If you were a private person with aspirations of becoming a professional athlete, how would you hide your identity in public? Avoiding paparazzi, mobs of fans, and shielding family from the press are real concerns for current pro athletes. Woods and Farve know exactly what I’m talking about. The good news for America’s best pool players is that they don’t have to worry about being well known. Even if mega-foxes Jeanette Lee and Jennifer Barretta took their toddlers trick-or-treating this year, they probably would get less attention than their tiny costumed tots.
Will any American Pool Player Ever be a Celebrity?
I doubt BCA Hall of Famer Johnny Archer gets mobbed by autograph seekers while standing at the baggage claim at O’Hare. I’d tip over out of pure shock if Jeanette Lee was to trot onto the next season of “Dancing with the Stars”. I’d desperately like to see some hustler like Chris Bartram or Danny “Kid Delicious” Basovich in a “Big Brother” house that just happened to have a pool table.
I have rarely seen professional players on the tube other than playing pool. Ewa and Mitch Lawrence must have made some clams hawking the Freedom Tray on an infomercial. I still have a VHS tape of Hall of Famer Loree Jon Jones on “The Price is Right” floating around in some box in my basement. Ewa and Vivian Villarreal even run up on stage to hug Loree after the showcase showdown, but that doesn’t count.  These days, the only people who non-pool players can routinely name are the deceased Willie Mosconi and Rudolph “Minnesota Fats” Wanderone. These guys made  themselves known in  America through “ABC’s Wide World of Sports”. I don’t cook or watch football, but I know who John Madden and Emeril Lagasse are. In fact, don’t they share the same catch phase “BAM!”? This kind of pop culture fame isn’t ever going to happen again for pool players. Snooker telecasts are still very popular and the productions are exceedingly well done. Snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan is so popular, he appeared on the world’s most popular motoring program. His “Top Gear” appearance may have been seen by more than 300 million viewers.
I dream of a day when pool in the United States of America gets high quality television production on a national network. I know it will never happen. It’s a shame that popular sports figures who happen to be professional pool players will never enjoy fame outside of the small industry. Even serious league players who compete at least once a week struggle to name more than a few top ranked players of today. Sure they play the game, but don’t really like to watch the game.
The APA has somewhere near 250,000 players in their national league system. Other league systems and players who frequent pool rooms hike the number of serious pool players many fold. The unpopularity of Pool and Billiard Magazines makes me cry. Why, Willie, why do the top three magazines have such a small sliver of all players getting a monthly copy in their mailboxes? By my crude estimates, Billiards Digest, Pool and Billiard Magazine, and Inside Pool Magazine might each print around 16,000 copies per month at best — meager readership considering the millions of players who chalk up at least once a month.
There have been other billiard publications that have come and gone. I’ve still got the full series of Snap magazines from the early ’90’s.  I’m not only a teacher of the game, I consider myself a lifelong student. When I really went crazy trying to learn pool, there was no YouTube, AZBilliards, or easily accessible professional billiard instructors. My years as a poor college student trying to play as much pool as possible was a difficult time. I was too poor to travel to watch professional tournaments and too young and inexperienced to get helpful tips from the Twin Cities best players. I could muster up a few dollars to subscribe to the magazines Billiards Digest and Pool and Billiards Magazine which were packed with instruction and a glimpse into the world of professional pool players and their mystical tournament circuit.
Seeing professionals in print and on the box made them stars to me. Take away the TV appearances and remove the opportunity to flip through a billiard magazine at the pool room’s front counter and the chance for stardom fizzles. I recently watched the whole series of the U.K.’s reality series “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!” Snooker legend Jimmy “The Whirlwind” White was a competitor. This show ousted the celeb with the least number of phone calls of support. Over a dozen famous entertainers were on the show. White was so popular, he made it to the finals featuring the last three celebrities. Efren Reyes has appeared on the Phillipino version of “Deal or No Deal” not once, but twice. I’m told that his fame in his homeland is akin to Michael Jordan’s fame in the US — very well known, but not quite a household name like Tiger Woods. Could there ever be a day when Shane Van Boening appears on “America’s got talent?” Not in my lifetime, or if he did may I be struck down.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter of fame. Please leave a comment here or join the discussion on the Billiard Coach Forums.
Thank you,  Mike Fieldhammer
For links and summaries of all this month’s PoolSynergy writers, visit Pool Cue News and Review.
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