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Many players of Mosconi's era were still strong players during the Miz and Sigel era, who Sigel and Miz didn't run over. Sigel was prime Earl Strickland level and a better all around player. The closest Mosconi contemporary we have still alive is Ray Martin, and Ray Martin was never on Mosconi's...

Yeah, no clue why 9-ball still persists. Seems redundant to 10-ball, and has never been a respected game among pros in the past at least (believe Willie called it a Mickey Mouse game, and I'm sure Eddie Felson's lines about the game in Color of Money were a composite opinion of players from that...

Heh. Francisco had a room in San Bernardino (about a half-a-mile from my house) in the mid-90s called Gold Ball Billiards. Only story I have is watching Francisco play Keith McCready for a couple hours (I believe the match went on all night, with Francisco taking 20K off Keith. That's what...

Great points. Yeah, there's no objective way to compare the two games in a vacuum. As I said in my prior post, you'd have to set standards of good play for each game, which is a matter of opinion. It's too hard to find the equivalents in either game (i.e. does a 150 run in straight equal a 147...

People who believe the old greats would be great today all too often get handwaved away as being "nostalgic," which is a lazy argument. See a prior post of mine that uses Earl as a kind of link between generations that shows a prime/peak Mosconi, after a time to adjust to modern conditions...

On the flip side, easier offense also means easier offense for your opponent, which can translate into requiring more faultless play. I used to scoff bar table pool when I was younger, but gained a new appreciation of it when I considered there's always the looming danger of your opponent going...

How do you figure that? Let's take person from an isolated area whose only experience playing baseball is with other amateurs. The pitching is slow underhand, which makes hitting the balls relatively easy. We ask this person his opinion on baseball, "Easy sport!" How do you think his opinion...

Yeah, I figured as much. Also, I'm not really trying to be literal in the sense that you should develop yourself as a player along these lines or think there's a player like this that actually exists, it's a more of a meta-game thought experiment on how you might approach a match-up where you...

Surprised 9 ball hasn't been phased out completely. Seems redundant when 10 ball exists. Or is the motive for keeping it around to get more dead money in tourneys? Perfect world, maybe full rack rotation on the 10 footer should be THE game? 14.1 is too player unfriendly. Beautiful game, but who...

I'm kind of using this player to examine if a player who knew he was at an offensive disadvantage wouldn't be better off trying to turn more games into safety battles than try to trade runs. I think Irving Crane played straight pool like that. Let's say our two world class players in question...

Are we talking prime/peak Mosconi? No. I think we can use Earl as kind of a link between generations. He still cuts the mustard today at 57, and beat Shane in a couple of challenges a few years back. And we all know Earl is probably 60% of the player he used to be, even when he beat Shane...

Could a player in the main rotation games conceivably be a threat if he was a B-level offensive player but was the best safety player and kicker in the world? Think of this player playing racks something like this. Due to his subpar offensive play, he gets out of line often mid-rack, like most...

Yes, but snooker requires less made balls to achieve similar results. I think the issue here is that we only consider the popular rotation games and 8-ball, which do give the worse player a puncher's chance of winning a couple of games, sometimes requiring you only make a single ball (when your...

Any of them can be depending on the opponent. 9 ball race to a 100 against prime Earl Strickland is in another universe of difficulty vs. snooker against someone who has never played. Now if my snooker opponent was Ronnie, I have an equal chance of defeating both of them. 0%. That's the point...

Thanks for the reply. See my lengthy reply to BieberLvr that analyzes the issue.

This is the point they don't get. A game's/sport's difficulty isn't defined by the equipment. It's defined by the rule set (i.e. 3 cushion and 1 cushion billiards are different stratospheres of difficulty despite being played on/with the same equipment) and ultimately the opponent and talent...

(warning, tl;dr) It's not a joke at all. It's illogical and makes zero sense to reduce the learning curve and difficulty of a sport or game down to the equipment alone. It's much, much more difficult to hit a baseball than it is to hit a cricket ball, even factoring in that cricket balls are...

I don't think so only because Ronnie isn't a stranger to American pool having played in the Mosconi Cup and the IPT. I'd like to think he would've specified the difference between the two games. His opinion on pool is also the general snooker player/follower sentiment that we all know too well...

I wanted to watch this series, but seeing this interview turned me off after hearing Ronnie trashing pool. Why follow him in his exploration into something he doesn't "respect?" Should've went with Steve Davis, but he obviously isn't the star Ronnie is. On this note, I don't understand the...

I think it really does come down to cultural differences between the UK and the US. "Pub" games seem to be more entrenched in English culture than US culture. Enough British eyes watch darts to the point where the tour's top players are more well off than any pool player. Meanwhile, US...