The pic in my avatar was from around 1980 at the McDermott Masters. Earl was probably in his late teens and he took that one down from a pretty strong field that included Buddy Hall among others. In one match Earl was trailing the late Louie Lemke I think 9-1 in a race to 11 and he started stringing racks together and in what seemed like just minutes,11-9 Earl. I remember the look on Pat Fleming's face during their match when Earl was in the zone stalking the table and you could just tell that he knew he had ran into a buzzsaw. He pretty much sat and watched. When we went to watch this tournament I was young and cocky and wanted to see how my game stacked up against the pros and after watching Earl for a couple of days I was brought down to earth big time. He was the first person I ever saw jump balls while he was warming up, pocketing a ball, and then drawing the cue ball back the length of the table. I think you can only stay on top for so long in any sport and I believe Earl was at his peak in his twenties and early thirties when he might have been the best short rack player in the world. We most likely won't see that greatness out of him again.
