Patrick Johnson said:

They look so... sunny!

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Is there a more appropriate adjective for the clan?!?

Island Drive said:

I remember Earl Saying pools harder than golf ys ago.
I know Grady Matthews once said to get good you have to hit at least 2,000,000 pool balls.
In golf, if you hit two million balls, you better be in Dam good shape, as I've heard many pro golfers often need some type of surgery.

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I was a decent golfer ~10-12 handicap. I quit for many years and tried to take it back up. Shanked everything, not long after was when I discovered that my left shoulder was gone, no rotator cuff movement and a 3 inch bone spur. Now closing in on a year after shoulder replacement surgery I need to go hit the range and see if I'm still shanking everything.

Black-Balled said:

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They look so... sunny!

uk_9_ball_convert said:

Doubt winning 5 in a row by Hendry will ever be matched. Guy just had a different mentality. Changed the game, before him it used to be try to score 30-40 points on the loose reds then play a safety, where Hendry would pot the blue and go into the pack smashing everything open. Cloths were a lot slower back then so you couldn't do the delicate shots they do now to loosen a few reds at a time. Equipment's changed a lot over the years, so not sure how much you can compare players from different eras, but Reardon, Davis and Hendry dominated their era in a way Ronnie hasn't. Just don't think Ronnie has the same temperament and grit of those serial winners, though nobody can deny his talent.

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The 2002 World Championship would've been Hendy"s 8th if he had beaten Peter Ebdon. He had 16 centuries during that event and he put it to O"Sullivan 17-13. O"sullivan had been saying he'll send Hendry back to his sad little life.

I remember Earl Saying pools harder than golf ys ago.
I know Grady Matthews once said to get good you have to hit at least 2,000,000 pool balls.
In golf, if you hit two million balls, you better be in Dam good shape, as I've heard many pro golfers often need some type of surgery.

sudocrushms said:

Is that from him suddenly having more FR matches in the system, or has he been overperforming that much? Not sure how big the data set was before then.

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He won more of his games this past year than expected. The system can't tell to what extent that's an aberration (either he got more rolls than his opponents or his opponents were not as strong as we thought they were) or his baseline skill is higher than we thought. You can think of 830 as the system's best estimate of his current baseline (average) skill balancing the different possibilities as well as it can.

David in FL said:

Fun little backstory...

My Grandpa ran a small Brewery in Appleton, Wisconsin.

At 10, I worked part time that summer sweeping up around the brewery.

Across the street was a small tavern owned by Bob and Ellen Bleier, parents of Rocky Bleier, of Pittsburg Steelers fame.

After work, to my mother's great distress, grandpa would take me over to Bliers and we'd play a few games of pool and have a beer. Back then, if your grandpa said it was ok, they'd give you "a little beer for a little guy"...

That was the first place I ever shot pool and drank a beer in a bar. You don't forget memories like that!

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I grew up in Powers Lake Wisconsin 53159. When I was 13 went to a bar and bought a 14 yr old girl a screwdriver. I liked the name, and it burned down the next yr.

You can throw darts in there too. (pun intended)
I've played hockey, baseball, soccer, volleyball, bowled, long-ish range marksmanship, and of course pool. I still have no f-ing clue how those guys can smash the T20 repeatedly then hit any random double on the board like it's nothing...

ibuycues said:

Golf’s a lot like my financial situation.
As soon as I get out of one hole I start getting in another one.

Will Prout

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Don't forget about the rain and the wind ....

The Old Jaybird said:

I found golf to be a perfect way to screw up a perfectly good day.

Pool was indoors, year round, no wild animals, and much less walking and you are always close to the bar.

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Railbirds can bite... and your car in the parking lot is always in play.

skogstokig said:

noone is saying hendry used to play the janitor, but the stats don't lie. the competition is much tougher now, more centuries, higher pot success etc.

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I don't think you can compare the number of centuries when the equipment has changed so much. Modern cloths far faster which makes it much easier to develop balls. And last few seasons some of the top players have been complaining they've been making the pockets too easy, which narrows their advantage over the weaker players.

Bavafongoul said:

There isn’t any athleticism needed to become a great pool player because different skills are involved. But there’s going
to be people arguing differently why pool is a sport rather than a game but it’s because it sounds better but it isn’t true.

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Wrong....

BeiberLvr said:

Not to take anything away from Hendry, but how dominant you are has a lot to do with who you have play against. I enjoy these discussion because it lets me geek out and look up the data.

I compared Hendry's dominant 5 year run to the last 5 WC's that Ronnie won. (highlighted names are World Champions)

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Definitely interesting to see their runs to the final. Though Hendry is probably playing less World Champions because that dominant period he had meant there wasn't many other world champions about. Practically every tournament he had to beat Jimmy White, who if he'd been born slightly earlier or slightly later would probably have been a multi times champion. 1996 undeniably had a fairly easy run.

Interesting they've both beat each other on route to winning. 1995 Ronnie had been a pro for 3 years, though he never developed the defensive side of his game until Reardon coached him in 2004, would say he became a much harder opponent after that. And Ronnie beat Hendry in 2008, but he was a spent force after his cue was broken in 2003. Have heard both of them say in interviews that the other one is the GOAT.