Rock and a hard place...

Rackemep

Rackemep

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So I'm at league tonight and we're playing a team that almost always comes in dead last in our BCA league...I play a safe on the gal and she is forced to kick the full length of the table at the 8 ball...As she gets down on the shot she's chanting "please just hit my ball, please just hit my ball"...She never calls a pocket, shoots the shot and makes a wonderful hit on the 8 but kicks it in the corner pocket. (It was obvious that it was not intentional). The rest of the bar (other league teams on the surrounding tables) erupt with applause and commence congratulating her on the amazing shot... I really wanted to take the win because it was my win, but I held my tongue and congratulated her on the shot and shook her hand.

Ok I get it, it's just a game of pool but the team I'm on has a legit chance of winning and getting a shot at going to nationals. We're neck in neck with the other top team so every win counts. On one hand I dont want to let my team down and on the other hand I would of felt like a douche calling out a little old lady about not calling a pocket. (that is likely one of the only wins she'll have the whole season)...I'm torn about the descission I made to let her take the game...
 
Let her have the game. Competitive or not, it it should be about fun and furthering the game. It would be a bad move on your part for making that call.
I've been on a championship team, and we were competitive. But when we played the out for fun teams, we loosened up and had fun, knowing that we would still win. There were teams we swept 16-0 and could tell they went home sad. Letting them win a game here and there is good for them, and for your league. Flip side, I've played teams who would try to make douchebag calls, we would let them have the call no argument, then tighten up and destroy them.
Chuck
 
I'd let her have it. Vegas is overrated and if you guys miss first place by a single 8 ball, you could argue that it's everybody's fault who failed to convert a winnable game during the season.

if you're the guys you truly deserve to win this season, then you should be able to do it a little more convincingly, and not get there by the skin of your teeth.

its the holidays, you just gave her the gift of a good league night. Feels good man.


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Yeah it is hard to to make that call when. If there is money on the line at that time I would make the call, but given the situation I would have done the same thing as you.
 
you didn't make her call it.

I just looooove these league situation questions !

When I am scoring a match, I usually say, "call your pocket," right after the shot made before the money-ball.

You did it right. Trying to call that ball with a crowd congratulating her wudda made you look like "a douche".
Good call to just let it go.
 
Classy move, on your part. Nice that you let her have her moment and accomplishments like that are what helps to keep the fire alive, for pool shooters.

I might have let her know that you had no intention of calling her out on her failure, but that it could be a crucial error in the future.

There is the love sandwich, in communication: congratulate her, point out the error and then close with another statement that reinforces the first (positive) statement.

You done good. No reward!:o
 
IMO, you did a nice thing. Whether or not you did the right thing for your team is a different issue. Did you catch any flak from your teammates? Either way, truth is, you already did what you thought was right. There is no need to agonize over it. It's behind you, stop looking in the rear-view...
 
Good sportsmanship on you for not calling her out :yes: but.......

Worse on her for taking the win knowing she slopped the money ball in :nono:
 
BCA rules state call all non-obvious shots. You have the right and the duty to your team to use that rule. If you didn't, your fault, lesson learned, hopefully. You have to ask, too late after shot has been taken.
Having said that, she would have most likely called that pocket anyway if you had asked. The reason she didn't, she was probably so nervous about the situation she was in, that it was just not in her thought process at the moment.
 
Rackemep said:
So I'm at league tonight and we're playing a team that almost always comes in dead last in our BCA league...I play a safe on the gal and she is forced to kick the full length of the table at the 8 ball...As she gets down on the shot she's chanting "please just hit my ball, please just hit my ball"...She never calls a pocket, shoots the shot and makes a wonderful hit on the 8 but kicks it in the corner pocket. (It was obvious that it was not intentional). The rest of the bar (other league teams on the surrounding tables) erupt with applause and commence congratulating her on the amazing shot... I really wanted to take the win because it was my win, but I held my tongue and congratulated her on the shot and shook her hand.

Ok I get it, it's just a game of pool but the team I'm on has a legit chance of winning and getting a shot at going to nationals. We're neck in neck with the other top team so every win counts. On one hand I dont want to let my team down and on the other hand I would of felt like a douche calling out a little old lady about not calling a pocket. (that is likely one of the only wins she'll have the whole season)...I'm torn about the descission I made to let her take the game...
Click to expand...

Good call there! You made her day and that counts for a lot in my book. In the long run it won't affect your team but it will affect your heart. :thumbup:
 
Good call. If you'd called her out on it, you'd not remember this nice moment years from now, whether your team made it to Vegas or not. But this way, you'll look back fondly on sharing a nice moment that probably made her whole session. Remember, it's supposed to be FUN.
 
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Black-Balled said:
Classy move, on your part. Nice that you let her have her moment and accomplishments like that are what helps to keep the fire alive, for pool shooters.

I might have let her know that you had no intention of calling her out on her failure, but that it could be a crucial error in the future.

There is the love sandwich, in communication: congratulate her, point out the error and then close with another statement that reinforces the first (positive) statement.

You done good. No reward!:o
Click to expand...

^^^ this.

Except I wouldn't tell her, I would quietly take her team captain aside, and tell him/her, that it might cost them down the road. And then tell that same person it was a good shot, or something else to leave it on a positive note.

Well done on your part, OP. Very cool stuff.
 
Good move. You just earned yourself some positive karma. It will give back ten fold to you. You also in a small way help motivate a lesser player to do better. She knows in the back of her head what she did but she also got to feel the "limelight" for an instance and it will be infectious.
 
justadub said:
^^^ this.

Except I wouldn't tell her, I would quietly take her team captain aside, and tell him/her, that it might cost them down the road. And then tell that same person it was a good shot, or something else to leave it on a positive note.

Well done on your part, OP. Very cool stuff.
Click to expand...

^This. Someone else might not feel the way you or most of those in this thread feel and it would be good for her to know later she made a mistake. Would be much better for the capt. to tell her, though.
 
Rackemep said:
So I'm at league tonight and we're playing a team that almost always comes in dead last in our BCA league...I play a safe on the gal and she is forced to kick the full length of the table at the 8 ball...As she gets down on the shot she's chanting "please just hit my ball, please just hit my ball"...She never calls a pocket, shoots the shot and makes a wonderful hit on the 8 but kicks it in the corner pocket. (It was obvious that it was not intentional). The rest of the bar (other league teams on the surrounding tables) erupt with applause and commence congratulating her on the amazing shot... I really wanted to take the win because it was my win, but I held my tongue and congratulated her on the shot and shook her hand.

Ok I get it, it's just a game of pool but the team I'm on has a legit chance of winning and getting a shot at going to nationals. We're neck in neck with the other top team so every win counts. On one hand I dont want to let my team down and on the other hand I would of felt like a douche calling out a little old lady about not calling a pocket. (that is likely one of the only wins she'll have the whole season)...I'm torn about the descission I made to let her take the game...
Click to expand...

It always pays to ask.... Where are you playing it, before she shot
Congrats on the sportsmanship
 
Rackemep said:
So I'm at league tonight and we're playing a team that almost always comes in dead last in our BCA league...I play a safe on the gal and she is forced to kick the full length of the table at the 8 ball...As she gets down on the shot she's chanting "please just hit my ball, please just hit my ball"...She never calls a pocket, shoots the shot and makes a wonderful hit on the 8 but kicks it in the corner pocket. (It was obvious that it was not intentional). The rest of the bar (other league teams on the surrounding tables) erupt with applause and commence congratulating her on the amazing shot... I really wanted to take the win because it was my win, but I held my tongue and congratulated her on the shot and shook her hand.

Ok I get it, it's just a game of pool but the team I'm on has a legit chance of winning and getting a shot at going to nationals. We're neck in neck with the other top team so every win counts. On one hand I dont want to let my team down and on the other hand I would of felt like a douche calling out a little old lady about not calling a pocket. (that is likely one of the only wins she'll have the whole season)...I'm torn about the descission I made to let her take the game...
Click to expand...

Let me ask you silly questions:

Forget about the rules about calling a non-obvious shot. Did the ball go in the hole that YOU would have called had you been in her shooting shoes?

What did you teammates do when she kicked it in?

When you say "little old lady" but earlier said "safe on the gal", that painted two different pictures. Not that it matters, but if I were telling the story on here, I'd make up something about how hot she is.

Freddie <~~~ but that's just me
 
I can only speak for myself but letting her have the win would have felt better than winning on a technicality... but then again, I'm selfish. :)

I think you did the right thing.
 
i also think you did the right thing. got a question for you though. why o you say it was obvious that was not her intended pocket ? i get she was chanting please make contact but that does not mean she was trying that pocket also. its not like she smacked the shit out of it and it went 2 rails before falling in.

this scenario right here is why apa has the mark the pocket . yea i think its a lame rule just like many of you but it does prevent this situation right here, during regular sesion play there are a lot of us that agree to just call the pocket but we all adhere to the rule come playoffs.

i had sort of the same situation last night. i played a safe when my opponent was on the 8. i put the cueball behind 3 of my balls. he comes up and studies the situation for what seemed like forever.i finally just looked up at the tv to see the score on a basketball game for a few seconds.

when i looked at the table he was down on his shot. i started to ask hey where you going with this shot but did not want to shark him. he hits the left side rail goes down hits the bottom rail comes back up hitting the right side rail cutting the 8 in the right side corner. now i dont know if he was just trying to make contact or was trying for that pocket but i just said hey man thats a helluva shot. this guy is a 4 and i dont think he could make that shot 1 out of 20 times again but hey... he made it when it counted.

i went on to beat him 4-1 but that shot kept me from getting a rackless and one more entry into a drawing for vegas not to mention 3 points for my team instead of 2.
 
I think you answered your own question Bud.
You knew in your heart what the right thing was. Under different circumstances
you could have made an easy decision, but like you mentioned, they aren't a winning team and you made the little old ladies day.

Very good of you. These days it can be a gimmee gimmme Me World so its nice when
someone thinks of others and does a good deed.
 
If that was the only pocket she could have kicked it in then she deserves to win. She was so worried about hitting the ball she forgot to called it. You did the right thing.
 
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