Maybe it's in bad form to complain about your own team but I gotta rant here. It's gonna be long too, you can probably skip it if you're easily bored.
We have a strong team and the player in question is a decent shooter, every so often runs out in 8 ball but never has run back-to-back. But he's a useful member of the team when he's at the table.
Off the table... oh god..
· He is the 'cheerleader' type. In between shots, sometimes as you're getting set, and after a good shot... he claps and yells loudly. "Alright! Come on _____! Pick me up baby! Yeah! We need a big score here!" It's not what he's saying so much, it's the sheer volume and frequency of it. Other people across the room kind of stop and turn like "who's this loud jackass?"
It can literally shark his own team but nobody can say anything to him because he's fundamentally a nice guy and he has good intentions, and anyway he's a bit sensitive to criticism so we know it won't go well. So we just tolerate it.
· He is generally just a nonstop talker. This is the guy who engaged in a loud sports debate back and forth across my table with someone on the other team. He has also been known to burst into song, sometimes without benefit of the jukebox. Guys from other teams have come up to me saying "man, I'm sorry, I know he's your teammate and all but..." and before they say another word I immediately know who they're talking about and what they're gonna say. I once spent like 8 hours in a van with him and he was incapable of letting more than 5 minutes pass in silence. I dunno if he's got some kind of complex or what but even when his own family tries to tell him he's gotta dial it back he is incapable of listening. When my teammate complained he said "well sheesh you can't expect it to be a library here."
· He is a little too touchy feely. He'll respect the space around the table but frequently gets in your space just to talk to you, offer advice, clap you on the shoulder, etc. After every game is done he goes to get the balls even though he wasn't playing and then tries to rack for the incoming player, even when that player is standing at the foot of the table saying "I got it"
· He is unteachable. He'll run 6 or 7 despite the fact that he leaps straight up into the air on every single shot and has to spin in every ball whether it needs it or not. He'll make bad decisions and when I've tried to offer advice to him on his stroke or shot selection or whatever... well, he agrees actually. But I can tell he's just humoring me because he's like "oh, really? Yeah hmm I'm sure you're right." He never disagrees but he never actually follows the advice either.
· He used to be in arguments all the time. These days I guess he's mellowed out. But he still gets into it sometimes. He was the victim when the other team claimed a win because his pocket marker slid off, and he badgered the other team's captain and his opponent to the point where it was just an embarrassment.
· I always thought of him as basically honest, but he lined up and drilled in an obvious push shot where there's a cm of air between the balls. He pushed to perfect position on a funny 8 that only went into a far corner and made it. The foul literally won him the game, and when I ask him if he realized what he'd done the answer was "yeah, I knew, but they never called anyone over to watch the hit so it doesn't matter". Later I asked the other team if they had seen it and they said yeah but they didn't think he was going to do it, since everyone knows about pushes on our teams.
...
I could probably come up with more but that's enough to give any team gray hairs. You're thinking "why doesn't someone just talk to him and kick him off the team?" Well, I guess we're all kinda sissies when it comes to confronting people, and it's tougher when the person in question is a good guy. I might make him sound like a bit of a jerk but outside of this stuff he's really friendly and generous and easy to get along with, talking your ear off notwithstanding.
Mostly I just wanted to complain and hear other people's horror stories
We have a strong team and the player in question is a decent shooter, every so often runs out in 8 ball but never has run back-to-back. But he's a useful member of the team when he's at the table.
Off the table... oh god..
· He is the 'cheerleader' type. In between shots, sometimes as you're getting set, and after a good shot... he claps and yells loudly. "Alright! Come on _____! Pick me up baby! Yeah! We need a big score here!" It's not what he's saying so much, it's the sheer volume and frequency of it. Other people across the room kind of stop and turn like "who's this loud jackass?"
It can literally shark his own team but nobody can say anything to him because he's fundamentally a nice guy and he has good intentions, and anyway he's a bit sensitive to criticism so we know it won't go well. So we just tolerate it.
· He is generally just a nonstop talker. This is the guy who engaged in a loud sports debate back and forth across my table with someone on the other team. He has also been known to burst into song, sometimes without benefit of the jukebox. Guys from other teams have come up to me saying "man, I'm sorry, I know he's your teammate and all but..." and before they say another word I immediately know who they're talking about and what they're gonna say. I once spent like 8 hours in a van with him and he was incapable of letting more than 5 minutes pass in silence. I dunno if he's got some kind of complex or what but even when his own family tries to tell him he's gotta dial it back he is incapable of listening. When my teammate complained he said "well sheesh you can't expect it to be a library here."
· He is a little too touchy feely. He'll respect the space around the table but frequently gets in your space just to talk to you, offer advice, clap you on the shoulder, etc. After every game is done he goes to get the balls even though he wasn't playing and then tries to rack for the incoming player, even when that player is standing at the foot of the table saying "I got it"
· He is unteachable. He'll run 6 or 7 despite the fact that he leaps straight up into the air on every single shot and has to spin in every ball whether it needs it or not. He'll make bad decisions and when I've tried to offer advice to him on his stroke or shot selection or whatever... well, he agrees actually. But I can tell he's just humoring me because he's like "oh, really? Yeah hmm I'm sure you're right." He never disagrees but he never actually follows the advice either.
· He used to be in arguments all the time. These days I guess he's mellowed out. But he still gets into it sometimes. He was the victim when the other team claimed a win because his pocket marker slid off, and he badgered the other team's captain and his opponent to the point where it was just an embarrassment.
· I always thought of him as basically honest, but he lined up and drilled in an obvious push shot where there's a cm of air between the balls. He pushed to perfect position on a funny 8 that only went into a far corner and made it. The foul literally won him the game, and when I ask him if he realized what he'd done the answer was "yeah, I knew, but they never called anyone over to watch the hit so it doesn't matter". Later I asked the other team if they had seen it and they said yeah but they didn't think he was going to do it, since everyone knows about pushes on our teams.
...
I could probably come up with more but that's enough to give any team gray hairs. You're thinking "why doesn't someone just talk to him and kick him off the team?" Well, I guess we're all kinda sissies when it comes to confronting people, and it's tougher when the person in question is a good guy. I might make him sound like a bit of a jerk but outside of this stuff he's really friendly and generous and easy to get along with, talking your ear off notwithstanding.
Mostly I just wanted to complain and hear other people's horror stories
