Mosconi cup and EARL

Earl has the skill of an artist and the personality of a donkey. If only he could find the persona to match his skill with the cue. He would be the greatest player ever. However that vote goes to Nick Varner for me. A real professional when it comes to the cue and the sport and the title of professional. Infact what a match that would be huh? Varner vs. Strickland.
 
Earl is going through some mental issues that are definitely something that are not to laugh at.... i just heard from a close friend of his that earl told him that he has been seeing ghosts and other wierd phenom....
I am afraid that this is a more serious issue than just him being a a-hole.... Its actually a little scarey...=(
 
I have watched every Mosconi Cup from the start. I too was present in Malta and what was missing from the American Team was "spirit"
They used to have it but this year it definitely was not there. As someone has already said, the European team were there for each other from the start of the day, even at breakfast time. I never saw the Americans share a table.
Even when they were playing, it was rare to see them supporting their team.
The Europeans were always going to be the best supported team as I imagine that in Las Vegas the Americans will have most support.
From where I was sitting, Earl seemed to be the problem, nobody can deny the skill that he still possesses but a team man he most definitely is not.
The Europeans and especially their captain, Alex Lely were constantly pump?ng each other up, encouraging them when things got tough, on the American side, quite often Nick Varner was the only one watching his men.
Earl deserves everything he gets from the crowd, I have sat behind him on many occasions and in many parts of the world and he is constantly griping and moaning to anyone who cares to listen to him.
He is unique in this, and is his own worst enemy.
In the Philippiines last year he wanted to tear the head of his opponent after losing a match, threatening him with his cuestick.
In another match against an Asian opponent he was saying that the tournament format favours the Asians, that he doesn't get the respect that he deserves, that the organisers couldn't even provide him with a towel to wipe his cue. All of this directed to the audience who are there to see him demonstrate his undoubted skill not to hear him whining when things go wrong.
In spite of all this, in Malta whenever he or any of the Americans played well, made a good shot, or won the game, they got the applause and appreciation that they deserved.
At the celebration party after it was all over, Nick and his men came into the bar to spend a little downtime with their opponents, I didn't see Earl Strickland there!!!
In exchange for an expenses paid trip to a beautiful part of the world and a $10,000 paycheck just for turning up, he should show a little more appreciation.
 
leave earl alone

leave earl strickland alone! he is one of a kind, he is unique, and thats the way the guy is! he is and always will be my favourite player, he is the reason i like 9 ball pool.
if earl is not in the 2009 mosconi cup team, im afraid i will not be tuning in, for me earl is the the perfect pool package, made for tv!
dont ever retire earl, your simply the best!
 
Earl has been Earl for so long, but every time his name is mentioned the same massive thread ensues. I don't think anything has been said about him in this thread that wasn't said in the last one, or the one before that, or that, or that, or that, or that, or that :shrug:

:grin-square:

So I might as well say, again, that I love watching Earl play and don't mind how he behaves from an entertainment standpoint. How it may affect his teammates, I'll leave that to them to worry about :grin:
 
tigerseye said:
Earl is going through some mental issues that are definitely something that are not to laugh at.... i just heard from a close friend of his that earl told him that he has been seeing ghosts and other wierd phenom....
I am afraid that this is a more serious issue than just him being a a-hole.... Its actually a little scarey...=(

He started talking crazy and said he was "sick for 10 years" during a tirade he went on after I asked him why he hasn't won a 9-ball tournament in so long, and also said "Efren Reyes never sent me a get well card" Poor guy's in bad mental shape.
 
Earl's a legend man. For every arguably bad thing he has done there's a super cool moment or act he has to balance balance it out.

For people who saw the clip lasting a couple of minutes before his first singles game try telling me he is not the coolest pool player on the planet!! That dance/jig he did is legendary!!! Plus I loved that moment last year when he cursed having to use the jump stick but picked it up, played a brilliant table length jump and drew back for position, and then angrily chucked the cue across the arena back to his chair!

And besides, a lot of the time he is more polite and sportsmanlike than most. The man's got a good heart, anyone who thinks otherwise is stupid. He is in a volatile arena with two third's of a loud crowd trying to wind him up, playing a man who's in the form of his life and can't miss in a paltry race to five on bucket pockets, and doesn't get even a sniff of an open ball and takes a huge dent to his pride and ego getting whitewashed five nill. But he still goes up to Mika and completely congratulates him on his play, genuinely and wholeheartedly telling him he played well and deserved to win. Mika blanks him, turns round and gestures rudely. And Earl's the one with no class...
 
BENFICA said:
Problem with Earl is, that he does not want to take his medicine. Believe it or not.

Hummm, I thought he was unable to take it through securtiy.......:p
 
BENFICA said:
Problem with Earl is, that he does not want to take his medicine. Believe it or not.
If there was a magic bullet and Earl refused to take it, he would be deserving of some ridicule, but I suspect he's tried different doses and medicines with negative results. Most likely they dope him up enough to take away his competitive edge.

Jay Helfert says Earl behaves when Jay runs the tournaments because Jay makes it clear that Earl's antics won't be tolerated. I don't know if that's true or not, but what I do know for certain is that I have watched many, many matches where Earl acted badly (Mosconi Cup, WPC, elsewhere) and there were no consequences for Earl, from referees or TDs. No consequences, no change in behavior.
 
Excuses, excuses, excuses

worriedbeef said:
And besides, a lot of the time he is more polite and sportsmanlike than most.

Are you kidding me? Polite? Sportmanlike?

Earl is none of the above and it's proven by how he treats other players. Just becasue he does a few nice things and behaves appropriatly once in a while doesn't excuse him from his usual self.

One thing you are right about is him being a legend, however people will remember him for his antics and not his titles.

Take Reyes, Pagulayan, and Archer. These three are legends and don't have to defend disrespectful antics because they just don't do it!
 
srs314 said:
people will remember him for his antics and not his titles.
They'll remember him for both.

Antics or not, he's one of the best ever and so much fun to watch. The Color Of Money race to 100 against Reyes is a masterpiece (and yes, also shows both sides of Strickland).
 
I'll tell ya 1 thing

Earl's got that unique flare that makes me glue myself to tv whenever he is on. After seeing him for that seminar I went home and watched youtube videos all containing Earl. Johnny too. It's like Earl's on edge and Johnny's laid back. Quite the duo.
 
ribdoner said:
The EUROS are waaaaaaaaaaay too good for US to not send our best 5
With the races all being super short, it might just be me but I think any 5 pros could compete. Like Stevie, Dennis, Donnie mills, Mike Davis, and John S. Could do as good or better than the current 5. Crapshoot to me.
 
Rick S. said:
Last yr I was standing next to him right after his match when a European walked up and started telling him "I idolized you since i was a kid....blah, blah, blah" and when Earl went to shake his hand, the guy pulled his back, and said "not really, you piece of shit"...and turned around and walked away. Earl went off, as you can imagine....rightfully so. It's on YouTube somewhere.
That's not acceptable behaviour by anyone's standards of course. Can't find that one on youtube. Unless my memory's playing tricks seem to recall someone posted a video clip on here of another almost identical pretend handshake then snatch the hand away type incident to the one you describe sometime earlier this year.

The fan concerned on that occasion semed to be an American and it happened at an event in USA but can't really remember exactly........it can happen anywhere when you are viewed the way some view Earl.

What to do except shrug and regret the involvement of the type of people pool often seems to attract?
 
derekdisco said:
With the races all being super short, it might just be me but I think any 5 pros could compete. Like Stevie, Dennis, Donnie mills, Mike Davis, and John S. Could do as good or better than the current 5. Crapshoot to me.


D,

IMO any one of the above and HATCH should have been there instead of _________ and ________.

Cory D also warrants consideration for the short list...
 
North American Union to Replace USA?

JAM said:
Maybe one of the Europeans can throw an object at Earl, like they did the last Mosconi Cup.

Lots of hot air blowing them air horns over there in Malta this week.

BTW, is Norway represented in Team Europe? Oh, that's right. They have to cling on, much like a biker mentality to -- what do they call it? OH, yeah. The European Union. Seems like the individual countries don't have a strong enough base to stand on, like Team USA consisting of ONE COUNTRY.

:killingme: :killingme: :killingme: :killingme: :killingme:

UGGHHH, YOU A MIGHT WANNA READ THIS......


Jerome R. Corsi
North American Union to Replace USA?
by Jerome R. Corsi
05/19/2006

President Bush is pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with both Mexico and Canada. This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration's true open borders policy.

Secretly, the Bush administration is pursuing a policy to expand NAFTA politically, setting the stage for a North American Union designed to encompass the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. What the Bush administration truly wants is the free, unimpeded movement of people across open borders with Mexico and Canada.

President Bush intends to abrogate U.S. sovereignty to the North American Union, a new economic and political entity which the President is quietly forming, much as the European Union has formed.

The blueprint President Bush is following was laid out in a 2005 report entitled "Building a North American Community" published by the left-of-center Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR report connects the dots between the Bush administration's actual policy on illegal immigration and the drive to create the North American Union:

At their meeting in Waco, Texas, at the end of March 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin committed their governments to a path of cooperation and joint action. We welcome this important development and offer this report to add urgency and specific recommendations to strengthen their efforts.

What is the plan? Simple, erase the borders. The plan is contained in a "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America" little noticed when President Bush and President Fox created it in March 2005:

In March 2005, the leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States adopted a Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), establishing ministerial-level working groups to address key security and economic issues facing North America and setting a short deadline for reporting progress back to their governments. President Bush described the significance of the SPP as putting forward a common commitment "to markets and democracy, freedom and trade, and mutual prosperity and security." The policy framework articulated by the three leaders is a significant commitment that will benefit from broad discussion and advice. The Task Force is pleased to provide specific advice on how the partnership can be pursued and realized.

To that end, the Task Force proposes the creation by 2010 of a North American community to enhance security, prosperity, and opportunity. We propose a community based on the principle affirmed in the March 2005 Joint Statement of the three leaders that "our security and prosperity are mutually dependent and complementary." Its boundaries will be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter within which the movement of people, products, and capital will be legal, orderly and safe. Its goal will be to guarantee a free, secure, just, and prosperous
 
the question was posed..how much does the U.S give the United Nations ..

JAM said:
A hell of a lot more than fish country.

[source WIKAPEDIA]

The U.S. arrears issue

The UN has always had problems with members refusing to pay the assessment levied upon them under the United Nations Charter. But the most significant refusal in recent times has been that of the U.S. For a number of years, the U.S. Congress refused to authorize payment of the U.S. dues, in order to force UN compliance with U.S. wishes, as well as a reduction in the U.S. assessment.[citation needed]

After prolonged negotiations, the U.S. and the UN negotiated an agreement whereby the United States would pay a large part of the money it owes, and in exchange the UN would reduce the assessment rate ceiling from 25% to 22%. The reduction in the assessment rate ceiling was among the reforms contained in the 1999 Helms-Biden legislation, which links payment of $926 million in U.S. arrears to the UN and other international organizations to a series of reform benchmarks.[citation needed]

U.S. arrears to the UN currently total over $1.3 billion. Of this, $612 million is payable under Helms-Biden. The remaining $700 million result from various legislative and policy withholdings; at present, there are no plans to pay these amounts.[citation needed]

Under Helms-Biden, the U.S. paid $100 million in arrears to the UN in December 1999; release of the next $582 million awaits a legislative revision to Helms-Biden, necessary because the benchmark requiring a 25 percent peacekeeping assessment rate ceiling was not quite achieved. The U.S. also seeks elimination of the legislated 25 percent cap on U.S. peacekeeping payments in effect since 1995, which continues to generate additional UN arrears. Of the final $244 million under Helms-Biden, $30 million is payable to the UN and $214 million to other international organizations.
 
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