Johnnyt said:
Do the players of today take fewer chances in 9-ball than the players that played on slow cloth and played the old 2-shot push-out? Or are they a bit smarter, or have smaller balls? Seems to me that 9-ball was a lot more exciting with the old rules. I'd love to see a new regional or national tour that used the old 9-ball rules on slow cloth. I think we would be surprised who the top players on that tour would be by the end of the first season. Johnnyt
The game, though more of a shotmakers game, was less exciting to watch with shoot out rules, and took longer. Play it where it lies is much more interesting for the fan.
Americans have been obsessed with changing the rules of the game ever since both Asia and Europe passed us in nine ball. A better idea would be if Americans were more obsessed with mastering the game that must be mastered to win the game's most important titles, such as the Derby City Classic, US Open and the World Championship.
The old shoot out version of nine ball, the version on which I grew up as a player, is dead and buried for all the right reasons. May it rest in peace.
I will, finally, add that if the shoot out version of the game came back from the dead, I would expect that, within a couple of years, the same people who win tournaments today would be the ones who would win tournaments in the future. It wasn't long ago that many predicted great success for the old timers on the IPT as slow, nappy cloth would be in use. As a group, the old timers failed miserably on the IPT. The cream rises to the top, whatever the game, whatever the equipment, whatever the rules.
