Mosconi Cup is unfair

So if you didn’t appreciate the Rodney Morris comment, well then that’s you and it is what it is.
Personally, I liked it. To me it added something comical to an otherwise boring event and at least they showed some signs of life. As far as appearance fees go, I didn’t get one, so what did I care

No skin off my back. If Rodney or whomever wants to show their ass, so be it. They get to sleep in the bed they make. I still get paid and laid.

I get what youre saying though, I'm not suggesting that it needs to be a church service, but damn dude. Can anyone....like anyone, act like an adult when under pressure anymore?
Anyone have the nuts to smile and walk away?
Does it always have to be...."hey man, I'll kick your ass bro."

Whatever happened to playing the game.
 
Originally Posted by MisspentYouth

No offense to Jeremy Sossei. He may be a great guy and he may occasionally be a world beater, but Neils Feijen and Darren Appleton are psychopaths who will be putting their pinkies in Jeremy's butthole.
I'm pretty sure that's a foul.
Maybe not a foul, but certainly very close to ball-in-hand.
 
I think the amount of players playing American pool on American equipment is much higher in America than it is in Europe. If you add in the other cue sports on different equipment (snooker, english 8 ball, etc) you may have more cue sports players in Europe than in America, but not more pool players.

In any case you were responding to the topic of the amount of people playing pool in certain countries and continents with the totally different and completely unrelated and irrelevant topic of the populations of certain countries and continents.

I would be curious to hear the number of Europeans regularly playing American pool though, and even the number of Europeans regularly playing any cue sport just out of curiosity. Anybody have any of those numbers? The American numbers are easy enough to look up and have been done fairly recently.

I have no official numbers, and I can't speak for the rest of Europe, but the number of American pool players in the UK is ridiculously small. I'd say the amount of people who own their own cue and play at least every couple of weeks is in the mid-low hundreds.
 
No skin off my back. If Rodney or whomever wants to show their ass, so be it. They get to sleep in the bed they make. I still get paid and laid.

I get what youre saying though, I'm not suggesting that it needs to be a church service, but damn dude. Can anyone....like anyone, act like an adult when under pressure anymore?
Anyone have the nuts to smile and walk away?
Does it always have to be...."hey man, I'll kick your ass bro."

Whatever happened to playing the game.

You get laid?!
Where do you play pool?
 
I have no official numbers, and I can't speak for the rest of Europe, but the number of American pool players in the UK is ridiculously small. I'd say the amount of people who own their own cue and play at least every couple of weeks is in the mid-low hundreds.

British posters on this forum have indicated that under 1,000 people in the UK play rotation pool.

... Yet from them, you could put together a formidable team of Darren Appleton, Karl Boyes, Jayson Shaw, Chris Melling, and either Darryl Peach or Mark Gray, a team that would be competitive with any team consisting of five of the Mosconi 8.
 
the number of American pool players in the UK is ridiculously small. I'd say the amount of people who own their own cue and play at least every couple of weeks is in the mid-low hundreds.

British posters on this forum have indicated that under 1,000 people in the UK play rotation pool.

England is one of the European countries where American pool is most popular, and they still have less than 1000 pool players. There is far less than that in most other European countries. Germany may have a bit more than that, but not sure if anybody else would. So maybe 25,000 pool players in all of Europe might be a good guess then perhaps? There are many millions of pool players in the US. As previously stated by several people, the US has a far, far bigger pool of pool players to draw from and it is not even remotely close it doesn't seem. A few thousand verses many millions.
 
No skin off my back. If Rodney or whomever wants to show their ass, so be it. They get to sleep in the bed they make. I still get paid and laid.

I get what youre saying though, I'm not suggesting that it needs to be a church service, but damn dude. Can anyone....like anyone, act like an adult when under pressure anymore?
Anyone have the nuts to smile and walk away?
Does it always have to be...."hey man, I'll kick your ass bro."

Whatever happened to playing the game.

I could not agree more Mr Bond. I was ringside for the Vegas "take it outside" comment. Darren was the bigger man. It was BS wannabe bravado IMO.

And relative to the collusion, a $3k saver amongst 6 of 10, happened. Clear Earl, SVB, Neils & Ralf. The dump, IF it occured, would be an isolated incident and will IMO never see the light of day. It surely can't be proven.

As I, a total stranger, was speaking to Barry 1 on 1, the afternoon of Tuesday's '13 bloodbath, he tried to hide his displeasure. "There will be changes" he said.

Yet some here, cast dispersions on the 180 degree turn of direction.

Pool's dirty secrets. They happen, but there's a strong muzzling to inhibit disclosure - you'll be out of "the club". I like the new direction of The MC.
 
Agreed 100%.
But lemme give you a for instance: I was a Pro Rasslin' nut as a kid and when the good guy lost an important match it drove me nuts. But as you watch and become a little more educated you realize this ain't real and then you can have a good time with it as you accept it for what it is: - Kind of a fun soap opera for guys.
The Mosconi Cup, take it for what it is and have a good time with it. It's an all-star game. Celebrate the winner, console the loser, drink lots of beer and talk in your best British accent, and tomorrow go on to something else. When I think it means something more to the players, then it will probably mean something more to me. But I can't imagine the players would care what I thought one way or the other

I think the Mosconi Cup means as much or more to the players as any other tournament they can play in. They are not represting just them, they are representing the country. It's about as close to the Olympics as we can get with pool. If you win the US Open, yay, big famous tournament but you won for you.

If you play in the Mosconi Cup or the World Championship or the team event overseas, you are also going there as a member of the country you are from. When Earl won the world championships, it was not just Earl winning it, it was an American winning it.

I am sure that all the players have this same thought, and if they are not, they should not be represting their respective countries.
 
I think the Mosconi Cup means as much or more to the players as any other tournament they can play in. They are not represting just them, they are representing the country. It's about as close to the Olympics as we can get with pool. If you win the US Open, yay, big famous tournament but you won for you.

If you play in the Mosconi Cup or the World Championship or the team event overseas, you are also going there as a member of the country you are from. When Earl won the world championships, it was not just Earl winning it, it was an American winning it.

I am sure that all the players have this same thought, and if they are not, they should not be represting their respective countries.

I dunno...
It seems to me that it doesn't mean much more than an appearance fee or a pay day to some of these guys. The world championship - that's a title you can carry around and be recognized as the very best. The Mosconi Cup is, well, The Mosconi Cup. The Europeans won, and The West won the NBA All-Star Game, The NFC won the Pro Bowl.....
Next year the teams will be a different group of super stars that will play together for one event (sans the word "together")... that will wear the same color shirt...
I don't see much national pride exhibited, I don't see much team interaction. I think it requires no emotional commitment and no desire other than to put on a show and get a check at the end. It's more guaranteed money than they'd make at any other event. I so wish it was more than one event for a few days every year. I'd love a Mosconi Cup series and team tour with a defending champion instead of a once a year one time event all-star game that the participants don't really seem to care about
 
I dunno...
It seems to me that it doesn't mean much more than an appearance fee or a pay day to some of these guys. The world championship - that's a title you can carry around and be recognized as the very best. The Mosconi Cup is, well, The Mosconi Cup. The Europeans won, and The West won the NBA All-Star Game, The NFC won the Pro Bowl.....
Next year the teams will be a different group of super stars that will play together for one event (sans the word "together")... that will wear the same color shirt...
I don't see much national pride exhibited, I don't see much team interaction. I think it requires no emotional commitment and no desire other than to put on a show and get a check at the end. It's more guaranteed money than they'd make at any other event. I so wish it was more than one event for a few days every year. I'd love a Mosconi Cup series and team tour with a defending champion instead of a once a year one time event all-star game that the participants don't really seem to care about

And that has been the problem, completely. And that is only true of the US team, over the last few years, in my view. The Euro's certainly appear to be far more engaged in the pride and honor or being a part of it. Some of the US team, do indeed appear to be there for the payday...

I believe this is partially why the new direction has been taken. And I am 100% behind that decision. Hopefully this wakes up some of the other American players, and they change their behavior. (And the Mosconi Cup is only the tip of the iceberg so far as behavior in pro pool here is concerned.)
 
After watching the antics of some U.S. players last year during this prestigious event I was left wondering if some were encouraged to behave this way to enhance the villains (Americans) vs the good guy (Europeans) to increase viewership and it got out of hand; or was it that the poor sportsmanship, sharking antics of Earl had influenced some of the others in the absence of strong leadership from those charged with providing it? Certainly the way that Rodney and Hatch acted was out of character from what I had seen in other similar circumstances.

As far as looking at Mike DeChaine’s past performance I would suggest that many world class players have not looked as good in their first few opportunities on the world stage as they did after they acclimatized to the atmosphere/pressure of that stage. He may be a victim of a knee jerk reaction and the subsequent bad decision made that would have been better left to be made in sober second thought a little later.

While I applaud much of what Mark Wilson appears to be trying to accomplish I think that he reacted with emotion and tunnel vision when a cooling off period, followed by a clear vision to bring the best team available, supported by the strong leadership needed to provide the guidance to that team to give it the best chance of success. I do hope that he has the strength of leadership that those that seem to be in the know give him. From the outside, the opinion could be made that his choice to blow up the past approaches/teams so completely was more indicative of someone trying to placate Barry Hearn (whose own plan, with the Earl video etc., to create more viewership might not have gone as he intended). Could the make-up of the team been influenced by wanting those that could be controlled easier than others? If so, not the actions of a strong leader.

Finally, as much as I would love to see players like John Morra and Jason Klatt have an opportunity to be added to the Mosconi Cup team, I think the U.S. has more than enough firepower to hold their own against teams from Europe or anywhere else if they are guided in a way to ensure they are a TEAM.
 
. No offense to Jeremy Sossei. He may be a great guy and he may occasionally be a world beater, but Neils Feijen and Darren Appleton are psychopaths who will be putting their pinkies in Jeremy's butthole.


The U.S are obviously not the favorites just like previous years.
The pressure in the MC is bigger then most pro's have experienced.
Teams U.S have put out haven't handled it well.
SO, lets give some very good players their shot. Like Jeremy who has proven he can beat most of Team Europe at times. He has stood up to the Pressure at the U.S Open and Turning Stone. We have seen many at MC that haven't.

Neils and Darren can be beat in a short set just like any other pro.
Years back when Neils was defending champion at the Derby he got knocked out of the tourney by some nobody (ME). Sometimes the dog fights harder..
Best,
Ken Kerner
 
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosconi_Cup#Results_table

Look at the results over past years
Last years thrashing by Europe 11-2 is 2nd worst in MC history. Worst was US thrashing of Europe 12-1 in 2001
And in all other years the losing team gets at least 5 points
So statistically a blowout crashing result like last year will probably happen once in a decade. Whether it is Mark Wilson's "less illustrious" team or previous more experienced team , we can confidently say that USA will get at least 5 points or 3 points or more this year So Mark Wilson will not do worse than last year.:)
 
it's a shame the pros only post now on FaceBoook.
past Mosconi
and
present Mosconi

(thanks to those AZers who have forwarded their comments)

apparently we aren't part of their demographics.
.
 
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