Alex being Alex

Unless personally attacked, this is the last say I will make on this post. MOST of you still don't get it - HOW YOU LOOK AND ACT REALLY DOES MATTER TO THE GUYS WITH THE BIG BUCKS - major businesses and corporations care about how you act and look every time, not just some of the time. Think back about how many great announcers have been fired for a single, sometimes seemingly slightly off remark. THEY CARE and will NOT put their money into this great sport until they are almost certain that no one will embarass their sponsorship, or at least be certain that a governing body will severly punish the offender so that they will not be embarassed again. So keep on making lame excuses as you wonder why the sport of billiards can't drag itself out of the gutter. Nuff said and cheers ole fellow gutter rats :(
 
bstroud said:
JMO,

I was going to let this pass but I think it deserves an answer.

Where in the Constitution does it say that you are entitled to have an opinion about anyone else.

Answer: 1st amendment. What do I win?

You don't walk in Alex's shoes. You don't know what inner demons he deals with every day. You have no idea what goes on in his mind.

America has become a Nation of Fans. People that can not possibly duplicate the feats of their so called Heroes and yet are the first to tear them down.

Give this guy a break. We all makes mistakes at times. Where is the empathy?
Who among you is without fault?

We all live in glass houses and make mistakes but it is we ourselves that have to live with the consequences of our actions. Alex may live to regret what he did or he may not. It is simply not your right to judge.

Bill Stroud
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Eric >Has no dog in this fight
 
Jcat said:
Unless personally attacked, this is the last say I will make on this post. MOST of you still don't get it - HOW YOU LOOK AND ACT REALLY DOES MATTER TO THE GUYS WITH THE BIG BUCKS - major businesses and corporations care about how you act and look every time, not just some of the time. Think back about how many great announcers have been fired for a single, sometimes seemingly slightly off remark. THEY CARE and will NOT put their money into this great sport until they are almost certain that no one will embarass their sponsorship, or at least be certain that a governing body will severly punish the offender so that they will not be embarassed again. So keep on making lame excuses as you wonder why the sport of billiards can't drag itself out of the gutter. Nuff said and cheers ole fellow gutter rats :(
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Corporations do not give a rats ass about peoples actions unless it affects their product image negatively. Period. They care about the bottom line.

John McEnroe was a jerk on the court and is now embraced and exploited by corporate sponsors for his past antics.

Corporations have never been moral police...that is left to public.

As far as the moral police in this thread, I would bet half are probably big Earl supporters who are bashing Alex.

I wasn't there, but it sounds like Alex's actions were jokingly and fun spirited (no pun intended), although unsportsman like, compared to Earl's past actions which have been downright hostile and mean to opponent and spectator alike.

People who live in glass houses...well you know, we will see their ass eventually.
 
sjm said:
I was one of those helped finance the DCC 14.1 challenge,

Let's not kid ourselves. The fans present at the 14.1 final laughed at Alex, not with him, and the game's dignity suffered because of Alex's appalling conduct.

None of us are permitted to show up to our jobs drunk and if we did, we'd surely be sent home if our inebriation was detected, as it reflects poorly on our colleagues and our organization and may offend our clients. When a professional pool player competes, he/she is doing his/her job, and inebriation is, similarly, and for the same reasons, inappropriate.

Alex, who took pride in publicly boisterous drunken behavior, has a problem, and I wish him well in overcoming it, as he's a great talent who is fun to watch.

Disheartened as I am, I will not go as far as suggesting that Alex's behavior has, in any way, reduced my desire to be a benefactor for the DCC 14.1 challenge in the future. Make no mistake about it, the other seven players that qualified (Runningen, Schmidt, Davis, Appleton, Deuel, Orcullo, Feijen) are a great credit to the game of 14.1 and I would not allow Alex's behavior to affect my support of them.

Thanks for listening.

Yours truly, Stu
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I was sick in my room and didnt see what happened, So I cant comment on it. I heard that it was funny I heard it wasnt. Alex was probably 7 sheets to the wind because he didnt win the all-around.

First off, thanks for supporting the 14.1 challenge. I had some disappointing with the Fatboy Challenge this year that will be resolved next year, so I can understand your being disheartened but lets not let that get in the way-were stronger than that.


I dont think it is a black eye on pool that cant heal and did any permanent harm to the sports dignity, it was just one bad night.

Alex is Alex, I saw him yesterday for a few minutes we talked about where he was going and where I was going and said "See ya soon".

I believe its poor form to show up drunk when your a professional in anything that is your profession. And Alex shouldnt have drank before he played. There might be under lieing causes that I have no knowlege of, or it could be simple as he was mad he didnt win the all around and tied on on to calm his nerves and took it too far. What ever the case it didnt cause any permanent harm to pool.

I believe Alex has more fans than enemies, but I dont know everything, thats just my opinion.

Darren Appleton is is a professional pro of the highest caliber, and has had my highest respect for the past 4 years(when I met him) he is great for pool. Plays better on the world stage than the small tournaments. I spoke to him about that, he didnt see it like that. Then I started reminding him of his level of play in the biggest tournaments vs the smaller events and he thought about it a bit and was very humble and agreed, I cant quote what he said as I dont remember it word for word. But it was along the lines of "yeah the fans really do help me play better and that does help me rise up my standard of play", To which I responded "Imagine if you were playing in front of 80,000 people in a football stadium-you might never miss". He smiled. I honestly dont think he had connected the dots about his ability to play on the world stage so well, I think I made him aware of just how much impact the fans have on him, its clear to me. Perhaps he never thought about it or was just being humble, i'm not sure but he did think about it for a while before responding to me. Sometimes the hardest person to see is yourself. Darren is at his best under the highest pressure with the largest audience. I understand that feeling(in a much much smaller way). I wish Darren a long successful career and I really hope more people can appreciate just how good he is.


At the end of the day thanks again for helping with the 14.1 event. Archer was very disappointed that he missed the cut by 2 or 3 balls he told me, he ran a 141 last week at home on 4 1/8" pockets. He just had a flat week this year at the Derby, but Johnny's heart is in it more than ever and he will be back. He really likes 14.1, its his favorite game. He wants to win a 14.1 event bad he said sometime back. And I know he will.


So see with all that going on and Alex having one bad night i'm not to worried about pool or 14.1 having its reputation damaged. I'm more worried about particapation in pool, we need kids to get interested in pool, I wish there was 200 kids 16 and younger that are 100 ball runners. I bet there aint 10 kids that can run 100 in America. That's worse than what Alex did.
 
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All of this talk of pool being a "pro sport", and the DCC being a "pro tournament" is humorous to me. Seriously, if I made a list of things that characterize (to me) a "pro sport" and started checking the boxes, pool would end up somewhere between beer pong and ping pong. There's no central organization, most of the good events are independent ones with no TV coverage, there are 5 different games with 10 different sets of rules, and there are not enough carrots or sticks in the entire sport to persuade any given player do (or not do) anything at all.

And the DCC? Sure, there are some pros who show up with their only goal being to win the tournament, but anyone with $200 can play, and the tournament itself will play second fiddle to the action in many cases, which is precisely the reason why many of us go there each year. To contrast, Roger Federer plays in professional tournaments. Which means he doesn't skip his 10AM tournament match so he can finish his $20k backroom match with Dippy Double-Fault. I love straight pool, but IMHO the DCC is a poor venue for it. There are just too many other things going on that most of the players are more interested in, and that wonderful, classic game deserves a showcase spot rather than the back burner it gets at the DCC. Much credit to those who work so hard to make this event happen at the DCC. I can't imagine what a nightmare it must be to schedule and run with so much other stuff going on.

Should the DCC ban Alex from participating in future 14.1 events? Perhaps. I personally think it would be an appropriate response, assuming the event continues. But who really loses if Alex gets pissed and decides to skip the whole thing? He's no Irving Crane, for sure, but I will tell you what I have seen firsthand: I have seen people who couldn't give two sh*ts about pool become absolutely riveted watching Alex... be Alex.

Aaron
 
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I agree with Fatboy, the Alex thing won't have any short or long term affect on pool. I didn't hear about it on the 11 o'clock news nor read about it in the sports page of the paper the next day. No one outside of our little world is talking about it much less even knows about it. So that leaves us, the die-hards. And so far I haven't seen anyone posting that they are giving up the game because of what happened in the 14.1 Challenge final.

He exercised poor judgment and the organizers should prepare some sort of response whether it's a 1-2 year suspension or whatever.

Let's move on. I'll give you a topic: What's the deal with those aiming systems?
 
iusedtoberich said:
If you guys want goodtooshoes behavior, stick to watching accustats on dvd, NOT live. As soon as you go to a real pool event in person, you will see the other side of pool.... drugs, gambling, dumping, drinking, hookers, barking, groupies, cheating, crying and moaning, etc.

I like all sides of it. If you don't, then don't place yourselves in situations to observe the other side of it.
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drugs and gambling, wow I never knew:confused::confused:. How did that ever slip past me in the past 25 years and I never noticed. LOL Pool is a life style and there is some bad things associated with it, Thats damaged its reputation, the other night was a needle in the haystack. Pool isnt the Sunday Church social in some fly over State thats forsure, it brings out all sorts of people. And the $$$ thats gambled isnt earned at McDonalds either. Characters like Fats make pool interesting, we need more of that.
 
DogsPlayingPool said:
I agree with Fatboy, the Alex thing won't have any short or long term affect on pool.

Let's move on. I'll give you a topic: What's the deal with those aiming systems?
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Thanks,


I think the best thread so far about aiming systems was the one where it compared them to weight loss programs. I didnt read the thread but the analogy was spot on.

best
Fatboy:)
 
I will repeat, I was not there, but from what I can gather...

Alex didn't beat anybody up.
He wasn't taking illegal drugs.
He wasn't stealing anything.
He wasn't selling illegal drugs.
He wasn't damaging any property.
He didn't rape anybody.
He didn't do anything obscene.

What he did do...

He got drunk.
Ran his mouth a little too playfully. No harm no foul.
He had a hell of a week playing pool.

If he was so out of control, the responsibility lies first and foremost with the tournament director...after all of that, I now vote for...

Alex Pagulayan as the...
 the NEW PEOPLES CHAMPION

P.S. IMO we have too many railbird physiologists who should keep their diagnosis to themselves.
 
Alex focused hard on the pool tournaments this year and didn't take part in any of the late night festivities to my knowledge. It was common knowledge that he was focusing on his pool career again and taking it dead serious.

The guy was probably extremely let down that he didn't win the all around and rightfully so...maybe he intended on having a couple beers and it turned into more and he wasn't able to control himself before his straight pool match. Whatever the case none of us have the right to point fingers at him. He is the best "All Around" player in the world and if anybody thinks otherwise put some real money up.

Hindsight is 20/20 and i'm sure he is remorseful for his actions. Pool is better off with him in it than without, and he deserves a little credit. I hope that he doesn't read all this crap on here and give up the game again...then we will all be sorry :angry:
 
1on1pooltournys said:
Alex focused hard on the pool tournaments this year and didn't take part in any of the late night festivities to my knowledge. It was common knowledge that he was focusing on his pool career again and taking it dead serious.

The guy was probably extremely let down that he didn't win the all around and rightfully so...maybe he intended on having a couple beers and it turned into more and he wasn't able to control himself before his straight pool match. Whatever the case none of us have the right to point fingers at him. He is the best "All Around" player in the world and if anybody thinks otherwise put some real money up.

Hindsight is 20/20 and i'm sure he is remorseful for his actions. Pool is better off with him in it than without, and he deserves a little credit. I hope that he doesn't read all this crap on here and give up the game again...then we will all be sorry :angry:
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$2500 for 1st and $1800 for second, I just think he shoulda sat it out or something. I know you were prob in the crowd but I was watching the Accu-Stats and they had the camera on him the whole time. He was making bets for beers, hitting on some woman, singing karoake, yelling at Daz and Niels to hurry up, I think he started dancing, he laid on the main table full body with beer in hand and shoes on (I do mean that literally his ass was laying on the table they played on). Just saying he did a whole lot for a shot at $700 that if he cared about he wouldnt have gotten hammered.

That $20k hurt, probably feels like he lost a $20k set betting his own. I drown my sorrows out all the time, I wouldnt do it in front of that many people though. He coulda conceded the race and this would be a non issue. I hope he at least got the ladies phone number, he was working pretty hard for it.
 
I am sorry- couldn't read the whole thing...

So, it is not OK to get wasted and play pool? I;'m not sure I like it then!
 
Tried to forfiet

It appears that he attempted to do the right thing and drop out. He was talked into playing by Danny D. Give the guy a break.
 
I usually don't reply in these kinds of threads, too many people with opinions. But my thoughts are this:

Everything was finished, awards, final thank you's etc.... and the TV table was empty. Everyone, mostly, headed out. There were three tables being played on in the whole tournament room. The guys from Cue Addicts and John Henderson matched up.

If it wasn't for Alex, there wouldn't have been four people watching the straight pool. Only a handful, about 6, watched NF and Daz playing in the semi while Alex was getting "warmed up" on the TV table waiting for the winner. The place would have been a mortuary if it wasn't for Alex. Everyone was in the Action Room and TAR studio looking to play.

Everyone there loved it except a few, very few, stuffed shirts. Daz and Shane even went with it. You couldn't help but laugh. I mean Daz as Agent Smith, thats hilarious. It was a great fun ending to a long 9 days of
non-stop playing and pressure.

Was it appropriate, probably not, but it sure was funny and you had to be there to fully understand how really funny it was.
 
Deadon said:
It was a great fun ending to a long 9 days of
non-stop playing and pressure....Was it appropriate, probably not, but it sure was funny and you had to be there to fully understand how really funny it was.
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This is well said and, as I noted in my earlier post in this thread, Alex was the reason that the final was so well attended compared to other years.

In the midst of this surprisingly large gathering was a lot of camaraderie. Despite Alex's inappropriate behavior, we in attendance had some fun. We'd all spent nine days together, experiencing the Derby City Classic all day every day. We were all a bit burnt out, even guys like me who do no more than sweat the matches. We, the closely knit pool players and fans who like each other a lot, knew it would be our last night together for quite some time, and many of us, myself included, used the opportunity to unwind by hanging out with those who had made the nine day poolfest so enjoyable and memorable.

This was the silver lining, just not for those watching the stream.
 
Nick B said:
Really. Exhibit #1

John Daly. Played in the GVO (Greater Vancouver Open). Was shaking like a leaf and then seen throwing up later in the round. Got the shakes because he needed fix then loaded up on booze and threw up. Allowed to finish. Peoples problems are not isolated to pool. All orgs make mistakes as well.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1013972/index.htm

Nick
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I thought of the same guy, Mr Daly. Reminds me of this video of him teeing off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWsg4p-BNdI
 
I find this extremely funny but wasn't it a few years ago that most of the people on azb were wondering if and when Alex would be coming back to pro pool how they missed his antics and personality. Well now he's back and people want to crucify him for being drunk. What none of us have ever played pool drunk. O.k maby he did act like abit of a ass but if he was so bad how come DA did not say anything during or after the event . It's like the thread says Alex being Alex. Give the guy a break
 
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