George Fels got a great many things wrong over the years and this one is the last straw. Bob didn't dominate Red on the 10-footer, he simply had the edge until his serious injury. Red had the edge from then on. Bob was second great pool player I'd ever seen when he replaced the great Arthur Rubin as manager of the Yorkville billiard Academy; that was when i was still in my teens (Mosconi in 1953 or 1954 was first).
I was already upset over you telling me how you were finished with educational writings many years ago so I would be willing to teach you a few things about fundamentals in pool. Remember when I gave you over an hour of instruction on how to stand at Cutopia in front of several witnesses and Fred Guarino?
You didn't know the first thing about how to stand or stroke but wrote books and instructional articles. Your instruction did get somewhat better since that session with me; it had to. You promised not to divulge anything i'd taught you and yet went ahead and used much of what you learned that day. You knew I wouldn't teach you anything otherwise. You recall your reply to this upset over the phone with me? Your justification was that I must have things to be ashamed of as well.
Amazing how someone who was never everany kind of player to speak of and could make up so much about great players of the past. All you ever saw was Chicago! I've learned of many George Fels incidents since I first got to Chicago including the large number of house cues you broke where housemen couldn't see in back of Bensingers with each of your many losses, the cue-butt over the head, and so on and just recently came across people who remember these things. I've never told anybody about anything that could possibly cause you embarrassment despite your previous lies about me in hopes you would eventually straighten up.
And now disputing what I say about my first teacher, Bob Myers, and then saying you had learned these things from me--this is just a bit too much. Guys who hung around 711 knew Red dominated one-pocket on the 10 footer but that was in the 60s. Jersey Red who played as well as he ever played in late 50s (though quite young) was the better one-pocket player BUT ONLY AFTER GIGOLO JOE BUSTED BOB IN THE FACE WITH THE BUTT OF HIS CUE CAUSING VERY SERIOUS INJURY INCLUDING FRACTURED JAW! That was well known in the 50s.
Bob was superior to Red at 9-ball and snooker as well as one-pocket and could win giving out larger spots in any game than Red would even attempt. I just don't know enough about 14.1 or 3-cushion though I’d played Red plenty back then. I needed big spots in all games because I was not yet much of a player. It is so easy to say whatever you wish so many years after the fact; you are not the only guy rewriting history of pool and I find it shameful and wish more people who know better had the courage to indicate truth when writers take advantage of their position as you do. Not easy to tell the truth about a columnist in one of the three main mags who continually makes up things and so you get away with it.
Jersey Red became one of the top pool players in the world but never the very best at anything. He did become the dominant one-pocket player in NY on 5 x 10 after the 50s, but never on the 9-foot tables. Shorty actually had the edge over him there. In fact, Red wouldn’t let Shorty ignore the one-foot-on-floor rule when he saw that he could no longer win that way even on the bigger tables. After Bob's face was busted up and Red dominated, Eddie Taylor came to town and ran over Red giving him two balls on Red’s favorite 5 x 10!
Yes, Red was a great player but there is so much you don't know. Bob did lose to the great “Squirrel” Carpenter in the 50s on the 9-footers in 711 after beating Squirrel on the larger table. For example, did you know that Squirrel robbed Red every time they played dead even. Red admitted to me that he never had a chance against Squirrel. Squirrel is still alive (and healthy with good memory I hope); somebody please find Squirrel and ask him if Red had ever won a single session with him. Red personally told me about their first session soon after his return to New York City.
By the way, though I've learned that there actually were two good players in Chicago that played ''front-to-back'', I'd never actually seen anyone play that game during my extended stay in Chicago in 1964-5, and yet you once wrote about how I'd broke even with the local guys at the game. What local guys and where? I never went anyplace else once got job to remain at Golden 8-Ball. Best players at the time were Bugs and mexican Johnny; Bugs wouldn't play after he'd seen how easily i'd handled his partner, "Youngblood" and Johnny, who beat Red the previous week getting 9-8, won but a single rack of one-pocket in our three sessions. Are you insinuating that good players would play front-to-back on an 8-footer? Guess it is possible today since the 5 x 10s are all but gone.
How can you look yourself in mirror after continually making up things as you go. I could say sooooo much more to support above statements. Thought I'd lost a few times at 3-cushion in Chicago, I never had a single loss on the pool table in all the time I was in Chicago except when on the lemon acting like I couldn't play when first got to Howard & Paulina. I could say so much more but will await your response.
Eddie Robin
