Nice write up and great memory.
About 20 years ago I was in a tourney in Denver. I met a gentelman that introduced himself as
Georgia boy, he was maybe in his 70's and a black man. He was not playing in the event but after he challenged me to a match of straight pool for $200. I had been playing all day and actually won the tourney, but I turned him down. This player owned a Balabushka cue and let me check it out.
I bet there have been a few Georgia boy Nick names but I wonder if it was the player you are referring to?
Could well have been. The Georgia Boy I met at McGirr's in the early 70's was a Black guy who then appeared to be in his early 30's, and was spoken of by the other players with a tone of real respect. I once actually played him some cheap $5 nine ball for about half an hour before confirming that he was out of my league. The next day, I ran into a Newark hustler named Ron Thomas, whom I knew from Washington's Brunswick Billiards, and after I'd told him about my match, he just laughed and said "
Do you know who you were playing? That must've been Georgia Boy". Until then I'd never heard of him, but since then I've never forgotten him or his name.
I wish I'd known the name of this little Puerto Rican guy who also took me to school, also at McGirr's. He was probably in his late 30's, with a weather beaten face, couldn't have been more than maybe 5'2" at most, couldn't have weighed much more than 100 pounds, but when it came to position play in nine ball, he was right up there on Buddy Hall's level. In the entire time I played him, I don't think he ever got out of line on a single shot. It was a thing of beauty. But I never got his name.
There was one other McGirr's player I matched up with, a fat and thoroughly obnoxious guy in a dirty white T-shirt. His name may have been Steve, but I'm not 100% sure. I played him nine ball on the front table for a solid two hours and broke even, and I pulled up only because the aggra was just too much----talking while I was shooting, cursing if he dogged a shot, etc. I saw him a few years later at Randolph Hills in Rockville, Maryland, where he was trying to give "Little Petey" Goldsmith the 8 on the tightest table in the house. That table took down a lot of road players, and Petey had this McGirr's import cursing every few seconds. After he went broke and left I told Petey about my experience with him at McGirr's, and Petey said he wasn't surprised.
