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I don't make this stuff up! ;) Rags died in 1960. The first Johnston City was in 1961 and was only a One Pocket tournament with sixteen players. "Connecticut" Johnny Vevis won it. I think he beat Marshall "Squirrel" Carpenter in the finals and Fats was third. Not 100% on that, but I know Johnny...

He made thirty 30th Anniversary cues and only two had ivory joints. He gave one of them to me. Ernie and I played Bank Pool many times, for lunch or dinner. Like me that was his favorite game.

And he still ran hundreds!

Thanks Dennis. I hung on every word that the old time guys said about who the greatest players were and why. They all revered Rags Fitzpatrick who died in 1960 at the age of 40 (Greenleaf died in 1950 at age 50). To a man they said Rags was the best of all of them! And my generation revered...

Mizerak definitely had a winning 14.1 record against Mike, who was Steve's toughest opponent. Steve was always #1 and Mike #2.

Thanks for reminding me. It's true! The old time players did not like the move down to 9' tables. They looked at them much like todays players do bar tables.

I was there the day you bought sixteen high end cues (Szams and Bushkas). Some serious coin changed hands that day. I warned you off one cue that had a defect but you bought it anyway since it was the cheapie in the lot at 6K. IMO you are one smart investor. Unlike you I was a cue "collector,"...

The BCA thinks Ten Ball is a variation of Eight Ball. :cool: The best possible Ten Ball rules are the same rules in place for 9-Ball! Absolutely the ten ball should count on the break. It's almost as hard as making the eight ball on the break. And there should be no call shot anywhere or at any...

I first went to Johnston City in 1963 and then I was hooked forever. It was three weeks long back then. I went with some pool buddies from Dayton (maybe a 500 mile drive away) and we stayed for five days, then came back home. I convinced one of them (Pat Colley) to go back with me and we...

I think Buddy was Mike's toughest game back then. They always seemed to play epic matches.

This is probably true and Willie's record in Challenge matches (usually 1,500 points) seems to verify this. The lore around the pool world when I came up in the 1960's was that Ralph Greenleaf was the best of all time and Willie was second. And that from the mouths of men who played both of them.

Maybe ten years after our playing days I ran into Bruce while walking on Venice Beach. He had a gorgeous girl on his arm who he introduced as a past Playmate of the Month for Playboy (probably true). He told me he was into real estate now and doing quite well. He bragged a little and I just...

Good for you for telling the truth here. Nick was always a slight underdog in 14.1 to Steve and Mike who were #1 and 2. Mizerak was the best player of all three and both Mike & Nick had trouble ever beating him (at Straights or 9-Ball) when Steve was in his prime (under 300 pounds!). Steve was...

Actually Mike made that cue in Danny Janes shop with Danny's help, so it's technically a Joss. I have the only duplicate of that cue that Mike ever made. He also hand crafted it at the Joss shop, and in his words may be the better of the two cues. It is one of Mike's personally autographed cues.

True that. I saw Luther play quite a bit and he never seemed to miss. He once famously said that he could watch a player and if he missed more than once in an hour he knew he could beat him. It helped that Luther played better (and closer) position than anyone else. He would shrug his shoulders...

Mike was the best I ever saw once he got to the finals. He won eleven final matches (tournaments) in a row. Not eleven tournaments in a row, but eleven times when he reached the finals he won before finally losing one (to Efren I think). I particularly liked his draw shot from the two ball to...

For me this was a golden era for pool. And matches like this were the norm. Even playing winner breaks! We heard the names of the remaining players, Tony Ellin and Earl in the hot seat. That means Varner, Hopkins, Rempe, Hall, Mizerak, Efren and all the other luminaries of the pool world had...

I played Crazy Bruce several times, always Eight Ball on a big table. I would tell him that if he started acting crazy I would quit. He would promise me to be on his best behavior. Until....something or some shot didn't go his way. If he got a bad roll or even slightly bad he would begin to lose...

Ronnie told me something I never forgot. He said "You make the biggest scores when you give up the nuts!" Tommy Halliday was a good player. I saw him first in Johnston City and at the Stardust and a few other places after that. That very move he's talking about was true and no one today knows or...

They also call him Rich the Hat. He NEVER takes that hat off!