Once again Earl shows his lack of class, what a disgrace

Everyone wants to be like earl, but no one wants to be earl.

They lift him up to GOD level, and when he falters the haters come out the woodwork. I love it how some of you never ever have anything good to say to anyone unless they are in your "click". Earl is the best dam 9 ball player in the past 20 years PERIOD...how many world titles and US open titles?

Maybe he expects too much of himself, maybe all of the fans are guilty of the same. The fans in my opinion are no better than he is.

Its like Roger Marris and Mickey Mantle, everyone loved Mantle he was a "real" New Yorker even tho he was from oklahoma, Rodger was not considered a New Yorker and was from Kansas. They hated Marris for breaking Ruths record, so much they put an asterisk on it.

Maybe if everyone got off Earls nuts, he wouldn't flip out so much. Its not like everyone is on his side, how would you feel if everyone was talkin s**t constantly behind your back and in front your face? As for his views on soft breaks, and jump cues...I agree with him completely, its weak...weak to the point it pisses me off also, and I'm not Earls caliber, so to see the whole paradigm shift, I'm very sure gets under his skin like nothing you've ever seen. I bet if he played anyone in the world that race to 120 again there would be hell to pay, Earl isn't done...put that foolish idea out your head if thats what your thinking.

Long live The Pearl, at least he's honest....got more respect for a man that tells it like it is than any of the sugar coating slack jawed fa**its out there that just suck a** to get their way.

Earl will be on the Mosconi team, and do you know why? Because he has the highest win average on the team, thats why. The numbers speak for themselves.

Earl fan till I die...
Grey GHost

Now flame away girls...
 
Not being there, and not knowing what was on Earl's mind, Therefore, I'm extremely reluctant to judge these actions. I know that Earl is probably one of the greatest pool players this sport has ever seen. I also know that people love to quickly jump on Earl for any little thing. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he conceded when he raked the balls (which is perfectly acceptable) and perhaps he covered his ears for some reasons unknown to us but not as a sign of disrespect to the crowd. In general, people love to tear down today's superstars - and yes, Earl is a superstar.
 
While I understand Earl's critics, don't anyone make the mistake of thinking he can't still play nine ball!

Maybe a team competition isn't the best place to have a guy that marches to his own distant drummer, but to attempt to belittle his game is just kind of ignorant. I don't think that anyone in the top of the men's pro rankings would take Earl that lightly.

There is a very fine line between genius and insanity and I think that Earl walks a tight rope there. I have been with him when he's holding court (outside smoking), and he is absolutely entertaining. Five minutes later back at the table, he literally came unglued about some lady setting next to me in the bleachers because she was eating a sandwich too loudly!

I just finished watching an old DVD with Earl playing Jack Hines in 1988, and you'd be hard pressed to find a better instinctive player than Earl, and that's with him playing Jack, who I also think was a real natural talent. Earl was very intense in the match, but didn't resort to the antics we see these days.

I think that he is having some serious mental issues, which is really not that out of line for a genius. Einstein was as goofy as hell. There were times when he'd leave his house without certain articles of clothing. He got lost in his own neighborhood on a regular basis, and yet, in his mind, he understood quantum physics better than anyone on the planet.

Just think of all the really great people in almost any profession or sport and you will come up with a bunch of folks that we might not view as "normal". Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Vincent Van Gogh, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Isaac Newton, Michelangelo, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill, Tennessee Williams, Tracy Ullman, and Jim Carey, would be just a few examples.

To discredit their work because of their mental issues would just be wrong... Sometimes, they have to be dealt with when things go too far and get to the point that they can't be in the "real world" without harming themselves or others, but I don't think Earl's at that point yet.

I don't think of Muhammed Ali as the person he's become over the years. I remember him taunting his opponents in the ring. The fluid grace of his jabs and footwork is what I'll remember. My mom is getting old and some of the things she does are just signs of age. You change...sometimes for the better, but most of the time for worse. If she was in the public eye now, nobody would understand all the good things she did in her life, and trust me, that would be a real shame.

I'll watch Earl's matches as long as he's capable of playing!

Steve
 
He reminds me of the movie Amadeus. For those that didn't see that movie it's about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart the great composer. He had so much talent and was envied by all including of one his greatest admirer Antonio Salieri. Saliere was angry with god for giving so much talent to one that thought so little of it.

Earl is like Mozart and we are like Salieri.
 
sjm said:
Pool players, and Earl Strickland in particular, act less professionally than their counterparts in other sports, and it's not something that helps the image of the sport we all love.
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Stu

The image of pool sucks because the poor leadership and their lack of imagination - not because of anything any player does or does not do - including Earl Strickland.

Just my view from the outside looking in.
 
It was a very good post until you refrenced Bob Dylan, comparing him to a long listof whackos. So I ask, what the hell do YOU know about him that I don't? I know him personally for 20 years....

Rg

Hunter said:
While I understand Earl's critics, don't anyone make the mistake of thinking he can't still play nine ball!

Maybe a team competition isn't the best place to have a guy that marches to his own distant drummer, but to attempt to belittle his game is just kind of ignorant. I don't think that anyone in the top of the men's pro rankings would take Earl that lightly.

There is a very fine line between genius and insanity and I think that Earl walks a tight rope there. I have been with him when he's holding court (outside smoking), and he is absolutely entertaining. Five minutes later back at the table, he literally came unglued about some lady setting next to me in the bleachers because she was eating a sandwich too loudly!

I just finished watching an old DVD with Earl playing Jack Hines in 1988, and you'd be hard pressed to find a better instinctive player than Earl, and that's with him playing Jack, who I also think was a real natural talent. Earl was very intense in the match, but didn't resort to the antics we see these days.

I think that he is having some serious mental issues, which is really not that out of line for a genius. Einstein was as goofy as hell. There were times when he'd leave his house without certain articles of clothing. He got lost in his own neighborhood on a regular basis, and yet, in his mind, he understood quantum physics better than anyone on the planet.

Just think of all the really great people in almost any profession or sport and you will come up with a bunch of folks that we might not view as "normal". Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Vincent Van Gogh, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Isaac Newton, Michelangelo, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill, Tennessee Williams, Tracy Ullman, and Jim Carey, would be just a few examples.

To discredit their work because of their mental issues would just be wrong... Sometimes, they have to be dealt with when things go too far and get to the point that they can't be in the "real world" without harming themselves or others, but I don't think Earl's at that point yet.

I don't think of Muhammed Ali as the person he's become over the years. I remember him taunting his opponents in the ring. The fluid grace of his jabs and footwork is what I'll remember. My mom is getting old and some of the things she does are just signs of age. You change...sometimes for the better, but most of the time for worse. If she was in the public eye now, nobody would understand all the good things she did in her life, and trust me, that would be a real shame.

I'll watch Earl's matches as long as he's capable of playing!

Steve
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I was always raised in a manner that you must learn how to lose before you can learn how to win... if you understand the meaning behind that.

Earl hasn't with these fits he throws. I understand he plays with passion but he needs to also understand that there is serious talent out there these days. If he wants to dominate then he needs to train like it.

Is he super talented and a great shotmaker? Of course but that doesn't subject you to any less rules that a APA skill level 1 player also has to follow.

If he wants to be respected as a professional, then he needs to work more on his off the table game then on it.

just 2 cents.
 
I don't know Earl so I don't know what he's thinking. I do enjoy his play and haven't witnessed one of his explosions.

Questions I have that somebody can answer:

Isn't he from the generation where losing was not acceptable and a "hug and a kiss" after a loss was seen as not really caring about the game.

Phil Mickelson was always "questioned" on sports shows as having the talent but not enough heart to beat Tiger Woods because he didn't show emotion after a loss.

Conceding the last game for the match doesn't change the outcome but raking the balls aside earlier could be construed as a "move" to prevent your opponent from getting in stroke.

He probably started using a jump cue out of self defense because he was tired of losing because of them.
 
Professional? why cuz they made it up

At the same time I keep hearing the term Professional? Professionals sports athletes get paid when they win and when they lose. But one thing is for sure they sure don't pay to play, the yankees aint having to ante up on an entrance fee for the world series. There is no such thing as a Professional mens tour, regardless of what anyone says, its all this faction vs. that faction.

So lets just take the BS professionalism out of it, because there is no such thing. What we have are professional caliber players out there, but no professional organization that is warrented enough to attain that name. Make a Cohesive PROFESSIONAL POOL TOUR and then argue how Earl and others are so UN-Professional...untill then i think its all pissing in the wind.

Professional pool players...what a joker term its a slap in the face if you ask me, its an illusion, a myth. They havent had professional pool players for 80years, all we got since then is professional hustlers, and gang bang tournaments just to lead us on.

Oh YAY I'm a pro, i get to travel for 24hrs spend $1500 bucks and try to win the 1st place prize of $2500 along with 60 other legit players. But once or twice a year they throw us a peanut with the worlds and the usopen. The pool players are treated by the organizations like drug dealers treat crack heads. Some of them are helping but against it all it isn't much.

Maybe if they did something worth acting professional for, then maybe you would see everyone acting professionaly....just a lifes constant hustle is all we got. Till then let Earl and the others do what they do. The people will still watch regardless, kind of like the Howard Stern principle.

When you get earl away from the pool table he's as normal as can be, a very cordial individual...its the bullshit that blows him to bits...and i dont blame him or others one bit.
 
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corvette1340 said:
Down 10-7 Earl had ball in hand and missed a shot on the 2 and then raked all the balls for Charlie to win. Then when the crowd applauded for him after Ken Shuman announced for everyone to give him a round of applause for his run in the tourney as a 5 time champion he covered his ears!!

What a clown. They should fine his ass or ban him from playing in these tourneys if he's gonna act like that.
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He definitely handles losing badly. If i was the man to beat for all those years and now that the game was slipping away....who knows what i would do...
The good news for me is that i dont have to worry about that...=)
 
SpiderWebComm said:
It's the overcome part you're missing--- unless the meds are right--- that card's not in the deck, unfortunately. It's no different than a tick or a stutter - it's uncontrollable. It's like telling a chronically depressed person to just get over it and stop crying and be a man/woman and overcome it. They often can't help it no matter what (I know because I dated a girl like that... she cried for 6 months STRAIGHT--- no joke).

I'm sure he's on meds-- he's said so on camera before. This often takes years and years to get right (if it ever gets right). Some people can pop a pill and it stabilizes them or they have to take a cocktail of pills to get it right and there are hundreds of options.

So, in my opinion, it's a handicap. It's no different than SVB being deaf or Putnam with his diabetes. It's something he has to deal with (and something we as fans should grow more sensitive to). It really isn't any different than calling a deaf person a retard because they can't speak clearly. His actions are bad- but he doesn't "WANT" to be that way.

I don't wanna get cornered into this thread as a blind Earl defender... I'm just saying people are under the assumption he can control his actions and that he's a child for acting out. He can't and he's not. That's all I'm saying.
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You are exactly right....hit the nail on the head.

Trying to play pool at the level he needs is tough with the meds....
 
Say what you want about Earl, there are about ten threads about his run at the U S Open and I don't see that about any other player.

Tiger Woods throws his clubs and cusses sometimes, I don't hear anybody recommending banning him from golf.
 
alstl said:
Say what you want about Earl, there are about ten threads about his run at the U S Open and I don't see that about any other player.

Tiger Woods throws his clubs and cusses sometimes, I don't hear anybody recommending banning him from golf.
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Tiger gets fined when he says "goddamnit", his favorite, on a televised broadcast. The fine is $15,000 which is nothing to him, but he gets fined nonetheless. He also doesn't just give up and then act disrespectful to the fans or his opponents, period. He conducts himself with class win or lose, regardless of how mad he is at himself for his bad or "off" play.
 
corvette1340 said:
Tiger gets fined when he says "goddamnit", his favorite, on a televised broadcast. The fine is $15,000 which is nothing to him, but he gets fined nonetheless. He also doesn't just give up and then act disrespectful to the fans or his opponents, period. He conducts himself with class win or lose, regardless of how mad he is at himself for his bad or "off" play.
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Tiger plays in the PGA, a real professional organization, read my above post. and your gonna get my point. The pga is legit, any supposedly professioinal mens pool organization is a joke and has no place for comparison to the rules of the PGA
 
Never give up

We all have a US Open, granted, it may not be the actual US Open but we all have matches or tournaments that we want to win. But IMO, you gotta play every last ball. You never know what's gonna happen. To just give up because you're upset is defeating yourself. I'm sorry for Earl it ended this way. Best of luck to him next year.
 
I don't know if Earl has a mental health diagnosis and if he does I don't know what it is. I don't know if he takes meds or what they are so the effect of those meds cannot be predicted. It may be that proper meds would increase his ability to play well, that would depend on the condition and the meds.

I do know that he often acts immaturily and is guilty of letting his emotions often rule his actions. That's what emotionally immaturity is. He's unstable, often rude and anti-social. I would not want him, or anyone who does not control their emotions, acting in behalf of me in any personal or business situation.
 
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