Gonna cover some ground in this post, three areas.
Pool Player 9, trying to determine who is the best in pool isn't quite as simple as you make it seem. For convenience let's give the top five players in the world a letter, ABCD and E.
A beats CD and E.
A loses to B.
B loses to CD and E.
This can happen. Who is the best player? Despite B having his number I would have to say A is.
About Buddy; I remember the first time I saw Buddy Hall. He was in Greenway leaning against the table by the counter or somewhere very close to that and the local shortstops who were pretty tough in that day were all gathered at his feet to pick up scraps. I was heavily involved in short track car racing at the time and I immediately was reminded of the short track guys gathered around Bobby Allison to pick up scraps when he was racing with us. This was so long ago that Buddy was tall and well proportioned other than the beginning of a pot gut starting to poke out like a bowling ball. Buddy's height and a lion mane looking head of curly hair and a beard made Buddy stand out and I noted his appearance while deciding there were probably plenty of easier propositions to take on than Mr Buddy Hall. I did eventually take on some pretty good players, stuck by my first impression of Buddy Hall!
To polish off the post I'll get around to the subject of the thread! I haven't paid much attention to young guns or "furriner" players in the last few years and I wasn't familiar with Joshua's game. I selected a match with Jason Shaw on youtube and commenced watching.
Filler has a neat compact game, reminds me more of Willie Mosconi than most of today's players. There were a couple times I thought he could have put a little more effort into position play. Each time he dropped the next ball and was right back inline so apparently he had given position all of the attention it needed. He also gives off that air of taking care of business like Willie. He is there to win the easiest way possible, no flash required although a perfect jump shot lent some excitement. Not too tough of a shot to make but perfect speed and height to get great shape on the next ball was very impressive!
Hard to expect he will have the kind of dominance some players of yesteryear have had, just because pool player's skills have flattened out a lot. Once the greatest might have been a ball ahead of the field. Now it is more like a quarter ball, too little to always show in a short race. Efren's insane dominance of the short race huge field one pocket at Derby City comes to mind. I don't think we are nearly as likely to see that in this era.
Not that the best are less great, the people around them are just much closer. Like many, I enjoy watching the ponies. I do OK betting the dogmeat races. Find a little class and bet it. I was looking at the form trying to pick a horse in a graded stakes for Thanksgiving day I believe it was. The "dog" in that race had a 99 speed index, everything else had ran under track records, 102 to around 110! I love watching these races but if I bet it is ten dollars or less. Twelve horses in the field and literally any of them could win on a given day. That is how I see today's pool world. I don't bet on other people's performance because it may come down to who got the most sleep last night or who got the best quality sleep.
Joshua does seem to have the potential to be great if he can avoid the bad habits that plague pool players. GOAT to date? Too soon to say. A player has to have a longer period at the top to make that call. Have to see how many titles he takes down in the next ten or twelve years. Whether measured by tournament or gambling prowess, I think durability is a huge part of being great.
Long post, I spent several days putting it together. Hopefully it doesn't take as long to read!
Hu
