My thoughts exactly
Gray Cloth at the Mosconi Cup
- Thread starter JAM
- Start date
What he said.
Decades ago I learned never to use the figure of irony in a poolroom. By "irony" here I mean the way we commonly emphasize something by saying its exact opposite. Your cue ball goes five rails around the table for perfect position on short side shapes, but at the last instant it gets corner hooked. You say, "I get all the good roles." If there is the slightest complexity to the situation, your ironic statement is likely to be taken literally in a pool room.
But sometimes I slip up and forget.
So two weeks ago I was in a poolroom sipping coffee and relaxing when two players broke out a set of the new "black balls." I had never seen them before. Neither had the other patrons apparently. There was initial consternation. Consternation turned into critical disapproval. There was no reference to the color theories and optics of the nineteenth century natural scientists or to the application of those color theories to such artistic movements as pointillism, but there were nevertheless strong views expressed, nearly all con. What the discussion lacked in theory it made up for in the clear simplicity of the words used.
Eventually I turned to one of the principal negative voices and said something like this: "You don't understand. The only thing preventing the commercial success of pool is that we have not yet found the perfect color scheme for the balls. When we once find out what the exactly perfect distribution of hues, tones, and shades is, pool will become a major sport. All that is preventing professional pool players from making the same money as Major League baseball players is our misunderstanding of the correct chromatics of the four ball and the six ball.. Once we get that solved, it's going to be Fat City."
Mister Negativity looked at me and said, "Tobermory, sometimes I worry about you."
But sometimes I slip up and forget.
So two weeks ago I was in a poolroom sipping coffee and relaxing when two players broke out a set of the new "black balls." I had never seen them before. Neither had the other patrons apparently. There was initial consternation. Consternation turned into critical disapproval. There was no reference to the color theories and optics of the nineteenth century natural scientists or to the application of those color theories to such artistic movements as pointillism, but there were nevertheless strong views expressed, nearly all con. What the discussion lacked in theory it made up for in the clear simplicity of the words used.
Eventually I turned to one of the principal negative voices and said something like this: "You don't understand. The only thing preventing the commercial success of pool is that we have not yet found the perfect color scheme for the balls. When we once find out what the exactly perfect distribution of hues, tones, and shades is, pool will become a major sport. All that is preventing professional pool players from making the same money as Major League baseball players is our misunderstanding of the correct chromatics of the four ball and the six ball.. Once we get that solved, it's going to be Fat City."
Mister Negativity looked at me and said, "Tobermory, sometimes I worry about you."
I would not expect the participants to bite the hand that feeds them.
I certainly don't get it, by using black on the 9 ball a quick glance at the table may fool you into thinking there are 2 8 balls out there. There were many times in last years MC that the 9 was at the correct rotation that made it appear to be an 8 ball. Then on top of that you make the 5 ball the color of the 4 ball? That's just idiotic in my opinion. I don't play 9 ball a lot but I still play often enough, I'm assuming most play like I do, by the color of the ball for rotation, its automatic, who looks at the number on the ball??
How many HD streams have you watched with the setup they are going to use?
They say it's supposed to be easier to see on a small screen.
The story behind Aramith Tournament BLACK colours | Aramith - The best billiard balls
Traditionally the object balls have the following colour code : 1 and 9 ball : yellow 2 and 10 ball : dark blue 3 and 11 ball : red 4 and 12 ball : dark purple 5 and 13 ball : orange 6 and 14 ball : dark green 7 and 15 ball : maroon 8 ball : blackwww.aramith.com
None on grey cloth 'cause no one uses it. I have watched a few with those balls and they suck. Big time.
No clue. Never watched it.
I got plenty of tournament blue 860HR sets for our tables from Felice at Simonis one month ago. I’d find it hard to believe they could not get a few sets for the Mosconi Cup tables, or that they would have waited until the last minute to order it.
I’m 95% sure they did, thinking about it. Wasn’t the end of the world. Not my favorite but wasn’t bad.
I could see it possible that if the 9-ball was oriented a certain way, from a certain angle, it might be hard for a player to initially distinguish the 8-ball from the 9-ball without taking a closer look.
EF/MR just wanted their own cloth just like the balls. Nothing do with scarcity.
Put me down for absolutely hating the black edged balls.
Wasn't the 8 ball made black because black was the hardest edge to see? And this theory is played out in 1 pocket games I see. When a player has to spot a ball ( after a foul) I see players always spotting the 8 ball if it is one of their pocketed balls. So if black is hardest edge to see, are they just trying to make the game harder? Aramith states that they wanted to differentiate more between the 1 and the nine ball , well how long does both the 1 and 9 ball stay on the table?
Wasn't the 8 ball made black because black was the hardest edge to see? And this theory is played out in 1 pocket games I see. When a player has to spot a ball ( after a foul) I see players always spotting the 8 ball if it is one of their pocketed balls. So if black is hardest edge to see, are they just trying to make the game harder? Aramith states that they wanted to differentiate more between the 1 and the nine ball , well how long does both the 1 and 9 ball stay on the table?
I finally had a chance to watch the day 1 highlights before I went to bed last night. I have to say that I don't think the shark gray cloth is a bad thing. I actually kind of liked it. But also, there's no reason to have funky colored balls on the gray cloth. The standard colors would show up for the viewers no problem on grey color cloth.
I've played on tables with everything from grey and camel/tan cloth to black, and prefer the lighter colored cloths. The camel and grey cloths show less shadows if the lighting isn't perfect, and the definition is cleaner/clearer when you're shooting on those tables. I actually have tan/gold cloth on my personal table because I prefer it and carry my preferred chalk in both gold and blue so I don't get yelled at for using the gold chalk on tables covered with blue or green cloth.