Why is everyone so afraid to spin the thing? Seems like every other day we had somebody who had to do it over once (or twice) due to a puny-ass spin not going all the way around once. Were they afraid they were going to break it or it would fall on them or something?!?!?

I remember Gene telling the players during part of the 1981-82 season not to spin the wheel so hard, as there were probably some malfunctions with it.

Actually, if you watch the wheel spin during that portion of the run, it looks like they used 28 gallons of grease a day on it. That darn thing would've spun forever if someone had given it a hearty twist.

Come to think of it, it's possible that they did it that way because of the tendencies noticed by the OP.