good days
Basement dweller, I understand exactly what you mean.
When I grew up my hero was Nick Varner. The man didn't slow play and had as much offense as anyone, but he was deliberate, bore down on every shot, and never made a careless mistake. Same with Rempe, Siegel, Hall, Mizerak, etc. Plus i live in MN where Jimmy Wetch is from and many of our players emulate him, very deliberate and almost OCD.
I looked at players like Bowman and shook my head. Yeah they could play great, but at the top level you can't make unforced errors. CJ Wiley looked reckless at the table. Johnny Archer used to play pretty quick, as did his pal Dennis Hatch. And let's not forget Earl's one stroke mode. They would look like they were running the table over, but then they'd make a slip and I'd wonder why. Why would they do that?
I found that it's not that they make careless mistakes, or reckless mistakes. They truly just play quicker and more freely. And that everyone makes mistakes. And EVERYONE looks bad when they fumble.
When the fast players fumble it looks careless. When the slower players fumble it looks like the game doesn't come quite as easy for them and they are trying their best but are human. But somehow it's easier to forgive a miss when we see them sweating and struggling. But either way, it is just as bad.
And what's hard to quantify is the amazing gears that are possible when some of these fast and loose gunslingers just let loose. They can truly put so many racks together no one can keep up. It doesn't matter if player A doesn't miss if he's running racks 2 at a time, if player B is running 4s, 5s, and 6s. Player B can make a 'careless' mistake and still get the money.
Now, getting back to Bowman, I will just say this. I have played SVB probably 10 matches in my life, many on a bar table. I have played many champions. I have seen many perfect sets. But I have never quite seen anything like what Bowman does on that box. I played a tournament with him in the field in January. Shoot, he beat me 7-0 and I don't know that I had a shot at the 1. But more than that, I have never seen someone run so many packages (winner breaks 9 ball), so quickly. Situations that most people would duck, he would shoot, score, and run multiple racks from. He has an unholy way of kicking that just seems to magically make balls or get safe. He can twist, bank, back cut, combo, shoot, they just seem to all want to go in for him. When I say "Wizard", I mean it. Jesse Engel won the flip and ran out the set on him, and still after watching Bowman play Jesse told me he thought JB was an alien and literally played this game at another level.
Having seen the greats I never really believed stories about Keith McCready, all I've seen are videos of him playing inconsistently in tournaments in the late 80s-early 00s. I always thought 'he plays great for a freewheeling shortstop'. But watching Bowman opened my eyes. I can see how a player like Keith might not always get there in a tournament format. He might not be the most consistent person in the world. Maybe he has a bad day, doesn't get his right gear, or doesn't get there in time for a short race. But in a session, a cash game, a gun fight...I could see how the game would just come so much easier to him and he could run so many racks and just waltz through so many difficult racks like butter, that frankly no one could keep up. I get that now. Because I have now seen it in 2016.
Sure, SVB will still win against JB, and Kirkwood wouldn't get blown off the table. But I wouldn't want to bet a nickel against JB on a bar box unless that person had multiple player of the year titles...
Good conversation, I'd love to hear what others think.
