So I had this thing happen this past summer, and it has kinda been bugging ever since. Whenever I mention it to someone that isn't pool literate I always get the strangest look like are you f-ing serious? So I thought I'd ask for an opinion:
Earlier this year, this past summer I had a chance to make a "donation" and play one of the old time pros a game of 8 ball . I broke dry and he had been playing pretty good and looked like he would just run out but he missed. Maybe he lost focus or was bored or whatever, but I found myself with a peculiar delima. What do I do? I surveyed the table and I felt that I could run out fairly easily, but if I did I'd be exposing one of the hero's of the game as something other than a hero, someone that was now mostly old. Someone that obviously didn't possess the game he once did but was still pretty good none the less. There was a choice to be made. Sandbagging? Not in my nature, but not really. We'd likely never play again under any circumstances and there'd never be any money involved anyways. There was always the chance that I'd miss if I just played it out, but I felt pretty good, so I didn't think so.
I could shoot, and possibly undress one of the most respected greats of the game and a personal hero of mine or I could lay off and continue to remember him with some reverence....
I chose the latter. There are far to few hero's left in the world and I certainly wasn't going to remove one from my memory, besides, I'd never be the player he once was and me winning that game, if I did, would have meant very little. When he sunk the 8, we smiled and shook hands and I gladly accepted his autograph and his time for a photograph of he and I together. As I was leaving he put his hand on my shoulder and said thank you. I guess I'll always wonder if that was for the donation or something that we both knew inside. What he has been to me since I started playing pool will remain with me forever.
Did I do the right thing?
Earlier this year, this past summer I had a chance to make a "donation" and play one of the old time pros a game of 8 ball . I broke dry and he had been playing pretty good and looked like he would just run out but he missed. Maybe he lost focus or was bored or whatever, but I found myself with a peculiar delima. What do I do? I surveyed the table and I felt that I could run out fairly easily, but if I did I'd be exposing one of the hero's of the game as something other than a hero, someone that was now mostly old. Someone that obviously didn't possess the game he once did but was still pretty good none the less. There was a choice to be made. Sandbagging? Not in my nature, but not really. We'd likely never play again under any circumstances and there'd never be any money involved anyways. There was always the chance that I'd miss if I just played it out, but I felt pretty good, so I didn't think so.
I could shoot, and possibly undress one of the most respected greats of the game and a personal hero of mine or I could lay off and continue to remember him with some reverence....
I chose the latter. There are far to few hero's left in the world and I certainly wasn't going to remove one from my memory, besides, I'd never be the player he once was and me winning that game, if I did, would have meant very little. When he sunk the 8, we smiled and shook hands and I gladly accepted his autograph and his time for a photograph of he and I together. As I was leaving he put his hand on my shoulder and said thank you. I guess I'll always wonder if that was for the donation or something that we both knew inside. What he has been to me since I started playing pool will remain with me forever.
Did I do the right thing?
