Yes, I wondered if someone would comment on that. Could it have been because of the slightly tighter pockets? Or just variations resulting from different groups of players playing "only" about 200-250 games each of those years?
I think a big factor was the bad racking they were getting. With good racks most are going to break head ball and leave a good open table. With bad racks many were breaking second ball (which tends to result in more clusters) and even with head ball they are getting more clusters. They were also some racks where the players got pinned on the head rail and had to play safe out of the gate - again IMO a product of what they had to do on the break.
That’s just my impression as I didn’t go back and watch the breaking situation in previous years.
