9ball safety...I appreciate your sensible question, and I will answer it as best I can....RA and I played quite regularly, for over 50 years...When we first started playing, he was about 21, and I was 25.. He was by far the better 1P player, and he could easily give me 2 or 3 balls..I had a little the best of it, playing him 9 ball or golf in those early years, so we did not always play only 1P. He was very active in the pool world, wheras I always had a job or a business, and did not often stray far from home.
As I fell in love with, and began to learn one pocket, (mostly from him) the game changed, to where I progressed from getting 9/7, to 10/8 to 8/7, and eventually our regular game became 9/8...We exchanged a lot of $$$$, in those years..We also became drinking buddies, and I am sure he wound up ahead of me, but not the billion dollars he always liked to claim !
...When we reached our early 60's, his game deteriorated much faster than mine, (due to his health) and I became the favorite, playing even, and I extracted a little revenge !
As for Scott, I was already in my mid-60's when he first came to Phoenix. (Scott is about 35 yrs. my junior) For a while, I could hold my own with him, but he improved rapidly, and eventually, he got to where he could give me 4-5 balls, and usually win... Except playing 1P on a 6 X 12 snooker table..I still had the best of that, 'til I just got too old to compete !
Thats pretty much the whole story..Except for a 20 yr. hiatus from pool, that I took from about age 40 to 60...Thanks for your interest !
SJD
