Cue Sport Group

Posts Tagged ‘pool’

Often we heard from our best professional pool players the name Willie Mosconi, who dominated pool for decades, and publicly on television, and known by many Americans as the greatest, but there was once a mentor and superior of Mosconi that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Known for his alias as “The Aristocrat”, Ralph Greenleaf was widely considered the greatest pool player ever, and handsome to boot. Ralph Greenleaf was pool’s brightest star from the turn of the century through the Depression. Greenleaf and Willie Mosconi stand as the two greatest pool shooters in history. Like Rachmaninoff at the piano, Greenleaf used his massive hands with their long, tapering fingers to perform his calling marvelously.

When Mosconi was a boy, he toured with Greenleaf, who taught him exquisite positioning with the cue ball and built in him the competitive edge to win.

Some old-timers state that Ralph’s frequent bouts with liquor crippled the potential of his brilliant career and have believed to bring this pool giant to an early death in 1950 at the age of 50.

Billiards and Pool are generally grouped as one and referred to as cue sports, although, technically, there are vast differences between the two games.

Cue Players consider “billiards” to be “carom’ games only, it is hitting two balls with one stroke of a pool cue, and three balls are used; white, yellow and red. Both the white and the yellow ball can act as the strikers. Billiards is basically pool without pockets; while on the other hand, Pool is hitting the ball into a pocket. It all depends on what style of the game you would like to play.

Pocket billiards takes on many forms, each differentiated largely by the number and size of balls used in play. Most traditional pool games are “8-ball pool” played with 16 balls: 15 colored and one white “cue ball.” And the “9-ball pool” using 9 colored balls and one white cue ball.

Today, Billiards and Pool can be exchanged and mean the same thing. When people refer to one, it is assumed the other is also being included.

Whether you are on a cheap budget or not, you can find pool balls according to your needs. Though the components differ from one purchased an expensive pool ball than the typical ones, these balls can still be used for a great game. Higher priced balls are made of phenolic resin that is harder, more resistant to temperature and has higher durability. The cheaper balls are usually made of polyester. In the market, the highest quality balls and built with aesthetic designs are Aramith Super Pro’s and Brunswick Centennials.

Aside from prices, the build quality of pool balls also varies. Some balls are just painted or inlaid with the colors and numbers while others are engraved with a solid core. The disadvantage with painted balls lies on the possibility that it might fall off after some games.

Last but not the least pool balls have differences in its characteristics like roundness, diameter and weight. What a player wants is that every ball in the bed would unite and match each other to come up with great results. It would make a shot predictable on its effects from one ball to another thus making a trick shot highly possible.