Recent Memorable Runout

I haven't been playing very much the past few weeks. I played a SL7 in my match last Monday the 13th and got shut out five games to zip. That sort of rattled my confidence a bit. But can I just say that the guy I played had an APA player number HALF his age (00028, whereas mine is 09781)? I would guess that makes him close to a 20-year veteran of the league. It was my first time playing a SL7. This makes me wonder how much longer I'll be a SL5. I don't think SL6 is anywhere in my near future. In fact, I feel that I might be in danger of getting bumped down to a SL4 again.

Determined to get in as many games as possible over the weekend, I set out on Friday night with a vengeance, looking into every pool bar along the way up into the East Village. I ended up Doc Holliday's, pleased to see a few people I know playing each other. I got beat in my first game on an obscure house rule technicality that involves spotting your opponent's last ball if it's behind the line on a scratch (in general, I am opposed to picking up and moving any ball other than the cue ball). A little later on I played the doorman Brad and played miserably. Then I reracked and toward the middle of the third game I was feeling good. Brad had found a filthy penny on the floor and picked it up and threw it into a nearby trash can. I quipped something along the lines of "Doc Holliday's doorman exposed for throwing money away during financial crisis," to which he responded "Yeah, probably gonna have bad luck now." He shot and missed and this was the table layout I faced. I could have just pocketed the 10 but stopping the cue ball for the 14 would've been tricky. Instinctively, I noticed the cue ball angle coming off the 10 looked good going into the 14. So I called it "Cue ball off the 10, into the 14." Brad said "Uh oh, watch out for the 8!" I said "Nah, it ain't going anywhere." So I slammed into the cue ball with a little top left it went squarely into the 14. I was totally stoked when the 10 also dropped (it might have rattled in the pocket a bit, my eye was following the 14). And of course the icing on the cake was watching the cue ball travel three rails leaving me perfect on the 8. I made it and went over and shook the hand of a head-wagging Brad, especially pleased that a couple nearby had witnessed the runout.

One Foot on the Floor

One of the funnier moments I can recall from late last season was when a dispute came about regarding the "one foot on the floor" rule. We were playing a team at Sophie's and a female shooter from the other team could not reach her shot. Since we don't have a bridge at Sophie's, Chris said something aloud, something along the lines of "The rules state that if the bar where you're playing doesn't have a bridge, then you can get onto the table to reach your shot." Effectively, he was saying, that the one foot rule goes out the window if there's not a bridge available. Our captain Marc mumbled something about how ridiculous that was, how Chris was stretching the real meaning of the rule, etc.

A few weeks later, at The Sixth Ward, the same situation came up and Chris offered his same interpretation of the rule. As you can see (above), this woman had no hesitation climbing onto the table to reach her shot. This was when Marc had had enough. I can't remember his words exactly, but basically he said "Chris, you're saying the one foot rule is waived if there's no bridge in the house. But the message you're sending to people is that if there's no bridge in the house then, by all means, go on and hop up onto the table and make yourself totally comfortable. You can even sit Indian style if you'd like." I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

Just for the record, here is what the APA team manual says regarding the rule: "At least one foot must be on the floor at all times while shooting if a bridge is present. There is no foul—simply stop the shooter and hand him the bridge. League Management cannot guarantee the presence of bridges, and some Host Locations do not have them. If a bridge is not available, house rules prevail. Exception: Players shooting from a wheelchair must remain seated in their wheelchair while shooting."

So it really boils down to that line above, which I italicized for emphasis. This is one of those grey areas that almost has less to do with rules than the etiquette of the game. Like no drinks on the table, don't leave quarters on the rail, etc. To be continued...