Their careers definitely over-lapped, along with Buddy, who was their equal. Three great players, all playing in the same tourneys week after week. They also had many other excellent players in the field with them; Wade Crane, Allen Hopkins, Nick Varner, Mizerak, David Howard, Parica, Efren, Luat, Larry Hubbart, Jimmy Reid, Keith, Louie, etc. etc. Although the tournament fields back then only had 64 players (that was a full field), I would say 40 or more were very strong players. It was just as hard to win back then (70's thru the 90's) as it is now.
Sigel may have been the best player of them all, excelling at all games. Buddy was just as good at 9-Ball, Banks and One Pocket as Mike. Earl specialized in 9-Ball since most of the big tournaments were that game only. Earl just had a higher speed than anyone else back then at 9-Ball, and everyone knew it too. He won more 9-Ball tourneys than anyone for that reason. No one could dominate the table like Earl. The only comparison I can make is the way Matlock dominated on a bar table. He made the balls do his bidding, that's the best way I can explain it.
For money at 9-Ball, Buddy was the king until Parica came along. They never played a money match to my knowledge. Earl and Sigel would not gamble with Buddy, at least not after he beat them both. So that's how it was back then. Buddy, Earl and Mike won a similar amount of big table tournaments, but Buddy won far more bar table events as well. He played somewhere almost every week, criss-crossing the Eastern US constantly.
Sigel never seemed to lose if he made the finals, winning eleven in a row when he reached the finals! That feat alone is remarkable imo. He was beating Earl, Buddy, Efren and a few others in that stretch.
So who's the best, you figure it out. Earl's career is much longer than Mike's (who only played professionally for maybe 15-16 years before retiring in his early 40's) and about the same length as Buddy (who was still winning up until about ten years ago). An argument can be made for Buddy, since he won both tournaments and for the cash. Plus he may have been the best bar table player as well, since Matlock did not travel as far and wide as him. It seemed like Buddy was first or second in every bar table event he played, also with 64 man fields.
