how does earl match up,,,

bruin70

bruin70

don't wannabe M0DERATOR
Silver Member
certainly, strickland will rank as one of the top 9ball players ever to play the game. great accomplishments.

but will he be compared favorably to other players, past players, with more diverse skills. billiards today breeds 9ball players,,,,some play one pocket,,,some play rotation. there was always 14.1 in the past.

does earl ever enter those all around tournaments, and how does he fair in them, or others,,, like 8ball? i love 14.1, so i wouldn't put a crown on a 9ball player, great as earl is. i'd rather reserve that for guys like miz or sigel or efrem.
 
Earl has won one world 8-ball title. The year Efren and Bustamante did not parcticipate due to Asian games.
Efren has won 3 world 8-ball titles. 2 back to back and losing to Medina then winning against Mike yrs later. Efren won the first straight-pool tourney he played and won second place in his second one.
Efren is the best 1 pocket player now and probably ever.
Efren plays great balkline, straight-rail and decent 3-c billiards.
Earl plays very good straight-pool too. He's run in the hundreds too during a tournament but there hasn't been a great demand for 14.1 nowadays. Why? I don't know.
 
I also read in an interview that Earl had tried to top Mosconi's record. The closest he got was 406. Not too shabby.
 
I heard, dont know its true, but mosconi did that run on a table with buckets for pockets. And I believe there was some other conditions that helped his run. That is pool hall talk, so who knows.

All things being equal, I think Earl, Efren, and probably more would break that record easily.
 
I don't know what the conditions were like when Mosconi ran over 500 balls in straight pool but I do know that a long time ago when Mosconi was playing the likes of Ralph Greenleaf, the tables were 5 X 10, the pockets were much tighter and the balls weren't of the quality of the balls today. I read that when Ralph Greeleaf practiced, he would get infuriated if the object ball even touched any part of the pocket while going in. Can you imagine playing with balls that aren't perfectly round and expecting perfection in your play. Shoot, most of the players today, me included, would have a whole new set of excuses as to why we missed a shot.

BTW, I believe it was Mosconi who advocated making the tables smaller, 4 1/2 X 9, and with much larger pockets so the average person could enjoy the game more. This makes it pretty tough to compare the players of today with the legends from the past.
 
As far as anybody breaking that record, let alone easily, I can't see it happening. Here is what Earl had to say about it:

"His high run of 526 balls. I've been trying to beat that and it's virtually impossible. I've gotten to 408 and I felt like somebody had been hitting me with a club in the back and legs all night long. After I ran 408 balls, I could barely walk. People don't realize how intense it is. To run 408 balls is phenomenal and it is very very demanding on your body. You're very tired after that, believe me. And to run 526 balls, takes a phenomenal person."

The interview is on this site. Sept. 99' I think.
 
I have heard and I don't know if it is true or not, that when Mosconi made his high run, he didn't have to call balls, and a few times he didn't have a break out shot and ran into the rack and slopped in balls...

Does anyone know if this is true or not?

Bob
 
Brunswick tables come with 4 3/4 pockets or wider.
I asked Efren about Mosconi's run one time.
He said that was done during an exhibition so he doesn't really think much of it. He doesn't play straight pool anyway.
If he did play 14.1 constantly, who knows?
He has ran 5 racks of 15-ball rotation during practice.
That's pretty phenomenol to me.
 
Bob Romano said:
I have heard and I don't know if it is true or not, that when Mosconi made his high run, he didn't have to call balls, and a few times he didn't have a break out shot and ran into the rack and slopped in balls...

Does anyone know if this is true or not?

Bob
Click to expand...

i can't believe that because, 1...that would be such an obvious blotch on the high run, 2...everyone would know about it, 3...a top player would always get a break shot being as how important the end game is, 4...a top player can break off almost any break shot, no matter how poor the position is, 5...not calling a shot is counter to the whole point of the game.

maybe this rumor came from mosconi pocketing the break ball(or any called shot), another ball or two dropping in off that break/shot, and the person who saw this was a novice who didn't know the rules and assumed ALL balls had to be called. the novice would tell someone and the story would evolve into what you heard.

it's not as if 526 is that far out of reach. eufemia is said to have the highest unofficial run, and there are plenty of 400's. i'll bet if 14.1 was still popular, the record would have been broken. equipment is better. the balls are light and spread easily. more shooters.
 
Bob Romano said:
I have heard and I don't know if it is true or not, that when Mosconi made his high run, he didn't have to call balls, and a few times he didn't have a break out shot and ran into the rack and slopped in balls...

Does anyone know if this is true or not?

Bob
Click to expand...

I heard that too. The person who told me that also is the one who told me about the larger pockets. This guy knows his stuff, but you never know when you hear it in a pool hall.

I still think Efren, Earl, and some others could do it if they had enough of a reason.
 
I am sure that everyone remembers the 'Maine Event' 14.1 tournament where the two finalist where none other than CJ Wiley and Efren Reyes, two "9-Ball" players. Not too shabby when you consider some of the 14.1 champions that were also enterred in that event.

As for Earl, he will never admit that he likes doing it, but he really can move if he has to. Playing safeties and kicking are two things that Earl has really improved in the last decade. My guess is that he stepped it up a notch when he found himself facing Efren so much in these big tournaments. My point is that Earl is a great player, though some love to hate him, and I think that if he put his mind to it he could play all games including one pocket. Since one pocket tournaments are rare and I am assuming that Earl doesn't gamble anymore, I believe that he just never took up the game.
 
I was at the maine 14.1 tournament as a spectator and watched Earl on one table and Efren 1 or 2 tables away simultaneously run 100 plus balls in straight pool. Efrens looked effortless while Earls required a lot of hard shots (great shot making). Irregardless watching 2 non straight pool players run 100 plus at the same time impressed me. These guys could easily transistion to straight pool or any of the games as needed. Just look at all the snooker players making the transistion to nine ball. Cue games are mostly mental and experience. We can all make every shot on the table and have, but can we do it when we need to? The pros do.
 
that reminds me of something that Steve Mizerak used to say.

"Everybody misses the hard shots, but the pros don't miss the easy ones."
 
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