A copy-and-paste. Pool tale about Rudolph Wanderone aka Minnesota Fats by Keith McCready:
"I think I was the last guy that he played for money before he passed.
"I was in St. Louis competing in a pool tournament when I was about 19 or 20. Many of the best pool players of that era were in attendance, including Ronnie Allen who was good friends with the fat man. I was the up-and-coming star at this time, my game not even at its peak, and Fats, I believe out of curiosity, wanted to see how good I played. He had been hearing about this young kid from California, and Ronnie, with his usual gift of gab, got the game going.
"I was one of the very few privileged individuals given this opportunity to gamble with Minnesota, as he liked to be called, and what a show it was, one of the best times I have ever had in my life and something that I will never forget.
"I played him a nickel a game, 8 to 7, one-pocket, and then I spotted him 10 to 8 playing banks. He was a perfect gentleman, very funny, and the games were all pretty close. We were cutting up with each other, and if you think I'm funny, you should have seen him. He was the ultimate entertainer when he was at the table, a real crowd-pleaser, and this was a very unique show between a living legend and a kid. 'How do you like me now, Junior?' he would bellow out after making a good shot. And then as he would approach his next shot, he would turn to the crowd and make gestures towards me.
"I ate it up, laughing just as hard, if not harder, as everybody else. The whole joint was pulling for Fatty, which I don't blame them. If I wasn't playing, I would have been rooting for him too.
"I ended up beating him out of 8 dimes, and he paid me off: $4,000 in five-hundred-dollar bills and the rest in C-notes. He autographed every single one of those five-hundred-dollar bills as he handed them to me. They were priceless, and I sure do wish I still had them.
"I was on the road with a guy named Charlie the Ape then, and for whatever reason, Charlie went south with my winnings, stealing every single one of those signed five-hundred-dollar bills. But there is one thing that nobody can ever take away from me, and that is this wonderful memory, one I will always cherish, of playing Rudolph Wanderone a/k/a Minnesota Fats.
"Years later, I was living in Nashville, and word came out that Fats was very ill and in the hospital. I went to see him and he knew who I was, and even though he didn't feel good, he still maintained his sense of humor. He was talking about old times, laughing and smirking. A week later, he passed."
While Fats is long gone, his larger-than-life stories live on, much like this pool thread on Facebook. What separated Minnesota Fats from the rest was his ability to promote himself wherever he went and leave people with a smile on their faces. It's a different pool world today, I guess, and there will never be another pool entertainer like Fats.
