HomeAbout Billiards DigestContact UsArchiveAll About PoolEquipmentOur AdvertisersLinks
Tips & shafts
By George Fels
Consulting Editor George Fels has been writing for Billiards Digest since 1980, and his "Tips & Shafts" column is usually our readers' first stop when they crack open the magazine. For better or worse, pool has been his only mistress for 40-plus years.


Archives
• March 2024
• February 2024
• January 2024
• December 2023
• November 2023
• October 2023
• September 2023
• August 2023
• July 2023
• June 2023
• May 2023
• April 2023
• March 2023
• February 2023
• January 2023
• December 2022
• November 2022
• October 2022
• September 2022
• August 2022
• July 2022
• June 2022
• May 2022
• April 2022
• March 2022
• February 2022
• January 2022
• December 2021
• November 2021
• October 2021
• September 2021
• August 2021
• July 2021
• June 2021
• May 2021
• April 2021
• March 2021
• February 2021
• January 2021
• December 2020
• November 2020
• October 2020
• September 2020
• August 2020
• June 2020
• April 2020
• March 2020
• February 2020
• January 2020
• December 2019
• November 2019
• October 2019
• September 2019
• August 2019
• July 2019
• June 2019
• May 2019
• April 2019
• March 2019
• February 2019
• January 2019
• December 2018
• November 2018
• October 2018
• September 2018
• July 2018
• July 2018
• June 2018
• May 2018
• April 2018
• March 2018
• February 2018
• January 2018
• November 2017
• October 2017
• September 2017
• August 2017
• July 2017
• June 2017
• May 2017
• April 2017
• March 2017
• February 2017
• January 2017
• December 2016
• November 2016
• October 2016
• September 2016
• August 2016
• July 2016
• June 2016
• May 2016
• Apr 2016
• Mar 2016
• Feb 2016
• Jan 2016
• December 2015
• November 2015
• October 2015
• September 2015
• August 2015
• July 2015
• June 2015
• May 2015
• April 2015
• March 2015
• February 2015
• January 2015
• October 2014
• August 2014
• May 2014
• March 2014
• February 2014
• September 2013
• June 2013
• May 2013
• April 2013
• March 2013
• February 2013
• January 2013
• December 2012
• November 2012
• October 2012
• September 2012
• August 2012
• July 2012
• June 2012
• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011
• November 2011
• October 2011
• September 2011
• August 2011
• July 2011
• June 2011
• May 2011
• April 2011
• March 2011
• February 2011
• January 2011
• December 2010
• November 2010
• October 2010
• September 2010
• August 2010
• July 2010
• May 2010
• April 2010
• March 2010
• February 2010
• January 2010
• December 2009
• November 2009
• October 2009
• September 2009
• August 2009
• July 2009
• June 2009
• May 2009
• April 2009
• March 2009
• February 2009
• January 2009
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008


Best of Fels
 
October: Should She or Shouldn't She?
October 2008
No, not Sarah Palin. (Where do you think you are? U.S. News & World Report?) Jasmin Ouschan.

It sure didn't take long - nothing on the Internet ever does - to get the fur flying. The thread dedicated to "Should she be allowed to compete with men?" on a popular message board was onto its fifth page last time I checked. And it was apparently begun shortly after the last ball fell at the recent Predator World 14.1 Championship, where she was one of five women who received wild-card exemptions to play, had a long run of 90, and finished a spectacular third. Her run is the best ever for any woman in any competition, and her finish is the best ever for a woman playing in a men's world championship event.

If your pool history takes you back at least 20 years, of course, this is all deja vu. The staple of most major pool tournaments back in the late '80s was still straight pool. Without getting into personalities, the women's fields that the great Jean Balukas faced largely comprised competitors who could run 15 to 20 balls, and every one of those women understood that they were all playing for second place. A fantastic athlete with two full-scholarship offers to college (in basketball and tennis), she got bored, and announced she intended to begin competing with the men.

There was a semblance of a men's playing organization then called the PPPA (Professional Pool Players of America). It was formed in opposition to the BCA, specifically the prize-fund distribution for that body's one annual major tournament, the U.S. Open (not to be confused with the 9-ball meet that Barry Behrman still runs today). The players' group hired a good public-relations guy, Barry Dubow of New York, and then ignored all his ideas. They were founded mainly by Peter Margo of New Jersey, who at one time was probably one of the five best straight-pool players in America and the late, great Steve Mizerak's brother-in-law. But once founded, the organization proved to be both leaderless and rudderless. Well-intentioned as the PPPA might have been, Moses and his followers in the 40 years they spent meandering in the desert had far better direction. The one thing that those pool-playing greats could agree upon was that they did not want Jean Balukas in their midst.

So they told her no, you can't play. And just about everyone in the micro-mini-universe that follows such things, including me, screeched to the heavens. The PPPA reversed itself and decided they would grant her "honorary status," citing golf's Mildred "Babe" Didrikson as a precedent. (Briefly, Didrikson was far too good at golf for the women, and sought the same status as Balukas did decades later; she was allowed to play in three non-major tournaments in the mid-'40s and made the cut twice.) The reference to Didrikson turned out to be ironic; despite her athletic magnificence in a bevy of sports, the poor woman took some incredible grief in her day. One imbecile of a sportswriter opined that she was that good an athlete because she, quote, " couldn't get any dates." And Balukas, too, was to catch some mighty nasty flak for her independence, up to and including physical threats.

The rest is anti-climactic. Balukas' best showing was a ninth-place tie, and she left the game shortly thereafter. She has not been enthusiastically followed. Jeanette Lee and a few of her contemporaries have appeared at Derby City; Karen Corr has done well and even won in regional men's 9-ball events. And that's about it.

And now there's the debate over Ouschan. One argument runs that no other pro sport places women alongside men (obviously poker does, but I hope you're not going to try and sell me on that being sport). And in answer to that, I would hearken you back to what I wrote a few years ago: Pool is not legally a sport. That was determined - and by lawyers, although without going to court - when Steve Mizerak was chosen for inclusion in the Miller Lite ad campaign. The Federal Trade Commission, which oversees all network advertising, expressly forbids any active athlete from endorsing any form of alcoholic product. Lawyers for Miller Brewing Co. and its ad agency, Backer & Spielvogel, simply wrote a "position paper" informing the FTC, in effect, "While we're certainly cognizant of the 'no active athletes' policy, this is a pool player. Pool is no sport, and he's no athlete." The FTC agreed; case closed. So comparisons to other sports are really not relevant. If you must have one, Annika Sorenstam, one of the finest woman golfers of all time, announced a few years back she was thinking of joining men's tournaments; even though she hasn't, nobody seemed to care much. Golfing phenom Michelle Wie has received a few exemptions for men's events and mostly has struggled.

I personally do not feel pool has earned the right to bar Ouschan from playing among men. But beyond that, I've been watching those infrequent male/female match-ups ever since Balukas' era - and I have yet to see the male competitor who looked even remotely comfortable playing against a woman, no matter which one. Little ironic grins may twitch at the corners of the gents' mouths, transparently attempting to pass for good sportsmanship, but their body language says something far, far different. Such a match inevitably draws extra attention. Losing one seems to carry a stigma all its own. And some men, for better or worse (usually the latter), simply cannot get past the "Me Tarzan, you Jane" mentality, if it can fairly be called that.

Rumors (in which I set no stock whatsoever) have the recent World 14.1 Championship field alternately grumbling about Ouschan being amongst them or avidly anticipating playing "the girl." Guys, the balls neither know nor care who strikes them. She's as good as just about all of you; nothing else counts. Put your cues together and say, "Hush."

MORE VIDEO...