Haha. Yes the wording of it. Check pornhub.
Bill Stroud pool stories................
- Thread starter garczar
- Start date
Just my opinion and its not worth all that much. I remember the contest and it seemed like a great gesture and something fun for the forum. I got to see Bill a few times during the last years of his life here in Phoenix. He was a "different" guy who marched to his own beat.
Bill said he was going to be moving out to Arizona and was going to really get back into the game. He walked up to Scott Frost and I and said he was going to be coming to AZ and he was going to beat Scott even. Bill was dead serious and not kidding around. This was at Derby or something like that I, Scott and I just looked at one another in disbelief. Bill did end up coming out and did play, never the big gambling match with Scott that he barked about.
I know he tried to get back into the mix of playing getting in some one pocket tournaments at Kolby's and some friendly action. I think his failing health and the newer tougher equipment did not allow him to play some serious gambling action like he wanted to as he did in his best years. I did find Bill to be friendly and had some good conversations. I always enjoy talking with the old timers and hearing their stories whether tall tales or not, it's like time traveling.
I remember about 10 years ago Eric Crisp of SugarTree cues said he was going to make me a cue as a sponsor for my doing a live stream in Vegas of Borana and OMGWTF when they played for some coin. I was really excited about it but never got the cue. I don't hold it against him and would not judge him harshly on that because I know many people speak highly of him as a cuemaker and person so he is well regarded. I met him at the event and he seemed like a nice guy, shit happens.
I would not let the cue contest thing from 10 years back define Bill's legacy and outside of the forum in the pool world he does have a good reputation. Not sure if he is in the cue maker hall of fame yet but he should be. I think forgiveness goes a long way. I have my own regrets with Grady and how I gave him the business on here about playing a big money match he barked about when he was in Phoenix. He was at his end and I was being a bit of a prick as I was too short sighted to see what really counted and that is integrity.
RIP Bill. RIP Grady. Eric I am not mad at you.
Bill said he was going to be moving out to Arizona and was going to really get back into the game. He walked up to Scott Frost and I and said he was going to be coming to AZ and he was going to beat Scott even. Bill was dead serious and not kidding around. This was at Derby or something like that I, Scott and I just looked at one another in disbelief. Bill did end up coming out and did play, never the big gambling match with Scott that he barked about.
I know he tried to get back into the mix of playing getting in some one pocket tournaments at Kolby's and some friendly action. I think his failing health and the newer tougher equipment did not allow him to play some serious gambling action like he wanted to as he did in his best years. I did find Bill to be friendly and had some good conversations. I always enjoy talking with the old timers and hearing their stories whether tall tales or not, it's like time traveling.
I remember about 10 years ago Eric Crisp of SugarTree cues said he was going to make me a cue as a sponsor for my doing a live stream in Vegas of Borana and OMGWTF when they played for some coin. I was really excited about it but never got the cue. I don't hold it against him and would not judge him harshly on that because I know many people speak highly of him as a cuemaker and person so he is well regarded. I met him at the event and he seemed like a nice guy, shit happens.
I would not let the cue contest thing from 10 years back define Bill's legacy and outside of the forum in the pool world he does have a good reputation. Not sure if he is in the cue maker hall of fame yet but he should be. I think forgiveness goes a long way. I have my own regrets with Grady and how I gave him the business on here about playing a big money match he barked about when he was in Phoenix. He was at his end and I was being a bit of a prick as I was too short sighted to see what really counted and that is integrity.
RIP Bill. RIP Grady. Eric I am not mad at you.
Well said Lenny, life is to short to hold on to negative thoughts.....
I know that's an option but I'd rather have a cue Bill built as a wrapless. There is a 66 Nova on ebay now which somebody raised up and put big wheels on it and chopped the roof. When I saw it I thought why would anybody do that to a 66 Nova. That's kind of how I feel about putting a Meucci style plastic cover over a JW.
To date I've only been able to locate one JW wrapless and the owner doesn't want to part with it.
Never seen one.
Make that two. I have one.
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Go ahead, give me your number.
No response huh? Well I guess we see who the real keyboard warrior is. Getting cancer doesn't excuse wretched behavior. It especially doesn't excuse lying about it for years and keeping the guy hanging on expecting something that was promised
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I respect that you give him credit for a life of dedication to the pool world; however, there's simply no excuse for lying to someone and ignoring them for years while all the while they're expecting you to follow through on what you said you'd do. I thought his cues were amazing and I'm sad that one of, if not the final act in the pool world for him was this disgraceful lack of character.
When I first responded I didn't know he had passed and my intention was to not let him forget. That's always been my intention.
When I was informed in this thread that he had passed I let my pride and my belief that death doesn't make your mistakes go away get in the way and I doubled down. In retrospect, I realize that there's no need to keep it going now that he's gone since my intention was to keep reminding HIM of it and I apologize for keeping it going.
I'm a man who can acknowledge my mistakes and that was a mistake, once I found out he was gone I should've let it go.
Now that being said, I will defend my position on it being wrong for him to have not come clean years ago and not string the winner along to my own grave and I have no problem stating my case to anyone's face.
Jaden
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Very good sir. All of us have made mistakes. Very few own them though and try to do better. Take care of yourself.
Just my opinion and its not worth all that much. I remember the contest and it seemed like a great gesture and something fun for the forum. I got to see Bill a few times during the last years of his life here in Phoenix. He was a "different" guy who marched to his own beat.
Bill said he was going to be moving out to Arizona and was going to really get back into the game. He walked up to Scott Frost and I and said he was going to be coming to AZ and he was going to beat Scott even. Bill was dead serious and not kidding around. This was at Derby or something like that I, Scott and I just looked at one another in disbelief. Bill did end up coming out and did play, never the big gambling match with Scott that he barked about.
I know he tried to get back into the mix of playing getting in some one pocket tournaments at Kolby's and some friendly action. I think his failing health and the newer tougher equipment did not allow him to play some serious gambling action like he wanted to as he did in his best years. I did find Bill to be friendly and had some good conversations. I always enjoy talking with the old timers and hearing their stories whether tall tales or not, it's like time traveling.
I remember about 10 years ago Eric Crisp of SugarTree cues said he was going to make me a cue as a sponsor for my doing a live stream in Vegas of Borana and OMGWTF when they played for some coin. I was really excited about it but never got the cue. I don't hold it against him and would not judge him harshly on that because I know many people speak highly of him as a cuemaker and person so he is well regarded. I met him at the event and he seemed like a nice guy, shit happens.
I would not let the cue contest thing from 10 years back define Bill's legacy and outside of the forum in the pool world he does have a good reputation. Not sure if he is in the cue maker hall of fame yet but he should be. I think forgiveness goes a long way. I have my own regrets with Grady and how I gave him the business on here about playing a big money match he barked about when he was in Phoenix. He was at his end and I was being a bit of a prick as I was too short sighted to see what really counted and that is integrity.
RIP Bill. RIP Grady. Eric I am not mad at you.
Nice post Lenny. Sometimes, many times, people say things and don't follow through. It happens to the best of us. I know I've done it a few times. You have to look at someone on balance. If someone does this all day every day, then they get the deserved reputation as a bull-shitter. We all know people like that. Other people will have just a rare occasion like that. And then most people are somewhere in-between.
That whole DYD contest was weird to me. I only checked into the main thread of it once in a while, as I don't really have an artistic touch to design anything fancy. The main takeaways I recall from it, is Bill kept asking for "out of the box" designs, when people were submitting sketches, and he would tell them "this is not out of the box". (I'm paraphrasing of course from 10-15 year old memory). When the winning cue was selected, I was actually shocked. It looked almost like any other cue. Nothing that special about it to me. And in the aftermath, it was discovered the member who submitted that cue, had already had it built by someone else when he submitted it. The whole thing was weird. I also recall, the winning member had come on here and said he was square with Bill a while later. I don't recall if he gave the details, or maybe he decided to forget about it, but he said he was ok with everything.
I lived in N. CA in the late '70s and appreciated the nice design and product reputation of Joss West Cues with the basic 4-point that some top players I'd see at Terry Stonier's events were using I had Bill make one for me in '78, and I loved the cue. It was stolen a few years later, and I paid Bill $600 in 1986 to make the same 4-point cue w/ 3 shafts. In the early '90s, while working at the BCA, my '86 JW was looking a little worn, so I called Bill again to see how much he'd charge me for a replacement cue. He quoted me "$2,500" ! This didn't entirely surprise me, as I understand market conditions a bit, but I responded "Bill, I'm not a cue collector trying to build a fancy cue collection; I just want a good-playing cue." He came back with - "OK, John, for you, I'll make it for $1,000." I was pleased with that response, but decided to keep playing with my '86 cue. I'm not one to spend a ton for a cue if I don't have to. These days, I'm an old fart, and I only get to play one month each year due to my ACS tasks taking up so much of my time. But I still use that '86 JW with an elk master tip...and I still - with that old cue that has held up so well -play pretty sharp.
Bill set up a booth at the '94 WCs in Arlington Heights IL, and I got to spend a little time chatting him up during the week. He seemed to want to spend more time on the practice table knocking balls around next to his booth than actually working his booth, but I guess everyone knew of Bill and his cues, so he'd attract attention if anyone desired to approach him re: cue orders. He seemed a bit of a "different" character, but likable enough. I lived in Co. Sprgs. CO when the BCA moved there in 2000, after Bill had moved away, but I did hear the stories that he'd win 90% of his league matches when he lived there, and the league had some pretty stout players in it. And I'd always heard of the hustling stories when Bill and Danny Janes traveled the road together, and Bill would wear mismatched shirts and pants to attract the suckers. I was very sad to hear of Bill's passing. He deserved the high cue-making reputation he earned! - John Lewis
Bill set up a booth at the '94 WCs in Arlington Heights IL, and I got to spend a little time chatting him up during the week. He seemed to want to spend more time on the practice table knocking balls around next to his booth than actually working his booth, but I guess everyone knew of Bill and his cues, so he'd attract attention if anyone desired to approach him re: cue orders. He seemed a bit of a "different" character, but likable enough. I lived in Co. Sprgs. CO when the BCA moved there in 2000, after Bill had moved away, but I did hear the stories that he'd win 90% of his league matches when he lived there, and the league had some pretty stout players in it. And I'd always heard of the hustling stories when Bill and Danny Janes traveled the road together, and Bill would wear mismatched shirts and pants to attract the suckers. I was very sad to hear of Bill's passing. He deserved the high cue-making reputation he earned! - John Lewis
The world looks a lot different when you stare death in the face. Dropping to what that cue should cost just for time and materials with zero name value was a very class act even if it never came to be. None of us are perfect and I have a hard time seeing Bill as deeply flawed for failing in this one thing. I have failed in a few things over the years. Not my fault or the other person's, just a "stuff happens" thing. What was possible became impossible.
Hu
Have you ever been close to someone with cancer? My wife had breast cancer in 2019 and her hair still hasn't fully grown back. She was in extreme pain from the chemo. She broke her arm in 2020 and said the pain from that was nothing compared to chemo.
Either you don't know what you're talking about or you have no compassion. I think the word for someone who has no concern for the suffering of others is sociopath.
When Bill was getting back into the game and posting on one pocket.org how good he was playing, I ran into him at Derby City and asked him to play. He told me he did not want to play other old players, he wanted to play good young players and told me he had a match set up with Jeremy Jones at Bank Shots in Louisville. I told him to hold off on our game until I found out how he did in that spot. I found out later they played cheap.
I don’t know if I could have beat him, but wanted to find out and I would have bet something. He was a good guy with a huge ego ( Most of us do), and I don’t think he wanted to take a chance that someone a few years older might beat him.
I don’t know if I could have beat him, but wanted to find out and I would have bet something. He was a good guy with a huge ego ( Most of us do), and I don’t think he wanted to take a chance that someone a few years older might beat him.
billy gave me 4 hit and the pick
or the break and pick 4 and i struggled to break even ,so i thinl you were probably lucky he din't play
billy didn't leave a lot of survivors
you could find out the answer to your lingering doubt by playing ne,
but i sold my table and have not hit a ballin months
or the break and pick 4 and i struggled to break even ,so i thinl you were probably lucky he din't play
billy didn't leave a lot of survivors
you could find out the answer to your lingering doubt by playing ne,
but i sold my table and have not hit a ballin months
If you sold your table and haven’t played in months I definitely want to play you!
Does anyone have a link to the original contest? I’m not trying to rub any salt in the wound of the one guy who seems so pissed about this, I’d just like to see what kind of designs people came up with. There’s a few folks here who would do a hell of a job I’d think. And I’m curious to what design won.
Stroud's original "Design Your Dream" thread: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/design-your-dream.203626/
I thought you were old enough to know that "not playing" is part of every pool player's greeting, even before last year.
And, as Roger Allen told me once after not playing for a few months, as he's running a small package on someone, "Just because I haven't been playing, doesn't mean I forgot how".