Earl Strickland's Vision of improving pool's tv ratings

I think the bigger impact would be stats! It has already been mentioned on this thread but in America, people, especially sports fans, love statistics. And any match has the capability to produce a whole encyclopedia of stats: Made on break, made on break avg, make/miss ratio, match winning %, longest made ball streak, safeties completed, un-forced errrors, etc...

the great thing about these is that as pool becomes more popular, fans, who are usually players as well will try to emulate these stats and use them for self-inflation purposes. And because these stats can be calculated easily, leagues can starts using them to get players to compare themselves to the pros...this will give the pros a more clearly defined respect because people can see how good they are on paper. Increase meaningful stats, increase ratings!
 
Id just like to strongly agree with "Mike Templtons" statment on how annouying it is to be watching a 2-2 good match and come back from comercial to a 5-3 match. I really want to know who makes the decisons on what games stay off the cuttingroom floor. The safty battles they cut out alot of times are far more intricate and challanging than the text book out that get left in. Or if they cut out the text book outs than you dont know how the match is going. UUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHH just venting.
 
My favorite comment from the US Open was after Archers match with Peach I was in the stands and an old fella behind me says "I wish Johnny would hurry up, I don't have long left to live!". That cracked me up.
 
Colin Colenso said:
It's not just the slow play factor.

Where are the big shots in 9-ball?
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I agree Colin. With trick shot competitions becoming more popular, the average spectator can't understand why a pro player ponders a straight-in shot for 20 seconds. They want to see spectacular shots. It's like when your non-playing friends want you show them something. It's a jump shot, masse, crazy bank, etc., not a simply long straight-in or tricky cut shot.
 
Earl is right. A shot clock would definitely help. It doesn't matter how consistent and precise the play is, slow play equals dull viewing.
 
Great idea!
And I kid you not!

:)

Luxury said:
One of the things that I remember most about that rant was how there should be a big screen with numbers for all to see that had the shot clock ticking down. He explained how slow play in tournaments all over is killing pool and people would view it more as a sport if the play was speeded up and there was a visual shot-clock.

I think he is on to something. I think it's interesting when they show the time elapsing for a delay of game penalty and the quarterback gets the snap right as the time expires. Having a little shot of the time in the corner of the tv screen would give the viewer hope that it won't be taking forever to see the next shot.

More thoughts on this?
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While this thread is mainly about a shot clock (which I TOTALLY agree is needed) I have to agree entirely with Texas Prez. I'm definately a "stats" guy myself, and would love to see all of the ones he mentioned and more. And as far as comparing myself to the pros, I would LOVE to be able to do that as well. Being able to use various statistics to monitor and compare myself to them with I think would help my mental game tremendously. As well it would help shut the local "Bar-Table Goobers" up if they could put their stats where their mouths are.
 
Shot clocks seem to be pleasing some of the players and fans of pool, but isn't this about Earl's idea of TV POOL based on the introducition of Shot clocks on the TV screen while the players are playing?

Not only would a shot clock be informative but so would a AccuStat score and a leader board.

All televised sport have some sort of Visual aid to let the viewers know what the score is, how much time is left in event anouncers that can tell the viewers who is leading in the standings.

IMO there isn't a clear cut player standings available. The best the sport IMO rankings based on players performance at an event that is also ranked and can provide easy brackets for lessor skilled players and give a false indication in the rankings that rates players higher.

Pool doesn't have any player power/skill/competition/league and promoter ratings that would interest viewers.

It would be interesting to watch the top 24 players play in a split season 12 players to a bracket playing a round robin home and away match and then have a playoff for the top 4 of each division to generate two players to compete for the USA Champion ship. It works for all the other sports, why not pocket billiards?

Minor league playes will be able to be called up by the sponsers to replace poor performers.

Just a thought
 
Earl is, as always, clueless. It isn't slow play that makes pool less inviting to watch than golf. Its the participants. Its pretty hard to believe an announcer telling you how tough it is to play the game when these guys string rack after rack together. Perfection is boring. You want something worth watching ? Try straight pool. Try one pocket. Try no safties. Ring games. Try anything, but today's 9 ball game has essentially killed any interest by anyone other than those who play the game. Jeez, I play the game and I think a bad day of watching golf is more watchable than a 9 ball tournament on tv.

tim
 
I am totally for shot clocks, as SJM said, it seems mostly to be the players that have weird habits that play the slowest (much like sergio garcia in golf...why he needs to take 50 little pre swings in beyond me).

Most sports have some sort of timer, you can't just stand there forever deciding when to throw the tennis ball on the serve, sure there's no actual shot clock, but you know it wouldn't fly with the ref it someone always say measured the wind for a full 60 seconds before tossing the ball up...

Everyone has a sweet spot where their concentration max's out. From what I've read though most people can't maintain max concentration for very long, so it seems odd to me when very good players have super long shot routines. I think what's happening is that for part of their routine they are not really concentrating, but just going through motions that bring them to the beginning of the actual routine.

I played a league match with a guy who was obsessed with putting the chalk pieces directly on the diamonds (not to line up shots, but apparently he liked covering them up). And he'd also twist the chalk so the points were always lined up with the ends of the table. I lost the game and i think i sharked myself (not blaming the guy, I should have had more restraint, but it just drove me up a wall - I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose, he was just weird).

Of course my problem is shooting faster and faster when I get in my groove until i invariably miss something because I'm just moving way too fast...:)
 
Just had an idea...

This just came to me as a interesting way to implement a "shot clock" in 9 ball.

When you come to the table for your inning (and any subsequent inning), the number of remaining balls is counted up and multiplied by 20 seconds. This is your "game clock".

Say there are 7 balls remaining, you'd have 2 minutes and 20 seconds to run the balls. You still get one extension/time out per rack. If you need to play safe, no problem; Your inning is over and will be reset if you get back to the table.

This way, the obvious shots would be taken with little delay so you'd "save" your time for the more difficult shots.

Thoughts? Might need to adjust the 20 second multiplier, but I think that should be enough for most players and it would be exciting to watch.

It would be interesting to watch and would provide some intersting stats.

Chris
 
Sounds fair enough, but all we can do is talk here, how would we actually get something like that initiated? Seems like we're at the wrong place for actually doing something about it.
 
Luxury said:
I did the pool school with Johnny Archer and Earl Strickland and loved it. I went to the show that night and watched Earl's Strickland's trick shot show and he stopped everything and went on a rant as to why pool wasn't successful and what he visualized as what pool on tv should be.

One of the things that I remember most about that rant was how there should be a big screen with numbers for all to see that had the shot clock ticking down. He explained how slow play in tournaments all over is killing pool and people would view it more as a sport if the play was speeded up and there was a visual shot-clock.

I think he is on to something. I think it's interesting when they show the time elapsing for a delay of game penalty and the quarterback gets the snap right as the time expires. Having a little shot of the time in the corner of the tv screen would give the viewer hope that it won't be taking forever to see the next shot.

More thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
I just happen to watch a match on ESPN today where JA was playing Busta in the finals and they were showing the clock in the coner. I would say someone heard the samt thing and made it happen. Earl has a lot of good idea's and hopefully things will change. Go Earl!!
 
maybe earl's reasoning should include banning players who have a history of meltdowns, and blowups on a regular basis. i bet tv producers would pull the plug after about the 2nd or 3rd time of someone showing his ass
 
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