The Sportsmanship of Earl Strickland

PocketSpeed11

PocketSpeed11

AzB Long Member
Silver Member
I was just watching a pay-per-view match from the Accu-Stats archive. It was Earl Strickland vs Shannon Daulton in 9-ball at the 1995 Sands Regency Open. Earl was off his game and is getting beaten 5 games to 2. Earl makes the 2 ball in the side and proceeds to scratch in the corner pocket. Daulton proceeds to get out of his seat and takes the 2 ball out of the side pocket and position it somewhat near where it had been on Earl's shot. He then grabs the cue ball out of the corner pocket and places it as ball in hand (he was playing jam up pool, but he was obviously making a major mental error). As he is lining up the shot, Earl gets out of his seat, picks up the 2 ball and places it back in the side pocket, thus avoiding the foul by Daulton.

Was this uncharacteristic of Strickland? It just seems like some people on here and elsewhere make him out to be the Grinch of pool. I know he's not a model of sportsmanship...I've seen some of the antics. But are people making him out to be worse than he is? I doubt that any more than a small minority of the pros would have done what he did at the '95 Sands Regency Open.
 
PocketSpeed11 said:
I was just watching a pay-per-view match from the Accu-Stats archive. It was Earl Strickland vs Shannon Daulton in 9-ball at the 1995 Sands Regency Open. Earl was off his game and is getting beaten 5 games to 2. Earl makes the 2 ball in the side and proceeds to scratch in the corner pocket. Daulton proceeds to get out of his seat and takes the 2 ball out of the side pocket and position it somewhat near where it had been on Earl's shot. He then grabs the cue ball out of the corner pocket and places it as ball in hand (he was playing jam up pool, but he was obviously making a major mental error). As he is lining up the shot, Earl gets out of his seat, picks up the 2 ball and places it back in the side pocket, thus avoiding the foul by Daulton.

Was this uncharacteristic of Strickland? It just seems like some people on here and elsewhere make him out to be the Grinch of pool. I know he's not a model of sportsmanship...I've seen some of the antics. But are people making him out to be worse than he is? I doubt that any more than a small minority of the pros would have done what he did at the '95 Sands Regency Open.
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I think you have to know Earl to answer this question. I stated this in another thread, he's been in the NYC area for a little while now and I've only heard GREAT things about it. One person I know said, "He comes to league night (yeah, league night) and watches matches on adjacent tables. If you make a mistake, he'll come over and talk to you about it and tell you what you should've done." You can be the nicest guy in the world on the table but what difference does it make if you don't help anyone? I don't know him at all and I think it's fair to say, until you do, you should reserve judgement. He might surprise you.
 
uh huh

I saw that tape too.......sure it was commendable of Earl to do that, but it seems like one of those opportune times on video to show a bit of integrity; however, one gesture does not make a career defining moment.....I've seen too many instances of him acting up during matches to extol his sportsmanship qualities.
Everybody does some good and everybody does some bad......you can be the judge of a person's character......and that will be your opinion....

as a post script.....there was also an instance on video when people say he should've called a foul on himself, but didn't; I think his response later was that since the ref
didn't see it or call it, it wasn't up to him to call it.......does that cancel out the "attaboy" because of the "oh sh.t"?
 
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PocketSpeed11 said:
But are people making him out to be worse than he is? I doubt that any more than a small minority of the pros would have done what he did at the '95 Sands Regency Open.
Click to expand...

short answer ...yes. Earl is Earl, does not pretend to be anything other than Earl. I'm old school and like real people.
 
Wait Daulton thought it was rule that the ball would get spotted back where it was before the scratch rather than on the spot or not at all?
 
PocketSpeed11 said:
I was just watching a pay-per-view match from the Accu-Stats archive. It was Earl Strickland vs Shannon Daulton in 9-ball at the 1995 Sands Regency Open. Earl was off his game and is getting beaten 5 games to 2. Earl makes the 2 ball in the side and proceeds to scratch in the corner pocket. Daulton proceeds to get out of his seat and takes the 2 ball out of the side pocket and position it somewhat near where it had been on Earl's shot. He then grabs the cue ball out of the corner pocket and places it as ball in hand (he was playing jam up pool, but he was obviously making a major mental error). As he is lining up the shot, Earl gets out of his seat, picks up the 2 ball and places it back in the side pocket, thus avoiding the foul by Daulton.

Was this uncharacteristic of Strickland? It just seems like some people on here and elsewhere make him out to be the Grinch of pool. I know he's not a model of sportsmanship...I've seen some of the antics. But are people making him out to be worse than he is? I doubt that any more than a small minority of the pros would have done what he did at the '95 Sands Regency Open.
Click to expand...

Earl takes the game very seriously, he will be fair to the player and the game, but will treat the game better. He is the guy that would go back 5 miles to a store to return an extra 10 cents that he got in change but will then call the cashier an idiot not worthy to dust his shoes for making the mistake LOL

There is another match where he felt that the other player got called on a marginal foul, he was all set to just let it go but the ref called the foul. A couple of shots later, he did what looked like just missing on purpose to let the other guy to the table. You can tell how he was playing position and aiming the shot that he was really not trying to make it. I'm sure he did not do it to be nice to the guy or that he liked him, but that was the honorable thing to do.

But then he also makes faces and comments to anyone that happens to move or sneeze or talk during his matches.
 
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Earl is obviously passionate. It is both his friend and enemy. In much the same way, Bobby Knight may have been the greatest basketball mind to have ever coached the game, however, he'll be remembered more for his temper tantrums and antics. Sad.
 
hang-the-9 said:
Earl takes the game very seriously, he will be fair to the player and the game, but will treat the game better. He is the guy that would go back 5 miles to a store to return an extra 10 cents that he got in change but will then call the cashier an idiot not worthy to dust his shoes for making the mistake LOL

There is another match where he felt that the other player got called on a marginal foul, he was all set to just let it go but the ref called the foul. A couple of shots later, he did what looked like just missing on purpose to let the other guy to the table. You can tell how he was playing position and aiming the shot that he was really not trying to make it. I'm sure he did not do it to be nice to the guy or that he liked him, but that was the honorable thing to do.

But then he also makes faces and comments to anyone that happens to move or sneeze or talk during his matches.
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Interesting points ...

Did it ever occur to anyone that Earl simply tries to hold everyone to the same standard he wants/tries to hold himself to?

I watched the Color of Money match a few times beginning to end and the reason I think he self-destructed was because he was certain (I had to rewind numerous times before I saw the same error) that Efren fouled and no one called it except him ...

Efren learned to simply be indifferent to mistakes other than the ones that make him laugh or smile. Clearly, Earl hasn't learned this; I think his intensity keeps him from seeing this as an option.

Why would he let Shannon unintentionally foul, the rules state (or did back in '95) that the seated player should warn the opponent of this type of thing.

If we try to observe his human moves, we should see that he holds very true North to his personal "moral compass".
Evidently, Earl doesn't feel that venting his verbal issues are grounds for bad sportsmanship or he simply wouldn't do it, I'm sure.

Just my 2 cents...
 
DogLoop said:
Did it ever occur to anyone that Earl simply tries to hold everyone to the same standard he wants/tries to hold himself to?
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Earl is some sort of moral compass?!? I might buy that line if it weren't for Earl's berating (that I witnessed) of a fan for having the audacity to root for Earl. Yep, he was pissed that the fan had the nerve to say something positive to him.

Then there's Earl's berating (that I witnessed) of the audience for rooting for a foreigner that lives in a grass hut in a jungle somewhere instead of him, the american. Apparently Efren is one evolutionary step away from Tarzan.
 
Think there are two basic ways to be a bad sport:
- trying to cheat and get unfair advantages, maybe by 'working around' the rules
- simply acting like a jerk.

From what I understand, Earl's mostly guilty of the 2nd one, he is not interested
in cheating to win. He's very competitive and wants to prove he's better than the other guy.
He's not looking for a technicality trophy, he wants to shoot your nuts in.

Might also be worth mentioning that in '95 Earl was probably just a happier human being,
still in his prime, right in between two US open victories and a WPM title.
His worst behavior comes out when he's losing.
 
Earl seems like a strange guy, he definitely have some issues and if he wasn`t such a good player i think he would have been declared unwanted at tournaments a long time ago.
But it was nice of him to inform the guy he was about to make a mistake.
Earl does bruing up some good points though, about stuff like shot clocks, banning jump cues etc,
 
mosconiac said:
Earl is some sort of moral compass?!? I might buy that line if it weren't for Earl's berating (that I witnessed) of a fan for having the audacity to root for Earl. Yep, he was pissed that the fan had the nerve to say something positive to him.

Then there's Earl's berating (that I witnessed) of the audience for rooting for a foreigner that lives in a grass hut in a jungle somewhere instead of him, the american. Apparently Efren is one evolutionary step away from Tarzan.
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Mosconiac, it seems you have a drum to beat rather than just an observance.
I didn't say Earl was a moral compass, just that it seems he has one.

I also excluded stating that he's completely crazy because it had already been addressed ~ he's a full-on nut, but that doesn't discredit my statement, in fact it lends to it.

CreeDo said:
Think there are two basic ways to be a bad sport:
- trying to cheat and get unfair advantages, maybe by 'working around' the rules
- simply acting like a jerk.

From what I understand, Earl's mostly guilty of the 2nd one, he is not interested
in cheating to win. He's very competitive and wants to prove he's better than the other guy.
He's not looking for a technicality trophy, he wants to shoot your nuts in.

Might also be worth mentioning that in '95 Earl was probably just a happier human being,
still in his prime, right in between two US open victories and a WPM title.
His worst behavior comes out when he's losing.
Click to expand...

Bingo.



Don't get me wrong; his behavior is completely un-tamed, uncouth, and unacceptable, but if you put on the glasses you use to observe "objectively", you might see it like I'm describing.
Earl loses his mind when the game and the rules get walked on "even a tiny amount", then it seems he tries to trump everyone's bad behavior with his own variant.
 
There are several youtube videos of Earl in a good light.

At one time he was a true champion, his battles with Efren were amazing. Earl won some and Efren won some with some great shots. When he won he was humble, when he lost, he held Efren's hand up in victory. Really gracious.

I don't know if it was drugs, divorce, life or what that might have caused Earl to go bonkers in the last few years....

I know he has pissed away 100's of thousands if not millions of dollars away. Lost tons of sponsors and really has tarnished a stellar career.

Now he is like the old SNL joke about living in van down by the river, only its a RV in the driveway of a cue maker.

Apparently Earl has no real friends, that can get him theropy, rehab or whatever he needs.

He will probably end up dead, (like so many great pool players) too early and everyone will play the pallor game and have crocodile tears that say what a great loss it is, and they could have stopped it if they had only known...

I don't know him other than recognizing him and watching him. I don't know what's wrong with him but folks like to get him involved in matches and then try to get him fired up because it makes for a good show. To me its like taking a mentally handicapped person out in a situation that they cant control and then make fun of them....

Its really sad.

Ken
 
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I have met Earl Strickland only once.

I asked him to sign a cue ball. He was extremely nice and actually stood and spoke with me for a few minutes even though Kevin Trudeau was calling for him to go to the player's reserved area. This was at the Orlando tournament.

My Earl moment was nothing but positive.
 
I can see it now...when Earl decides to "graze in the pasture" some of you will forget about all his antics he used to do. "Aw, look at how nice Earl is (now)." Sure, now that he is getting older.

I have watched many of his matches. The guy has problems, he says he respects the game, but I claim B.S. If I ever had to play him in a tourney I would forfeit. In fact, I would ensure I don't play in a tourney with him.

I don't care how good he is or used to be, character before talent. I'm tired of people letting him get away with shit!
 
hang-the-9 said:
Earl takes the game very seriously, he will be fair to the player and the game, but will treat the game better. He is the guy that would go back 5 miles to a store to return an extra 10 cents that he got in change but will then call the cashier an idiot not worthy to dust his shoes for making the mistake LOL
Click to expand...

I think that's an excellent description of Earl "The Burl's" behavior.

Fatz
 
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