I tend to agree, All except for Orcullo..At his present stage of development, (at one pocket) I believe Dennis would be a cake walk for Scott, in a lengthy 1P session!
PS..Jay Helfert may not agree with my assessment, but I'm quite sure Cardone would!
Dick, back in the day when you were playing your best it took a player like Ronnie Allen to beat you, you were clearly one of the best back then...back in the day. Because of that I believe that you put possibly too much value on the top players back then. I'm certainly not implying that they were slouches we both know that's not true, but today's players are at least on a par with the best back then. Your opinion on one pocket players is to be respected, however, imo you are a little off with evaluating Reye's game. I do agree that he doesn't play what many consider a good moving game, (traditional) however, that doesn't mean that he can't move. On the contrary he is a spectacular mover, his style is very unique, no other player has had the touch and skill to play caroms, billiards, and shots of that nature as well as Reyes. His balkline proficiency is evidenced in many of his moves, along with his ability to move the cue ball off of caroms and his touch is simply the best. Reyes has a great mind playing all games and understands table percentages, in terms of how to play certain positions that are problematic. I along with many of the champions today will attest to that. Shannon Daulton say's that Reyes moves better than anyone he's ever played. Cliff Joyner is in awe of the man, in terms of his all around onepocket game, he really has no weaknesses. Scott Frost will be the first to tell you how well Reyes plays, he's bragged on him many, many times to me as being the best ever. Dick, I played a lot of players through the 55 years that I have been playing onepocket and I honestly feel without a doubt that Reyes is clearly the best player that I have ever played or watch play. I can go on and explain why I feel that way but I don't want to go into a lengthy explanation on my reasoning. I'll let his accomplishments speak for me instead.
Scott Frost along with Pagulayan are the top two players playing one pocket in the world today, providing that Frost can pull the reigns in on his sometimes over reaching shot selection. Scott's undoing is his belief that he can do too many things on a pool table and that affects his ability to play the score, or even his ability in playing the opponent's strength's and weaknesses. However, when Scott played Reyes he managed the table very well, his shot selection was solid and the results obviously imply that as well. If he can adapt to that style of thinking then he will be very difficult to beat and possibly will start to win more tournaments then his past tournament record reflects.
Now, will Frost be in a "cake walk" playing Orcollo? That's a pretty strong word..cake walk..I think Frost will win but he will be tested and will have to play great or Orcullo will beat him. Dennis Orcullo is a great player playing all games, his ball striking skills are as good as any in the game today and his understanding of one pocket is steadily improving at a fast pace. I would put Orcullo as the 4th or 5th best one pocket players in the world today, playing a game where the difference in proficiency among the 3rd..4th. and 5th. best players aren't much at all.
Today's onepocket as opposed to onepocket played in the 60's, 70's, and even the 80's is much more competitive. The best ball strikers are becoming the best players because of the popularity of the game. Back in the day the best players were the best movers, they were the only one's that understood the game and it's understandable why people today think that players moved better back then because the movers back then dominated. Duh!! Today's one pocket players can all move..so to speak, certainly in comparison to back then. That's why you must respect players like Orcullo and VanBoening, two of the best ball strikers in pool.
Anyways, that's my $.02, and yes your opinion certainly should be respected..always.
Bill Incardona
...I'm sure Andy knows, he's been dead for quite a while now!