US Open- What is it with Players doing work of staff, referees?

[macguy]

What do you mean "if you collapsed", I've heard stories about some that would do it while you were in the middle of a shot.

I know personally of two players who were having breakfast when one had a stroke. When they took him off to the hospital he had no money on him. When he was in the pool room just an hour earlier he had like $3000.00 on him.

I should add that the guy was a half assed bookmaker and player. He didn't recover and died the next morning. He had no one and I am sure he would have prefered that his money ended in the pocket of a pool player rather the an ambulance driver.

 

[macguy]

More money for officials = less money for pool players. If the players were to vote on whether to have higher payouts and racking themselves or lower payouts and some official racks I suspect they would vote to rack themselves.

These are pool players, not pampered athletes from other sports.

It has been voted on in the past and the players prefer they rack themselves. Nothing to do with paying a racker but the rack and break are an important part of the game and has to be left to the players, even if they have a dispute now and then.

 

[CreeDo]

There's no law that says the racker has to be the referee too. Refs need 100x more training and
it's probably too much 'skilled labor' to expect on a volunteer basis.

Rackboys on the other hand... that used to be a thing, and it can be again. They can be considered unskilled labor,
and many B-or-better players would be willing to do it for front row seats.

"But, racking them tight isn't that easy, and many players don't know the trick to it, and what
if they screw up and it affects the outcome of the match?!?!"

...95% of that griping goes away if we just adopt magic racks and stop clinging to
outdated blocks of wood. We have the technology.
No need to insist on a screwdriver when you have a power drill.

"But, even magic racks can have gaps if you aren't careful1!!!"
Let the player inspect and demand a rerack if they see a gap.
One rerack only. If they don't like it they can talk to the TD.

"But someone might pay off the rack boy!!!@"
Be serious. Pool players are broke and they're much more likely to do something dishonest
when racking on their own (which costs nothing and has less risk since nobody else would know).
Not to mention it's tough to slug a magic rack. It would look pretty obvious too.

But people making balls every time on the break is BORING!

So is watching a player stop, rerack, lean in, peer, rerack, rerack, rerack, rerack, rerack,
rerack, rerack, rerack, finally they wave their hand, shake their head, break dry and then cry about it.
Try 10b, even with magic racks the balls aren't guaranteed.

 

[DogsPlayingPool]

But people making balls every time on the break is BORING!

So is watching a player stop, rerack, lean in, peer, rerack, rerack, rerack, rerack, rerack,
rerack, rerack, rerack, finally they wave their hand, shake their head, break dry and then cry about it.
Try 10b, even with magic racks the balls aren't guaranteed.

Problem with trying 10 Ball is we are talking about Behrman's US Open 9 Ball Championship. He could change it to 10 Ball but he wouldn't be able to change the name of the tournament.

But I tend to agree that for sake of pace of play the MBR is more efficient. Break from the box to at least make it a little trickier to get shape on the one, and perhaps rack high with the 9 on the spot. With the Magic Rack it makes it easier to use volunteers to rack if you want to go that route, because it is easier to get a tight rack. The player can inspect it before the snap but for any pool player it is not too difficult to get the balls all frozen.

I think the MBR makes pattern racking a little easier, but I'm done arguing about that - they all do it anyway and it ain't going to change.