Basaldua rolls 300

Rueben Basaldua’s 300 game at Bowl East topped the city’s lengthy list of highlights last week. Several others flirted with perfection. Ed Israel had 289, David Brisco and Kirt Roach had 279s and Luke Alexander and Ricky Banfield posted 278s, all at Bowl East.

Israel’s 732 topped the list of 700-plus efforts. Butch England shot 729, Kenny Snow 727 and Art Lara 714 at Fourth Street Bowl, while David Efird rolled 712, Jim Vanslyke 709, Frank Wiesler 705 and Bill Vickers 701 at Bowl East.

Linda Bailey’s 253-690 at East paced the women last week, but Heidi Burggraf had 245-655 and Candy Brown had six 200-plus games in producing sets of 626 and 656, also at East. Tammy Little posted a 616 and Robyn Laubach 600 at East.

Over at Fourth Street Bowl, Carol Dutton shot 236-638 and Stacy Putnick rode a 256 high game to a 603 series.

The senior women set the pace at Fourth Street Bowl as Millie Dickerson had a 220 high line en route to a 546 series. Bernice Cook posted 200-538. James Lack, 538, and Gene Elrod, 534, led the senior men.

Tyler Meyer rolled 661 on games of 202, 213 and 246 in the youth league at Bowl East.

U.S. Women’s Open

Due to a schedule change, the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open, a United States Bowling Congress event, will debut on ESPN at 1 p.m. today (Joplin time), one hour later than originally scheduled.

Today’s premiere will mark the first of five consecutive weeks of U.S. Women’s Open coverage on ESPN, which will continue on Sept. 14, 21 and 28 and Oct. 5, all at 1 p.m. CDT.

The U.S. Women’s Open started with more than 180 competitors, who battled through 32 grueling games of qualifying Aug. 1-4 at Brunswick Zone XL in Romeoville, Ill., before the top 16 advanced to the single-elimination bracket that will be featured on ESPN.

The field of 16 of the most talented women bowlers in the world was divided into four sub-brackets, and on each of the first four telecasts, four players will face off for a spot in the finals, which airs on Oct. 5.

The field includes Team USA members, former professional stars, international standouts, collegiate champions and top amateurs, and the event concludes with a climatic title match that makes bowling history.

Today’s pairings: (4) Diandra Asbaty, Chicago vs. (13) Maxine Nable, Australia; (5) Brenda Mack, Indianapolis vs. (12) Kim Terrell-Kearney, Dover, Del.

Address correspondence to Wendell Redden, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, Mo. 64802, or e-mail sports@joplinglobe.com.