Is billiards a sport or a game?

1on1pooltournys said:
Interestingly enough I have been kind of bored lately and not been able to play much pool. I picked up a book that I have had for years titled Byrnes's Book of Great Pool Stories. Although I've had the book for a long time, I have never really read it in it's entirety. It is several short stories written over the past 200 years or so. One notable author in the book would be that of Danny McGoorty. I always read the introduction to any book and the title of this thread is a direct question from Robert Byrne. Byrne points out that if billiards is considered a game then it is second to only chess. If it is sport than it's predecessors are only boxing and wrestling. He feels that billiards falls between a game and a sport, which is why it does not receive the publicity it deserves. He goes on to suggest that billiards is second only to bowling in the United States among participants, and sites research that suggests between 35 and 45 million people play pool at least once a year, which is more than play golf and tennis.

After digesting all of this, I think Byrne has hit the nail on the head. This also explains why writers are more compelled to write about pool than producers are to make movies. It seems more attractable to read about some of the colorful characters and stretched stories that have been told through the years. I always defended pool as a sport up to this point. After really conjuring this idea, I'm afraid I think Billiards is stuck between a game and a sport.

What do you all think? Is billiards a game or a sport? I am curious to here arguments for and against both. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

Btw, the book does have some nice short stories about pool. Others bored me a bit.


Edit: As Mr. Smith points out, these stats are from the mid 90s.
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its a sport poker is a game where you can geat great in a few years.
pool it takes talent and skill.
 
Holly said:
Years ago, around the early 90's I was watching ice skating on TV with a group of friends. While all played and ball-banged recreationally, I was the only one in the room who played pool more seriously. This very question came up between all of us...what is a sport and what is a game. They felt pool was not a sport. When I asked them what constituted a sport here is what the consensus was if my 18 or so year memory serves me correct):

1. Something that takes physical ability, dexterity, an stamina (check I answered)

2. Something that takes knowledge and training (check again)

3. Something that you are able to compete in (oh yes, we're there too)

4. Something which requires mental focus (most definately I replied)

There were a couple of other items brought up....by the end of the evening, my non-pool playing friends began to agree that pool is a sport.

Sometimes collectively we don't always treat it that way...maybe we should more.
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so by these pre-requisites you would include darts as well?
 
real bartram said:
it is a sport.
play a match for 30 hours and see what you think.
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tap tap brother, thats what I say. Get to feeling like your falling apart at the seams, I used to run half and full marathons and its comparable and even worse in some cases.

Grey Ghost
 
I don't remember the specifics, but billiards WAS an Olympic sport some years ago ...
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Cue sports (carom, pool, snooker) have been recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a sport organized under World Confederation of Billiard Sports. Cue sports have been at three or four World Games, the last one having just finished in Taiwan (or Chinese Taipei) (July 16-26, 2009). So far as I know, cue sports have never been in the Olympic Games, and with the recent announcement of ins/outs, the earliest they could appear would be 2020.

As far as the drug stuff goes, I have a hard time believing that we have as large a problem as cycling. The last cueist I heard of who failed a drug test had taken some relatively inoffensive prescription drug for sinus trouble or some such (according to the rumor). Here is the official announcement about it: http://www.umb.org/presse/newsvoll.php?ID=224&sellan=2

Complying with WADA requirements is expensive and time-consuming.
 
Bob Jewett said:
...

As far as the drug stuff goes, I have a hard time believing that we have as large a problem as cycling...

Complying with WADA requirements is expensive and time-consuming.
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Now I must defend my other self-indulgent, solo passion!

There is no sport with as strict and frequent doping testing as cycling. It stands to reason that such frequent testing would lead to the perception that the sport is more 'dirty' than other *less tested* pursuits. Additionally, the punishments doled out to cyclicsts who are *percieved* to have used performance-enhancing substances are punished...'for their own safety'. You may have heard that in the 2008 Tour de France, the leader was disqualified in the latter stages of the race because he failed to keep Cycling's governing body apprised of his whereabouts (pro riders must report for testing within 24hrs, irrespective of their location). He did not turn a dirty test.

Cycling's powers that be are even pushing a biological passport- a set of values of an individual's body composition- from whence a deviation of x% would result in a rider being 'unfit for competition'. "...The International Cycling Union (UCI) has been building up blood profiles of its professional cyclists by taking thousands of blood samples over the past year."
 
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Like someone else said a game or hobby to those "bangers" and a true sport to those who take it seriously. Still irks me when someone questions why I invest so much time and money into pool. I then ask them why people spend thousands of dollars on golf clubs and play nearly every day. It's because they are dedicated to a sport,not just a game.
 
I don't understand the difference and who cares

Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey are surely sports and what do they play? They play games.

So, I ask is a game part of the sport???
 
I talked for a while with Greg Sulllivan this weekend. He's on a mission to have pool be seen worldwide as a sport. I believe, after talking with him, that he can get the job done. The man is 'on' all the time. He is presenting a product or an idea ALL the time and he is a real natural born salesman.

He's sincere, he's believeable, he has the product and where-withal to get'r done, and he's straight shootin full of integrity.
 
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