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I’d be curious whether anyone does ‘valve grinding’ anymore? Maybe with vintage engines, before cylinder heads came with hardened seats, and valves were iron (?) that pitted/rusted (not stainless steel), and gas still contained lead (that fouled valves/seats). NAPA can order many products/parts...

Back when the balls were never polished, and the cloth was fuzzy/slow, I used to use a bit of inside english to frequently make that shot. I remember a couple times back then when first playing a stranger and I lost the lag, I called the corner ball, and when it dropped, so did my opponents jaw!😁

Makes me wonder, in poolrooms players are warned (and then aware) about sitting on the rails. A home table may not be so well policed (?)

And if only the best imported chalk is used, cleaning frequency (and resulting wear) is greatly reduced.

Most 50s small town poolrooms also had soda fountains. A small coke cost a nickel. Most usually had an ongoing 9-ball ring game you could join, though with the better players, you often had to pay for a dozen+ money balls before your turn came around, and you were usually hooked then, so you...

I was always a bit disturbed at how, pros who do ’exhibitions‘ usually include in their routine, that cliched trick shot where the initial contact splits the obstructing balls, and the shaft quickly pokes thru & pockets the money ball (giving impressionable young players bad ideas). Same with...

Go figure. Small time/personal/non-organized gambling was a ‘way-of-life’ growing up in the 50s midwest. Marbles first, then poker, and then pool. Nowadays, if you ask your opponent if he’d like to “make the game more interesting?”, he looks at you like you‘re crazy.

Back in the day, I used to have good luck banking the corner ball into a head corner pocket. But, for some reason (better/polished balls?), it doesn’t go as often anymore.

If I recall, Mosconi also favored that one.

In all the many years I spend hanging out in pool rooms, I had never encountered any violence (belligerents usually stepped outside to fight) until, while practicing one mid-90s afternoon in the Keystone (Indy), as the one-hole match at a near table was breaking up, and after one of the players...

I can empathize. I sometime play where there’s a beat barbox with a crap plastic triangle, and even tapping the corner balls won’t get you a tight rack. In situations like that, normally the racker makes an honest effort, but has to eventually just give up trying. Once aware that a tight rack...

Only if you have no objection to continue playing an obviously dishonorable opponent (flush/high-roller fish maybe?), and no aversion to being the same.

??!! Should never happen. If a ref is racking, then it shouldn’t be challenged (or even inspected if the match is on TV). If your opponent is racking, and you suspect carelessness or skullduggery (from your vantage point at the head of the table), you always have the option to respond in kind...

I agree. Another ‘tradition’ falling by the wayside. Balls wear down unevenly, triangles become distorted, cloth condition changes, referees get careless, etc., etc. Getting a ‘bad rack’ is like getting a ‘bad roll’ (every match cannot be played on a freshly re-leveled & re-covered table...

I think a more important issue would be: how many tables of universal/consistent high quality, in an adequately spacious/serene environment conducive to serious play? Likely less than a quarter at Q-Master would qualify, though their standard is indeed impeccable (9’ Diamonds in a separate...

I had a fellow rider along with me then who carried a Polaroid camera. He snapped me 8 ft. in the air jumping a hill. When I showed the pic to an Army doctor I was friendly with who routinely had to evaluate soldier injuries, his comment: “Line of duty..NO”.

While 700+ shots without a miss is doubtless a tremendous accomplishment, pocket size is rather irrelevant re: (IMHO) the REAL issue: Namely, could anyone ever again break that many racks and never end up hopelessly hooked?

Same thing happened to me while in the army back in the mid-60s, jumping a Honda 305 scrambler over blind hills in a Virginia quarry. Only I landed in a huge pile of boulders.

Just as an aside: I suddenly realized a compensating advantage to the round shape: the edges wear evenly as it is used. Maybe another reason it seems to last longer (?)

Doesn‘t look like the shades have the same exact embossed lower edges as in the movie. I‘m surprised at the antique style/net-pocket table though. You would think he’d also have a ball-return (Schmidt/Brunswick/whatever) to memorialize the important scenes.