Who Was Better? Then, Or Now?:
Quote Jay:
Freddy, you and I know that high speed pool is as much about heart and character, as it is about stroke and ball pocketing ability. Who can pull the trigger when all the cash is on the line. There is a reason these guys are legends.
Ronnie, Kelly, Red, Richie, Denny. They were poolplayers! As good as any that ever lived, Filipino, German or otherwise.
And I'll go to my grave believing that.
Jay, here is an excerpt from my upcoming book, The GosPool According To The Beard, and my take on "Who was better.":
Players of my era would destroy players of today. Bugs, Ronnie Allen, Jersey Red, Artie Bodendorfer, Boston Shorty, Eddie Taylor, Cincinnati Clem Metz, etc., were vicious killers who would shark*, cheat, psyche, and even tush-hog* their opponents in order to win. Now consider this. Players of the 30s and 40s would probably destroy the players of my era! Marcel Camp, Gene Skinner, The Eufala Kid, John "Rags" Fitzpatrick, Johnny "Irish" Lineen, New York Fats, Hubert Cokes, Alton "Baby-Face" Whitlow, Tommy the Greek, James Evans, Isadore"Pony" Rosen, et al., played even harder than the Ronnie Allen-era boys. The economic conditions necessary to develop players of that determination and ferocity are no longer present. Depression-era players were hungry wolves, whose level of concentration was nail-bending. Economics of the 50s, 60s and early 70s, while they didn't rival the Depression years, were nonetheless hard times. When I was coming up, a good bite* from a fellow pool player was a buck ($1) or a deuce ($2). We missed many meals and some nights had to carry the banner*, and wound up in the bus station or an all-night movie. City buses were the standard mode of transportation. Only a few players had cars. If you had as much as three barrels* to play someone with, you were a fortunate man. We didn't care if we had a "good" game or not. Who should beat who, was not a major concern. Arbitrary skill handicapping went out the window. Our real concern was that our opponent had money that he was willing to lose. A really "good" game was when you had ten dollars and your opponent had a hundred.
the Beard