Same. I fast forward to the end to see if it's close. If it's close, I'll reverse to the last few games and watch those. If the game is lopsided, I won't even do that.
I used to love to watch the play of the game. I used to often not even care who won. Strategy, cheating pockets to get amazing positions, great shot making, thin cuts, backward cuts under pressure. Risk and reward playing.
I tend to disagree with that statement that I highlighted. I live in a town used to have about seven pool rooms between real pool rooms and bowling alleys. They were all great with championship equipment. Today we have one bowling alley and it doesn't even have a pool room room.
All good. You enjoy what you enjoy.
Thomas Wolfe may have said that but that doesn't mean you can't try. It doesn't mean you have to accept change as inevitable and inflexible.
This is also what keeps me interested at 81, and with luck for years to come. Just in the last year I've loved watching the emergence of Neuhausen and the rise of Atencio, who's fast becoming my favorite player. That doesn't take away anything from the great players of the past, like Buddy and Sigel and Nick, but what's made it better is the coming of one great international player after another. It's the same reason that baseball is vastly improved over the days when 99% of the players were American born. Bigger talent pools make for better talent.
Derby might be the one exception as to tournaments worth watching. Having said, that regardless of who wins or what happens you won't see one mention of it in any paper or public media anywhere in the country. It's an invisible sport.
actually, "Wolfe took the title from a conversation with the writer Ella Winter, who remarked to Wolfe: 'Don't you know you can't go home again?' Wolfe then asked Winter for permission to use the phrase as the title of his book." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can't_Go_Home_Again
You literally have to go back 100 years to find pool featured in the sports pages of major American newspapers. And when was the last time we had pool matches on ESPN?
As much as I respect SJM's opinion on many other aspects of pool, on this I agree with you. Oh gee, another 9 towards the side, wing ball in corner..only mystery is where the 2 ball is. Nearly identical stance & stroke, player to player...no chatting. Very high quality of play, but litttle excitement.
I would say that some are overrated although there are a few that are really worth the highlights.
in my area, it's different. when I moved to where I am now, the first thing I did was to find a good pool room or atleast something that resembles a poolroom. I only found 3 and they have no players to go up against within 3 miles and 1 around 12 miles. you can't even find a single shop where to buy some good cues locally except ordering from Ebay. one of the main reasons why I quit and stopped playing pool 15 years ago. now that I got back to playing pool, there are atleast 6 pool rooms within my vicinity and 20 within 12 miles. what is also nice is that there are now leagues, tournaments and communities that got established after when I was playing by myself. atleast, that's my experience.