Pool Needs More Respect!!!!!!

JMS

JMS

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Up late watching the Olympics (don't ask me why), notice some stupid events over there in Beijing. Why is pool not an event and events like speedwalking and trampoline are an Olympic event. Quote from Time magazine "And trampolining, if you think about it, at least it fulfills the basic requirement of promising very serious injury. Teenage girls jump 20 ft. in the air, do tricks called the double back tuck and the full-in-full-out, and then fall on their faces and cry:crying: " The only trampolining in the U.S. is on the Man Show. But the stupidest sport of all may be race walking. If the event were held at the Mall and restricted to the over-60 set, it might be fun to watch. But instead it's young people jogging and pretending to walk. And that looks really, really stupid.

Maybe we should have Efren Reyes and Buddy Hall race walk 5 miles to the pool hall then play a set. We could even make it a team sport and use a cue as the baton!
 
I agree. We just watched AIR PISTOL shooting. Shooting BB guns!!!! My wife commented that pool is more of a sport than that.

Trampoline on the other hand is a serious and dangerous sport. I was a competitive springboard diver and a competitive trampolinist. Trampoline has some seriously hard tricks and routines.

I don't need to see racewalking. I see no reason to ever be the fastest to walk somewhere when running will get it done quicker. Racewalking is like seven ball - no need for it when there is already a competitve sport that is better.
 
I was surprised to learn that racewalking has been around for a long time in the Olympics. I thought it was a travesty of the modern world.

Just run, damn it!
 
PKM said:
I was surprised to learn that racewalking has been around for a long time in the Olympics. I thought it was a travesty of the modern world.

Just run, damn it!
Click to expand...

Sir: you have no respect.

You would tell Dan Patch to gallop, not pace
Greyhound to gallop, not trot
:D :D :D
 
Pool Needs More Respect!!!!!!

If pool wants more respect then it's going to have to EARN it.

Don't tell me anymore stories of the 'stakes-horse' or 'cash-cow' being set-up, the slick trap or hustle, the rip-offs and shady deals.

Pool has made it's own bed. Pool will have more respect when it's worthy of it. Ever wonder why major pool tournaments can't get major sponsorship? No big name company in the world wants their name associated with the corruption. Plain & simple.
 
What? You are saying that pool is more corrupt than basketball, football or baseball? I doubt it.

Dave Nelson
 
JMS said:
Up late watching the Olympics (don't ask me why), notice some stupid events over there in Beijing. Why is pool not an event and events like speedwalking and trampoline are an Olympic event. Quote from Time magazine "And trampolining, if you think about it, at least it fulfills the basic requirement of promising very serious injury. Teenage girls jump 20 ft. in the air, do tricks called the double back tuck and the full-in-full-out, and then fall on their faces and cry:crying: " The only trampolining in the U.S. is on the Man Show. But the stupidest sport of all may be race walking. If the event were held at the Mall and restricted to the over-60 set, it might be fun to watch. But instead it's young people jogging and pretending to walk. And that looks really, really stupid.

Maybe we should have Efren Reyes and Buddy Hall race walk 5 miles to the pool hall then play a set. We could even make it a team sport and use a cue as the baton!
Click to expand...
Pool will get more respect when the majority of pool players behave more respectably.
 
I never followed the olympics. Absolutely no interest in it at all. :boring:

I did see girls beach volleyball on TV the other day come to think of it. If that was an olympic event, then I stand corrected. My eyes were glued to that. :happydance:

Anyway, I wondered if chess was an olympic event?
 
Attempting to get pool and or billiards into the Olympics has been going on for a long time. I was a supporter in the early 90s and there were efforts before then.

Seems we need to clean our own house first before we take on the politics of the Olympics.
 
BB-guns

JB Cases said:
I agree. We just watched AIR PISTOL shooting. Shooting BB guns!!!! My wife commented that pool is more of a sport than that.
Click to expand...

Pool is my first love and I no longer compete with firearms. Formerly, however, I was a state pistol champion. Air gun shooting is for real. The "bb-guns" start in the $2500 range and go up from there. It is every bit as challenging, if not more so than pool...I've competed at the US national level and I have seen what it takes to be a master shooter. Few people can do it.

That being said, however, I think it totally absurd to make such shooting an olympic event to the exclusion of the vastly more popular games of billiards. I do agree pool deserves more respect.
 
Pool will be an Olympic sport just as soon as they let in darts, horseshoes, beer pong and cornhole. As lame as some (well, most) of the Olympic sports are, you're never going to see them include bar games. Now if someone decided to create the Barlympics...

Pool in the Olympics wouldn't help the game anyway, although I'm pretty sure this topic has been covered in about 62 other threads. Don't feel bad though. The darts guys feel just as pissy about their game being excluded from the Olympics too (at least they did in 2006). The article in The Guardian is actually pretty amusing, as you could remove the word "darts", replace it with "pool" and have the same argument that's been made over and over again.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006/jan/04/sport.gdnsport3
 
Snooker or Billiards would make an the best representitive in the Olympics, which could open the door for other cue games.
 
I posted on this same point in another thread a few days ago. I've reconciled myself to the fact that Pool is what it is, a damn good game that will forever be thought of as a non sport by many. Yet the masses ooh and aah at the skills of the pool masters. People inherently know how difficult this game is, especially because they've all tried to play it at some time in their lives. Call it a game or call it a sport, Pool is damn hard! And everyone knows it!

Why isn't pool in the Olympics and probably never will be. POLITICS! That's how decisions are made on this planet. Politics and money. Now if the Olympics were ever held in the Philippines, we all damn well know what sport would be included that year. Pool would have the biggest and best venue! But that ain't gonna happen for a while and we all know it. So I'm not going to sit around crying in my beer. I'm just going to keep on playing and supporting the existing events (and players) that are great!

Look at it this way, Golf is not an Olympic sport either. And Tennis is. Try to figure that out. I sure can't.
 
Dave Nelson said:
What? You are saying that pool is more corrupt than basketball, football or baseball? I doubt it.

Dave Nelson
Click to expand...
You're entitled to your doubts until the cows come home. I'm not talking about any other sport other than pool. Since corruption exists in other sports does that mean that a level of corruption is acceptable in pool? If you're contend with the status quo, enjoy. Just don't expect things to get better all by themselves.
 
jay helfert said:
I posted on this same point in another thread a few days ago. I've reconciled myself to the fact that Pool is what it is, a damn good game that will forever be thought of as a non sport by many. Yet the masses ooh and aah at the skills of the pool masters. People inherently know how difficult this game is, especially because they've all tried to play it at some time in their lives. Call it a game or call it a sport, Pool is damn hard! And everyone knows it!
Click to expand...

That's true, but there seems to be a weird paradox about pool at least in my experience. Haven't you come across people who, once they can play above beginner level, genuinely seem to believe they could be a pro if only they put a little more effort into it?
 
i have to agree w/ KJ on this one. as much as i love the game, pool unfortunately IMO is built on a tradtion of dishonesty. basketball, baseball, etc. - all those sports have their moments where the corruption is shown, but none of them are built around the idea that things like hustling or even playing on the lemon are an acceptable practice. you tell a story of how you dumped in pool and made some money and your average joe would probably laugh and say good job on suckering someone, but throw a fight in boxing, and you lose all your respect from your peers and fans alike. all those other sports are built on the idea that you should play your best at all times, not just when its time to make money...
 
It all comes back to the fact that we need a multi million dollar backer to make the sport popular again to the masses. I also have no idea how gymnastics makes it and why there is so much $$ involved in it. I NEVER see gymnastics on TV, I actually see more pool on tv that that stuff. I knwo that gymnastics is a very hard sport and takes alot of skill and commitment but so does pool. The only time i see gymnastica is every 4 years and it is a monster of a cash cow for all involved. I don't get where they get all the $$ from, can't be tv.
Also I think we all are convinced that pool is getting a bad rep from days gone by with the whole smoky pool room, misspent youth and gambling low life opinions. Time have changed and some of us and the general publkic need to se more of the fact that SVB does not smoke or drink or do drugs but exersizes and conducts himself like a pro. The same can be said for alot of players Crosby, Archer, and I know there are others. Some of them have a beer here and there and but this is becoming a very clean professional sport, Even Earl the guy some se as the bad guy in pool, exersizes everyday, and does not drink. Most of the people in our SPORT are good clean living professionals. I believe that there is more drugs, drinking, gambling, ho chasing, match fixing etc in probably every other sport than there is in pool and billiards.
I hate to go on a rant here but most of what I have seen in this thread is all the negatives and this is from our own, who are supposed to love the game. If we can't sit around and point out all the good stuff how the hell is a million dollar backer going to see it? Sorry, I feel like I just stuck up for my girlfriend or something. Everytime I meet someone who I know has $$$ I ask them "hey you ever play pool? or "do you ever watch pool on TV?" I don't meet alot of people with the $$$ needed but I try to get their interest everytime. Maybe if we all did this we may by accident fint that guy. Just a thought.
 
I don't know why people expect pool to garner respect when most people in the industry don't even respect each other. We have tours trying to discredit each other, men making continuous sexual remarks about the ladies, everyone making disparaging comments about each other because they don't agree on the same "aiming system" or whatnot... for starters.

Good luck.
 
I agree with previous posters. Pool has too much of a connection to gambling. Also pool is connected with smoke filled bars. To legitimize pool it needs to be in places that are family friendly (kid). The other day I went to a great new pool room close to where I live. The first thing you see is a sign that says "Absolutely no one under 21 allowed! No exceptions!! That my friends is the problem.

Regards,
Marcus
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top