Pool Cue News and Review

Oh Earl, I feel your pain.  In a recent interview with the Wilmington Star, Earl Strickland does what he does best: cry, cry, cry.  It seems that nobody’s inviting old Earl to their events anymore, so he’s moaning about being blackballed from the men’s circuit.  This is the same guy who blamed his sponsor Cuetec Cues for his sub-par performance (even though the same company sponsors the most dominant woman to ever play pro pool) and pretty much refuses to take responsibility for anything.

Call me unreasonable, but if I’m putting up dough for an event, the last person I want there is Earl.  Yes, I know he’s still one of the top pool players, but his antics are old and tired.  Temper tantrums went out in the 80’s with Johnny Mac and they weren’t even that entertaining back then.  Sure, the train wreck is impossible to look away from, but does an event host or sponsor really want or need the “theatrics” that come with the so-called “pearl”?

The best part of the article though?  Its gotta be when Strickland lets his humility shine through with the following quote: “No living, breathing, soul on earth, no human being can play me on a four-inch pocket. … There’s only 10 people in the world that can really play this game. The rest are hitting the rails.”

And he wonders why no one will invite him up to their treehouse…

In the past few years, pool players have been teased and burned by the IPT, the mythical million dollar event from that Super Billiards Expo guy that will likely never happen and of course the April Fool’s Joke on the industry otherwise known as the NACPBA. The latest news comes from Diamond Billiards founder and owner of the BCA Players League Mark Griffin, who is going to throw $200,000 in prize money at some events in 2009.

Its really tough to get excited about something like this since we’ve all been burned so many times, but Mark does have the lettuce to do this and he has a real passion for the game, so I sincerely doubt he will do a headfake on this promise.  While this is good news, there is little doubt that his involvement won’t carry some very heavy strings.

With the new Mark Griffin pro league, prepare to be doused with nonstop Shane Van Boening.  Griffin has not exactly made it a secret that he sees Van Boening as the future of pool, so I fully expect to have him turn Van Boening into his own personal Mike Tyson, keeping him exclusively for his league, setting him up to play Boxcar Willie and Tomato Can Harry, you get the idea.

Unfortunately, it seems impossible for this industry to have a tour or an association without the “I’m in it for me” factor.  Griffin makes no bones about the fact that he’s all about making it work for him.  Said Griffin in his press release, “I will welcome player input, but no entity will tell me what I have to do. We are spending considerable time, and money, on pro player behalf. To protect our investment, and the pros, we will probably have to initiate a new association where player’s ideas and concerns can be addressed.”  Its funny, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard any other sports association build a tour around the Cartmenesque “what eva, what eva, I do what I want” theory of business.  Well, maybe they do, but they aren’t so in your face about it.

At any rate, it looks like we’ve got a new league coming for 2009.  Whether it helps or hurts the industry, that remains to be seen.

Well, if you want to see the ice queen stumble through an interview on Fox Business, you can check it out here.  Just click on The Color of Money video.  She goes through the process of saying she’s making six figures on pool (bullshit) and that pool is getting huge due to poker (more bullshit).

She even goes into her one hustling story where she bilks some old dude out of his cash.  She felt really bad about it.  I so don’t get the appeal of this chick.  She’s not hot, she’s not a good pool player and she’s a clumsy, stiff interview.  Hell, does she even play on the tour anymore? Having met her on a couple of occasions, I can also attest to the fact that she’s not exactly “fan friendly” either.  Kudos to her for pimping her sponsors though.  At least she’s taking care of business.

Play the Barretta drinking game while you watch the interview and take a shot every time she says “umm”.  There’s no faster way to get shitfaced in under five minutes.

So I’m over on Inside Pool watching my favorite foxy interviewer Samm Diep talking to Allison Fisher about advancing in the Predator 10 Ball Championships and what did I see on her shirt but some sort of sponsor badge. That’s right… my favorite little Cherry Bomb apparently has hooked up with the cats over at Executive Billiards who make the Delta-13 rack.

Since I’m all about checking out Samm’s rack, I headed over to the Executive Billiards site to see who the fine folks are that are droppin’ some lechuga in the lap of one of my favorite billiards hotties. Pretty interesting, since it looks like pool isn’t their main bag, but precision machining is. I’ll have to find someone who has one of these bad boys because I’m really curious to see just how good a $120 rack is.

Well, it should come as no surprise that the ACS has issued their own “press release” about the BCA/UPA situation.  Sure, it doesn’t really have anything to do with them, but considering that John Lewis and the BCA don’t see eye to eye… scratch that.  Considering that John Lewis still holds an 800lb gorilla sized grudge against the BCA over the sale of the amateur leagues, any time he can speak out against the BCA, he’s going to.  For the record, this is from one of the people who thinks that pool should be an Olympic sport, so take it for what its worth.  In all fairness to the ACS, I have posted the entire letter.

For those who have asked, no, I am not the BCA’s bitch.  The BCA does plenty wrong, believe me.  I just think this feud is beyond stupid and the UPA (and now the ACS) are making themselves look extremely childish.  As for me, I’ll just grab some popcorn and happily watch the fight.

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Bravo to the UPA for standing up to the recent “BCA Resumes Control of Men’s Rankings, Communications” release!

The UPA - United States Professional Poolplayers Association, is an affiliate to the ACS - American CueSports Alliance. The ACS – a member-governed association – fully supports a pro men’s player union in the United States and their right to administer and govern their own affairs.

When issues arise that negatively affect the players, too often there’s a lack of activism. Regardless of -
- who is promoting a pro men’s event
- who claims to be a governing body
- who advertises themselves as the next savior of pool, it is paramount that the professional pool players in the United States remain focused on their own union, whose sole purpose is to look after their interests.

In recent years, that has been the UPA. Some may criticize the organization for doing too little, but such critics should never lose sight of one vision - the UPA is “the men pro player’s thing” to which they can look to when outside forces make decisions that affect their future without including their “union” in the decision-making.

The Billiard Congress of America trade association should only be supported for what it is – a trade association that is necessary to the industry.

However, since 2004 when the BCA divested itself of its player programs, it has unfortunately insisted on continuing to adopt a governing body stance, with the also unfortunate backing of the world-governing body for the sport of pool, the WPA - World-Pool-Billiard Association.

The WPA is a credible world sports body, but even a credible body can make poor decisions. The WPA interference in United States pool growth by their continuing to recognize a trade association whose entire board of directors is trade people, is a black mark on the world-governing body. Unlike all the other confederation members of the WPA, the BCA is NOT a sports organization! It has no sports structure. If it walks like a trade association and quacks like a trade association…IT’S A TRADE ASSOCIATION! No amount of coaching from the WPA to be otherwise is going to change the BCA’s true profile.

The ‘Committee’ formed by the BCA of various Player Member organizations (which included the UPA) to somehow satisfy the WPA and to somehow address their complete lack of player membership, has shown itself to be the ‘window dressing’ of which it was suspected. In the United States, the women pros have a strong player’s union, and the WPBA serves that function very capably. But the men pro player’s in the United States should never lose sight of their best interest in supporting their own player’s union, and the UPA currently serves that purpose!

When the BCA announced a new ranking system that will affect the men pro players in the United States without consultation or input from representative players from their player’s union, the trade association showed its true colors.

Players in all member-governed associations should not support such actions. Let your voices be heard! Support the UPA on this issue and discourage the BCA trade association from any involvement in governing the sport.

Especially with the current overall weakness in the billiard industry, we need the BCA to fully focus on trade issues. The BCA should be working with and fully supporting Player Member organizations such as the UPA, instead of needlessly meddling with player issues that it is simply not organized or suited to responsibly handle.

John Lewis
Current ACS Executive Director
Lewis is the longest-tenured BCA employee (1991-2004) in the association’s history and a former board member of the WPA (1991-2007).

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