Sharks Billiards Association allows ‘sharking’ to attract fans

WHEN the Sharks Billiards Association (SBA) was launched two years ago, one of the rules it allowed to attract fans was “sharking,” or giving the spectators the freedom to shout or boo the players during the game to force a miss.

It may have lost one to long-time pool patron Perry Mariano.

“Billiards is a gentleman’s game. It is quiet, respectful and all focus,” said Mr. Mariano. “At Lucky Break, we respect the heritage of the game, we are about the sport in its purest form and exactly how world champions were trained to play.”

Intriguingly, Mr. Mariano is the father of Hadley Mariano, the chief executive officer of the SBA, which is now on its Season Two.

“I look at Hadley’s league, I don’t approve of this ‘sharking’ rule,” he said.

“You have people screaming and heckling during live play in 9-ball. That’s a deviation from the sport.”

“It turns a professional match into a circus,” he added.

While sharking may be entertaining in some way, Mr. Mariano stressed it may devalue the beauty of the game.

“Is there a wide market for SBA? Maybe. I’ll be honest, I actually watch a lot of his games. It’s highly entertaining,” he said. “But as a mainstream professional league for the future? I don’t see it lasting. You can’t build a legacy purely on noise.”

In the end, Mr. Mariano gave his son fatherly advice by sticking to the old ways.

“I love my son, and I wish him all the luck in the world with this experiment. But he’d probably be better off sticking to the traditional game with me. When the fans get tired of the yelling, they’ll come back to the real sport.” — Joey Villar