I kind of wish this thread was not a match that Keith McCready played in, because my comment would hold more weight.
I vehemently disagree that players from days gone by were not as good as today's players, and here's why. The equipment is extremely different, to include the cloth. Even the cue balls are different as well as the balls themselves. And then let's not forget about jump and break cues of today, to include the variety of tips. What about the multiplicity of chalk that is available today? I'm not sure what you call those black shafts, but they weren't around in the '80s and '90s. They were all wood, as I recall. Even the rules were different in some venues back in what I call pool's "golden years." Have you ever seen Willie Mosconi or Cowboy Jimmy Moore jump a ball? Nobody jumped balls. Today some players from pool's golden years who are still alive believe jumping balls ruins a good safety play, and the elimination of two-shot/push-out rules to today's rules transformed the game of 9-ball into more of a luck game.
I do not believe Joshua Filler of today would have barbecued, say, Mike Sigel in 1985, and I think if Mike Sigel was at the speed he was at in 1985 and played on today's equipment with today's hardware against Joshua Filler, Filler might not like it. To compare the two eras of players which played on different equipment and used different hardware and under different rules is not statistically significant if you take into account all the factors.
To think that it's only the new breed of pool player of today lives to win tournaments and stays ready and trains, so they are better able to win, is absolute B.S. Sigel, Varner, Archer Strickland, Balukas, Hall, Mizerak, Murphy, Lassiter, Moore, Hopkins, Rempe, and Balsis—gosh, we had so MANY MORE American pro-caliber players back then—did stay ready and train for competition. Make no mistake about it. I've seen Earl break balls over and over again, hundreds of times, before a tournament to ensure his break is working, and on the offs, all these players were staying in stroke, staying ready for every single tournament.
As far as the talk about players being "drunk and doing drugs,’" the truth is, the only player drinking beer during a match was Keith. The rest were drinking water. A lot of scallywags like to bash players on social media, and maybe that’s entertainment for some. The Debbie Downers and Negative Nellies enjoy it, hiding behind a made-up forum name, preserving their real identity.
This is actually my all-time favorite match of Keith's because of hill-hill game at the end. Yes, it is fun to listen to the commentary and watch the players from yesteryear. My favorite commentators from this era, in no specific order, were Jerry Forsyth, Sid Wadell, Jimmy Wych, Grady Mathews, Billy Incardona, Danny DiLiberto, and Buddy Hall. I haven't heard Kim Davenport commentating a lot, but in this match, I thought he was superb.
One of my favorite snippets:
BUDDY: And the tension builds. What do we do on the four ball?
KIM: Well, he can't spin it, though. He just got to roll the ball.
BUDDY: He's gotta roll it. He's got—he might spin it. He might try to spin it.
KIM: Yeah, but if he spins it, he can't hold no rock nowhere.
BUDDY: Well, if he spins it, he might try to spin it right into the five ball. He might try to spin snow right into the five.
KIM: Yeah, I don't like that. I like rolling it. If I'm gonna shoot it, I'm gonna roll it.
BUDDY: I like hitting the center ball.
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