I love Earl

[Bobby]

Earl is far and away my favorite pool player ever, and the greatest tournament 9 ball player ever.

When I started playing pool I only played 14.1, didn't even like 9 ball until I saw Earl play. So you could say it's because of Earl that I play and love 9 ball today.

 

[rementis]

He's the greatest

 

[Cuebuddy]

I got to see Earl play just a couple of weeks age at the Riv. This sounds crazy but he was the first pro I have ever seen play in person. I will never forget it. I wanted to play him more then anything and I did not have a cue with me I also talked to bfdlad for a while and I cant wait to see these guys next time ..... I will bring a cue, lmao.

 

[pooltableproCP]

Earl is a human being, plain and simple. But he has done things that others only dream about. Earl wears his heart on his sleeve, and tells it like it is. Does that endear him to everyone? Of course not, but if you listen to Earl, really listen to him, you will figure it out.

He is passionate about pool. He yearns for the "glory days" like we all do as we grow older.

Before I was "downsized" out of this great industry, I was fortunate to have played a part in bringing Team CSI to my hometown this year. In these last 15 years, I have met many pro players, most of which deserved their due respect. But I believe that the time I was fortunate to spend with John Schmidt and Earl Strickland, may always be the most important to me as a pool player, competitor and person.

John represents to me, where pool might be going, and it's very exciting. And Earl, good ol' Earl....well he represents to me, where pool should always have been.



Here is Earl "breaking" the fingers of my good friend, and fellow AZer POCKETWOLF

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[mullyman]

I guess I'll toss my Earl story into the pit.

Back in 1999 or 2001, one of the times I went to the States, my wife and I made the trek down to the Lexington All-Stars tournament. My sole intention was to meet Earl Strickland. I had watched him so many times on Accu-Stats tapes and I really just wanted to shake his hand.

Well, the day goes on and on and there's no Earl to be found. I had the great opportunity to speak with Buddy Hall, Johnny Archer, Jose Parica, Francisco Bustamante, Jim Rempe, Nick Varner and God only knows how many others. It was nice but the dream hadn't come true. About 7 or 8:00 we decided to call it a day and drive back to Cincinnati. I told my wife that we would take off after the match we were watching but that I wanted to go have a smoke real quick. So, I go out into the lounge area and guess who is standing there reading the board, the man himself. I was so excited that he was standing just a few feet away. I said "Dude, I've been waiting for you all day, where ya been?" and he just laughed a little. I then said "Look, I came all the way from Japan just to meet you and I know my wife would like to meet you too, could you just wait here for one minute?" and he was like "Yeah, go get her" so I went back in and got my wife and we went back out. Earl was really intrigued that we had come from Japan. He started talking about all his trips over here and how much he likes it. Turns out we had a few mutual acquaintances over here. Earl could have easily signed our cue balls and walked away but he sat there and talked with us for damn near 30 minutes. I was a fan before I met him but after that, no way I could be turned against him.

Earl is the man!
MULLY

 

[bfdlad]

Well, maybe there's some story you CAN share? As long as it's nothing earl would object to of course. Everyone else freely shares the bad stories, couldn't hurt to hear a good one.

I dunno him but my impression is he believes strongly in basic pool courtesy. That ranges from obvious ones like not fidgeting in your chair when the other guy is shooting... to debatable ones like not shooting as slow as Ralf... to a few unfair ones like not getting too many good rolls =)

When other people break the rules it bugs him a lot, and so do his mistakes. It is fair to say his freakouts shark people but it's worth something that it's not on purpose and he's capable of holding it back against the ones he really respects. If you don't break the unwritten rules with him, he's as polite as anyone you could ask for. Even after missing a ball.

Creedo, I think i have posted a couple of stories of Earls love for animals in the past and the lenths he will go to to make sure that any animal is not hungry, cold or in danger. Its quite funny to watch if the only image you have in your head is of this crazy guy going off at the Mosconi cup. He posted $2,000 as a security deposit if I would let a cat in my house that he thought looked hungry and he didn't want it to get onto the main road and get hurt.

As for his love for the game, this may seem trivial but to me and some others it showed a passion. We were at the Texas State BCA event for a exhibition that Earl was booked to do. Well we went in to see Rick Jones of Bad Boys Billiard Productions and just let him know that we had arrived and say hi. We are ready to leave and Earl went over to one of the tables where a match was in progress and the player's team were all huddled together sweating the match. He stood their watching the league players for quite a while commenting on good shots (never said anything negative on bad shots) One of the team mates looked behind to see the Pearl sweating their match. They began to nudge each other and say "Hey check it out Strickland is watching our match" Earl asked them "Are you guys winning?" with a dazed looked they reply "Errm erm yeah, we are" Still a little confused why one of the greatest players who ever lived is stood watching league players. "Arn't we supposed to be watching you?" one asked. Earl laughed and said "Good luck guys I hope you cash"

Again this may seem trivial but I am not sure how many TOP pros sit around watching amature teams play and enjoy it just because its pool. He did this many times over the days we spent there. He wasn't doing this for attention as he would just tuck himself away at the back of the spectators but obviously after a min or two people recognized that he was there and watching.

I am sure that you remember the Mosconi Cup incidents with Tony Drago and how heated the arguments between Earl and Drago were. Well we were at the Cue Club in Vegas and Tony Drago was in there too. I kinda thought to myself "Oh god here we go" I say hi to Tony and he comes over and shakes hands with Earl and we all chat for a while about a little of everything. As Tony goes back to where he was Earl says with a look of happyness and concern "Thats great I was worried" I say 'Did you think there was gonna be trouble?" he says "No, I am just really glad that Tony lost all that weight. I was really worried about him being healthy and not being able to play"
The point is he cares, its just not something that you see or usually hear.