Heat of the Battle - Mosconi Cup

On Day 2 of Mosconi Cup 2011, when Shawn Putnam and Rodney Morris were playing Scotch Doubles against Darren Appleton and Chris Melling from Europe, Rodney got visibly upset.  Being deep in the crowd, we couldn't hear what happened, what he was saying, or why he was upset.

However, being mic'd up, the entire TV audience could!  And boy, did they get an earful from Rodney.  Rodney was pissed!

Check it out for yourself:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP-p51EwWsM

The USA Captain (Charlie Williams) even went over to say something to Darren and Chris and altho I have no idea what he said to them, he must have been trying to calm everyone down.

 
While checking Facebook that night, I ran across this from Darren's FB wall:

"Here's the story as all sorts of stuff getting thrown around.. Rodney was been a little disrespectful first 4 racks of match and nonstop talking when at the table, the Europeans guys were drinking so they started to talk back at him and he eventually took the bait.. He said something to me about our fans ..I just told him you brought it all on yourself and then he offered me outside in the parking lot ..I just simply replied grow up and it all spilled over for a while.. Rodney actually thought I said something different which I didn't.. I don't know what he was saying after as I couldn't hear him maybe you guys did,, anyway later he apologized to me ..it's all heat of the battle .."

The psychological parts of handling pressure is interesting to me.  And we were lucky we were afforded the opportunity to get an explanation and to hear the different perspectives.  Emotions run high.  Things get carried away.  People see things from a different set of glasses being under the gun and upset. 

I hadn't seen the video above before reading what Darren wrote, but I thought it was nice of Darren and actually pretty cool of him to explain what happened, his version, that Rodney apologized, and he also offered the most important part:  "It's all heat of the battle."

Pretty smart thinking on Darren's part to understand why Rodney got upset (the fans and being under pressure).  I commend Darren for stepping up and explaining to the fans.  I also commend Rodney for apologizing.  Not easy to do sometimes, right?

(photos courtesy of Don Akerlow, of On The Break News magazine)