During this era Earl Strickland was dominant, intimidating and confident. Nobody was even close! Truly the greatest 9-ball player of all time. Thank you for the great memories Earl.
I'm very glad you're enjoying them, CG. Thx for posting. That's the very definition of "classics" in any worthwhile pursuit or performance; they are -- as you say -- timeless, for many generations of fans. Applies to acting, world-class athletes, music, painters, sculptors, literature, science and medical breakthroughs, etc. ~ Ray C.
Agree completely, and when the game is 9- or 10-ball, the same predictive, instructive, (and tele-strating) skillset is/was true of Sigel, Buddy Hall, Mizerak, Rempe and Varner. When it's Straight Pool, commentary by Sigel or Varner is always spot-on. Not all Hall of Famers excel at commentary, but the above five certainly do/did.
Thanks Ray for posting the Ellin/Sigel match! It's really, really a tragedy, and a doggone shame, Tony Ellin's maximum potential in the Sport was cut way too short, and thus never fully realized. The MAN could really Dab it!
Agree. Nice fellow too. He was definitely a rising star who could play with the best of them when he was on. Ultra-powerful breaker and intelligent rack-running patterns.
+ray carlton Yes he was! It seemed like he was always smiling too. :-) Tony had a fine Buddy Hall like touch, and finesse. For a man his size he also excelled on tough stretch shots. I hope future players will appreciate and acknowledge the talent of The Hurricane!
When i was a teenager i was hanging around JOB in Nashville and the day before the big tourney they have every year they had this 10 ball ring game. Smokey Joe and Scotty Townsend and couple other guys i cant remember but i saw Johnny and Tony came in and Tony asked if he could get in. Lol im not sure after his first shot if anybody else ever got another shot. It was such a long time ago but his break was so hard and he just ran rack after rack. Within 2 hours he made them all quit. I remember Smokey Joe complaining to Scotty why did you let him play? He just never missed. He was such a nice guy. I was watching college football and he sat down beside me and and asked who is winning and he had this little drop of sweat on his forehead and i said TN is....say you ever miss? He said while taking a drink of coke and ice i wont next time. They just dropped bill after bill after every game. I never saw him again after that day. Ive never seen anyone dominate pool like that before and not since. He literally would string 8 to 10 racks in a row every time he would get a shot.
Great upload, I may have been to some earlier matches of this event. Great commentating by Alan Hopkins. He was spot on in his analysis of each of the shots yet he didn't feel the need to say "see, I told you he was going to do that" I also like the fact that these announcers didn't need to CONSTANTLY tell us what the players are saying. Great editing as well
Alan is a genuinely nice person. My son will always remember him at an exhibition bringing him up to shoot a shot at the Billiard Den in Westville NJ back in the mid 80s. He had a place in Egg Harbor NJ, I enjoyed the tournaments he held there.
*Couldn't agree more* about Allen (actual spelling) and his wonderfully decent, warm, open and caring friendliness. I've known him for more than 40 years and have never met a more admirable person in or out the billiards industry.
Great video Ray!! Mid 80's to mid 90's, Earl could only lose to Earl. If he had Buddy's temperament, he'd been unstoppable. Both of these guys are my friends. RIP Tony. You were a great player and person. Gone too soon.
+Earth Asylum Thanks for the appreciation, EA. And of course "best" is subjective -- from the many positive responses I've gotten for the various 80s + 90s classics in my collection they seem to appeal for many repeated common reasons plus personal nostalgic reactions as well as plenty of "these were before I was born and I love seeing these famous top players in action." We all resonate with great pool from any era and many of the strategies and skills we view, do nicely accumulate in our subconscious and benefit our own performances in a wide variety of ways (as with any admired role models from any sport or entertainment activity we engage in or want to learn more about).
Earl went into god mode towards the end of the match . His shot making is prob the best ive ever seen under pressure you will never see earl miss a money ball
A real Peach of a Guy! He was cordial, always smiling, and seemed like the kind of person that would give you the shirt off his back. I'm sure Tony is stringing racks on those tight, tough tables in Heaven. Keep on dabbin' it Hurricane!
The great performers in any field -- painting, music, sports -- have such mastery and economy they generally do, as you say, make it all look so deceptively and enviably easy. Someone commented after one of Mosconi's 150-and-out runs: "This guy makes it look so easy you either want to quit pool or rush to a poolroom and try to get better."
Thank you much for the upload. A treat to see Earl get his 3rd US open. Is there a video of Earl running his 10 racks in a row to win a million? I don't think it's out there. I tried forever to find it.🤔
There is no player that is more enjoyable to watch when he is shooting well, in my opinion, than Earl Strickland. Such a long supremely accurate stroke. Allen Hopkins has the opposite kind of stroke and is still an incredible player. But not as much fun to watch.
Both Grady Mathews and Hopkins used that same ultra-abbreviated stroke -- cue tip about 2 inches from the cue ball, sight the shot line, then near-zero-length rehearsal backswings to relax the arm, then punch thru the CB. Daryl Appleton does something similar, a few inches longer either way and with deadly accuracy. Grady once told me that -- with his iffy eyesight when fatigued -- the ultra-abbreviation best insured his delivery stroke impacting the CB precisely where he intended.
@@raycarltonbilliards5798 yes, it took me years to realize that there are players out there who are world beaters with almost no stroke. It still kind of blows my mind.
Here's an interesting visual analogy: Strickland's long backstroke and delivery stroke can be likened to the smooth golfer/bowler/baseball pitcher windup-delivery/follow through moves -- whereas the Hopkins/Mathews exclusively forward thrust is mechanically akin to almost all punches thrown by boxers i.e. entirely forward with no backward windup. Also, many world beaters with no stroke arrived at abbreviation because they were -- after years of trying -- unable to rid their arm of the irresolvable natural hitches peculiar to their delivery arm, wrist and grip whenever they used long back and forth stroking. Shorter movements lessened the amount of hitches *for them* -- thus more accuracy in pocketing and positioning of the CB. In effect, it's an effective workaround solution to their faulty biomechanics (or eyesight) found thru trial and error.
@@raycarltonbilliards5798 Agree and I arrived at the same conclusion. Less things to go wrong with less movement/motion. But I have to wonder if any of them spent a decent amount of time working on their long stroke or if they never played with a long stroke and actually started playing with no stroke from the beginning. The skill it takes to hit the cue ball with perfect pace for shape must be exponentially more difficult with no stroke. My point being if they can play at that level with no stroke how good might they have been if they spent the time to master a long stroke.
Hopkins and Grady were both world-class one-pocket money players -- lot of bunting and hiding going on till you get an opportunity to run out the rack. A short stroke can be quite as effective there as a longer 9-ball multi-rail position play stroke. Same applies to their many Straight Pool tournament high runs and wins with necessarily minimal CB travelling. Can't really suggest that any pro should have spent more time mastering any given element of pool when know them well personally, and we know about all their waking hours experimenting with all aspects of the game, exploiting their strengths, augmenting their weaknesses and finding workarounds for any genetic biomechanical shortcomings. Plenty of top players with deadly accuracy in spite of unorthodox strokes and vision center alignments (and unique self-discovered aiming systems).
Agreed Blue Max (excellent film, btw). For better or worse, today's gabardine-like worsted cloths have made the game incrementally easier. Conversely, today's tighter pockets (in pro tournament play) have arguably cancelled out that relative easing.
These games would be good viewing w/o the commentators, but they really do add to it in a lot of ways. I'm an "amateur" I guess, but still could step up and maybe take a couple racks out of 10 with these pros. I just bought my first stick.. getting all cocky lol
Malcolm: Few people know that the word "amateur" evolved in the 18th century from the French word "amour" (love) and came to mean someone who loves doing or learning a particular worthwhile thing -- not in hopes of earning money at it, but out of sheer enjoyment of, and passion for it. Applies to amateur painters, singers or any positive and worthwhile, psychically-rewarding pursuit (like our beloved sport).
@@raycarltonbilliards5798 Thank you for whetting the precision of the term's denotation, Ray. I'd not even much thought about my love of the game, just saying, if i tried to turn pro, I'd sure have to spend a lot more time and money, but I can already pretty much see shots and make decisions & shots-for-shape ~and I didn't get my skills from watching Reyes, though he IS tops really...(was, guess he retired) I got them watching Neuman and Gleason, then Mn Fats, Pucket, The Mizz, Mosconi, Even my dad and uncle as they had a great friend who owned a hall, shot lots in most cities I've lived in... All those kicks and weird cuts and combinations and combined shots, I make them about 80%.. like to bring that # up, sure. Now with my new light stick that's all mine, I'm about to go out and sit people down for fun.
Plenty of pro pool players (not all) who came up during most eras of the 20th century would readily admit that they weren't especially healthy people -- staying in pool halls most of their days and nights smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, and eating questionable bar food. Also -- as with all sports -- substance abuse was not unheard of. There was an early-aging syndrome amongst quite a few of the advanced-skill-level players. Today, many of the younger champions worldwide do now athletically keep themselves fit and healthy . . . and by viewing the appearance of older aging professionals, have learned the cost of not doing so. A lot of the new pros run, workout, play other sports moderately -- beyond pool -- and in general, religiously avoid those anti-health negatives cited above.
Over the past six decades we've heard similar "coulda-been" well-justified appraisals about hundreds of unearthly-talented guys and gals who fell victim to the grape (or other substances). Sadly, it's endemic within any cohort of emerging pro-level sports stars.
"on Reyes and siegel could beat him on a bar table." James: No, I didn't know Scotty personally, but knew of his much-admired, top-level abilities. As to the Reyes/Sigel reference, I'm certain you meant to type: *only* Reyes and Sigel could beat him on a bar table. (We all make typos many times during each week.)
James: This just came out about Scotty Townsend. I remembered the thread on mu billiards channel where you expressed your interest and admiration of Scotty, so I'm certain you'll enjoy listening to this: ruclips.net/video/7iilfssHaXE/видео.html
During this era Earl Strickland was dominant, intimidating and confident. Nobody was even close! Truly the greatest 9-ball player of all time. Thank you for the great memories Earl.
I love these Golden Oldies...absolutely timeless!
I'm very glad you're enjoying them, CG. Thx for posting. That's the very definition of "classics" in any worthwhile pursuit or performance; they are -- as you say -- timeless, for many generations of fans. Applies to acting, world-class athletes, music, painters, sculptors, literature, science and medical breakthroughs, etc. ~ Ray C.
Alan Hopkins is such a great commentator. 95 percent of the time he knows exactly what the shooter is going to do after each shot. What a treat.
Agree completely, and when the game is 9- or 10-ball, the same predictive, instructive, (and tele-strating) skillset is/was true of Sigel, Buddy Hall, Mizerak, Rempe and Varner. When it's Straight Pool, commentary by Sigel or Varner is always spot-on. Not all Hall of Famers excel at commentary, but the above five certainly do/did.
I just love Allen's commentary. Thanks for the upload!
*Glad you enjoyed it, Ryan.
Thanks Ray for posting the Ellin/Sigel match! It's really, really a tragedy, and a doggone shame, Tony Ellin's maximum potential in the Sport was cut way too short, and thus never fully realized. The MAN could really Dab it!
Agree. Nice fellow too. He was definitely a rising star who could play with the best of them when he was on. Ultra-powerful breaker and intelligent rack-running patterns.
+ray carlton Yes he was! It seemed like he was always smiling too. :-) Tony had a fine Buddy Hall like touch, and finesse. For a man his size he also excelled on tough stretch shots. I hope future players will appreciate and acknowledge the talent of The Hurricane!
When i was a teenager i was hanging around JOB in Nashville and the day before the big tourney they have every year they had this 10 ball ring game. Smokey Joe and Scotty Townsend and couple other guys i cant remember but i saw Johnny and Tony came in and Tony asked if he could get in. Lol im not sure after his first shot if anybody else ever got another shot. It was such a long time ago but his break was so hard and he just ran rack after rack. Within 2 hours he made them all quit. I remember Smokey Joe complaining to Scotty why did you let him play? He just never missed. He was such a nice guy. I was watching college football and he sat down beside me and and asked who is winning and he had this little drop of sweat on his forehead and i said TN is....say you ever miss? He said while taking a drink of coke and ice i wont next time. They just dropped bill after bill after every game. I never saw him again after that day. Ive never seen anyone dominate pool like that before and not since. He literally would string 8 to 10 racks in a row every time he would get a shot.
Great upload, I may have been to some earlier matches of this event. Great commentating by Alan Hopkins. He was spot on in his analysis of each of the shots yet he didn't feel the need to say "see, I told you he was going to do that" I also like the fact that these announcers didn't need to CONSTANTLY tell us what the players are saying.
Great editing as well
Thanks once again for the kind words, Bic. Glad you're enjoying them. Btw, I'm a great fan of your smooth-writing ball point pens. *😂😂*
Alan is a genuinely nice person. My son will always remember him at an exhibition bringing him up to shoot a shot at the Billiard Den in Westville NJ back in the mid 80s. He had a place in Egg Harbor NJ, I enjoyed the tournaments he held there.
*Couldn't agree more* about Allen (actual spelling) and his wonderfully decent, warm, open and caring friendliness. I've known him for more than 40 years and have never met a more admirable person in or out the billiards industry.
@@raycarltonbilliards5798 He seems to be quite similar to Nick Varner = very approachable, humble, accommodating and psychologically stable!. ;-))
thanks for all the great videos,the best of the best !
I appreciate your kind words and feedback. Thanks, Clinton.
Congratulations Earl Strickland great player, greetings from Ecuador
Great video Ray!! Mid 80's to mid 90's, Earl could only lose to Earl. If he had Buddy's temperament, he'd been unstoppable. Both of these guys are my friends. RIP Tony. You were a great player and person. Gone too soon.
And Efren.😮😅
i like how old skool earl used to give a little wave to say thanks for the applause after rack.
Excellent video, some great matches!
Many thanks, Fred for the comment, and I know you'll equally enjoy many of these other ones of mine that feature plenty of old days great pool:
*
This is one of the best uploads you've done, Ray. Thank you!
+Earth Asylum Thanks for the appreciation, EA. And of course "best" is subjective -- from the many positive responses I've gotten for the various 80s + 90s classics in my collection they seem to appeal for many repeated common reasons plus personal nostalgic reactions as well as plenty of "these were before I was born and I love seeing these famous top players in action." We all resonate with great pool from any era and many of the strategies and skills we view, do nicely accumulate in our subconscious and benefit our own performances in a wide variety of ways (as with any admired role models from any sport or entertainment activity we engage in or want to learn more about).
EARL AS A PLAYER, NOT BE NEVER AGAIN !!! ALWAYS BE THE BEST OF ALL!
Sergio 10 i agree .. love or hate him but he has a gear that is above anyone ever . His fast paced rack running is amazing to watch
Earl went into god mode towards the end of the match . His shot making is prob the best ive ever seen under pressure you will never see earl miss a money ball
Nah it's efren no doubt. Even earl said so
Rip hurricane Ellin you were a champion and cool dude
A real Peach of a Guy! He was cordial, always smiling, and seemed like the kind of person that would give you the shirt off his back. I'm sure Tony is stringing racks on those tight, tough tables in Heaven. Keep on dabbin' it Hurricane!
Thanks! Especially for providing the timestamps in the title!
6 pack comeback !!! sick
A Great Match. Earl the Pearl.
never have seen a player make it look easier than earl
The great performers in any field -- painting, music, sports -- have such mastery and economy they generally do, as you say, make it all look so deceptively and enviably easy. Someone commented after one of Mosconi's 150-and-out runs: "This guy makes it look so easy you either want to quit pool or rush to a poolroom and try to get better."
whats so amazing when watching earl is how fast he sees the angle,calculates the speed and the English INCREDIBLE:-)
Awesome upload! Great matches and of course, awesome final! Thank you!
Thank you much for the upload. A treat to see Earl get his 3rd US open. Is there a video of Earl running his 10 racks in a row to win a million? I don't think it's out there. I tried forever to find it.🤔
If you haven't already done so, leave a msg on Wiley's FB or via his website. He'll fill you in.
+ray carlton will do! Thank you for the info
THANK YOU, RAY UR THE MAN!
Thanks Ray.. keep em coming!!
Thanks for the uploads my friend.
Great uploads Ray! Keep em up
Prime sigel was a beast .
Man, that weird stroke and body english that Ellin and McCready use is just unbelievable.
Amazing. Thanks Ray!!
There is no player that is more enjoyable to watch when he is shooting well, in my opinion, than Earl Strickland. Such a long supremely accurate stroke.
Allen Hopkins has the opposite kind of stroke and is still an incredible player. But not as much fun to watch.
Both Grady Mathews and Hopkins used that same ultra-abbreviated stroke -- cue tip about 2 inches from the cue ball, sight the shot line, then near-zero-length rehearsal backswings to relax the arm, then punch thru the CB. Daryl Appleton does something similar, a few inches longer either way and with deadly accuracy. Grady once told me that -- with his iffy eyesight when fatigued -- the ultra-abbreviation best insured his delivery stroke impacting the CB precisely where he intended.
@@raycarltonbilliards5798 yes, it took me years to realize that there are players out there who are world beaters with almost no stroke. It still kind of blows my mind.
Here's an interesting visual analogy: Strickland's long backstroke and delivery stroke can be likened to the smooth golfer/bowler/baseball pitcher windup-delivery/follow through moves -- whereas the Hopkins/Mathews exclusively forward thrust is mechanically akin to almost all punches thrown by boxers i.e. entirely forward with no backward windup. Also, many world beaters with no stroke arrived at abbreviation because they were -- after years of trying -- unable to rid their arm of the irresolvable natural hitches peculiar to their delivery arm, wrist and grip whenever they used long back and forth stroking. Shorter movements lessened the amount of hitches *for them* -- thus more accuracy in pocketing and positioning of the CB. In effect, it's an effective workaround solution to their faulty biomechanics (or eyesight) found thru trial and error.
@@raycarltonbilliards5798 Agree and I arrived at the same conclusion. Less things to go wrong with less movement/motion. But I have to wonder if any of them spent a decent amount of time working on their long stroke or if they never played with a long stroke and actually started playing with no stroke from the beginning. The skill it takes to hit the cue ball with perfect pace for shape must be exponentially more difficult with no stroke. My point being if they can play at that level with no stroke how good might they have been if they spent the time to master a long stroke.
Hopkins and Grady were both world-class one-pocket money players -- lot of bunting and hiding going on till you get an opportunity to run out the rack. A short stroke can be quite as effective there as a longer 9-ball multi-rail position play stroke. Same applies to their many Straight Pool tournament high runs and wins with necessarily minimal CB travelling. Can't really suggest that any pro should have spent more time mastering any given element of pool when know them well personally, and we know about all their waking hours experimenting with all aspects of the game, exploiting their strengths, augmenting their weaknesses and finding workarounds for any genetic biomechanical shortcomings. Plenty of top players with deadly accuracy in spite of unorthodox strokes and vision center alignments (and unique self-discovered aiming systems).
that look on ellins face when earl was running out said it all.
thank you very much ray!
Small detail: look at how the cameramen work. I like dancers bobbing up and down with heavy equipment. They must be ripped.
Any footage of Steve Cook, Cookie Monster
ruclips.net/video/zihPbvkZvrk/видео.html
Really had to stroke them back in the day with the slower cloth.
Agreed Blue Max (excellent film, btw). For better or worse, today's gabardine-like worsted cloths have made the game incrementally easier. Conversely, today's tighter pockets (in pro tournament play) have arguably cancelled out that relative easing.
What year
'93
Is this an eight foot table or nine foot table?
Nine-footer; the camera angles sometimes make a table look smaller.
ray carlton billiards - Thanks. Yeah it looks like a 8 foot table in the video but I just KNOW it can't be lol
These games would be good viewing w/o the commentators, but they really do add to it in a lot of ways. I'm an "amateur" I guess, but still could step up and maybe take a couple racks out of 10 with these pros. I just bought my first stick.. getting all cocky lol
Malcolm: Few people know that the word "amateur" evolved in the 18th century from the French word "amour" (love) and came to mean someone who loves doing or learning a particular worthwhile thing -- not in hopes of earning money at it, but out of sheer enjoyment of, and passion for it. Applies to amateur painters, singers or any positive and worthwhile, psychically-rewarding pursuit (like our beloved sport).
@@raycarltonbilliards5798 Thank you for whetting the precision of the term's denotation, Ray. I'd not even much thought about my love of the game, just saying, if i tried to turn pro, I'd sure have to spend a lot more time and money, but I can already pretty much see shots and make decisions & shots-for-shape ~and I didn't get my skills from watching Reyes, though he IS tops really...(was, guess he retired) I got them watching Neuman and Gleason, then Mn Fats, Pucket, The Mizz, Mosconi, Even my dad and uncle as they had a great friend who owned a hall, shot lots in most cities I've lived in... All those kicks and weird cuts and combinations and combined shots, I make them about 80%.. like to bring that # up, sure. Now with my new light stick that's all mine, I'm about to go out and sit people down for fun.
how big is the table
4 1/2 × 9
+Michael Kolb oh because the camera angle had me thinking 6 12 or 5x10
Why don't we ask Earl who's the best? Hmmm.😮😢
I once saw him kill 3 racks with a pencil.earl wick😂😂
Does Sigel has a fast aging process? Every year looks older
Plenty of pro pool players (not all) who came up during most eras of the 20th century would readily admit that they weren't especially healthy people -- staying in pool halls most of their days and nights smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, and eating questionable bar food. Also -- as with all sports -- substance abuse was not unheard of. There was an early-aging syndrome amongst quite a few of the advanced-skill-level players. Today, many of the younger champions worldwide do now athletically keep themselves fit and healthy . . . and by viewing the appearance of older aging professionals, have learned the cost of not doing so. A lot of the new pros run, workout, play other sports moderately -- beyond pool -- and in general, religiously avoid those anti-health negatives cited above.
Over the past six decades we've heard similar "coulda-been" well-justified appraisals about hundreds of unearthly-talented guys and gals who fell victim to the grape (or other substances). Sadly, it's endemic within any cohort of emerging pro-level sports stars.
"on Reyes and siegel could beat him on a bar table."
James: No, I didn't know Scotty personally, but knew of his much-admired, top-level abilities. As to the Reyes/Sigel reference, I'm certain you meant to type: *only* Reyes and Sigel could beat him on a bar table. (We all make typos many times during each week.)
James: This just came out about Scotty Townsend. I remembered the thread on mu billiards channel where you expressed your interest and admiration of Scotty, so I'm certain you'll enjoy listening to this: ruclips.net/video/7iilfssHaXE/видео.html
25:13 👌🏻
ho, ho mike ho lol