arsenius said:
This is a great idea. I'm almost salivating at the thought of it.
As a museum, I would love to see some sort of flash page, rather than just HTML, though palmer collector's pages do look fantastic. Something interactive, breaking things into easily digestible parts. Click on the picture for more information. Like at the museum, you can just look at things, and not read unless you want to. Of course, the project is a huge undertaking to begin with, flash would make it more so.
It would be a HUGE undertaking. As an example, I was wondering how many "known" American pool players there may be, let's say, from the 19th, 20th, and 21st century era. Is it more than 1,000? Is it 10,000?
Data on tournament players won't be that hard to gather, but I would like the list of players to include legends of American pool who are not well documented. Most of this type of data would have to be gathered via word of mouth, I think. There is a gaping hole in the history books for these players. Yet, they definitely do make up the fabric of American pool.
arsenius said:
Having a repository of old US open brackets and the like would be amazing as well. Someplace you could go for standard information like that, on any major tournament (even the DCC). Right now it seems you have to hunt around for this pretty hard.
That is exactly right, which is how I came to think that there is a need for an American pool museum website. There are MANY things worthy of documenting, happenings at places like Johnson City, Tahoe, Johnstown, N'Orleans, Biloxi, Hard Times, Binghamton, Vegas, A.C., Reno, et cetera. Some of the BEST happenings, though, were behind the scenes with the legends of the game.
For the young'ns who don't know Jimmy Mataya's legacy, for example, the modern-day Jimmy Mataya is foreign to them. He was, in fact, a great player, but it was his colorful personality that he will always be known for when he was hitting 'em in his prime, a born entertainer who could actually play.
Last year in Vegas, I was eating dinner at one of the overpriced restaurants at the Venetian, and who should walk by, but Jimmy Mataya. We called him over to our table to set a spell. He was wearing his shades and seemed to me kind of melancholy. I asked him about an incident which I had heard about involving him. His whole facial expression changed, as he removed his shades, and I only wish I had had a tape recorder for that dinner conversation the rest of the evening. It was priceless to hear Jimmy relaying some of the happenings from days gone by.
Interestingly, I read this on the AzBilliards Main Page today:
...In a related announcement, the newly-formed United States Billiard Media Association — comprised of “professional print, TV, video, marketing and Internet media persons who cover cue sports” — will elect members to the BCA’s Hall of Fame Board....
There will be a wealth of knowledge in the U.S. Billiard Media Association, and they would have quite a bit of the resources needed to take on an endeavor like this. I hope to learn more about this newly formed organization, its mission, et cetera.
JAM
