Mosconi Cup 2016

I doubt most of you will be interested but I figured I would post any way. Yesterday kicked off the 23rd annual Mosconi Cup, which pits the top five American pool players against the top five from Europe in a Ryder Cup style format. All four days of the event are being streamed on ESPN3 beginning at 1:30 EST. Yes, it's pool and I understand the game itself isn't television friendly. However, it's being played this year in London at Victoria Palace in from of 2,000 well-lubricated Brits, which gives it more of a Ryder Cup atmosphere.

If you have time to kill this afternoon I suggest checking out a few minutes. Even my friends who hate pool this this is An interesting event.


Mosconi Cup

 

Wide World of Sports used to air pool. The Mosconi-Minnesota Fats matches always fascinated me.

 

I'll be watching darts.

 

As a decent tournament player, it always amused me when the pros would get pissed off at shooting "only" 140 instead of ton-80 in a game of 501.

 

Damn right!

 

Probably the most logical way to go out on 132 is to go D16, T20, D20.

To be able to go back and forth between bull and 19 shows just how sick of a player Taylor is.

My best out in a game was on 144. Went T20, T20, D12. My opponent was incredulous, as was I. You don't pull that shit off every day.

 

Winning with a double bull is incredible. I did it once. It was in a late-season match to beat the league asshole who had been undefeated. Highly satisfying. I can't remember my score at the start of my turn. I had a few outs from ton-plus. I think I had eight ton-80s in league in 14 years. The British guys who came through SoCal every summer for the tournaments would do that in one night.

 

Another of my favorites:

 

Eric Bristow was one of those guys who came through SoCal every summer. I played him a few times in pub matches. Never beat him, but I wasn't embarrassed by him, either. He was kind of a dick. His girlfriend was also a tournament player, a hot blonde named Maureen Flowers. I just read that after she and Bristow split up, she became the manager for Phil Taylor.

 

What's the third sport in the bar triathlon? Foosball? Holding it in?

 

The old man loved to watch darts when guys like Bristow, his countryman Jocky Wilson



...and John Lowe were tearing it up....

 

The crowds at dart tournaments are always awesome. Because they are happy drunks.

Does the Mosconi Cup involve side bets? It has to, right? No way they're just playing for prize money.