I like Earl, but he'll always be a sore loser. Always has and always will.
- Thread starter Badbeat13
- Start date
Jam, there is a time and place for everything. A tournament is one venue and a reality show is another. What works in one place may not be appropriate in another.
I also happen to like the "action" side of our sport and all that goes with it. Your partner would know that as well. But in a tournament setting, backroom behavior won't fly! And carrying on like a lunatic is just not acceptable either. Kapeche
The tournament, Jay, in case you missed it, was over. Earl was signing autographs when some railbird came up behind him and slapped him on the back. Oy vey!
My point is that what is wrong with Earl that everybody keeps b*tching about is a medical problem. If he was on medication, he would be a different person, one who couldn't play professional pool anymore. Therein likes the rub.
People are writing on this thread as if Earl is deliberately, with malice aforethought, acting this way. He cannot help it.
Thank goodness, SVB, Ralf, and Efren aren't suffering from the same thing that Earl is. That is a blessing for them. :smile:
CJ,I can't speak for any other tournament directors but I have reprimanded Earl on more than a few occasions and found a way to stop his shenanigans. Losing a game on the wire and being threatened with forfeiting a match has been very effective in curtailing him.
Maybe you weren't there in Tunica last year when he played Landon (on a 5x10 by the way). Earl started going off on Landon early in the match and I found a seat right by the table and let Earl know that his behavior would not be tolerated. He had to sit quietly while Landon was at the table. He fumed a little but he sat there and took his beating like a man. At the conclusion of the match, Earl got in Landon's face again and started to berate him. I stepped between them (kind of how you break up a fight at the pool hall) and told Earl to cool it. And he did, walking away to complain elsewhere.
CJ, you haven't been around the pool tournament scene for years, so I don't expect you to know everything. Although sometimes you come off like you do anyway. I've been there, intimately involved all these years, so I'm not going to let some keyboard jockeys tell me what I saw and what I did. You weren't there and you don't know!
Good luck with your "new" career in pool, selling your DVD's and coaching etc. I hope you're very successful and do some good things for our sport. It may have slipped your mind that I helped you at the first PCA tournaments, both in Dallas and at Hollywood Park. I was instrumental in making the event at Hollywood Park even happen. Maybe you forgot about that as well. I was the one they trusted there and when I told them we should do it, that's when they made a deal with you. And that's a fact! You and I both know that too. Although I wouldn't be at all surprised to see you try to turn that around as well.
My point is that what is wrong with Earl that everybody keeps b*tching about is a medical problem. If he was on medication, he would be a different person, one who couldn't play professional pool anymore. Therein likes the rub.
People are writing on this thread as if Earl is deliberately, with malice aforethought, acting this way. He cannot help it.
I think he should go with the meds. He's not even in the top 30 of money-winners in pro pool, so his winnings are somewhere south of $4k. And he could still give lessons, which I imagine are his primary source of income. And you can't put a price on feeling happy, relaxed and peaceful. I wish him luck, I really do. He is obviously tortured.
I do agree with you, Taco. I'd like to see him give up pool altogether. It just isn't worth it to be tortured like this. People may not realize how tortured his soul is.
The docotors had trouble finding the right meds for my niece, who is bipolar. She decided to quit taking her meds with no warning. She drove from Virginia to Louisiana and was missing for 30 days. The family put out an APB to find her. Everybody was worried. She's a very pretty girl, and to look at her, you'd never know she had medical problems.
About a month later, a Louisiana State Trooper saw this blond girl walking up the median strip with a halter top on and sandles. It was winter and cold weather at this time. He decided to stop and ask her a few questions.
Bottom line, she didn't know where she was and lost her car. They found her car totaled on some side street, and the family had to fly down there and bring her back home.
She's okay now, on meds, has a boyfriend, but she's still subject to go off her meds, and if that happens, she's in big trouble.
I would love for Earl to be happy. I don't think pool makes Earl happy anymore. Maybe something will come his way and allow him some peace of mind someday. :smile:
That's the most ridiculous thing I've read on here this year.
Of course Earl can't help the way he feels, but he certainly can help the way he acts. Trust me, I have plenty of the same kind of devils that likely plague Earl, and I have chosen to not accept medication as a way to tame them. Instead, I make a conscious decision every day to treat other folks with the respect they deserve, no matter how much I feel like crushing them into oblivion.
Earl is not criminally insane, he's just caught up in the same type of behavior that my 3 year-old grandson shows when he doesn't get his way. Difference is, Earl definitely knows better. Behavior is always a choice, no matter how shitty you feel about yourself inside. That's what makes for a civilized world.
That's the most ridiculous thing I've read on here this year.
Of course Earl can't help the way he feels, but he certainly can help the way he acts. Trust me, I have plenty of the same kind of devils that likely plague Earl, and I have chosen to not accept medication as a way to tame them. Instead, I make a conscious decision every day to treat other folks with the respect they deserve, no matter how much I feel like crushing them into oblivion.
Earl is not criminally insane, he's just caught up in the same type of behavior that my 3 year-old grandson shows when he doesn't get his way. Difference is, Earl definitely knows better. Behavior is always a choice, no matter how shitty you feel about yourself inside. That's what makes for a civilized world.
You couldn't be more wrong on this one, my friend. Sorry.
Great performer!
Like everyone Earl is who he is and he has to and does live with the consequences of his actions. If he breaks the law, he pays for it. If he's mean, he loses fans. At the end of the day, no thread will change this. Also at the end of the day, no one can take away Earls pool game or what he has accomplished.
Most of those amateurs have no idea who Earl or any other pro is. When they do a little research on pros what the see is Earl breaking cues, Earl yelling at random people out of the blue, Earl fighting with Michaela. He doesn't look anymore professional than a drunken slob from Wednesday night aside from his ability to shoot.
You can argue about his ability until you're blue in the face but it doesn't change what people see. Of course people laugh, he acts like a child.
I think his *first reaction* is to lash out, which he has no control over. He does have control over what comes out of his mouth though and a little verbal abuse counseling might do wonders. As far as the random touching, I wouldn't hold that against him, given his temperament, the situation (just lost), and the fact that he doesn't like to be touched I'm not surprised he was angry.
If he was let's say a, "boxing Brit", would you say pool was cruel, or make fun of him for being British? Your tagline has been, "Pool is cruel to it's own" longer than CJ has been saying, "The Game is the Teacher". Neither one makes sense to me. Pool is a sport. You either play it or you don't. The sport doesn't owe anyone anything.
I half agree with you Jam, and half don't. Keith is entertaining. Earl is embarrassing. They are not the same.
what you say
CJ,I can't speak for any other tournament directors but I have reprimanded Earl on more than a few occasions and found a way to stop his shenanigans. Losing a game on the wire and being threatened with forfeiting a match has been very effective in curtailing him.
Maybe you weren't there in Tunica last year when he played Landon (on a 5x10 by the way). Earl started going off on Landon early in the match and I found a seat right by the table and let Earl know that his behavior would not be tolerated. He had to sit quietly while Landon was at the table. He fumed a little but he sat there and took his beating like a man. At the conclusion of the match, Earl got in Landon's face again and started to berate him. I stepped between them (kind of how you break up a fight at the pool hall) and told Earl to cool it. And he did, walking away to complain elsewhere.
CJ, you haven't been around the pool tournament scene for years, so I don't expect you to know everything. Although sometimes you come off like you do anyway. I've been there, intimately involved all these years, so I'm not going to let some keyboard jockeys tell me what I saw and what I did. You weren't there and you don't know!
Good luck with your "new" career in pool, selling your DVD's and coaching etc. I hope you're very successful and do some good things for our sport. It may have slipped your mind that I helped you at the first PCA tournaments, both in Dallas and at Hollywood Park. I was instrumental in making the event at Hollywood Park even happen. Maybe you forgot about that as well. I was the one they trusted there and when I told them we should do it, that's when they made a deal with you. And that's a fact! You and I both know that too. Although I wouldn't be at all surprised to see you try to turn that around as well.
Well put.....the voice of experience......and reason.
Jam, in case you missed it, the tournament was not over! Earl was still in the venue, close by where he played his match and where other matches were still in progress. I can understand him being miffed because someone touched him (a pat on the back is not a slap by the way), but he didn't need to (over)react the way he did. As someone else said, he is a professional athlete and people are going to want to engage him in some way. That goes with the territory and by now Earl is very much aware of that fact.
You seem to have a blind eye toward any and all references to Earl's past and present bad behaviors. Keep apologizing for him, I'm sure he appreciates your support. Oy vey to you!
True, the tournament was not over; Earl's match was over.
Respect is earned in this industry, and it is apparent that Earl has none. You say I'm apologizing for Earl; I say some on this thread are demeaning a sick man. Capiche?