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| Two weeks after Earl Strickland won the Riviera Hotel Pro 8-Ball Open in Las Vegas Nevada, we had the pleasure of conducting an interview with him. This is the last part of that interview, the first part is available here and the second part is available here. | ||
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AZB: You are a very outspoken person. I have seen you compared to John McEnroe and Muhammad Ali. Tell me your thoughts on this. Earl: Well, I'm more like Muhammad Ali than John McEnroe in my opinion. I was a little bit like McEnroe too in my younger years. There's no question about it. I was a fiery competitor and I hated losing. I would say it to the day I die, I hate losing. Finishing second is like finishing 200th. I heard Jack Nicklaus say that one time after the 6th time he finished second in the Canadian Open. He finished second six times and they asked him how it felt. He said it felt like he finished 200th. So I always remember that and that's the way it feels when I finish second. I have something like 200 seconds in my career. I've finished second a lot. I've been to the finals 300 times or something like that. Yeah, I fit those descriptions though. Years ago when I was a little bit more naive and didn't understand, I had less respect for things. I'm a totally different person now though. I'm way more composed. I'll still get excited if I win. But years ago I was a bashing kind of guy. I would let you have it. I remember when we first started playing tournaments back in the late 70s and early 80s. We were gamblers then and if a guy beat me in a tournament, I would look at him and say "Well do you think you can beat me playing some for $50 or $100 a game?". I would just bash the guy. Show him no respect at all. He'd walk out of there the size of a turtle when he left cause I'd just bash him with words. That is the way gamblers operate. They feel insulted when a guy beats them and walks away. Doesn't give them a fair shake. But I've grown up a lot since then. But to answer your question about my behavior, I'd say there was a time that I was the worst guy in pool, and I'm not afraid to admit it. I did a lot of things wrong in my career. But like I said, I've grown out of them. Tiger Woods is growing out of them too. I'm not the only guy. He's chopping up the course when he hits a bad shot and throwing people off the court. I never threw anybody out of a tournament, (chuckles) but I've been thrown out of a few tournaments. I tell you what I did, I threw myself out of a tournament a couple of times. But I'm a character. I'm playing a role here. This is like an important role as a character. I part of the pioneering of pool. Bringing audiences to the table to see this crazy character that shoots straighter than Dick Tracy and gets mad at the same time. When I first started playing, people loved me and they hated me. I could care less then. It was the greatest relationship you could ever have in a sport. It sold tickets, just like McEnroe did. But I was never as bad as McEnroe. They have given me a reputation that wasn't quite as extreme as his. And I would have to say that I was more like Muhammad Ali. To answer your question, I was more like Muhammad Ali. This has been a pioneering life. At the same time; I am a character, I'm very flamboyant, and I'm also very talkative. Saying crazy things all the time. But at the same time, not so bad that you can't listen to them. Crazy riddles and rhymes like he was. When I was a kid, 12 years old down at Myrtle Beach S.C. (A great place to hang out as a kid. Especially when you was trying to steal someone's money on the boardwalk playing on those little bar tables.), there was a guy spray painting T-shirts. I said "spray paint me a T-shirt". He said what do you want it to say and I said "Earl the Squirrel, the greatest 9-ball player in the whole wide world". I truly believed that at 12 years old. But to answer your question, it's been more like it has been a pioneering thing. Because pool is behind everything else. And pool had a bad reputation. I quit gambling in 1988, and I haven't wagered on billiards since. Other than a dollar bet on 9 holes of golf with some of my friends at the country club, I haven't wagered on anything else since then either. And it feels good that I could quit gambling and make a living playing pool. It's one of the biggest reliefs that I ever had. And I have often said that I think as far as the pioneering of billiards, you have to take players and cleanse their bodies. Take the gambling aspect out of them. That way, I think you build a more wholesome tour. Look what Pete Rose went thru. If Pete Rose could change one or two instances of gambling, just think how different his life would have been. And I'm not saying that we're bad people because we learned to gamble. I'm just saying that when you become a tournament player, you should cleanse yourself out of that aspect of the game. And that way you become more of a unit and have more respect for the other player. It's a pioneering thing. Part of my pioneering was gambling. I was like some crusader at one time. Walking around trying to take the pool players out of bondage. But you can't change somebody that doesn't want to change, and that's what I found out. And it is such a stigma, it's something that gets embedded in your blood. I mean I was one of the best pool players, gamblers, that ever lived. I would bet my life on it literally. And I stopped, just like that. Just like snapping your fingers. It hit me like the liberty bell hit me on the head. And you know what really showed me the reason to change was when I started playing tournaments. People were enjoying watching my character as a tournament player and I realized right then that I could make it as a tournament player and an entertainer and not as a gambler. I think it is starting to change right now for a lot of the other guys. There are a lot of players that are losing their desire to gamble. There are still a lot of players from a long time ago that are great players that still gamble, but I think the guys that keep gambling are kind of lost. They don't really find their purpose in life. That was one of the pioneering things. I think that has got to change. Those were things that Muhammad Ali kept saying. "It ain't right", "You're not paying us enough", "You're discriminating against blacks", "We have no organization". They say in pool that I am crying tears all the time. I say that they are just patronizing themselves. What he was trying to explain to everybody is that boxing is a legitimate sport. It's not a bad thing. It takes a lot of desire and dedication. And some of the other trials he went thru like refusing to go in the Army and all that was kind of irrelevant to the other things he was trying to get thru to the people. I'm in the same department, but it's worse in a way for me. Because pool had such a bad name thruout the depression, it's something that is still hard to clean up. It's just something that is hard to cleanse. And I'm telling you, I think I've had a tougher time than Muhammad Ali. Simply because it's something that is different than boxing. Boxing has been accepted and pool hasn't yet. That's what Muhammad Ali did to boxing. He made people accept it. And that's kind of what I've been doing my whole life. Trying to get people to accept billiards as something that takes dedication and desire. I call it the 3 Ds. Dedication, Desire and determination. Just like anything else. So, I'm just trying to say that it is a pioneering thing that I've been thru. And that is the answer to that question. AZB: Billiards Digest is naming their choices for the top 50 players of the century. Who do you think is the greatest player to ever play the game? Earl: Well, I think that without a doubt, Willie Mosconi should get that. Because I think Mosconi was the greatest ambassador that the game has ever had until now. I think now, there are going to become some better ambassadors because the game is growing now. And there is more demand and more people are playing. I think pool has a chance for somebody like Willie Mosconi. But coming from that era and being as good as he was. Of course there are more players now. I've got to identify everything. There are more players now and I think that it's harder to win tournaments now. There is no question about it. But as far as his appearance, his integrity, his character, his professionalism, his ability to play. His high run of 526 balls. I've been trying to beat that and it's virtually impossible. I've gotten to 408 and I felt like somebody had been hitting me with a club in the back and legs all night long. After I ran 408 balls, I could barely walk. People don't realize how intense it is. To run 408 balls is phenomenal and it is very very demanding on your body. You're very tired after that, believe me. And to run 526 balls, takes a phenomenal person. He was not considered an athlete, but he was not in bad condition either. He played a little golf, I don't think he did a lot of running or playing tennis or stuff like I do. But I'm in a different era than he was too. I've been exposed to these things more than he was. But to be the man he was and to have the accomplishments he had, dealing with what little we had, is phenomenal. If he doesn't get the number 1 pick, I would just be furious. So terribly disappointed that I wouldn't know what to say. If they give it to Minnesota Fats, I will be terribly disappointed. Because Minnesota Fats was never the person or player that Willie Mosconi was. He couldn't even be half the man Willie Mosconi was. They promoted him and he was a myth. The guy really couldn't play that well. Mosconi won titles and competed. I mean this guy was phenomenal. He'd get up and run 140 and out after a guy run 100 on him. I know what it takes to run 140 balls with pressure on you. Just because Minnesota Fats had some big name and some charisma about him doesn't mean anything. Just because his name was more exploited than Mosconi's doesn't mean he was half the man Mosconi was. I'll guarantee you he wasn't. He was promoted thru some character in a book and then on a movie and then he kind of took the name and ran with it. He was good in some ways for the game and bad in others. Same as me. We're all good and bad in a little way. That's what makes things tick. I mean look at Pete Sampras. There is all the talk that he won't ever give an interview, and he won't ever say a bad thing. They can't slander him because he doesn't ever do anything bad. They can't criticize him, because he won't ever say anything. Then he gets tired of everybody criticizing how boring he is and starts to show a little character. Now, if somebody says something in the audience, he responds to them a little or makes a gesture. He's showing a little bit of character. I always thought he had character. The critics just sometimes go south with their imagination. Critics are there to disturb what is going on. They are not ever there to keep it smooth. They can all go jump in a lake as far as Pete Sampras. I think he is the greatest player that ever lived. I think he is good for the game and is a perfect role model. He is a good golfer, and is an athlete outside of his game. Forget these critics. They are doing me the same way you know. They think I am a terrible person. They write about me like I've got the plague or something. And I am telling you, I am not a bad person. I do a lot of charity work around here. I fly out of my state and do charity work for other events. I welcome things with open arms. The only place that I am little bit bewildered at, and not so happy in life is when I am around pool players. I can't be myself around them because they won't let me be. I'm just trying to say that they need to look at the positive side of Earl Strickland. I'm really a good person. Its just that when I go to play pool it is like a chicken fight. It's no fun.
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