Brooklyn still proud of Jean Balukas
- Thread starter Jude Rosenstock
- Start date
You're welcome. :wink:
A while back I was reading a thread here lamenting the complete lack of Queen Jean videos on YouTube, and I remembered "that old video" I had lurking away in the cupboard.
But what is an Aussie doing with a video of Queen Jean playing pool that was never ever aired on TV down here ..... interesting story.
Some time back around the turn of the century, I spent a week visiting a rather eccentric cuebuilder in Michigan, and in a brief moment of time when we weren't making sawdust in the shop, we watched a few cuesports videos from his fairly impressive collection. Upon returning home I asked if he would make a few copies of different tapes I had watched and send them to me. This match was on one of them.
So there you have it folks, you are now able to re-live this classic moment in cuesports history due to a certified lunatic, ... and me.
You're welcome. :wink:
A while back I was reading a thread here lamenting the complete lack of Queen Jean videos on YouTube, and I remembered "that old video" I had lurking away in the cupboard.
But what is an Aussie doing with a video of Queen Jean playing pool that was never ever aired on TV down here ..... interesting story.
Some time back around the turn of the century, I spent a week visiting a rather eccentric cuebuilder in Michigan, and in a brief moment of time when we weren't making sawdust in the shop, we watched a few cuesports videos from his fairly impressive collection. Upon returning home I asked if he would make a few copies of different tapes I had watched and send them to me. This match was on one of them.
So there you have it folks, you are now able to re-live this classic moment in cuesports history due to a certified lunatic, ... and me.
Well get in touch with said cue maker and ask him to post up some more :thumbup: There is nothing like the classic matches.
I remember one tournament that aired on ESPN back in the mid 80s and was a great watch was the Resorts International Last Call of 9 Ball. Some great matches. Danny Medina and Jose Parica; Wade Crane, Buddy Hall, Rempe etc... I still remember them being great watches. Sigel ended up winning that tourney, defeating Varner in the finals.
It would be interesting to hear from players who did compete with the slow cloth of yesterday and the fast cloth of today. I think Archer, Varner, Sigel, and Strickland would fall in that category.
Next time you speak to Johnny, ask him his thoughts of the cloth as far as how it affects his game. I would think that shot selection and game strategy would be affected significantly.
Oh, and Poolbum is right.
The guy Jean Balukas beat at the BC Open before Buddy Hall was Keith. Here I am saying I forgot the name of the guy. I had to look it up in my Keith journal. Sheesh! Talk about selective memory.
Keith was walking down the hall after Jean spanked him, leaving the tournament room. Here comes Buddy Hall getting ready to play his match with Jean. Before Keith could say what happened, Buddy growled at him stating he didn't want to hear about Jean, probably didn't want it to get in his head, I'd imagine. The entire audience was pulling for Queen Jean, applauding after every good shot, cheering after a good break. Keith said Jean broke the balls better than most men.
Most of the male pros don't like competing with the girls. I remember when Gerda spanked Earl Strickland at the 2005 IPT King of the Hill. He couldn't get out of the Orange County Conference Center fast enough, and there was a slew of TV cameras following him. You could fry an egg on his head about that time.
Karen Corr is another strong lady pro. Earl and several other male pros have voiced their opinion about Karen playing in the men's events. At the Joss Tour Season Finale in Maine, one of Earl's matches was going to be against Karen, and he was outside whining about it, how the girls are interfering in the men's events. Meanwhile, it was quite obvious to me at least that Earl knew Karen was very capable of beating him, and he was sweating the upcoming match.
Inside the pool room, Keith and Earl were practicing side by side, and Keith had to rib Earl a little bit about his next match, as Karen stoically sat tableside gazing at her prey. Earl looks like he's smiling here, but believe me, he was hating life at this juncture.
i have talked to Nick and Sigal about the fast cloth, they saw the same thing i did years ago. It narrowed the gap between the top guys and the shortstops. For me the C players and B players(back then), B to A etc. I perfer the slow cloth however its long gone.
i have always wondered why she quit playing at a relatively early age,yet she sits in the audience at a lot of the womens matches,she could probably still beat some of them,why did she hang her cue up so early in her career?
I would like to add, (having seen many of the ups and downs of the sport since I began playing at about 8), I can honestly say this is one of the larger reasons pool has taken a .45 to the head. Not really the slow cloth per se, but the mentality of separating the men from the boys, as they call it.
Tournaments need ALL the players it can get. The industry should be doing things to give other players what they feel is a chance to win and/or at least place in the money. This has the benefit of making it more interesting for any potential viewers of the game, and get more people to invest in playing (adding to the pot). 9 ball was also a small way those players could do this. It has a "little" more luck in the game.
Many always ask, why did poke gain so much popularity? Why was so much money in it? It is for the simple fact, many many players felt like they had a chance to win and/or place. That's plain and simple.
I remember back when Allen Hopkins gave an interview on Inside Pool, talking about poker and bringing some ideas from it into pool and a Million dollar tournament etc... But, like I said, poker has that all important difference of many many players feeling like they have a chance to win, so they invest in playing.... Allen's idea would have worked if he could get say 300 players. But how are you going to get 300 players if only 5% or 10% of them feel like they have a chance to win?
The industry is doing it ALL wrong, and it is pretty loud and clear by the status of pool in this country. And you can't blame but so much on an economy.
jean always spoke well of opponents when asked,she didnt go to the ipt because she didnt consider it worth it,to her money is the result of the hard work she has always put in to the family business.those of you who dont know her well enough can choose a side in this 25 yr old fight,but its like ali vs tyson its never gonna get settled.i must have played her a ton of sets of nineball all in an effort to help me improve,she never took credit and only asked without asking to show sportsmanship and a little bit of class when it came to playing in her room.she did/does consider it pretty cool to have beaten some of those great players in tournaments but never said im better than so and so-
so for all the pinheads who only want to judge her from one video of a heated match well i guess you are entitled but also not well informed.
so for all the pinheads who only want to judge her from one video of a heated match well i guess you are entitled but also not well informed.