Slow down Curly. You're losing credibility fast. There are people on here who were there when Earl ran ELEVEN racks! I'm one of them, the tournament director no less. There must have been fifty people watching this match from start to finish and they all signed a letter attesting Earl's feat afterward. Probably the main reason he finally got a settlement from the insurance company. How could they fade all those people coming into court and testifying that they saw the whole thing.
First of all, it was not a con concocted by CJ and Earl! CJ may have been more surprised than anyone. He wanted the Million Dollar Challenge to last for a long time, years even. None of us ever expected anyone to run ten racks, especially on the tough tables at CJ's. Earl did make two nine balls on the break in the first five games. He had the break wired on that particular table. After five games they called me in to rack the balls. He never made another nine ball on the break. He did get it going close to the hole a couple of times though. Earl flat ran out from everywhere! And in the final game he made the most ridiculous one-nine combo you (and me) ever saw! The last five racks were recorded on video and CJ has the tape, which may be coming out soon with the whole story.
As far as the Challenge of Champions is concerned, guess who the TD was on that one? Right again, good old Jay. I will have to say something was rotten in Denmark on that one. I won't deny it. Finally, I grew up in Dayton, close to High St. Billiards in Springfield where Mosconi made his run. I was in that poolroom a couple of times in the 60's and even played on the same table. It was a typical over-sized 4x8 that was popular in Midwestern poolrooms back then. Not the toughest table in the world, but not the easiest either. Those old boxes had straight cut pockets with fairly deep shelves. I'm guessing the pocket openings were just under 5". You had to hit the pockets though or the ball wasn't going in. Shooting down the rail was probably easier than most tourney tables in use today, but out on the table you had to make a clean shot.
In my opinion if you absolutely duplicated the same conditions (cloth, pockets, balls, etc.) and let the best players today start with BIH, no one would run over 500 balls for a long, long time. The balls tended to stay clustered and you had to break them out a few at a time. A hundred ball run was a tremendous feat back then. Only the very best 14.1 players of that era could make runs like that consistently. The Mosconi's, Crane's, Caras' and Cranfield's. In the major 14.1 championships of that era, there would only be a few hundred ball runs. And they were playing a Round Robin format, with many matches spread over a period of weeks.
Like someone else said, Willie used to run 100 balls every day. He was truly one of a kind, a Straight Pool freak. I've seen two players in my lifetime who approached his level of ability at 14.1. Mizerak and Sigel! That's it. And they couldn't control the cue ball quite as well as Willie, or shoot as straight either. He was pissed if he missed position by half and inch! And if he missed one ball a day, it was a bad day. Lassiter was like that playing 9-Ball. There's a good reason why Mosconi, Lassiter and Strickland are legendary players. They all did things no one else could do, under match conditions no less.
. Excuse me while I barf! Unfortunately I got stiffed too. But through my efforts we (the players and me) have been paid about 85% of the money due us. Get your facts straight before you go making accusations. 