Larry "Lizard" Lisciotti

Just an update on my earlier post. I've been informed by a good friend of mine, that Larry Liscotti was indeed often called "Lizard" by his close friends. So, howdihitit, I apoligize for questioning you! You obviously knew him much better than I did! :grin:

On track with the thread...Larry Liscotti was a phenomenal pool player for decades!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Scott Lee said:
howdihitit...Why do you call him "lizard"? His nickname was "Oil Can". Lizard was another player, whose last name was Smith.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
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Larry was also called "Larry legend" sometimes, a clear reference to the hall of fame Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird.

I was there in Asbury Park, New Jersey when Larry won the PPPA World 14.1 Championship, beating the great Steve Mizerak in the final, and that's how I first became aware of Larry.

Larry had a style all his own.

I once played Lisciotti in a nine ball event in New York City and, for much of the match, he was telling me about an Italian restaurant in New York City that he really liked, telling me what he ordered, how they prepared it, and about the ambiance of the restaurant. Needless to say, I was quite keen on learning the name of this restaurant which was situated in my home town, but when I asked him at the end of our match, he said he couldn't remember it. The guy remembered every single detail of his experience at the place, but couldn't come up with its name or location. Typical Larry.

I also recall a tournament in Connecticut played at the Branford Cue and Brew in January, 1995. There's was a lot of snow on the ground, as there had been a major storm a few days earlier, but Larry, in his inimitable style, was wearing sandals and no socks, even when he walked outside. Go figure!

Larry was never anything but kind to me, and I must admit I miss him a lot. He was always fun to be around.
 
I played Larry at Snooker's during a Joss event many years ago. The match went hill-hill. I missed a relatively easy shot and Larry ran out. While packing my cues away, he turned to me and said "kid, you ain't ready to win". I was somewhat put off but after a few moments thought, I realized Larry was right! The very next year we played again at Snooker's and I beat him pretty handily. While sitting at the bar, I asked Larry if I was ready to win now. He looked at me strangely. He obviously didn't remember our last match. I explained the comment to him. He nearly fell off his seat he was laughing so hard (maybe it was the line of empty glasses in front of him). He truely was one of a kind.

Lyn
 
Dana Bufalo said:
lisciotti5qw6.jpg
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Dana, you are obviously a Lisciotti fan, as I am also. One thing bothers me though, all of these images come up as hosted by "imageshack" -- yet they appear to have simply been lifted from AZBilliards and OnePocket.org galleries and posted to imageshack. Since they were already online, there was no need to steal them, and then repost them, without any credit. You could just link to the original locations, which would show a lot more respect for the owners of the photos.
 
1pocket said:
Dana, you are obviously a Lisciotti fan, as I am also. One thing bothers me though, all of these images come up as hosted by "imageshack" -- yet they appear to have simply been lifted from AZBilliards and OnePocket.org galleries and posted to imageshack. Since they were already online, there was no need to steal them, and then repost them, without any credit. You could just link to the original locations, which would show a lot more respect for the owners of the photos.
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Who owns the photos? I recognize them from the past in the billiard news and other places before there was a onepocket.org or even an internet
 
Thank you very much

Dana Bufalo said:
Nice read....

http://www.laudizen.com/gathered/dugout_and_lisciotti.htm
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This certainly was a good read.......A great tribute to a great player....I only met LL once.....Somehow he dropped by a pool hall in San Francisco one day, aiming to stay "under the radar"....and played the proprietor. Funny, the proprietor didn't know who he was, but he gave him some action. I only recognized him from some commercial on TV proclaiming him as the "Prince of Pool." You could see right off he was a solid pool player.
 
I lived in Ct.It was always a treat to see Larry,either playing,or just working the room.When he walked in,it was like a light had just been turned on.The picture of Larry,Jim, Danny and Mike is a classic.Does anybody have the picture to post?
 
Lisciotti had eaten up the local action before he graduated from high school, but as soon as he obtained a high school diploma, he hit the road. He remembered it as the best time of his life, as there were times when he spent only US$6 on a motel room, but won thousands of dollars in a local tavern.

As a road player in the early 1970s in Charlotte, North Carolina, Lisciotti was playing nine-ball with an unknown entity for $15,000 for six-ahead (meaning one player had to score six games ahead, instead of a race to six) in order to win the money. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a black, shiny object pointing directly at his head as he was getting ready to shoot the nine-ball in the pocket. He missed the shot, as the bullet flew over his head. It happened five more times, each time Lisciotti was getting ready to shoot a game-winning shot. After missing six consecutive nine-ball shots in a row, Lisciotti had had enough and said, "If he's going to kill me, let him!" He fired the last nine-ball in the pocket with authority, but thankfully only heard a clicking sound as the gunman ran out of bullets.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Lisciotti [Retrieved 10 April 2009]

The first time I met my boyfriend, he was hanging out with Larry Lisciotti at a pro tournament in Maryland. The whole weekend was filled with laughter and fun. He was truly one of a kind. I have a couple funny Larry stories of my own, but I will share them at another time when I can spend a little time polishing them up for forum reading. :wink:
 

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two pictures of larry's tricks............

not pool tricks though

He spent several hours in a party two years or more prior and drew these "constellations" on the ceiling of a room at valley forge. I did not know it at the time it was Larry but JR informed me later or this action.
Picture017.jpg


He show me this trick. Yes no glue, just a slightly wet bottle. yes it fell and broke about 6 hours later and woke me up. :)
Picture018.jpg


Jeeves

http://www.billiardmemorabilia.com/roadrunners.html
Also here is a Link to the famous pictures we all know. Thank Dick Abbott for this piece of history
 
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macguy said:
Who owns the photos? I recognize them from the past in the billiard news and other places before there was a onepocket.org or even an internet
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The two I have on a very simple tribute to Larry page on onepocket.org were loaned to me by Mark Griffin, to whom I give credit on the page. Once they got lifted to imageshack, ain't no credit listed.

My point was, there is no need to copy those pics to imageshack -- you can just as easily post the photos here by using the same
 
playing pool in ct for the last 20 yrs i got to see Larry play quite a bit
one of his favroite sayings "GIN"
 
yes "GIN" was one of his favorite sayings and another one was "OLD BLUE OUT OF SHOOT NUMBER TWO".when he played gin,he held his cards upside down.
 
1pocket said:
The two I have on a very simple tribute to Larry page on onepocket.org were loaned to me by Mark Griffin, to whom I give credit on the page. Once they got lifted to imageshack, ain't no credit listed.

My point was, there is no need to copy those pics to imageshack -- you can just as easily post the photos here by using the same link, but to their original locations, which happens to be my website for those two, and here on AZBilliards for the other four. Just out of respect for the people that did put the investment of time, etc, to compile whatever images they did -- all for the free viewing and enjoyment by the billiard public already.[/QUOTE]

You have to superimpose something on the picture to protect yourself like your web address or something. I have pictures of myself and my wife when we were working with the Obama campaine of us with Obama. They have across the middle Getty Images. I wanted some clean copies of the pictures and I contacted Getty who hosts the photographers photos. It was going to cost me $80.00 a picture but I was free to have the copies from the website archive though. So I just put them on a disk and had nice copies made up. and the Getty logo doesn't bother me. Just add something to your photos. Thing is, those photos were probably not taken by you anyway of even the person who gave them to you. It is hard to claim some kind of ownership at this late date. Those pictures are just out there and who knows where they originally came from.
As far as how the picture were posted, few people are very sophisticated in doing that kind of thing. I doubt they meant anything by it, they just wanted to share the photos.
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Wikipedia has strict rules about adding photos to articles, and each photo one uploads must have a detailed description about its origin. Otherwise, Wikipedia bots will delete it. LOL! :embarrassed2:

Here is the link describing the variety rights to uploaded photos to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Upload
 
Here two articles written in Sports Illustrated Magazine


 August 30, 1976
Money Out Of Their Own Pockets
UNKNOWN LARRY LISCIOTTI CHALKED UP A TOURNEY FUNDED BY HIS OPPONENTS
Mike DelNagro

 June 27, 1977
A Hustler Meets An Artist
The $10,000 Challenge of Champions matched up two opposite U.S. titleholders, the ultimate gamesman Larry Lisciotti against organization man Tom Jennings
Mike DelNagro

Read article here
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1091479/index.htm
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1092545/index.htm

Read actual magazine here
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/edb/reader.html?magID=SI&issueDate=19760830&mode=reader_vault
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/edb/reader.html?magID=SI&issueDate=19770627&mode=reader_vault
 
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billiardshot said:
Here two articles written in Sports Illustrated Magazine


 August 30, 1976
Money Out Of Their Own Pockets
UNKNOWN LARRY LISCIOTTI CHALKED UP A TOURNEY FUNDED BY HIS OPPONENTS
Mike DelNagro

 June 27, 1977
A Hustler Meets An Artist
The $10,000 Challenge of Champions matched up two opposite U.S. titleholders, the ultimate gamesman Larry Lisciotti against organization man Tom Jennings
Mike DelNagro

Read article here
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1091479/index.htm
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1092545/index.htm

Read actual magazine here
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/edb/reader.html?magID=SI&issueDate=19760830&mode=reader_vault
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/edb/reader.html?magID=SI&issueDate=19770627&mode=reader_vault
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Hey, thanks for sharing those! :)
 
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