Should Extremely Slow Play be Counted as Sharking?

Slow Play ...

I am sure Danny was a little uptight, but that length of time between shots (4 minutes) is uncalled for, especially for someone at his level. Danny came through Wichita hustling, and he was a little slow, but not much. I take daily
medication, and yes it causes me to gain weight too, but only 10-12 lbs from
my original most of my life weight of 145.
Most pool players at Danny's level or close to it can shoot a straight in
within 2 seconds.
I like Danny too, he adds some pizazz to the sport, and has a fun time doing it,
but 3-4 minutes between simple shots is excessive for someone of his calibur, even in a tough match.
 
Snapshot9 said:
I like Danny too, he adds some pizazz to the sport, and has a fun time doing it,
but 3-4 minutes between simple shots is excessive for someone of his calibur, even in a tough match.
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IMHO, 3 to 4 minutes between simple shots is way outa line, especially if those 3 to 4 minutes happen quite often.

Sometimes, even apparently simple shots aren't simple at all, as we all know, for the problem may be 2 balls further down the run, and figuring out what to do can be taxing on the brain.

Nevertheless, if it happens a lot, it sure does get frustrating. In a money game, I've seen people start to shark making comments after someone takes 15 seconds looking at a situation. Has happened to me. Why'd the jerk do it? To get me upset, of course ( I potted the ball shortly after, winning :p )

I suppose that if someone who is a good player is known to be a congenital slow shooter that the organizers in an event will take that into consideration when planning the deal and announce a shot clock will be used. Perhaps 30 seconds is too short, but a minute or so usually should be more than enough, even for tough situations...

My two cents worth...

Flex
 
Shorty said:
Danny is a great guy I am sure, and I root for him as well...but I absolutely hate slow play. I was in a tournament with fellow wheelchair players and they were taking 3-5 minutes per shot to setup and then address the ball. I was going NUTZ. I am used to a rhythm...I play rather rapidly for a guy in a chair and I zip around the table. It really did throw my game totally off...and as a result, I am not so eager to shoot in another handicapped tournament.

Shorty
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Hey Shorty. I don't know if you know him, but Finland has also another world 9-ball champion besides Immonen. Jouni Tähti won the wheelchair 9-ball World Champs a couple of years ago. My point is that at the European Champs, there's also the wheelchair division and almost all the players are quite slow except the 2 best players in Europe: Jouni Tähti from Finland and Henrik Larsson from Sweden. Their matches are nice to watch because they rarely wheel around the table, they just freewheel (sorry pun) through their matches and manage to string racks together with high quality play. I don't know if you have seen them in action, doubt it.
 
I think people who are making the below comments need to rethink the situation: "Don't watch him play if you don't like slow play".

What the hell is that kind of mentality? He has the priviledge to be televised LIVE and INTERNATIONALLY. If you're not on location at the WPC, do you have the opportunity to just switch to another channel and watch another table? If I can, I would switch the channel instantly. But nobody can. So pool fans has to suffer through his slow play just for the love of the sport and to wait for the next match. I really hope Danny's not doing it intentionally. I am sure he probably had people telling or warning him about the fan reactions to his last match. Hopefully he'll smarten up if he ever gets back to the TV table.
 
Kinda funny when you think about it................Here's a guy they are doin a movie about , and now they dont want him on th TV table.........lol.
 
From what i have seen Danny B is known as a slower player and therefor his
speed is looked at more.
I thought it was embarrassing for the sport for Danny to have to have run to shoot in a hill-hill finals against Cory in the UPA championship.

I have seen many players take longer or at least as long both in person and
on tv and little is said. However Danny gets called on it more often.


I dont believe that its wrong to place players on a shot clocl I think in certain situations it should be truned off. Also it should be an amount that only comes into play when a player is being excessively slow.
 
To be honest although Danny may be slow because of medication side effects, like I said I've seen him shoot much faster and he didn't miss a ball, so the medication can't be making him shoot that slow. Some of you are missing the point, saying "if you don't like it then don't watch it" is totally off the subject matter. There is no current player who is as slow as Danny Basavich, not even close. Yeah Johnny Archer is slow, and that gets painful sometimes, but Danny is to the point that it annoys his opponents and the audience, which is why I said he is not good for TV. We are trying to make pool more popular, to appeal to more viewers, not make it annoying. Spliced Points, you are basically talking to a wall because what you said has no relevence. I don't care if you are weighed down in chains and shackles, 2-3 minutes every shot is outrageous. 3 minutes checking the rack alone, that just puts it over the top.
 
Danny, whom I've counted as a friend for many years, is a great guy and a great player. But so what? He is also an entertainer.

If professional pool players want to make real money, they will have to start taking themselves seriously as entertainers. I hope Danny's not one who reckons he doesn't have to take himself seriously as an entertainer until he's paid like an entertainer, for the many who've taken this view have devalued our sport over the years.

Danny, because he's received so much press of late and because of an impending movie deal, knows that he is in the WPC spotlight right now. Unfortunately, his appallingly lethargic play has turned off many potential fans of our sport, and leaves us all wondering whether he is making any effort at all to entertain the pool fans of the world.

I wish Danny every possible success at the WPC, but I sure hope that he'll evolve into a player far more committed to making pro pool a good product for the viewing fans.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sobeit
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Try a Merriam-Webster Dictionary for the English language. The word "sobeit" ain't there. Although it resembles "albeit," "sobeit" is not one word.

Jude Rosenstock said:
And yes, I'm well aware of that but for many DCers, the experience wasn't quite as personal. I could give you a lengthy description but I'm afraid you might just offend me again.
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How you can assume what is and what is not personal for any Washingtonian who endured 9/11 is beyond me, and if you are offended, then SO BE IT!

When the Pentagon was hit, every single person in the country was affected, Jude, to include Washingtonians, and to this day, life in the Nation's Capital will never be the same because of it. Yes, it was very personal, and you're barking up the wrong tree stating "the experience wasn't quite as personal" especially if you're talking to me.

Now, do you have anything pool-related you want to discuss? I do not desire to get in a pissing contest and a war of words with anyone, but please do not interject your opinion about what is personal to me about 9/11 because, quite frankly, you have no way of even knowing.

I only stated that since it was the 4th of July, the birthday of the Nation, it would be nice to root for the American pool players in Taiwan battling it out at an international event. Somehow my words get twisted and the topic changes to 9/11. What a sick joke!

JAM
 
I played a match once a guy that nearly ran around the table. VERY distracting. I think we should have a shot clock that works both ways. Must take at least 10 second but no more than 30. One shot per game you must shot in less than 3 seconds and one shot per game you must take more than 45 seconds. :D


Of course the suggestion part of the above was a joke, but the first part was very true. Seemed like that guy was trying to shark me into rushing my shots.
 
JAM said:
...Currently, I'm struggling with a job relating to the review of the Supreme Court for the past 5 years...
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You have my sympathy!

I once played "do-it-yourself" lawyer and had a very frustrating time attempting to research past [local] legal cases.

A lot of this stuff could have been placed on a computer which would make legal research quite easy, but I don't think they even knew what a computer was at the local law library! They didn't even have their collection of books cataloged on a computer, let alone the information.

At one point I was even tempted to volunteer to help them set up a basic computer card catalog system (you know - what every other library in the world has at a minimum), but did not have the time...
 
CaptainJR said:
I played a match once a guy that nearly ran around the table. VERY distracting. I think we should have a shot clock that works both ways. Must take at least 10 second but no more than 30. One shot per game you must shot in less than 3 seconds and one shot per game you must take more than 45 seconds. :D


Of course the suggestion part of the above was a joke, but the first part was very true. Seemed like that guy was trying to shark me into rushing my shots.
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Tony Drago and Luc Salvas, now that's entertainment. It's exciting to see someone play so fast yet play so well. I know exactly why people (including myself) get frustrated with slow play, it's because pool is a results-oriented game (i.e. you do something, it can have an effect on everything else, like chess), so people are anxious to see the result of a shot. When Danny takes his practice strokes, it seems like he is about to shoot, but he gets up and does his whole annoying antics routine all over again, and even after that you think he's about to execute, but he gets up and starts over again. I just can't stand it, it's kind of like I'm leaning forward in my chair when he's about to shoot the shot and he doesn't do it, it feels like I'm left hanging. Drives me nuts!!!
 
LastTwo said:
Wow Jam, after reading your post I feel like a jerk. I had no idea of his condition. Please accept my apology, Danny too.
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Regardless of any unfortunate medical condition, slow play generally does throw off an opponents game. Worse yet, slow play makes it boring as hell to watch a match. I don't watch Danny for the same reason I don't watch Ralf Souquet and rarely watch the great (and I mean that) Johnny Archer. Good players or not, they are NOT entertaining.
 
Danny`s behavior is more annoying.The explanations( illnesses,medicines and their side effects )for his annoying behavior are not and should not be execuses.If he has disabling medical problems he should stay where he belongs.
I will neither play him nor watch him play if I have an option.
I do not condone slow players.
Vagabond
 
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