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

spartan

spartan

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
First time I watched US Open on TV, I had shock of my life. Saw 2 top players racking each themselves and using their cue to change the scoreboard. I tot I was watching some practice training session or some minor peanuts tourney. It is disgraceful and disrespectful that top pro players racking and scoring in a top WPA tourney. I do not know of any other major tourney where players are debased to doing donkey work. I am sure the organisers can get some volunteers from spectators or squeeze something out if their budget to pay some cheap refs of rackers. Players should be resting and focusing instead by being distracted by having to do racking and scoring. Clearly a lack of professionalism on part of organisers amounting to taking advantage of players
You do not see Roger Federer collecting tennis balls himself there are ball boys and girls to do that. :)
 
Maybe the players didn't grow up in the Royal family and don't share your opinion that a little manual activity is disgraceful, disrespectful, debasing donkey work.
 
The horror! I don't think that having some random people rack for the players that are trying to make a living off their break is a good idea. I think the players would WANT to rack for themselves. Or at least have an experienced ref do it.

9' table with the score beads or card 1 foot away from it is not exactly the same as having to chance down a ball from 20' away. Tennis players also have checks for a few 100,000 handed to them regularly, now THAT is something pool needs to find a way to do.
 
spartan said:
First time I watched US Open on TV, I had shock of my life. Saw 2 top players racking each themselves and using their cue to change the scoreboard. I tot I was watching some practice training session or some minor peanuts tourney. It is disgraceful and disrespectful that top pro players racking and scoring in a top WPA tourney. I do not know of any other major tourney where players are debased to doing donkey work. I am sure the organisers can get some volunteers from spectators or squeeze something out if their budget to pay some cheap refs of rackers. Players should be resting and focusing instead by being distracted by having to do racking and scoring. Clearly a lack of professionalism on part of organisers amounting to taking advantage of players
You do not see Roger Federer collecting tennis balls himself there are ball boys and girls to do that. :)
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For the most part the players prefer it that way. I have played in big tournaments with Refs doing everything and I can tell you having some jerk off volunteer racking the balls for a free past to the show is no bargain. Worse is them making calls, missing calls and not even knowing the rules. There is nothing wrong with the player being responsible for keeping their own score, even hear of golf, they can't even ride in a cart like the public does, they walk the whole course.
I should add that racking is a part of the play of the game. It is not like collecting tennis balls. breaking often determine the outcome of a match. You don't need an outsider not directly involved in the match touching or messing with things.
They do usually use a racker in final matches probably more for looks though.
 
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spartan (strange name for someone that is whining about manual labor) you are talking about pool players. What makes them so special? Half of them would steal the gold out of your teeth if you collapsed. And, they would figure out a way to blame you for what they did.
 
doitforthegame said:
spartan (strange name for someone that is whining about manual labor) you are talking about pool players. What makes them so special? Half of them would steal the gold out of your teeth if you collapsed. And, they would figure out a way to blame you for what they did.
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I think over the years I have come full circle. I now prefer the game played in it's simplest form. I don't care if the players play in flip flops and shorts. I don't care if it is perfectly quiet. Put two players on the table who know what they are doing and anyone should be happy to watch. Forget the tux's and ballrooms.
 
hang-the-9 said:
The horror! I don't think that having some random people rack for the players that are trying to make a living off their break is a good idea. I think the players would WANT to rack for themselves. Or at least have an experienced ref do it.

9' table with the score beads or card 1 foot away from it is not exactly the same as having to chance down a ball from 20' away. Tennis players also have checks for a few 100,000 handed to them regularly, now THAT is something pool needs to find a way to do.
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One of the best posters on AZ
Spot on
 
There used to be people to rack the balls for the players at the Open but the reason it changed, I pretty sure, is because the players themselves wanted it that way. I'm not sure why someone would think it's so hard to reach up & move a ball marker over to keep score but I've never heard any of them complain about it.
 
spartan said:
First time I watched US Open on TV, I had shock of my life. Saw 2 top players racking each themselves and using their cue to change the scoreboard. I tot I was watching some practice training session or some minor peanuts tourney. It is disgraceful and disrespectful that top pro players racking and scoring in a top WPA tourney. I do not know of any other major tourney where players are debased to doing donkey work. I am sure the organisers can get some volunteers from spectators or squeeze something out if their budget to pay some cheap refs of rackers. Players should be resting and focusing instead by being distracted by having to do racking and scoring. Clearly a lack of professionalism on part of organisers amounting to taking advantage of players
You do not see Roger Federer collecting tennis balls himself there are ball boys and girls to do that. :)
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You raise an interesting point, however, Roger gets paid millions to play tennis because the masses care. The masses don't care about pool or pool players. Many believe the players have shot off both their hands and feet over the years and deserve what their antics/business decisions have wrought. I don't feel that strongly about it, though there isn't a good ROI for corporate investors in pool. Some tournaments can't pay their players on time and you're worried about players keeping score and racking their own balls. I think you're putting the cart before the horse.

:)
 
spartan said:
First time I watched US Open on TV, I had shock of my life. Saw 2 top players racking each themselves and using their cue to change the scoreboard. I tot I was watching some practice training session or some minor peanuts tourney. It is disgraceful and disrespectful that top pro players racking and scoring in a top WPA tourney. I do not know of any other major tourney where players are debased to doing donkey work. I am sure the organisers can get some volunteers from spectators or squeeze something out if their budget to pay some cheap refs of rackers. Players should be resting and focusing instead by being distracted by having to do racking and scoring. Clearly a lack of professionalism on part of organisers amounting to taking advantage of players
You do not see Roger Federer collecting tennis balls himself there are ball boys and girls to do that. :)
Click to expand...

laddie,

shirley u reek of sarcasm
 
spartan said:
First time I watched US Open on TV, I had shock of my life. Saw 2 top players racking each themselves and using their cue to change the scoreboard. I tot I was watching some practice training session or some minor peanuts tourney. It is disgraceful and disrespectful that top pro players racking and scoring in a top WPA tourney. I do not know of any other major tourney where players are debased to doing donkey work. I am sure the organisers can get some volunteers from spectators or squeeze something out if their budget to pay some cheap refs of rackers. Players should be resting and focusing instead by being distracted by having to do racking and scoring. Clearly a lack of professionalism on part of organisers amounting to taking advantage of players
You do not see Roger Federer collecting tennis balls himself there are ball boys and girls to do that. :)
Click to expand...
Are you personally willing to provide the sponsorship money to change all of that?

Of course at the World Championships there are referees to take care of things, but in general it costs a lot of money and effort to provide adequate staff to make it actually look like a professional event.

It's useful for this discussion to understand how the US Open (and a lot of other major tournaments) evolved. They did not evolve from National and World Championships. They evolved up, mostly, from gatherings of money players, such as Johnston City. (google is your friend) Such tournaments couldn't afford and mostly were not interested in having a referee and a scorekeeper at each table. To get such staff, especially for many tables, is a huge amount of effort. I bet that if you were to ask most players, "Would you rather pay $300 out of your prize winnings for referees or rack your own?" the majority would be happy to rack their own. On the other hand, Federer is not faced with such a decision because tennis is awash in money.

I've organized events in which every match (about 180 per event) had a referee and a scorekeeper. In the final 32 matches, the referees were in matching tuxedos. The cost of such an effort is about $10,000 and it's that cheap only if most of the referees are volunteers. One detail: you need at least two referees per table since they need breaks.
 
Yep, you don't see Federer picking up tennis balls at the end of a point. Yet you also don't see the ball boy throwing up the ball for Federer when he serves. I think Roger would prefer to do that himself.
 
spartan said:
First time I watched US Open on TV, I had shock of my life. Saw 2 top players racking each themselves and using their cue to change the scoreboard. I tot I was watching some practice training session or some minor peanuts tourney. It is disgraceful and disrespectful that top pro players racking and scoring in a top WPA tourney. I do not know of any other major tourney where players are debased to doing donkey work. I am sure the organisers can get some volunteers from spectators or squeeze something out if their budget to pay some cheap refs of rackers. Players should be resting and focusing instead by being distracted by having to do racking and scoring. Clearly a lack of professionalism on part of organisers amounting to taking advantage of players
You do not see Roger Federer collecting tennis balls himself there are ball boys and girls to do that. :)
Click to expand...

Gotta agree with the gist of the responses here. Rack your own is preferred. BUT...

When we see major pool tournaments finals on TV again (someday hopefully), then racking and scoring can be done by a knowledgeable, experienced, and capable referee to make the show look good.

Fatz
 
Does the us open 9-ball championship have major network tv coverage and payout $2,500,000.00 to the winner? I believe if you win just two matches you are guaranteed over $50,000, which is probably more the the 9ball champion will win. Don't even TRY to compare Roger Federer to the top pool players. Federer could win more in one tournament than ALL the pro pool players combined make in a year. I may not want just anyone out of the stands to rack the balls in my matches. I would rather rack the balls myself to ensure they are racked properly, as would most entrants.
 
doitforthegame said:
spartan (strange name for someone that is whining about manual labor) you are talking about pool players. What makes them so special? Half of them would steal the gold out of your teeth if you collapsed. And, they would figure out a way to blame you for what they did.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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