THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409210028
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
HE IS LESS THAN 24 hours back home in Greensboro from a goodwill billiards excursion to China, and his back hurts a little, so Earl Strickland takes some time to get going on this telephone call. Soon enough, though, Strickland's thin voice is at full-throttle, which means the telephone receiver has inched away from the listener's ear.
``The table had to be 120 degrees Fahrenheit! from the TV lights,'' Strickland rages over the unacceptable situation at a recent tournament in Las Vegas. ``I never practiced with heat lamps on the table, you know what I'm sayin'?''
It seems we have wandered into one of the many passion zones of pool's most brilliant player, who won his fifth world championship last month and who shoots for his second consecutive, and fourth overall, U.S. Open 9-ball title this week in Chesapeake - that zone being the lack of regard billiards professionals sometimes are shown by tournaments with lousy playing conditions.
You do not disrespect Strickland, nor the game that takes him around the globe, has put the Jaguar in his driveway and will bring him an income of more than $300,000 this year, without hearing about it.
They yell and scream over poor treatment in golf and tennis, two of Strickland's other passions, and by God, he'll scream when he's denied the opportunity to play great pool, to put on the usual Earl Strickland Show people pay good money to see.
``I was practicing at home four, five hours a day, training like an athlete, running, hitting tennis balls, bad back and all, making sure I could play,'' says Strickland, who fared terribly. ``Fans are an incentive for me. I always want to play well. I'm an entertainer, too. But the table was 120 degrees Fahrenheit! The rubber in the rails was almost melting back to pure gum. When you shot, the balls reacted like ping-pong balls.
``They gave me very poor conditions, and I gave them a very poor display of professionalism and talent. I told them this was a joke, you know what I'm sayin'? I told them I flew 2,500 miles for this? I flew out here to hum-il-i-ate myself? Is that what I came there for? Please give me a break.''
Pool's international defender and ambassador has been at it now for 13 years and, at 33, he hopes he's good for at least another dozen competitive years.
By then, Strickland envisions pool on par with golf and tennis around the world, on live television regularly in this country and a hundred more - though he is already much more well-known abroad than here.
He predicts the advent of many big-money tournaments that movie stars and models and other celebrities will show up to see and to be seen. Where a Brooke will come to cheer an Andre.
If any or all of that happens, Strickland will be one of the people pool will thank.
``For some wonderful reason, we're in what I consider a golden era of the game,'' says Don Mackey, commissioner of the Pro Billiards Tour. ``We're loaded with top talent. We need a few stars to be pioneers, to create a breakthrough to a mass audience, and I believe Earl is one of those type guys.
``Earl has taken the time to educate himself to the business of professional sports today. He's one of the more up-to-date and wiser pros about the business side of the game. He bends over backwards to promote the tour and the sport. And he's making more money than anybody on tour today, more in endorsements than anybody.
``He's not only a top player, but he's going to present an image and a name in association with that image properly.''
The image Strickland puts forth is of a willing servant of his game, while always keenly aware that the game is lucky to have him.
``I've been having a lot of problems with my lower back,'' Strickland says. ``Standing in airport terminals and customs lines, immigration lines, isn't doing me any good. But it's my life.
``A lot of people don't know the wear and tear we have on our bodies. But if I have to play and compete and go around the world opening up doors for our sport in other countries, so be it. I don't feel anybody else is gonna be able to fill my shoes, so I've got to do it.''
His recent few days in China were another matter of duty calling. Cuetec, a Taiwanese company and one of Strickland's seven equipment sponsors, brought him over to help open a billiards school. The Chinese play a lot of English-style snooker, Strickland says, but billiards is poised to take off.
``If China if very successful at pocket billiards one day, I'll look back and say I'm happy to be part of that,'' he says. ``It's something I can be proud of 20 years from now.''
As if his resume isn't a matter of pride in itself. Strickland, who grew up in Roseboro, N.C., has been player of the year five times. He won his first tournament in 1982 and has captured more than 40 more, including his latest world title in Las Vegas on Aug. 6, the first final ever televised live.
ESPN did those honors, and Strickland hopes the U.S. Open, the longest-running pro tournament in its 19th year, will go live as soon as next year. (ESPN will tape this year's semifinals and final for broadcast in December.)
``TV's gonna make us or break us,'' Strickland says. ``Well, it'll make us more than break us. We've gotta have more television and more live coverage.''
More TV will give more people views of Strickland's shot-making, fist-pumping best - and his cue-breaking, tantrum-throwing worst.
``Earl's like the John McEnroe of billiards,'' Billiards Digest editor Mike Panozzo says. ``He's always playing to the crowd, talking to them. But when he loses he storms out. He's a terrible loser, and at times has been a belligerent terrible loser.''
Strickland knows he's not the most popular player among other pros, but he doesn't hang out with them because then he wouldn't want to crush them so badly.
``Earl is so determined to win at everything he does. Second-best isn't good enough,'' says Strickland's wife, Lisa. ``In tennis, he could almost be a professional. He shoots in the 70s from the back tees playing golf. When he puts his mind to it, he can do it.''
Perfectionism does that to a person. It's the root of Strickland's virtues, and his flaws.
``I've been trying to be too perfect all my life,'' Strickland says. ``But most pool players are perfectionists, the best players in the world, anyway. We all want to try to play perfectly. To be that methodical genius.''
More times than not, Strickland approaches that distinctive capacity. It kills him when he doesn't, and woe to the tournament director whose inferior equipment and conditions help bring him down.
Don't they realize who they're dealing with?
``I don't think anybody's ever been given more natural ability at pool,'' Strickland says as a matter of fact, calmer now, clearly pleased with his status and station. ``I just had to pursue it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LYNN HEY/LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Earl Strickland, who will compete for his fourth U.S. Open 9-ball
title this week in Chesapeake, would like to see pool given the same
respect as golf and tennis.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY POOL BILLIARDS by CNB