This is for those of you who might not venture over to BD. Anyway, it's their cover story and if you're like me and can't wait to get the issue to read the article, then read on:
What Killed Straight Pool?
What Killed Straight Pool?
What Killed Straight Pool?
- Thread starter 9 Ball Girl
- Start date
Thnx Wendy.
Kinda sad. It's like losing your toy in the washing machine.
I guess, we can say when straight-pool died, so did the prestige of pool.
Kinda sad. It's like losing your toy in the washing machine.
I guess, we can say when straight-pool died, so did the prestige of pool.
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Definitely a cultural phenomenon, when snooker, which is just as slow and dull at times, survived in the UK.
B
Bruce S. de Lis
Guest
Think Television, and Televised NINE BALL Tournaments killed Straight Pool.....
9 Ball Girl said:
I was at that US open in 1973, in fact I am just out of the picture that is in the article behind the camera man. It was funny just as Lassiter was about to shoot the game ball for the first game. He stops and looks over at Miz and says, "It looks like I'm going to beat the whippersnapper". After he shoots in the ball Miz jumps up and says, "Well, you going to have to do it again". During the second match at one point Lassiter is shooting a break shot, an easy classic break shot by the side of the rack. After aiming for a ridiculously period of time, he put his cue down on the table and tells the ref he wants to take a break and leaves. He is gone for like 15 minutes. When he returns he picks up his cue and proceeds to miss the break shot. He may have won the tournament if not for this strange behavior. He played some of the time with dark glasses on and at one point he banked a ball cross side for no apparent reason with other balls open. He actually seemed like there was something wrong with him. Earlier in the week he was playing perfect.
Straight pool by the way was killed by the bar table. It wasn't long before the average player and new players knew nothing but the short rack games and 90% of all pool was being played on bar tables and probably still is. No sinister plot or anything to get rid of the game, just a naturel evolution.
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macguy said:
Great story, thanks for posting, 9BG. Yeah, the bar table's got to be a big factor. But another thing in the story that caught my attention was the point made that EVERYBODY knows 9 ball. I don't buy this at all. Everybody, meaning the occasional night-out or barroom shooters, hardly know the rules of the game AT ALL. They know barroom 8 ball, with whatever local goofball rules they play it by where they live.
Just try to pick up the ball after a foul and explain ball-in-hand to them, I dare ya! Of course, the rules for 14.1 are pretty simple, but watching two guys pecking away at rack for 10 mins isn't going to stack up real well against the WWE or a tractor pull or the X Games ... for most folks, I guess.
You're right ...
Your right. They played somewhere where an 'old dad' played them 8
ball in a basement, and the Dad hadn't been out anywhere playing for
25 years, and still goes by the old 8 ball rules....lol
Or the 2 bars in town that try to improve business by having a
Pool tournament and insist on 'bar' rules instead of league rules which
everyone else in town has been playing for years and years. Of course,
it does not bother an 'old timer' like me since we all know how to
miss accidently and leave the cueball where the opponent doesn't
have a shot .... lol Then they bar you from the tournament after
you win it a few times ... In one case, in a race to 1 8 ball tournament,
the tournament director, who also played in the tournaments, gradually
barred everyone that was better than he was!!! Talk about cornering
the market ... And it was a good paying weekly tournament (90-160
usually).... Race to 1, anyone can win ... and they still wonder why
the tournament ended up going south when it used to pull in 28-32
players every week.
Travis Bickle said:
Your right. They played somewhere where an 'old dad' played them 8
ball in a basement, and the Dad hadn't been out anywhere playing for
25 years, and still goes by the old 8 ball rules....lol
Or the 2 bars in town that try to improve business by having a
Pool tournament and insist on 'bar' rules instead of league rules which
everyone else in town has been playing for years and years. Of course,
it does not bother an 'old timer' like me since we all know how to
miss accidently and leave the cueball where the opponent doesn't
have a shot .... lol Then they bar you from the tournament after
you win it a few times ... In one case, in a race to 1 8 ball tournament,
the tournament director, who also played in the tournaments, gradually
barred everyone that was better than he was!!! Talk about cornering
the market ... And it was a good paying weekly tournament (90-160
usually).... Race to 1, anyone can win ... and they still wonder why
the tournament ended up going south when it used to pull in 28-32
players every week.
F
Fred Agnir
Guest
9 Ball Girl said:
I disagree with the article on one minor point. I've believed for a long time that there was a definite single reason rather than several reasons. And it's not really listedm but sort of.
In an ironic twist, I think recreational leagues that concentrated on 8-ball on bar tables did more to drown 14.1 than anything else by giving a mass appeal to otherwise non-pool fans, but a game that wasn't anything like what the champions and other good players were playing.
Nine ball didn't really become popular among recreational players until 1986 with the Color of Money. Yes, people played it, but not recreational players. Now, every player plays 9-ball. But bar pool and bar pool leagues have been about 8-ball on a small table. And that still remains the #1 game played on league nights, and Friday nights.
Fred <~~~ IMNSHO, of course
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I agree completely. Most people at bars play 8 ball. Those that play 9 ball are usually wanna be hustlers. And they have no idea what the actual rules are. For example, I can't even count how many times I've had an opponent call "safety" and then barely tap the cb.Travis Bickle said:
9 Ball Girl said:
Good article, Wendy.
It was amazing how quickly and easily straight pool died in the pool halls in California in the mid 1970's even among regular players. It seems like one day, everyone just stopped playing 14.1 and 9 ball became the game.
Straight pool was a boring game back then unless you were the shooter. The tables were way too easy, over 5" corners and 5 1/2 inch sides and slow cloth. It was nothing to run 50 or 60 balls. I'm not kidding.
Chris
Wow, that was a fantastic article, and extremely accurate.
I went to the 1983 PPPA straight pool event in which Steve Mizerak beat Jim Fusco in the finals and also view it as the last great straight pool tournament from that era. There was an attempt at reviving the event in Philadelphia in 1986 that didn't work out very well.
The ultimate conclusion of the aticle is that straight pool is tough TV, and even though I've had a lifelong love affair with straight pool, I have to agree. That the safety play is near unwatchable is barely arguable, but even the offesne has its limitations for the typical viewer. It really requires a lot of knowledge to appreciate what a top player is doing as he/she runs the table. Will the crowd jump up and down because a player manufactures a break shot by bumping the three ball a couple of inches? Probably not, and to the untrained eye, straight pool seems like an endless parade of fairly easy shots, with the shooting player's plan being an indecipherable mystery.
Constrastingly, nine ball is simple for the casual fan. If you make the three and leave a nice shot on the four, that's a good shot, and even the most unknowledgeable fan knows it. Nine ball forces some tough shots to be pocketed, and some very tough shape has to be played at times, and great shots are relatively easy to identify for even the most casual fan.
This rates as one of the better articles I've ever seen in BD.
I went to the 1983 PPPA straight pool event in which Steve Mizerak beat Jim Fusco in the finals and also view it as the last great straight pool tournament from that era. There was an attempt at reviving the event in Philadelphia in 1986 that didn't work out very well.
The ultimate conclusion of the aticle is that straight pool is tough TV, and even though I've had a lifelong love affair with straight pool, I have to agree. That the safety play is near unwatchable is barely arguable, but even the offesne has its limitations for the typical viewer. It really requires a lot of knowledge to appreciate what a top player is doing as he/she runs the table. Will the crowd jump up and down because a player manufactures a break shot by bumping the three ball a couple of inches? Probably not, and to the untrained eye, straight pool seems like an endless parade of fairly easy shots, with the shooting player's plan being an indecipherable mystery.
Constrastingly, nine ball is simple for the casual fan. If you make the three and leave a nice shot on the four, that's a good shot, and even the most unknowledgeable fan knows it. Nine ball forces some tough shots to be pocketed, and some very tough shape has to be played at times, and great shots are relatively easy to identify for even the most casual fan.
This rates as one of the better articles I've ever seen in BD.
sjm said:
I haven't read the article yet, but your summary of the article says plenty. Also, the same could be said of one-pocket on television.
It would be nice to have straight pool race to 3 (or race to 2) goto 50 points each game and 1 free foul and after 2nd foul, ball in hand for incomming player. Simple rules and short race for the 2006 Derby City Classic. The time should be equal or less than one pocket. I think if straight pool is going to make some kind of comeback then a shorter game is going to have to introduced with a number games on the wire to determine the winner....just a thought.
All those different "reasons" boil down to one thing: MONEY.
There is more money for everyone when playing 9/8 ball. More money for the manufacturers, the bars, the TV networks (and advertisers), the hustlers, the promoters, and the tournament players. Like most things in life, truth, if not happiness, can be found just by following the money. Humans are motivated by either Greed or Fear. Greed killed straight pool. And it's a damn shame!
There is more money for everyone when playing 9/8 ball. More money for the manufacturers, the bars, the TV networks (and advertisers), the hustlers, the promoters, and the tournament players. Like most things in life, truth, if not happiness, can be found just by following the money. Humans are motivated by either Greed or Fear. Greed killed straight pool. And it's a damn shame!
FastMikie said:
Reallocation of economic resources with a motive of producing a greater profit hardly constitutes greed. It is no more than a very natural means of equating supply with demand, and it is the very foundation of a productive economy. Not greed, just adpatation and evolution.
The killer
Societies Impatience
9 Ball Girl said:
Societies Impatience
But what's stopping Straight Pool from making a comeback? Do you really think it's TV exposure? I ask because 9 Ball is what's always on TV (with the exception of the occasional 7 ball and trick shots) and as someone mentioned in an earlier post, people still don't know the rules and some don't even know the game (if I could count the amount of times someone has approached me and asked "what game is that?" while I'm racking or about to shoot a game of 9 ball...)
I understand how it can be boring to the untrained eye and it will definitely take a longer time to finish than a game of 9 or 7 ball, and it's definitely not as entertaining as a trickshot show. Can you imagine the shots we wouldn't get to see if they shortened a race to 150 to squeeze it into an hour show? Oy! But alas, it is only us that can appreciate the look of ease in the way the balls are pocketed...
The Seigal and Jones 8 ball challenge that's going to be televised in the near future is suppose to increase viewer interest, according to what I've heard. The viewer interest, IMO, is the interest of non pool playing folks who somehow understand 8 ball--"she's got high, he's got low, and the 8 ball goes in last. Ooooh wait, they're playing last pocket 8 ball!"--they actually know this! LOL My interest, on the other hand, is to see Seigal and Jones against one another--be it whatever game.
You know the saying in fashion "everything old is new again". Why not straight pool?
Just another tidbit. I was playing some 14.1 a while ago and I was sitting waiting for my friend to come back from a restroom break. The balls were racked and my breakshot was ready. JoShmo walks by, takes my break shot ball and places it in the rack, looks at me and says, "you need 15 balls in there." I couldn't even get pi$$ed. The poor guy thought he was helping me out. Ay yi yi!
I understand how it can be boring to the untrained eye and it will definitely take a longer time to finish than a game of 9 or 7 ball, and it's definitely not as entertaining as a trickshot show. Can you imagine the shots we wouldn't get to see if they shortened a race to 150 to squeeze it into an hour show? Oy! But alas, it is only us that can appreciate the look of ease in the way the balls are pocketed...
The Seigal and Jones 8 ball challenge that's going to be televised in the near future is suppose to increase viewer interest, according to what I've heard. The viewer interest, IMO, is the interest of non pool playing folks who somehow understand 8 ball--"she's got high, he's got low, and the 8 ball goes in last. Ooooh wait, they're playing last pocket 8 ball!"--they actually know this! LOL My interest, on the other hand, is to see Seigal and Jones against one another--be it whatever game.
You know the saying in fashion "everything old is new again". Why not straight pool?
Just another tidbit. I was playing some 14.1 a while ago and I was sitting waiting for my friend to come back from a restroom break. The balls were racked and my breakshot was ready. JoShmo walks by, takes my break shot ball and places it in the rack, looks at me and says, "you need 15 balls in there." I couldn't even get pi$$ed. The poor guy thought he was helping me out. Ay yi yi!
14.1 Comeback
9BG-
It is making a comeback, even here in CA. We have Straight Pool leagues in 4 are rooms here in the East Bay and Peninusula with about 40 regular players, Bob Jewett among them. These guys and gals all love the game and play once a week. My local room made a special early opening on Saturday to accomodate the league, and one of the owners became a regular player and has been in the playoffs a couple of seasons already. I usually can get a cheap money Straight Pool game after the 8-ball league is done, as a lot of people know about 14.1, but don't know anyone who plays it. When they see others playing, they become more interested. I play every chance I can get. If more individual players just start playing the game locally, it will gain popularity. It may never make it back to sports TV, but something like a timed high run challenge might.
9 Ball Girl said:
9BG-
It is making a comeback, even here in CA. We have Straight Pool leagues in 4 are rooms here in the East Bay and Peninusula with about 40 regular players, Bob Jewett among them. These guys and gals all love the game and play once a week. My local room made a special early opening on Saturday to accomodate the league, and one of the owners became a regular player and has been in the playoffs a couple of seasons already. I usually can get a cheap money Straight Pool game after the 8-ball league is done, as a lot of people know about 14.1, but don't know anyone who plays it. When they see others playing, they become more interested. I play every chance I can get. If more individual players just start playing the game locally, it will gain popularity. It may never make it back to sports TV, but something like a timed high run challenge might.
