Exclusive
Darts1 interview
with George Silberzahn

How would you think has the skill of the players developed? Are the American players better now then when you did start to play?

Of course they are. But not by much. When I'd hit a fifteen dart game it was a win. Today, not so certain, but still probable. I'm an advocate for a person being as good as the company you keep. The realisation that twelve dart games can be made on a somewhat frequent basis in the group of people you associate with, and experiencing that happening against you, redefines your horizon for how good you can be and your can rise to that level.

Would you say darts is a popular sport now in America or is it still some kind of exotic sport?

We'd need to explain popular. There are more people playing darts in American than in the past without doubt so in that sense it is more popular. It does not attract the attention of big time sports, and may never. The real reason is because it must be played in such a small venue and the venue is out of favor with most Americans at this time. The heart beat of darts is the closeness of the competition. One misplayed dart can mean disaster but that is lost on TV. A lot of sports lose that emotional connection when seen on TV but the difference here is a lot of people watching one of those sports on TV have experienced that sport in person so already know the tingle of excitement. Not so with darts.

How came it you wrote your book?

This could take another book. I've written three books, well, two pamphlets and a book. I'll skip some details. I self published my second pamphlet "Mastering The Sport Of Darts" and put it up for sale in the Bulls Eye magazine. I received a phone call from someone who said they'd written a book on dart history "To The Point The story of darts in America" and he wanted to publish my book. I wrote a pamphlet, not a book!!! Any way, I asked what it took to be a book and was told it had to be at least fifty pages. Mine was twenty four. There is no money to speak of, in books on darts, so it wasn't like this was an opportunity for riches or anything. I was ready to pass it off. Then one day, coming back from lunch with my friend Joe Baltadonis I had a thought. All the great American darts players I heard of had faded away into dart lore and all the ones I knew were getting to the age where it would be their turn pretty soon, so why not take advantage of this stroke of luck that fell out of the sky? I was not going to write some junk, which fills a lot of dart books, just to fill the thing out to book size, but this idea, and the things I'd picked up during my 'come back' (I'd been out of darts for eighteen years) would make for some good information from which someone else could benefit.

>> Flight School basics