Pro players' "other" jobs

Dave714

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Well in the old days a lot of road players, also we’re the people who hit horse track by day, gamble on pool at night. Made a enough to live, but never accumulated a much else. Living in the come that sometime lead to sleeping in their car.
Who wants that life?
 

sjm

Older and Wiser
Silver Member
Two very special players of the past were educators.

a) BCA Hall of Famer Steve Mizerak was an English teacher in New Jersey
b) Two time US Open 14.1 Champion Tom Jennings was a college professor of mathematics in New Jersey

Back in the day, we used to joke that one should be wary of gambling at pool with New Jersey educators.
 
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logical

Loose Rack
Silver Member
I'd think a player could do just fine if he had the right type of personality. I'll provide examples:

Take a guy like Chris Robinson. Everywhere I've seen him go, he makes friends. He could easily travel the country to any tournament he wants, stay with locals for free, give lessons while in town, and find cheap action that he's NEVER going to lose at.

Now take a guy like Danny Harriman.

:D
Chris doesn't have Ketchup commercial residuals coming in, he needs to still work.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

alstl

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
There have been a few whose side job was the loan business. Repaying the loan is a different story. Good work if you can get it.
 

hang-the-9

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Weenie Beenie has a chain of hot dog stands I think. Donnie Mills is called "car lot" for obvious reasons. I think many people have said Donnie was the best player with a full time job hehe.
 

arnaldo

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
There have been a few whose side job was the loan business. Repaying the loan is a different story. Good work if you can get it.
Freddy Bentivegna often quoted the reply Grady gave when asked if ever thought about getting a job:

"Why would I get a job? Hell, I can easily borrow $100 a day."


Arnaldo
 

maha

from way back when
Silver Member
most sports only the very very top make a great living or enough of one at all. and the weaker the sport is for drawing advertising the less they all make.
pool is far down on that list and will always be.
 

maha

from way back when
Silver Member
most anyone can get by in the world without working at a job. the idea is to live better than subsistence, and to be able to save for greater things in life. like a house and a comfortable retirement. pool doesn't lend itself to supplying those kind of things.
 

Ken_4fun

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
most sports only the very very top make a great living or enough of one at all. and the weaker the sport is for drawing advertising the less they all make.
pool is far down on that list and will always be.
I dont remember what pool magazine I wrote the article comparing golf and pool players. At that time, the 100th golf player made more money than the #1 pool player at that time.

So IMO your statement is wrong, I would say most professional sports players make a significant living, other than pool players.

Ken
 

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
So IMO your statement is wrong, I would say most professional sports players make a significant living, other than pool players. ...
This may be true at the top, but there are a lot of minor league/semi-pro players in the "major" sports who have off-season jobs or even full time jobs. On the PGA listings, #235 played in 10 events and won $12,000.

And yes, golf is rich. In 2019 #100 on the money list (Chris Stroud) earned over $1M playing in 26 events.
 

maha

from way back when
Silver Member
and so many more pro golfers than pro pool players. ** and the sport has more advertising dollars that comes in and that's why more can earn more.**
and the 100th top pro golfer is one of the very very pro top golfers in the country.
my statement is correct if you use the total statement rather than one sentence in it.
do you think the 100th golfer would make a living if the sport only paid out what pool does.
 
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