Greenleaf and Mosconi both honed their skills early playing the game of carom pool on 5'x10' tables.
They knew where the cue ball and both balls were going prior to shooting shots.
They could carom shots and hit any selected other object balls with great intent.
They could break out any balls with great precision to advance their current runs.
They could control the movement of necessary balls within fractions of an in/mm.
They were expert at sending the cue ball through the rack at all times
They were expert at caroming the cue ball off the rack or other balls to control ball movements with precision
And we wonder why they were champions?
Ralph Greenleaf: World Pocket Billiards Championship titles
• 1919 vs. Willie Mosconi
• 1919 (December) vs. Bennie Allen
• 1920 (November) vs. Arthur Woods
• 1921 (October) vs. Arthur Woods
• 1921 (December) vs. Arthur Woods
• 1922 (February) vs. Thomas Hueston
• 1922 (May) vs. Walter Franklin
• 1922 (October) vs. Bennie Allen
• 1922 (December) vs. Arthur Church
• 1923 (January) vs. Thomas Hueston
• 1924 (April) vs. Bennie Allen
• 1926 (November) vs. Erwin Rudolph
• 1928 (March) vs. Frank Taberski
• 1928 (May) vs. Andrew St. Jean
• 1929 (December) vs. Erwin Rudolph
• 1931 (December) vs. George Kelly
• 1932 (December) vs. Jimmy Caras
• 1933 (May) vs. Andrew Ponzi
• 1937 (April) vs. Andrew Ponzi
• 1937 (November) vs. Irving Crane
• 1937 (December) vs. Irving Crane
1941: Willie Mosconi wins his first World Straight Pool Championship, with seven runs of 125 balls.
Mosconi runs 100 or more balls in every fourth game he plays, against champions like Jimmy Caras and Andrew Ponzi.
Mosconi goes on to win 15 world titles from 1941-1957.
Erwin Rudolph at age 47 wins the world straight pool championship, defeating a young Irving Crane, his fifth.
Willie Hoppe defends his three cushion billiard title against Jake Schaefer Jr., but collapses while leading 429 to 380.
Hoppe, suffering with influenza, was rushed to the care of a physician. Schaefer, a true gentleman, conceded.
Hoppe had a record of 16-1. Schaefer's record was 14-3.
Other players included Jay Bozeman, Welker Cochran, Allen Hall, Joe Camacho, Art Thurnblad and Crane (Irving?).
1942: Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter becomes the "undisputed king" of pool, winning $300,000 from 1942-1948.
Lassiter earned the nickname "Wimpy" by eating 12 hot dogs and drinking 13 sodas in a single sitting.
According to Billiards Digest, Luther Lassiter is the #9 pool/billiards player of the 20th century.
Irving Crane wins the first of 24 major championships and gets revenge by defeating Erwin Rudolph for his first straight pool crown.
Willie Mosconi becomes the world straight pool champion.
1943: Andrew Ponzi becomes the world straight pool champion, defeating Willie Mosconi and Irving Crane, his third title.
Willie Mosconi becomes the world straight pool champion from 1943-1945.
1944: Willie Hoppe says WWII saved billiards, when the US army distributed 15,000 billiard tables to American troops.
Hoppe also says that he gave over 400 exhibitions for American soldiers.
Welker Cochran wins the three-cushion billiards world championship, defeating Willie Hoppe.
1945: Willie Mosconi matches Irving Crane by running 309 balls in Perth Amboy, NJ.
Welker Cochran, three cushion billiards, averages 3.00 vs. Willie Hoppe at Bensinger's Billiards in Chicago on April 15, 1945.
Cochran scored 60 points in 20 innings with an unfinished run of 16 balls.
Welker Cochran remains the world three-cushion billiards champion.
Cecil "Buddy" Hall is born in Metropolis, IL. Hall, known as "The Rifleman" would win three of the ten richest purses in pool.
Many people in the know consider Buddy Hall to be the greatest nine-ball player of all time.
In his prime, Hall gave other top pros the seven ball and usually won.
1946: Joe Davis defeats Horace Lindrum in the longest snooker tournament final on record: 145 frames over a fortnight.
This was the 15th and last world title for Joe Davis. He scored 10 centuries (runs of 100 balls) during the event.
Irving Crane becomes the world straight pool champion, defeating Willie Mosconi, his second title.
Willie Mosconi becomes the world straight pool champion.
Willie Mosconi defends his straight pool crown against Jimmy Caras in a transcontinental tour of ten cities.
Arthur Daley, writing for The New York Times, says Mosconi "plays faster and with more daring than did Greenleaf."
Willie Mosconi is the world straight pool champion from 1946-1948, defeating Irving Crane, Jimmy Caras and Andrew Ponzi.
1947: Walter Donaldson wins the first of two world snooker championships.
Willie Hoppe wins the three-cushion billiard championship and holds title for seven years, from 1947-1952.
1948: The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is founded.
Fred Davis wins the first of three world snooker championships and ten major titles.
1949: Jay Bozeman, three-cushion billiards, sets a championship record average of 2.17 (50 billiards in 23 innings).
Bozeman duplicates his feat in 1952.
Jimmy Caras becomes the world straight pool champion, over Willie Mosconi, his fifth title.
1950: Willie Hoppe, three-cushion billiards, sets a high grand tournament average of 1.333, a record.
Willie Mosconi is world straight pool champion from 1950-1953, defeating Irving Crane four times and Joe Procita twice.
Willie Mosconi, straight pool, has a high grand average of 18.34 in a tournament in Chicago on a 4½x9 table.
1951: "Champagne" Ed Kelly begins hustling at age 14.
1952: American interest in three-cushion billiards declines after Willie Hoppe's retirement with his record 51 world titles.
1953: Willie Mosconi, straight pool, sets a new record by running 322 balls in Platteville, WI.
Willie Mosconi, straight pool, sets a new record by running 355 balls in Milwaukee, WI.
Willie Mosconi, straight pool, sets a new record by running 365 balls in Wilmington, NC.
Ray Kilgore is the world three-cushion billiards champion, after Hoppe retired undefeated.
1954: Willie Mosconi, straight pool, runs 526 balls on an 8x4 table (the official record with 35 witness signatures).
Joe Procita, straight pool, runs 182 balls in a tournament in Philadelphia.
Harold Worst wins the World Three-Cushion Billiards Championship in Argentina.
Worst turned down a $15,000 bribe by mobsters and was advised to leave the country by Juan and Evita Peron.
According to Billiards Digest, Harold Worst is the #19 pool/billiards player of the 20th century.
According to Ronnie "Fast Eddie" Allen, Harold Worst was the best pool/billiards player of all time.
Harold Worst died of brain cancer, in his pool-playing prime, at the age of 37.
The year Worst died he held the three-cushion championship, two major pocket billiard championships, and won a snooker tournament.
According to Freddie "the Beard" the best players dodged Worst or demanded mortal locks ... and even then "everybody that played Worst shook."
1955: Irving Crane becomes the world straight pool champion, defeating Willie Mosconi, his third.
Willie Mosconi becomes the world straight pool champion from 1955-1957.
1956: Willie Mosconi has a "perfect inning" by running 150 balls in one inning against "Cowboy" Jimmy Moore in Kinston, NC.
1957: Willie Mosconi wins the last of his record 19 world straight pool championships.