I'll once again clarify Mosconi's book. By the way it is our bible, it was mine, as it was for all generations dating back to 1948 when it was first wrote. Mosconi of course was sponsored as were the other greats by Brunswick which controlled the newly formed Billiard Congress of America pool organization in 1948.
The rules in the Mosconi's book is, and I repeat, are the Billiard Congress of America rules, he is under contract, and he could not of course wrote anything else. They were also not allowed to play in any other tournaments that were not BCA sponsored.
I further studied our founding father of rules, Michael Phalen's rules, and discovered the rule of a ball frozen to the cue ball as a shot was listed in his 1858 book on rules. So this spotting rule may, and most likely date back to this, for as we know the first world championship of Line Up pool was in 1878, whereas balls are spotted in the fashion as a modern day spotting rule, on the long string. The only difference is now they leave a gap when the cue ball interferes.
Like I previously stated; millions upon millions of balls have been spotted frozen to balls, including the cue ball, and so back in the day of our greatest players, and going back to the great era of DeOro, they spotted balls this way. It is no big deal for me, for that is the way I spotted balls, and so did everyone else at that time. I stop playing in '73, so my memory is not clouded over many years of playing. This rule change is the first assault upon a long standing rule, that I know of. Since there have been others.
But, this is a mute subject, for Steve is not going there, he has made that very clear. The official rules are not going there.
I only bring this up, for I do not want the facts to be misconstrued. I actually wish I would of never ever brought it up, what is now 3 or so years ago.
But, it does represent history of how OP use to be played! So that is always a good thing!
You guys need to concentrate on the rules before you, for you only have a few days left to try and get in your favorable or non favorable points regarding each rule. If you want something changed or added to a rule, or if you are unclear what a rule intent is, or if it needs more clarity, now is the time. Otherwise we have nothing to base any further rule re-views on. thank you!
Whitey