If someone spends most of their spare time on a pool table shooting spot shots, they might get pretty good at it. Some people could throw coins into the slot of a pay phone (when those antiques still existed). And you may want to review Smorgassbored's story about the guy who knocked over the head pin on a bowling lane by throwing one card at a time from a standard deck of 52.
Throwing coins into a slot of a payphone. If I sat there all day throwing quarters at it, I'm sure one will go in. Like the spot shot record, it's consistency that makes this impressive, not luck. Throw 3 in a row into the pay phone... that's incredible but I doubt its possible.
And the 1000+ was a personal record and not a standard challenge. One of the witnesses said he frequently ran 200 or 300.
300 I believe, especially after seeing that girl go on that spot shot run in that training video that was posted not too long ago. (She ran 140, video here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDz9Hqj9KUU&feature=youtu.be) 1000+, still dont believe it.
Don't get me wrong, it's cool to have the stories and tall tales like this for pool and life in general. It challenges people to push the boundaries of what is possible and what isn't.
There are no videos of Mosconi shooting the 526 but I believe it did happen, and that pushed John to beat that record. Like that record though, there has to be some type of belief for someone to want to go after it and try to beat it. You tell me 1000+ spot shots... that's insane and not believable, but it makes me want to see how many I can do... then sadly give up after not getting past 4 on multiple attempts.