When I stand back and see this, I just see a perfect apology fo pocket billiards as a whole.
Here you have an entire link to some of the most valuable pieces of pool lore and history all in one room, so fragile and so vulnerable to being lost to the world. Is the proper curator looking after them? In case of switching hands, will they go as one collection and to a safe place with fire suppressing protection and safety monitoring? Will there be humidity control and prevention from flood and water damage? Will anyone care?
Kind of like the last great pool tournament you attend...will anyone video capture that battle of titans off to the side of the streaming table that has the room on edge or will it be lost to time and a whatever-shake of the head I-remember-when-type of story that dies after a generation. Will anyone care?
It’s all so fragile and on the edge of disappearing forever. Kind of like pool in of itself.
Will that 526 Mosconi Balabushka be lost to the world and reduced to an I-once-held-type of story by a few dozen people? The cue cases? The signatures. And the tragic truth is that there are a host of collections just like this one around the pool world.
If I go to the Springfield, Massachusetts and visit the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, I can see Michael Jordan’s shoes or Larry Bird’s jersey on display for the world—surely shouldn’t Efren’s green jacket get the same treatment and held aloft by the pool world other than hanging on rack of other dusty fall of fame worthy jackets?
I had a very profound moment down in Rhode Island, when I first had a chance to visit Snookers to watch a Joss tournament and SJM (Stu) took the time and walked around the walls of the New England Pool and Billiards Hall of Fame and gave me a tutorial and history of every picture and moment that was enshrined on those walls.
Players I surely never would have known of, heard of, or even paid any attention to ( many who had long passed away) were introduced to me that night—it was the true beauty of such a small little place in the pool world in its ability to educate and pass on the memory of those who spent a lifetime excelling in this game we all love.
I’ll never forget that.
It’s too bad the vultures don’t fly a bit higher and see the bigger picture in a room like that. There’s more of a duty and responsibility to those with the means to lift that little space in the world higher than just a pick and pull until the carcass is dry and gone event.
Oh well, it’s 2:38 AM and I’m feeling a little morose. Thanks for letting me vent. We have a great game in pool with a great history and we are losing it slowly....one collector at time.
Well the real truth is that if it were not for the evil collectors in the world , a huge portion of this collection and all of the others would be gone
This guys dad travelled all over the country for years to meet the owners and buy these items, when no one else wanted them, except to turn around and flip for a few bucks.
It's easy to want to hop on the wagon now, and think they should offer this stuff up to the masses for nothing, but they spent real dollars buying it and have the right to do anything they want with it.
I have a billiard collection that took 30 years to accumulate and probably spent 30 or 40 hours a week for 20 years to find and buy with my own hard earned dollars , At one time another huge collector and I talked about opening a Museum, the truth of the matter is , even if it was free 99% of you would never come.
So that means , we the filthy collectors, most people called us idiots until some of it became valuable, should spend our money and more importantly , our time , finding these items , and then build a place so you can come and wax philosophical, about things you have no clue about.
I never met you, but I feel I have met you a thousand times, your a quintuple sharp guy, that never gets off his feet, except to get into bed.
How's that for morose?
If I'm all wrong about you , and you truly are passionate about saving the history ,like me, and almost every collector I ever met, then get in touch with me
. You can be the new caregiver of everything I spent 30 years collecting, for 50 cents on the dollar.
...that maybe needed some funding to eventually become an actual hall of fame. Wouldn’t that be a hot destination to travel to...shoot some pool and see some history.
