The reasons pool isn't popular on TV or as a spectator sport are numerous. I don't think the way it has played is one of the reasons.
I prefer that pool not be a sport where you are entitled to your turn at the table. Pool is the ultimate control game. It punishes mistakes more than anything else (except perhaps Chess). If you're sitting in the chair - it's YOUR fault. The responsibility is all yours.
Each player has the same opportunity at the lag to earn first control or to pass. Don't like getting run out? Tough. You win the lag and run the other guy out. Can't? Oh well, the other guy is better.
That's why alternate break sucks. Why give the opponent a chance? Want a chance? Earn it. Or wait until the guy at the table fails. That's the beauty of pool. No sympathy for missing, losing or anything like that. Weakness isn't subsidized by silly rules giving chances to everyone. That's new school thinking. Kind of like the crap we see these days where every kid gets an award or medal for participating. Modern society wants to see egalitarianism prevail in everything, even at the expense of competition. This destroys excellence. It hinders the best from reaching greater heights. Our civilization has always celebrated the ideal and the greatest. Pushing higher limits. Modern rules amount to handicapping and equalizing. Equality and sports don't mix.
I could care less about watching two pros each have a chance at the racks. I don't want to see that. I want to see them struggle against one another, and for each of them to try to maintain control and shut the other out. That's the beauty of pool. It's a celebration of excellence in being able to maintain table control and dominate the opponent. Alternate break kills all that. Pool then becomes like bowling where everyone gets to bowl. The interaction is lost. Darts is the same. Each player has their turn at the board. Pool is different, you interact with the results on the table. Different players play different safeties and have different abilities in escaping safeties.
I'd much rather watch a player run out a 7 pack on another than watch a 7-6 match that was on the hill. Double Hill can be exciting, but it's inferior to watching someone control the table and continue winning. That's excellence. 7-6 score most often means there were errors in the match. They were each letting one another back into it. Rarely is each exchange of control a result of control being taken away via successful safety battle. Some are errors, like misses or botched safeties. These mistakes degrade the overall match. Mistake free matches, or matches with the least errors are the greatest to watch. The ultimate match is the one where the only error was losing the LAG.
I remember watching a match between Alex Pagulayan and Rodney Morris, went something like this. Alex breaks and runs 6 racks. He messes up shape or there was a nasty cluster and plays safe. There's a safety battle - Rodney comes out on top and has control. Rodney then proceeds to win then break and run 5 after that equalizing. There was a safety battle in the last game, and Rodney (IIRC) came out on top winning the last game. Not flawless match. A couple mistakes.
But that was one of the better matches I've seen in this era of boring alternate break. Imagine that same race if it were alternate break?
BORING. zzzzzzz Like all alternate break matches. Whiners don't like winner breaks because they cry that the good breakers have an edge. Tough shit. Breaking is part of the game, and if someone is better at it - then too bad for you. You have every opportunity to learn a good break too. Any complaints about breaking is an attempt to handicap the game.
Anyway, the beauty of it is - sometimes the player in control dominates and they win 9-0 or 9-1. Or sometimes they put up a 6 pack or more and it all looks lost, but guess what? The opponent, if they earn the right at the table, has the same exact opportunity once at the table to return with their own 6 pack. And that's beautiful. If they can't and win only 1 rack, then their opponent runs the rest out - oh well. They deserve to lose and deserve to lose by that margin.
I love matches like that. Watching one player dominate and all looks lost for the guy in the chair, then the opponent gets in and strings racks together and wins or equalizes. What that does is, it makes watching the player in control more interesting - not more boring as others suggest because he/she is at the table alone for a long time. Because even though they might be on the 6th run out in a row, or on the 140th ball - they still suffer the pressure that one miss, just one miss or worse, one error whatever it may be, could result in the loss of the match. Imagine that, running racks and racks and everything is looking great - but total defeat is one mistake away. If the one player runs the other out completely without them having a chance - even better! Far better and more memorable is such a display of excellence than the excitement of a struggle made possible by repeated blunders. The best way to ensure victory is to never give the other guy a shot. In pool, no one is entitled to a shot. You have NO RIGHTS. You have to earn everything. People who think they are entitled to chances at the table are weak minded.
That's how straight pool was. Some players could run to 140 - a great run by any standard, and make a mistake and lose control and watch their opponent go 150 and out. Just like that. Sitting in the chair, watching helplessly and nearly hopelessly as your opponent buries you. Shot after shot. The chances of them missing is slim. Harsh punishment for missing.
Cold. Brutal. Unforgiving.
That's the beauty of pool.
