http://blogs.inquirer.net/heyjoe Sun, 11 Nov 2007 10:35:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en AT JUST about 10:30 p.m. this past Friday, Johan Ruijsink, the Dutch national pool coach and coach of the European Mosconi Cup team was walking up and down the concourse of the Araneta Coliseum looking for Roberto Gomez. It was about an hour before the start of Gomez’ round of ... http://blogs.inquirer.net/heyjoe/2007/11/11/creating-another-thrilla/ IT seems everyone backstage at the World Pool Championship has a personal story to tell about the great Earl Strickland and his bizarre rants and raves. Earl’s always looking for a sympathetic ear in order to unload a litany of complaints about the world in general. If you’re a player, ... http://blogs.inquirer.net/heyjoe/2007/11/10/encounters-with-earl/ SOME players call it getting in "dead stroke." Others call it "free flowing mode." Yet others call it being "in the zone." Whatever the moniker, it is the Holy Grail of playing for pool players. It's that space where everything seems to come together at once, and you play ... http://blogs.inquirer.net/heyjoe/2007/11/06/input-does-not-equal-output-alex-lelys-long-quest-for-the-holy-grail-of-pool/ IT'S all about the grind, and who has the stamina, the will, and yes, it being professional 9-ball, the luck on their side to prevail. It’s a brutally difficult combination of factors to pull together, and it tests the inner and outer makeup of even the most seasoned professionals out ... http://blogs.inquirer.net/heyjoe/2007/11/01/a-slog-in-the-mud/ ANGELES CITY, Pampanga, Philippines--Last year’s World Pool Championship final in Manila featured two players, Ralf Souquet and Ronnie Alcano, who, on the surface, appeared to have little in common. In fact they and their respective countries, Germany and the Philippines, would appear to be polar opposites in just about ... http://blogs.inquirer.net/heyjoe/2007/11/01/a-beer-a-date-a-bet-and-the-american-game-of-pool/ IT was the stuff of wild and surreal dreams of every professional pool player. To play for their sport’s top honor in a colorful, exotic land where the game has roots stretching back over a century, and is firmly entrenched in the national psyche; where their typically anonymous careers were ... http://blogs.inquirer.net/heyjoe/2007/11/01/the-stuff-of-dreams-again/