Mosconi Cup Time Again Dontchaknow
Ain’t it just like pool to come up with an idea that on paper sounds great, but is ruined by a half-assed implementation? The latest example of this: Mosconi Cup Idol. The last member of the American team will be picked by votes from the fans. Sounds like a good idea, right? It seems there are a couple of issues though.
First, the rules say “You may only vote once and for one nominee”, but they didn’t even bother to program any rules to stop someone from voting over and over again. Its not that hard. All you have to do is tag votes by IP address. Think of it like locking your car door. Its not going to stop everyone, but it will deter 99% of the people from trying to figure out a workaround. Instead, they just put a message up there assuming that everyone will just follow the rules. Yeah, right.
Second, there is zero transparency with this process. There’s no live tally and the site doesn’t say anywhere that the vote is being audited so if they wanted, they could just stick in whomever they want as the “winner”. Now I know that they are far to scrupulous to do such a thing, but because there’s no transparency or auditing to speak of, let’s just say its a problem.
They did get one thing right though. Check out the list of players:
Shawn Putnam
Charlie Williams
Charlie Bryant
Stevie Moore
Rodney Morris
Kim Davenport
Dennis Hatch
John Schmidt
See anyone missing? That’s right. No Earl Strickland. Now I know what you Earl lovers are going to say. “But,but,but,but… its Earl! You can’t have a Mosconi Cup without Earl!!” Yes. We. Can. Sure, we’re all going to miss Earl’s “show”. I mean who isn’t entertained by a guy who gives fans the finger, blames everyone but himself for his losses, quits on matches and has the mouth of a Teamster?
Anyhoo, if you want to “vote” here’s the link to do it. http://www.matchroompool.com/page/MosconiCup/NewsDetail/0,,12660~1844901,00.html
Believe me,
Earl, and all who subscribe to his psychotic, manic, sharking methods, only succeed to bring down the mood to it’s lowest possible, and drive up the tension to it’s highest, and it completely ruins it for the players and fans! The sponsors must realize too, most viewers don’t stay tuned to it. BAN HIM! GET HELP EARL! And I use to be a #1 Strickland fan?… Geeeeze
Thanks, from a 40, plus, year player/fan.. who appreciates professionalism, not stupid spoiled childish insanity,
Gene
I don’t know about you…but I think it is sad to pit these great players against each other in a popularity contest. Obviously, giving the public a voting option is a great marketing tool…however, I hvae been getting emails and Facebook spam asking for vote. This is irritating. Players forced to beg and campaign for their position in a very prestigious event.
Someone on AZB suggested that the top 4 vote-getters be placed in competition against one another to determine who should have the final spot. I wholeheartedly agree. I may favor one player over another personally…but I shouldn’t be able to vote him in if the other nominees are playing better. Let them earn it…instead of having to grovel for it!
I don’t have a problem with the format. Its a bit silly, but so is all the hype around the Mosconi Cup. Pool players like to compare this to the Ryder Cup, but we all know that if the US wins, nobody’s gonna care (outside the hardcore fans anyway). If you went and asked 10 APAers to name 2 members of this year’s US cup team, maybe one would be able to pull Johnny and Shane and that would probably just be because they’re the only male players they know.
The cold hard facts are that the men aren’t on TV and as a result no one in the mainstream knows or cares about men’s pool. When they do get on TV for their once per year Champions event, it doesn’t draw dick for ratings. People know the black widow, they tune in for the pretty blond Austrian girl and that’s about it. That’s why the WPBA TV deal is so important. You can’t grow the game without national media coverage and the fact that the men don’t even have a tour tells you just screwed men’s pool really is (in the US anyway, I hear they’re big in Japan).
All the US men are big in Japan. They are not a very tall nation
I know we all love Earl (and some love to hate him) but I saw first hand how toxic he was for the U.S. team last year. Even if he’s winning his matches he’s bringing the team morale down. When the team goes out to eat together, Earl never participates, he doesn’t even go out to support the other players when he’s not in a match like the others do. I think this team has a much better shot this year than last year. I hope a lot of American fans come out to support them.