Ed Mercier wrote...
> So you're saying you would be just as likely to make this remark about a male player
> (maybe Buddy Hall?) as a female player (Allison)? If no, it's a sexist remark. If
> yes, you're a dope. Your choice I guess.

The conversation was about Earl vs. Allison. If those two were to match up, which one would be more likely to make an ass of themselves, use sharking tactics, argue calls, etc.?

Now wouldn't that leave the other player in the position of possibly being upset by such antics?

Wouldn't that be a horrible thing for CueTec?

If I'd said Allison might make Earl cry that would make no sense, not because Earl is a man, but because Allison would never behave that badly. Earl does behave that badly, so anyone he plays has to be extra careful to not let him get under their skin.

You can read sexist into my statement if you want, but I think I deserve more consideration than this knee-jerk reaction. It seems to me that your implication that only a "dope" would make this remark about Earl vs. another male player could also be inferred as a sexist stand.

I won't make that inference about you because I've read enough from you to feel that, while you are at times wrong, you at least seem to feel that you have a legitimate reason for your opinions. I doubt you could justify these kinds of sexist feelings to yourself, therefore I doubt that you're a sexist. It would be nice if you could give me the same consideration.

> > >NO......the best match would be Strickland and Fisher!
> >
> > Sponsored by CueTec, of course!

I guess I'm probably in the minority here, but I hate this idea, and I can't imagine why either player would want to do it.

I think it's agreed that Allison would need some type of spot, whether it was a designated breaker or whatever. Any match that included that type of adjustment is, IMO, making a pretty clear statement that Allison can't keep up with Earl playing straight up. For most people this would only be stating the obvious and the match would end up being more of a publicity stunt than an actual match.

But say Allison wins. Nothing would be proved as "everyone" would know that the win wouldn't have been possible without the adjustment. Earl would be taking a very public loss that he didn't deserve, but a very public loss nonetheless. Any comments Earl would inevitably make about losing because of the adjustment would only create more fuel for the anti-Earl people.

Now say Earl wins. So what? He's got to be expected to win, even with a break adjustment, so a win gets him nothing except the opportunity to be seen beating a very popular "girl." Allison gets nothing from a Strickland win for the same reason she gets nothing if she wins.

Also, does Cuetec really want their two name players pitted against each other? Maybe they do, but I'd be awful leery about putting Earl in the spotlight, playing against Allison, where just about every word out of Earl's mouth could alienate more and more fans. Heck, can you imagine the outrage if he made Allison cry with his antics?

If Allison could match Earl straight-up, and if Earl wasn't so Earl, I'd like this idea. But a straight-up match would be a joke, and Earl is extremely Earl, so I'd be very surprised to see this match happen.

For nearly a week now I've been nearly completely incapacitated by Plantar Fasciitis. The common name for this is "Heel Spurs," but in reality the formation of heel spurs can be a result of plantar fasciitis.

From About.com:
"The condition is diagnosed with the classic symptoms of pain well localized
over an area of the bottom of the foot near the heel. Often the pain is most
severe when you first stand on the foot in the morning. The condition is
sometimes, but not always, associated with a sudden gain of weight.

In many cases the pain will gradually subside throughout the day as normal
activities stretch the plantar fascia, the ligament that, when there is
inflammation present, causes the condition of plantar fasciitis."

In my case, the pain has remained pretty much constant each day, and my normal activities have been reduced to mincing around on the balls of my feet to keep pressure off my heels. This also helps to stretch the ligament and that eases the pain somewhat. An added bonus is that I constantly look like I've just shit my pants.

It took me several days to figure out what I'd done to piss my heels off so much. I just got a new table, so I'm playing a lot, but no more than I've played almost every day for the past 9 months. Making room for the new table also involved some demolition work, so I suspected for a short time that carrying around rocks and a sledge hammer may have caused the inflammation, but the demolition work was done weeks ago, and I had no symptoms until early this week. I have not experienced any recent weight gains so that wasn't the problem either.

Last night I got some new inserts for my shoes, and since they cushion my heels very well I went down to shoot some pool. That's where I figured out what was causing my problem.

My new table is larger than my old one, and features much tighter pockets. I found that to maintain the same accuracy I was forced to change my head's position relative to my cue. I needed to have my head lower and farther back.

The problem was in the way I was making this adjustment. Instead of stepping into the shot from farther back to begin with, I was assuming my normal stance, then rocking backwards until my head was in the new, more accurate, position. Basically I was shifting my weight from being evenly distributed across my feet to being almost all on my heels.

I normally play pool 6-8 hours every day, and having that weight on my heels for that much time is, I'm convinced, what caused my condition.

I've got a few more days of taking it easy to look forward to, but the pain is lessening, and I'm confident that I'll be back to normal within a week. You can bet I'll be more careful about settling into my stance from now on. I'm too young to have what's commonly a condition for middle-aged men.

I suppose the point to this is that balance when shooting is very important, not only to provide a stable base from which to swing the cue, but also to prevent painful conditions such as plantar faciitis.

Left untreated, plantar fasciitis can lead to the formation of bone spurs, and the treatment for those is normally surgery to remove the spurs. Doesn't sound like fun to me.

I met up with Fred Agnir Monday night at The Bank Shot in Louisville. I'd really been looking forward to playing against Fred since I've been assuming that he and I played about the same speed.

I was right. We ended up playing two sets of 9 ball and one set of 8 ball. In the first (9 ball) set, Fred had me down 7-2 racing to 9 but I finally found my focus and squeaked out a 9-8 victory.

The next set was race to 9 in 8 ball, and again we went hill-hill and I somehow managed to put the final 8 ball into a pocket 2.26" wide to take that set as well.

The last set was a race to 7 in 9 ball. Fred pulled ahead 4-2, then I pulled ahead 5-4, and inevitably we ended up tied on the hill at 6-6. I won that game on an el-cheapo 1-9 combination to take the final set.

Any of the sets could have easily gone the other way. My breaks were working a little better than Fred's. His safeties were a lot better than mine. Fred's shotmaking was very good, my speed control was a little better than his. If a few rolls had gone the other way Fred could have taken all three sets.

Fred may correct me on this, but I think we were both playing at about our average speed. You know how sometimes you just play good enough to win? Well I think Fred and I were both doing just that. When I stepped it up a notch Fred followed suit easily, and vice-versa. It would be interesting to match up against Fred for some serious play, but I think we'd still end up pretty even.

I really enjoyed playing against Fred, though I was a little concerned he'd pop a vein or something because of this magic corner pocket that seemed to deflect all his shots while letting mine go right in no matter how much I cheated the pocket.

One final note: Don't scratch on the break playing Fred in 8 ball. He will apparently run out on you every time.

Greg Miller wrote...
> How about these rules:
> 1. Alternating breaks.
> 2. A legal break would require a specified number of balls
> to hit the head rail rather than the now 4 balls hitting any
> rail(s).
> 3. Break from a very narrow box, say 4" wide, centered on
> the long string from the head string to the head rail.

Of these, I like number 3 the best, but my all-time favorite solution would be the one I suggested a while ago in another thread about the Sardo:

Lag for first break, trailer breaks all subsequent games. If another tie develops, the person that just got tied (not the person who caught up) breaks the next game. Then back to trailer breaks, and so on.

This still allows for multiple-rack runs if someone is making a comeback, and if both players are making a ball consistently it should make for some pretty close matches.

Plus I think this option has the advantage, like alternating breaks would, of not changing the rules of the game or the placement of the rack or the cueball at all.

Frank Brent wrote...
> Barenada disposed of Frank B 7-4 in 9-ball and 7-2 in 8-ball to claim
> KOH's in the Louisville, KY area. Despite an off night Barenada easily
> handled his opponent at the Bank Shot on a Diamond pro-cut 9' table. In
> a post match interview Barenada expressed hope that other RSB/ASP
> players would come forth and challenge him in future Louisville area
> KOH matches.

We also snuck in a game of banks which was a joke, taking nearly a half hour to complete. I officially won it 5-4, but we had both lost count at one point so the game may have really gone to Frank 5-4.

Once I finally found some semblance of a stroke, and Frank managed to bring his tall frame into alignment, we had a pretty decent set of 9 ball where I squeaked out a 7-6 win. I think at that point we both decided to quit while were somewhat less disgusted with ourselves than we'd been the rest of the night.

One of the interesting things (to me anyway) was that after dropping a 3-rail and a 4-rail bank during the first set, I realized I had a chance at the cycle. Alas, it was not meant to be as I made several 1-rail banks but scratched on my only 2-rail attempt. I think the shot went in, though.

A true pool nut, Frank dug into his case and whipped out a bunch of pictures of cues and tables. The pictures of his very old Brunswick table showed it to be absolutely beautiful.

I'd been hoping to get in some one-pocket, and we had earlier discussed making one-pocket the last set of the night, but we were both shooting so poorly that the regular one-pocket shooters that hang out in there would probably have heckled us mercilessly.

SSinn78667 wondered...
> I am curious, after reading the reaction to the Post
> on Allison's win in Georgia at the Viking tour event
> I wonder how many members of RSB actually think they
> can beat Allison Fisher even 9 ball.

Well SSinn78667, I predict that you'll get replies that are either too humble or too ambitious. I'll start with my honest opinion that Allison would kill me. Ditto for Jeanette, Karen, Ewa, and Vivian.

Gerda and Loree Jon wouldn't even have to shoot - their beauty alone would destroy any chance I'd have.

On a really good day I think I could take Jennifer.

Ken Bour wrote...
> I thought about trying some other thing to put there
> that wasn't round and slippery, but nothing quickly
> came to mind.

Now I think this is a pretty strange exercise, but here goes anyway:

TOP 10 THINGS TO PUT IN YOUR ARMPIT TO HELP YOUR STROKE

10. Baby chicken
9. Bar of soap
8. Snowball
7. 2 lb. barbell
6. Small child's head
5. Cat
4. Raw egg
3. Scrambled egg
2. Shoe
1. Tennis ball

Ken Bour wrote... (snip)
> My problem is having the discipline to work on the
> above. It seems that I would rather just toss 5 or
> 6 balls on the table and try to run them in sequence.
> When I miss, I curse, mutter, and stammer. When I make
> them, I toss another 5-6 out there... (snip)

I've always been pretty bored with drills as well, but I also realize that just throwing the balls out and shooting them in is not the best practice. I've started to combine the two methods like this:

1. Throw balls 1-9 and the CB onto the table so that each ball has at least one pocket - no tight clusters.

2. Use ten hole-reinforcement stickers to mark the balls' positions.

3. Run the balls without missing, getting way out of shape, or hitting any other balls unnecessarily. Don't cheat, even if you're kicking at the one. If you screw up, put the balls back and start the run again, making changes to your plan as you see fit.

4. Once you've successfully ran out, throw the balls back onto the table. Put the one on the closest spot, the two on the closest empty spot, and so on. The CB gets the last unoccupied spot.

5. Repeat steps three and four until you're learned about all you're going to learn from those spot positions. About 10 times seems to be average for me. Then take off the spots and go back to step one.

I've found this to be really good practice. Many times I've found myself kicking at the one because it's the only way to get on the two. It's really reminded me of the importance of planning ahead. And if (when) I do make a mistake I can just respot the balls and start over.

Just thought I'd throw in my report of the goings-on so far. When I left this evening the 9-ball was down to 48, with the 8 PM matches just beginning. I noticed quite a few more pros there for the 9-ball than I'd seen for the other two events.

So far, my pick to win the 9-ball is Buddy Hall. He shot .886 in beating Howard Vickery, and regrouped after a couple of mistakes to take care of Dennis Hatch. Last year's winner, Troy Frank, won a long, tough match against an older guy (Hal White I think), and I know he must have been pretty mentally exhausted by that match - I know everyone watching the match was.

Nick Varner is, well, Nick Varner. I don't think he's really been tested yet in the 9-ball. Ginky and Banks winner Shannon Daulton were just starting a match on the TV table when I left. Daulton seemed pretty unbeatable in his earlier matches.

While I was watching the Frank/White match I sat behind Danny DiLiberto, and listening to him chatter away with his old crony buddies was pretty interesting. Every few minutes Grady Matthews would stop by and tell some story or another. I'd really like to see Grady do an autobiography some day as I know it would be hilarious.

The big action upstairs is just ridiculous. They're playing 10- ahead for $90,000. Apparently they've agreed that if they don't finish by the time the tournament ends, they're going to buy the table from Diamond, rent the action room themselves, and finish no matter what. I don't know the names of the two players, but the older guy was 3 ahead when I left.

Some tidbits:

Shannon Daulton has the worst taste in clothes on the planet.

Bill Stroud is a heckuva nice guy.

If you're Buddy Hall, and you've got Dennis Hatch 6-3 in a race to 7, Dennis will half-ass his way through the rest of the match.

If you've never seen Dennis Hatch or Roger Griffis in person before, you might get them confused (I did).

Howard Vickery uses an open bridge a lot - even on his breaks.

Nick Varner is using a soft break in 9-ball, and making the corner ball almost every time. Isn't this what Corey Deuel did that pissed Earl off in Milwaukee?

Ginky and I are exactly that same height.