Jasmin Ouschan vs Darren Appleton. Commentary by Earl Strickland!

couldnthinkof01 said:
In a regular pool video there is still way to much talking and shot predicting. Just let the game speak for itself unless a very tricky situation or rule comes up. Maybe some light background on the players.
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^^^^^This.^^^^^

I've watched a lot of video of pool matches. I've heard far too many commentators predict the way the next shot will be played and not be right. I've even heard them question the way a top-tier pro played a shot.

Some of the commentators are so old that they cannot grasp the way many modern players approach a shot (for getting shape on the next ball) as opposed to the way it was done back in their days. When a commentator is missing his predictions by a good 65/70% margin, it's time to shut up and let the game do the talking.

That said, I'm not opposed to a commentator explaining the way a shot WAS played after the shot. Just not every, single one. Some are blatantly obvious even the the most amateur of viewers.
 
arnaldo said:
Respectfully, I disagree with that hypothetical, Stu -- I don't think Earl would have been loving the game all that much when Miz or Sigel in the 1980s were dependably raining 100-plus runs regularly on him, with him pinned in the "electric chair" helpless to reply.

I doubt he'd contemporaneously have the acquired temperament to patiently endure that grueling downside to top-level Straight Pool in that era.

Think of Mike Zuglan composedly and patiently hoping for any whiff of a chance to get at the table during Sigel's legendary 150 and-out in that talent-packed 1992 NYC US 14.1 Open. I can't at all see Earl being calmly in control of his feelings when exposed to that kind of experience too often in the 1980s.

Mosconi captured the nature of that "helpless to reply" downside when he said this about our beloved Straight Pool in an interview:
"This game is a man-killer."

Arnaldo
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I don't disagree with you in theory, but from that1999 National tournament, Jose' Garcia hit Earl with an uber-smooth 99, and Earl got back to the table and won with relative easy from there. I believe he ran a hundred on the match as well.

Freddie <~~~ or could be misremembering...
 
I like Earl's commentary. It is very informative. There are plenty of things he says regularly that I personally wish he wouldn't say, but in the end I just take it for what it is. He has some excellent insight and absolutely knows what's going on on the table. It's not perfect, but neither am I.

I like Danny and Billy even in the later accustats videos hitting YouTube. Again, there are things that may rub some viewers the wrong way, but they both know their stuff. There is a big difference between the way rotation is being played now and the way it used to be played, especially with shot making. I think they are both doing a good job catching up to that fact.

I like Alex Lely, but I much prefer Jeremy Jones. JJ and Mark Griffin make an excellent pair in my opinion.

I do take issue with a lot of the commentary on other streams, especially with less informed commentators trying to predict the action, sometimes quite poorly, or when it's simply a gab fest amongst friends. The fact that I am grateful to them for putting on the steam in the first place typically out weighs those negatives.

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk
 
Outstandingly balanced, accurate, reasonable and fair overview -- as usual, erhino.

I traveled over to Portland from VT in '96 for Grady's promotion -- that hugely welcome "Maine Event Straight Pool".
Likely saw you and talked 14.1 with you there. I'm sitting in the front row of most of the vids of the event. Efren surprised everyone that week.
Sadly, it was Cisero's last 14.1 tournament appearance before his untimely passing much too young. Nick Vlahos' as well.

I always loved Cisero's deadpan humor. Can't resist relaying this cute, so-typical instance of it. The US Treasury had radically updated (for counterfeit suppression) the C-note. One of Cisero's buddies raced over to Cisero and whipped one out:

"Hey Cis, you seen the new hundred dollar bill?"

"Man, I've never seen the old one."

Arnaldo
 
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arnaldo said:
Outstandingly balanced, accurate, reasonable and fair overview -- as usual, erhino.

I traveled over to Portland from VT in '96 for Grady's promotion -- that hugely welcome "Maine Event Straight Pool".
Likely saw you and talked 14.1 with you there. I'm sitting in the front row of most of the vids of the event. Efren surprised everyone that week.
Sadly, it was Cisero's last 14.1 tournament appearance before his untimely passing much too young. Nick Vlahos' as well.

I always loved Cisero's deadpan humor. Can't resist relaying this cute, so-typical instance of it. The US Treasury had radically updated (for counterfeit suppression) the C-note. One of Cisero's buddies raced over to Cisero and whipped one out:

"Hey Cis, you seen the new hundred dollar bill?"

"Man, I've never seen the old one."

Arnaldo
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Thanks for the kind words. The maine event was before my time downeast. I was still an active masshole at the time. My recovery is going quite well.

I find it better to extract the positive and useful and not dwell on negatives, especially when it comes to pool.

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Basically, if the amount of talking were only 20% of what it currently is that would be great. You're watching the best players in the world. Telling me how tough a shot Ko-Pin Yi has is bullshit when he will make it 95% of the time. The only need for commentary is when something truly weird happens. When Ko is playing Chang for example that happens about once every half an hour.
 
Cornerman said:
I don't disagree with you in theory, but from that1999 National tournament, Jose' Garcia hit Earl with an uber-smooth 99, and Earl got back to the table and won with relative easy from there. I believe he ran a hundred on the match as well.

Freddie <~~~ or could be misremembering...
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I was there watching Garcia's 99 at the National Straight Pool Championships, but I thought he did it against George "Ginky" SanSouci, who replied with what I believe was 114 and did, indeed, go on to win that match, and ultimately that tournament. Garcia, a 300 ball runner, was an almost flawless 14.1 technician and a force in the 1980s, but he played a full level below the straight pool giants of the 1980s like Mike Sigel, Steve Mizerak, Nick Varner, Jim Rempe , Dallas West, Pete Margo, Allen Hopkins, Dan DiLiberto, Dick Lane and Ray Martin.

That said, it's possible my memory is failing me. Match details from the 1990s are getting harder and harder to remember, Freddie, for just like you, I'm not as young as I used to be.
 
sjm said:
That said, it's possible my memory is failing me. Match details from the 1990s are getting harder and harder to remember, Freddie, for just like you, I'm not as young as I used to be.
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Last I checked....none of us were.

Maniac (says with a wink)
 
I like Earl's commentary because he doesn't wander away from the balls on the table like a lot of people do. You can watch videos of some of Efren's best shots and the commentators don't even notice because they are talking about something else.

Speaking of Efren I'd like to see him do commentary. He speaks English well enough to do it and his insight would be interesting.
 
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