facebook post by Bert VAN MANEN on July 13, 2015

Don’t get me wrong, I love Kozoom to death. Best invention since sliced bread. But from time to time, the commentary I read next to the screen sends my blood pressure up to dangerous levels. Today was one of those days, when Blomdahl played Jaspers in the semi’s of the Porto World Cup.

This is what happened in the first 20 minutes: Blomdahl runs 2, 7, 8, 3, Dick scores 0,1,0,1. At halftime, after 4 innings, TB leads 20 – 2.
I’ve just watched the tape again, and of Dick’s four misses, I would categorize two as difficult, two as extremely difficult positions. The two points he made were not rewarded at all. There was not a lot he could do about the number of points his opponent had at that time, right?

And then you read stuff like…
“DJ is playing like crap today…”
“Has thrown the towel already…”

It was the exact same thing with Jung Han Heo, who went from a brilliant match (where everything went his way and the balls rolled ever so favorably, 40 in 9), to a miserable loss with a 0.6 average. Part of the Kozoom crowd went from “Hosanna” to “Crucify him” instantly, adding generous amounts of insult to the Korean’s injury.

I’ve written these exact words before, and I’ll write them again: If you want to know how well a player is performing, you should not watch the scoreboard. You should watch the table.

A 1.400 average player can be on 22 after 10 innings, and have played poorly. Maybe he’s made 5 bad mistakes.
A 1.900 average player can be on 4 after 10 innings, and have played well. Maybe he hasn’t made a single bad mistake.

If you insist on judging players by the scoreboard, this is the message you send out to the world: “I really have no understanding of this game, and I will now make some comments to prove that.”

The true lovers of 3-cushion, players themselves, will always have compassion for a good player who loses with a bad average, even more so if they have seen the shitty positions he had to work with.

Dick, as always, was trying to find fault with himself.
“I did not have the perfect focus.”
If the table was on a slope, the balls were square and the referee was bought and paid for, Dick would still blame himself if he lost. That is who he is, and he deserves a truckload of respect. His Kozoom hecklers, not so much.