It is nice to see an apology from Gary on here. Clearly he is still mad at Evelyn but it looks like he understands his actions have made some people unhappy and he is sorry about that.
Early on in this post it says that I stuck up for him and walked out in protest. I would like to clarify that. I was on down at the other end of the room during the late night tirade during his second match. It disgusted me to see what he did but I wasn't surprised either. I had been hearing about it all day and I knew how mad he was. I suggested to him that the best thing he can do is just go back and play good. I've known Gary for a long time - long enough to know that he doesn't listen to anyone so I knew I was wasting my breath. Sometimes his competitiveness cannot be controlled.
Following the tirade, after he went outside, most people around Evelyn's desk, including Evelyn and Danny, were smiling and laughing about it, which, looking back, is completely normal and to be expected. After all, that's what we do when Earl has his meltdowns.
I had been drinking with Gary to show my support for his situation since talking to him wouldn't work and I did agree that it was a bad call as it was explained to me. As a bar and poolroom owner and pool promoter myself, something inside of me (tequila) decided I didn't like the situation and wanted to do something about it. When I have a heated disagreement in my bar, it is my policy that no one says another word about it, we don't pick sides, we just drop it, period. That would have been awesome in this case.
I went down to Evelyn's desk and announced that I have one statement to say: "You shouldn't be down here smiling because these events were all set in motion because of a bad call that you made and that you never should have given him ball in hand when you didn't see the shot."
They didn't let me get out quite that fast, trying to defend their position, but almost immediately afterwards, trying to stick to my one statement plan and get to the 2nd issue that was bothering me. I went outside and tried to help Dan Tull explain to Gary that he was completely out of line and he needs to get over it, which led to Gary wanting to fight me.
So you see, I did stick up for Gary as far as the call goes, but I in no way supported him in his behavior. And I also stuck up for Danny and Evelyn, trying to convince Gary that she made a bad call, nothing personal, not trying to cheat him, and he needs to get over it.
Evelyn and Danny Dysart are among the best tournament directors in the business and I have always enjoyed them and their tournaments. We are all good. I do not believe for a second that Evelyn tried to cheat Gary. I think she made a judgement call and made a mistake in this case, but I still respect her. And I apologize for my "statement", which led to some other statements that weren't premeditated. They didn't deserve that. I have made mistakes too, we all do.
As for Gary and I, I too am embarrassed by his actions. I tried to let him know what the general consensus of everyone in the poolroom was as he was telling me he was going to post his story online. He said he would get thousands of hits, and he did. I knew this was going to further his embarrassment and I wasn't even aware of his punctuation!
Gary always makes a tournament more exciting when he is in it. But this time it was for all the wrong reasons. I hope it all passes and we learn something from it and move on.
By the way, in case someone asked you who won the tournament where Evelyn made a bad call and Gary went crazy, it was Skylar Woodward, so congrats to him!
