I'm saying it happens WAY too often. Too many times you have a pro player never get to the table because a shortstop runs 4 racks, plays a safety, pro player misses, shortstop runs 3 racks to win. You think that you would have a chance of running a touchdown in a Pro Football game? Beating Nadal or Federer at Wimbeldon? Winning the Masters (golf) ? When something like that happens in a traditional sport its BIG NEWS because it happens almost never. In Pool it happens all the time at all levels of our sport. I think that is a major problem of why it is not taken seriously as a sport. If my fat a** was at Wimbeldon I would have a heart attack long before I would get to a 3rd set against Federer. And that's the way it SHOULD be. It keeps the sport limited to the very best. When Boris Becker won Wimbeldon at age 17, it was big news. And to this day people in the sport of tennis still talk about it. If pool was set up this way I think it would demand a lot more respect.
Of all the sports that you mentioned, there are players interests represented and protected within that sanctioning body. Now, the WPA says that they represent the interests of pool players worldwide. However, the difference between them and the other sports' sanctioning bodies, is that the players of those sports TRUST that their best interests are represented. Unfortunately in the pool and billiards industry, this is not the case...the players do NOT trust the WPA to uphold their best interests.
Now, where am I going with this in relation to the topic? Well, if there is not a trustworthy sanctioning body to enforce those strictures, there will always be the varied playing conditions. That, and I firmly believe that there is such a miniscule difference in skill between the top pool / billiard professionals and a very solid shortstop when compared to, say, tennis. If you looked at the 100th ranked player on the APT vs. say Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, there would be next to no chance. However, take the 100th ranked player in the world and put him up against SVB, Johnny Archer, Lee Van Corteza, or Efren. You're talking about people like Gabe Owen, Mike Davis, David Alcaide, etc...do you think that it would be as much of a whitewash with them playing a top 5 than in Tennis? IMO, it's alot closer. Yes, there are alot of physical variables that come into play in Tennis, but just looking at skill level vs. ranking, there can be no comparison. Its like apples and oranges.
I agree with what you say, but just had to throw my $.02 in.
