Willie Masconi story

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over60pirate

Registered
I got back into shooting, after finding a nice used table. I started thinking back to around 1962, a neighbor took his son and I (about 15 years old) to see Willie play, in Ridegwood NJ.
Incredible pool player.
The story.
When Willie decided what ball to shoot, he had a person, who would announce the shot.
It got to a point, where the guy, would announce a shot, before Willie had decided. Like telling him, what shot to take.
Well Willie had to decide on a shot, and the announcer, announced a shot. Willie said in a voice, everyone could hear, the shot he is calling. It was a very hard shot. Of course, he made it!
As I get back into playing every day, I feel lucky I got to meet such a great player.
 
B

BBL

Registered
It is amazing about mosconi. He went days without missing, and if he saw some one miss within a hour he thought they could not play. I was told this by someone I knew who passed away and use to play him.
 
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Kilgore

New member
I happen to be reading his autobiography "Willie's Game."

He talked about entering his first World Championship Tournament in Chicago, in 1933. He had just won the 2nd-place prize money of $450 in a different tournament. He used some of the money to buy a tuxedo (required attire to play in the World Champ matches), which set him back $27.50 -- and he held out a little to buy his first two-piece cue stick.

He states in his book that up to that time, he had always just pulled a stick off the wall, in whatever place he happened to be shooting -- but now he wanted his own cue. He got to Chicago a couple days early and went to find a cue maker he had heard about -- a guy named Herman Rambow, whose shop was in the basement of the Brunswick offices. Herman measured Willie for a custom cue (Willie mentions that he is a little shorter than most, and his hands are smaller than most) ... anyway, Rambow had Willie's new cue ready in time for the tournament.

Well, Willie didn't win the tournament that year. But he did catch the eye of Brunswick, and they hired him to go on a promotional tour with Ralph Greenleaf. Willie says that playing with Greenleaf day after day for months on end did wonders for his game -- "there are many ways to lose, but only one way to win, and it can take a long time to find it."

Anyway, his biography is a great little book ...
 
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