okay guys, sorry about the delay...
so this is what approx 60 hours up with maybe 4 hours sleep feels like to an old fellow like me.
First, let me say this year's SBE was/is outrageously fun. More about that will appear on another thread.
On to Earl.
I had a pro guest pass that allowed me into the pro arena's vip section anytime, which was a really terrific thing. I saw that Friday's 11am slot was especially rich with talent (Shane vs Deschaine - Rodney vs Tony Robles - Earl vs Alex, etc.).
When I entered, Earl was practicing and the seats directly behind his chair were empty so I sat there. As I put my gear down and got settled in, Earl came over and began to tell me all about what's wrong with pool today. We exchanged our views on the subject and, as most are quite aware, Earl is very passionate about this. He then agreed to have his picture taken with me for which I asked another spectator to do the honors.
Nice.
Earl looked good in practice and Alex arrived at about ten of eleven - they greeted each other with "Hi Earl, how are you?" Earl responded with "Hello Alex."
Alex practiced, the matches were announced, then they lagged for the break. Alex won the lag.
Alex racked, Earl came out of his chair, eyeballed the rack from behind the footrail and said "it's tilted". Alex came to the rack and asked "What's tilted?" The TD came over, carefully inspected the rack then asked Alex to go to the headrail and put his finger on the center diamond. Alex obliged and the TD acknowledged that the rack was crooked and told Alex to rerack.
Alex attempted to rerack for what seemed like five minutes without success, obviously frustrated. He was having difficulty getting the one ball to freeze and so the TD, and then even Earl, tried to assist. At one point Earl used a full edge of the rack to rub the cloth at the rack area. Finally, Alex got an acceptable rack, about 10 minutes after play should have begun. We're now underway. :thumbup:
NOTE: When the TD declared the rack was crooked then instructed Alex to rerack, there was a tone in his voice like maybe it wasn't crooked but we're going to rerack to appease Earl. This is IMO.
When Earl sat down he turned to me and said "they're all trying to cheat against me by tilting the rack".
Earl's turn up at the table ends with him potting the 10 ball in a fine runout afterwhich he sat down, turned to me and said, "I'm almost 50 years old and I'm not nervous at all, but he sure is", referring to Alex.
I said, "nice runout".
Alex again racks and again Earl is saying the rack is tilted. Alex said in a humorous way, "I think my eyes are tilted." The TD came over had a quick look and told Earl, "we're not going to be doing this, Earl, understand?" Earl asked "Can't I defend myself if I think he's racking crooked?" The TD just stared at him and Earl mumbled to himself.
During this game, Alex hit a slow roller that bobbled in the corner jaws before dropping in and when it did finally drop, Alex showed a big expression of relief that the fans obviously connected with, and applauded. Earl said "what's wrong with the %#@!ing fans, they're cheering for him for almost dogging a shot? That's sarcastic applause, they're all against me, that's why they're cheering for him. I feel the hate in this room, I can't play in a room with this much hate."
Earl's now up and
he's having difficulty getting the balls to rack right. He's looking for the TD and is expressing his displeasure over the Diamond rack saying it's the worst rack ever made and if they cared for the players "they wouldn't make us use such junk".
Sometime midway through the match when Alex wasn't pleased with how he hit a shot, he, as I've seen many players do, tapped the chalk cube on the rail a few times as the balls were coming to rest. With that, Earl was again out of his chair saying "you can't hit the table while the balls are moving". This happened a couple more times in the latter part of their match. Earl told me it's not enjoyable playing with Alex because of how slow he plays, his hitting the table while balls are moving, and his racking crooked.
Late in the match Alex went to take a restroom break and was back pretty fast. Earl said loud enough for Alex to hear, "I hate playing with people who have to take bathroom breaks, that's for little girls, I'm here to play %#@!ing pool."
Alex attempted a safety that leaked out leaving Earl a look at a really tough cross side bank. Earl went up to the table surveying the shot and inexplicably started whacking his stick real hard on the rail next to the side pocket at least 4 (maybe 5 or 6) times before the TD came storming over and yelled 'What are you doing?, You can't do this! Do you want to go home right now?"
Earl seemed to ignore the TD, he bent over and fireballed the crosside shot in, dead center pocket. He then stood up, looked over to the TD and asked "Now what did you want?" It was freaking surreal. What a shot, btw.
The TD was rightfully pissed off in a major way and asked Earl if he wanted to stay in the tourney and Earl said "I wouldn't mind if I had to leave" and the TD responded in a tone that made it perfectly clear this was going to be the final time he would ask; "so then, Earl, do you want to leave or stay?" and in what sounded like a sufficiently admonished ten year old child's voice he said, "I'll stay." Just bizarre.
I forgot to mention that while Earl was doing a lot of mumbling and grumbling and talking to me between his turns at the table, there were only two real direct barbs thrown Alex's way, one, that he was cheating with how he racked which Alex responded by saying "c'mon Earl, you know I just want to play pool" and the other was the aforementioned bathroom break remark. These two were enough, though. Oh wait, sorry, there was another when Earl missed a shot he accused Alex of moving in his chair in his (Earl's) line of sight.
As Earl pocketed a ten ball late in the match he came around the table and yelled over to Johnny and Charley Williams (see pic below), who were mildly joking around with each other as they practiced for their upcoming match; "I heard what you were saying to me while I was shooting." He sat down and asked me if I saw them trying to shark him. I told him I think they were just talking with each other while practicing for their match. He said "no, here's what's going on, everyone knows I'm the best player here and they're all against me, even the fans are against me". It was an awkward time to be debating this during his match but I did whisper to him that I know he has a huge number of fans, myself included. He said, "I don't believe that." It's really too bad if he truly doesn't know this.
Alex closed out the match with a 10 - 8 win and they shook hands. They then faced each other as they broke down their cues and had a final word with one another (see pics below). Alex, as we all know, is one of the nicest guys in all of pool. I again heard him telling Earl; "you know me, Earl, I just want to play, that's all."
While I am definitely a big Earl fan, this up close and personal look into this legend's behavior brings up a lot of questions for me. Are Earl's antics to do with intentional sharking, even somewhat? Is there something else going on that needs to be addressed? It's certainly not a new development though perhaps the frequency and intensity may be increasing.
I think that those who are closest to Earl (his family/friends) should help him find a way to resolve this recurring issue. I believe it does need to be sorted out, sooner rather than later.
This kind of distraction isn't fair to the rest of the players trying to earn a paycheck.
I do wish Earl well.
Best,
Brian kc
P.S. please excuse the picture quality, I'm no pro.
