No Wonder The U.S Sucks Against World

[louieatienza]

I'm a little reluctant to say because our coverage is not as good in many Asian countries. I think we have a pretty good handle on 740+ players in North America and Europe and are a lot more variable in Asian countries.

That means if an Asian country like Taiwan DOES get a large number, we know the reality is it is at least that high. But when an Asian country doesn't get a high number, we don't know how much of that is good players off our radar. I will say that Philippines--at 23-- is higher than North America and Europe and that we most certainly underestimate it.

My guess, though, is that Taiwan dominates. Taiwan has fewer people than does Canada, half the population of Spain, not much more than a quarter the
population of Germany, about the population of New York State, and less than the population of Texas or California.

Taiwan's success is the real story, imo.

But we've got to ditch the pathetic misplaced parochial pride to even start to see it...

Well, look at the previous Summer Olympics. The US pretty much obliterated the world, most notably swimming. If we didn't have some National pride then why even play the Mosconi Cup? Look what Phil had done overhauling the Ryder Cup team, how it's managed?

 

[mikepage]

Well, look at the previous Summer Olympics. The US pretty much obliterated the world, most notably swimming. If we didn't have some National pride then why even play the Mosconi Cup? Look what Phil had done overhauling the Ryder Cup team, how it's managed?

National/regional pride is great. It's awesome. It's what makes so many competitions so fun and exciting.

Our family is big into competitions at our big beach gatherings. We compete at everything. Sometimes it is male versus female, or young versus old... We can really get into it and have a blast.

But we're never actually missing the fact we're all REALLY in the same team.

That's the way we should be in pool. The problem is these competitions in pool spark the interest of people more motivated by Xenophobia than healthy pride.

So when I'm at the Mosconi Cup jumping up and down and making noise and yelling USA and having fun and I get that feeling from a comment by someone sitting near me, it just makes me feel dirty.

 

[louieatienza]

National/regional pride is great. It's awesome. It's what makes so many competitions so fun and exciting.

Our family is big into competitions at our big beach gatherings. We compete at everything. Sometimes it is male versus female, or young versus old... We can really get into it and have a blast.

But we're never actually missing the fact we're all REALLY in the same team.

That's the way we should be in pool. The problem is these competitions in pool spark the interest of people more motivated by Xenophobia than healthy pride.

So when I'm at the Mosconi Cup jumping up and down and making noise and yelling USA and having fun and I get that feeling from a comment by someone sitting near me, it just makes me feel dirty.

Well, I suppose it's an attempt at a Ryder Cup style thing. In bowling it's the Weber Cup (for Dick Weber.) Maybe it should be the World Cup, like in Soccer, where it's different teams from each country, rather than US vs Europe. Back in the day the Ryder Cup was just US vs Great Britain, and the US had the edge. When the whole EU was included the edge swayed the other way. Mosconi Cup is based on US v. Europe, almost guaranteeing US lack of success. Which probably might have been the plan.

I think the word xenophobia gets a bit overused these days. Instead of being an irrational fear of a different nation, it gets extrapolated from having strong pride in one's own country. Sure it can get brutal, but in the end everyone shakes hands (well... maybe not everyone) just like in a tough boxing match or Little League World Series... You get trash talk, but once everything's all over we go back to our daily routine.