I started out as a child...
well, as I said I've been doing this for a loooooong time, and have never played in Las Vegas. I think I started in the APA back when it was the Busch League so that may give you some perspective when I say a looooong time. Back then I had actually never picked up a pool cue to play before, now I've got some cues and other equipment, even a table. My LO and I haven't always seen eye to eye but she's one of the best. Your comments about accurate scorekeeping and sandbagging are what caught my attention.. Man, that used to piss me off, no end. But I thought about it, there was really nothing I could do about it. I hated the the other teams laughing at me because I'd try to argue about safes and innings and I was ready to open the rule book and shove it in your face at any opportunity. It had gotten so that pool was just no fun. My efforts to make it better or fair had taken a toll on my reputation and had embarrassed me, my team, and so on. Other teams hated playing me and my team, not because we won all the time, but because were a bunch of bastards. I see teams like that now and I hate to play them too, but it gave me perspective. I try not to offer advice, not everyone wants it. But if I can engage them in conversation I try to give them something to think about. When I thought about it, I had to admit a few things to myself, that I must have looked pretty silly to everyone else, that I couldn't control what anyone else did, opinions varied and didn't always agree with mine, and worst of all - I could be wrong.
I don't know if you've ever played in any national events or anything like that, but gee wiz, in the one or two that I've played in I would swear that every other area in the country sent their sandbaggers just to piss me off. Now, more than anything else I find myself not really caring if someone is trying to sandbag or not. whether they are or not doesn't matter, someone has to play them, maybe they let me win - good for me. Most people can't effectively sandbag anyways, they don't get the system or they don't know it so it all catches up at some point.
So on our team we have a pretty good mix of S/L 3's up to S/L 6's. I think life time I'm at about a 55% win for both 8 and 9 (last time I checked). we play in our cities or regional (or whatever you want to call it) just about every year but have never qualified to play at the NTC. I went to referee once and I have been a few time to watch which I suspect will be the case again this year, but we have a chance so who knows.
So even if it is a pet peeve, just try to let it go. Do your part to keep score accurately but if you try to point out that you think other scorekeepers are not doing it right all that will happen is you will accumulate a bunch of pissed off people that don't want you walking through their door and you'll paint a target on your back. Look at other APA related posts here. When most folks tell their story they start like yours, when they're done the APA sucks, everyone is a sandbagger and the LO is a corrupt SOB that hates them. Now the APA has it's bad element alright, but so does everything else and every other pool league, but I find that if you just play and ignore the other crap you'll enjoy it a whole lot more. The bad element will always be there, but how we react to it or don't react to it is what makes the game enjoyable and allows us to improve and compete on higher levels.
