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Billiards: Racking Up Attention
| Article
# : |
14751 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1988 |
2,260 Words |
| Author
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Michael E. Panozzo
Michael E. Panozzo is editor of Billiards Digest and resides
in Oak Park, Illinois. |
“After two tense meetings, three report deadlines, and a ten-mile traffic jam, it takes awhile for my breathing to slow and my eyes to adjust inside the darkened tavern where I shoot pool. My first move is to place fifty cents on the pool table, behind two other stacks of quarters. While exchanging greetings with my friends, I'm already sizing up the skill of my would-be opponents; the challenger plays the winner. I didn't bring my lucky custom-made cue, but as my turn nears, I carefully check the weight and balance of a house cue. I find one that will have to do.
“Chalking up, I break and sink two stripes, but the balls roll to a stop. He has the advantage. If he can get the right position for his subsequent shots, he could bring this challenge to a quick end. One in … two … then another, but he scratches. Trying not to concentrate too much, I powder my hands, chalk again, and after some fancy bank shots, coupled with the cut-shots English I've practiced on my table at home, I end the game victorious. As the other patrons look on, I size up my next competitor and bask in the relaxation of pool competition.”
Some thirty million Americans enjoy billiard games—which include pool. These games rank among the top ten participation sports in the United States. As an industry, billiards is at its most solvent level ever.
"The game's appeal knows no limits," says Paul Roberts, public relations director for the Billiard Congress of America. "It cuts across every demographic group. Men and women, young and old, rich and poor—all play the game with equal passion. Billiards fools you with its simplicity, tricks you with its magic, and hooks you with its unerring elegance and beauty."
But has any sport in the history of mankind been subjected to the social stigmas, entertainment fads, and sports competition that billiards has … and survived?
Since the game's most rudimentary beginnings in the early twelfth century, billiards has been pitted against one life-threatening obstacle after another. In this century alone, billiards has faced fifty-plus years of negative public perception—that of misspent youth, smoke-filled rooms, treachery and deceit, and gamblers and con men.
The game has also withstood serious challenges in attracting our recreation/entertainment dollars. First came the bowling boom of the fifties, then the video game craze of the late
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