Great pictures Grady. First one had me in awww as I seen Bill Amedeo. I met him in Florida at Bakers Billiards back in the 80's. Steve Cook played there all the time also. They were both very nice people to meet.
You should post a thread just like this in the history of pool forum here !
The first time I ever met Grady Mathews was at Bakers in Tampa. It was in the late '70s or early '80s. I can't remember. I was with a road player named Geese who had just gone busted inside. He got invovled in a ring game of 9-ball on a snooker table, I think it was, and hardly ever got to shoot. He just kept paying out after each win without getting a chance to hit a ball. Each time it was his turn to shoot, he didn't have a clear shot. It was brutal.
Geese stormed out of the pool room with his cue in hand, angry as a hornet. I grabbed his case and ran after him. When we got outside by the front door, he took his cuestick and threw it on the ground with all his might. The veins of his neck popped out, just like a pterodactyl, and his eyes were on fire. :angry:
I immediately began to have visions of a Greyhound bus station, wondering, first, how I would get there; second, where was the nearest Western Union; and third, how long it would take me to get back home on a bus. :frown:
Suddenly, from around the corner came this tall gentleman who happened to know my friend. He bent down, picked up the cuestick, dusted it off, and handed it to Geese, stating, "You shouldn't do that to your stick. What's the matter, friend?" Well, he had a soothing effect on Geese, lucky for me. :canoodle:
All of us later went out to dinner later that evening. Grady was driving one of those Cadillacs with pointed tail lights. I remember he had a baby pitbull in the car with him. :grin-square:
Ah, the good ol' days! Anybody who's ever been gambling with Geese realizes that he was a superstitious gambler. When he won, he was the most generous person in the world, giving everybody who was with him a jelly roll just for being there, but when he lost, well, let's just say it wasn't a comfortable environment to be in.



:wink::smile: