Reading that Mosconi thread on the main page made me think

Positively Ralf

AzB Silver Member
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This is mainly for the old guard who may have seen him play. I know the guy pretty much looked down on 9 ball as he saw it as too much of an easy game for pros, but do you guys think people mistake his playing 14.1 only for not being a top player in other games?

I just find it odd that people honestly think a guy who consistently ran 100s as much as he did could not find his way around a game of 9 ball or even 8 ball.
 

Jedivman

AzB Silver Member
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I his later years he played 7, 8, 9 ball and rotation. But he was in his later 60s then.

He was the best shot maker in the game with the most incredible cue control in his time. In his prime, no one could beat him at any game with any level of consistency.
 

mikemosconi

AzB Silver Member
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Great statement: "In his prime he was the best player - period. and that lasted for a very long time. Same could be said of Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Mohammud Ali, Arnold Palmer, etc. etc. The guy was in a class by himself in the world of pocket billiards for a very long time; enough said. IN HIS FINAL RESTING PLACE HE OWES NOTHING TO ANYONE - EXCEPT TO BE REMEMBERED AS THE BEST OF HIS TIME IN THE WORLD AT WHAT HE DID FOR A LIVING. Any speculation on how he would fare in competition against other era players or at variations of the main game he played is just speculation for our own amusement. We should just remember all of the greats in sport for what they accomplished during their period of competition - they owe us nothing else and we owe them that much respect for the time that they entertained us mere mortals with their superior skills and accomplishments. Let them rest in peace.
 

Poolmanis

AzB Silver Member
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Great statement: "In his prime he was the best player - period. and that lasted for a very long time. Same could be said of Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Mohammud Ali, Arnold Palmer, etc. etc. The guy was in a class by himself in the world of pocket billiards for a very long time; enough said. IN HIS FINAL RESTING PLACE HE OWES NOTHING TO ANYONE - EXCEPT TO BE REMEMBERED AS THE BEST OF HIS TIME IN THE WORLD AT WHAT HE DID FOR A LIVING. Any speculation on how he would fare in competition against other era players or at variations of the main game he played is just speculation for our own amusement. We should just remember all of the greats in sport for what they accomplished during their period of competition - they owe us nothing else and we owe them that much respect for the time that they entertained us mere mortals with their superior skills and accomplishments. Let them rest in peace.

ENUFF SAID! :eek:
 

Pushout

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think there is an attitude today, especially among bar table players, that people who don't play the short rack games, can't for some reason. I think it also is prevalent among those who play only 9 ball. I remember a thread in the main forum by a guy who INSISTED that 9 ball was the only game to play to improve one's skill in pool.
 

mikemosconi

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I think there is an attitude today, especially among bar table players, that people who don't play the short rack games, can't for some reason. I think it also is prevalent among those who play only 9 ball. I remember a thread in the main forum by a guy who INSISTED that 9 ball was the only game to play to improve one's skill in pool.

Great point! when I run 100 balls in straights there are several times where I need to position the cue on a DIME in order to continue the run; however, I can run 5 racks of 9 ball ( 1-9) without EVER having to achieve DIME position with the cue. Straights is SPOT position vs. AREA position generally for rotation games.
 

14-1StraightMan

High Run 127
Silver Member
I know for a fact that Mosconi did not like 9 ball but would play it when Road Players came into his town. I was told this by Leroy Kinman who was a very close personal friend of Mosconi's. Leroy told me that Willie always left the Road Players enough money in their pockets to take a bus out of town.... (Leroy who is play by play commentator during the match from Chicago between Mosconi & Jimmy Caras). As for Mosconi's skill level. I do believe that he was the best all around player that has ever lived. He is to the Sport of Pool as Jordan is to basketball, Marciano is to Boxing, Gretzky is to hockey and so on & on. I do not believe anyone can break his high run record and it's been a very long time since he has accomplished it. Too many things go wrong on the table but one never knows. On a side note. I had lunch with Mosconi when I was about 16... He treated me with totally respect and talked to me face to face with kindness.
 

crazysnake

AzB Silver Member
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I'm guessing here, but I think that straight pool for Willie was a way to earn money to support his family, a job basically. He represented Brunswick. He had a steady salary, traveling to do exhibitions for Brunswick. Win or lose he was getting paid. This allowed him to focus on the one game. I heard George Fels once say that Willie had no love for the game. It was work. I also don't believe there were any kind of "official" nine ball tournaments before 1950.
Maybe someone who knows the history better can chime in.

Sent from my Moto Z2 Play using Tapatalk
 

Dan White

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I'm guessing here, but I think that straight pool for Willie was a way to earn money to support his family, a job basically. He represented Brunswick. He had a steady salary, traveling to do exhibitions for Brunswick. Win or lose he was getting paid. This allowed him to focus on the one game. I heard George Fels once say that Willie had no love for the game. It was work. I also don't believe there were any kind of "official" nine ball tournaments before 1950.
Maybe someone who knows the history better can chime in.

Was it a job? Willie told my father that he played pool every day for a minimum of 8 hours per day... for 31 years. Sounds like a workaholic! You can't do that if you don't also enjoy what you are doing.
 

lfigueroa

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It’s been written that Mosconi would chew his tongue bloody while sitting in the chair at the 14.1 championship tournaments. I have also read that he said “a monkey” could play the game well. But I believe that was just cover for the thousands of hours he put in, his natural talent, and the absolute mastery he had over the game.

I wonder: how many of us who are truly passionate about the game, would have the same ardor for it if winning was the difference between just a great war story, maybe a few bucks and a trophy, instead of food on the table, the rent, and sending your kids to school. Meanwhile of course you are playing against a slew of world caliber 14.1 mechanics. And then, in our later years, how would we feel having to crisscross the country driving to a new pool room every night to put on an exhibition where every single person was waiting to see, “the best there ever was,” “the legend,” and a 100 ball run followed by a dazzling trick shot echibition.

I saw Mosconi play several times and he did make the game look like child’s play. Brunswick was paying the bills and 14.1 — played exclusively on their tables — was the job, forget about 9ball or 1pocket, which Mosconi could play with equal ease.

He was our sport’s legend, on a par with Ali, Jordan, DiMaggio, Ruth, and Gretzky. Mosconi didn’t set up the balls on his favorite table to shoot. No, instead, dressed in coat and tie, he’d walk into a different pool room every night for 300 days of the year, take a couple of warm up racks, and then show everyone in attendance just how beautiful the game could be.

Lou Figueroa
 
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alstl

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The biggest difference between 14.1 and rotation is the break and the safety game. Mosconi would probably have to work on those things but with his high gear in 14.1 I would bet he could have learned to break and kick good enough to be a world class rotation player in a short period of time.
 

DynoDan

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Willie was a living object lesson on the difference between amateurs & pros. Professionals win consistently, not merely because they must, in order to feed their families & pay the rent....they win simply because they can’t stand to lose! That’s how they are wired.
A perfect example: When I once met him back in the 90s, I made a point of remarking about how I was from the same small town as Ralph Greenleaf. His response: “I used to beat him there”.
He had a table at home, but he never used it (no penalty for missing). In order to ‘win’, you must have an opponent.
 

measureman

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I played Willie an exhibition game in 1964 in Toms River ,N.J.
He wore a suit and was well groomed.
Very polite and friendly.
He turned in a world class performance in straight pool.
I turned in a world class performance in racking.
I did pocket a few balls and had a brief safety battle and then he ran 85 perfect balls and out.
I was only 17 and nervous as hell. :thud:
 

sparkle84

AzB Silver Member
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He was our sport’s legend, on a par with Ali, Jordan, DiMaggio, Ruth, and Gretzky. Mosconi didn’t set up the balls on his favorite table to shoot. No, instead, dressed in coat and tie, he’d walk into a different pool room every night for 300 days of the year, take a couple of warm up racks, and then show everyone in attendance just how beautiful the game could be.

Lou Figueroa

Just how beautiful the game could be. That's a good way to describe how he played. Or you could say how elegant, how precise, how other worldly. You sometimes hear that (other worldly) when people talk about Efren but I've never had the same feeling of awe and disbelief when watching Efren as I did when watching Willie.
To someone who never saw him play it's pretty much impossible to impress upon them just how good he was.
The level of control just had to be seen to be believed. And I'm sure it wasn't, but what he was doing, he made look so effortless. Like he wasn't even trying.
 

Dan White

AzB Silver Member
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Just how beautiful the game could be. That's a good way to describe how he played. Or you could say how elegant, how precise, how other worldly. You sometimes hear that (other worldly) when people talk about Efren but I've never had the same feeling of awe and disbelief when watching Efren as I did when watching Willie.
To someone who never saw him play it's pretty much impossible to impress upon them just how good he was.
The level of control just had to be seen to be believed.
And I'm sure it wasn't, but what he was doing, he made look so effortless. Like he wasn't even trying.

My father, who saw Mosconi play numerous times, used to watch today's players at 14.1 and he would just shake his head and say it was joke...no comparison... you had to see Willie play to understand. He was in the audience when Appleton ran 200 and said that that was the closest thing he has seen to how Mosconi played.
 

DynoDan

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I played Willie an exhibition game in 1964 in Toms River ,N.J.
He wore a suit and was well groomed.
Very polite and friendly.
He turned in a world class performance in straight pool.
I turned in a world class performance in racking.
I did pocket a few balls and had a brief safety battle and then he ran 85 perfect balls and out.
I was only 17 and nervous as hell. :thud:

Very reminiscent of an exhibition I witnesed ca. 1961:
Willie Mosconi was a bit out of the price range of our small town Illinois room, so we got ‘the Knoxville Bear’ (Eddie Taylor) instead. They closed the tables to open play for the day, and after Eddie performed the usual trick-shot routine, he took on all comers. I was only 14, but could already run a couple racks, so I got in line. He had briefly been an official ‘straight pool champion’, so that was the designated game (we had never even heard of ‘one pocket’ or ‘bank pool’ back then). After he nearly DOUBLED everyone’s score by BANKING in every ball except the break shots, I soon lost interest, and put away my cue! I think the only game he lost all day was to our local ‘Star Player’, who beat him once at 3-cushion.
 

sparkle84

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My father, who saw Mosconi play numerous times, used to watch today's players at 14.1 and he would just shake his head and say it was joke...no comparison... you had to see Willie play to understand. He was in the audience when Appleton ran 200 and said that that was the closest thing he has seen to how Mosconi played.

I saw him somewhere around 20 times so I consider your father and I to be incredibly fortunate. We understand each other when one of us says he had to be seen to be believed.
I also was there when Appleton ran the 200 and it was an exceptional run but it still fell short of Mosconi.
My opinion of who the 5 best 14.1 players of today are (and this is in order).
Niels Feijen, Hohmann, Appleton, Schmidt and Immonen.
These guys are all exceptional players but Willie Mosconi was on a whole nother level.
Might seem hard to believe but I think of the people who've seen him play, to a man, they'd agree with that statement.
 

measureman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I saw him somewhere around 20 times so I consider your father and I to be incredibly fortunate. We understand each other when one of us says he had to be seen to be believed.
I also was there when Appleton ran the 200 and it was an exceptional run but it still fell short of Mosconi.
My opinion of who the 5 best 14.1 players of today are (and this is in order).
Niels Feijen, Hohmann, Appleton, Schmidt and Immonen.
These guys are all exceptional players but Willie Mosconi was on a whole nother level.
Might seem hard to believe but I think of the people who've seen him play, to a man, they'd agree with that statement.[
/QUOTE]

I agree.
And being from the N.Y.N.J.Philly area I've seen a lot of great 14.1 players since the early '60s and while there were some true artists Willie was just a level above them all.
As said you really had to see him in person.
 

Dan White

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I saw him somewhere around 20 times so I consider your father and I to be incredibly fortunate. We understand each other when one of us says he had to be seen to be believed.
I also was there when Appleton ran the 200 and it was an exceptional run but it still fell short of Mosconi.
My opinion of who the 5 best 14.1 players of today are (and this is in order).
Niels Feijen, Hohmann, Appleton, Schmidt and Immonen.
These guys are all exceptional players but Willie Mosconi was on a whole nother level.
Might seem hard to believe but I think of the people who've seen him play, to a man, they'd agree with that statement.[
/QUOTE]

I agree.
And being from the N.Y.N.J.Philly area I've seen a lot of great 14.1 players since the early '60s and while there were some true artists Willie was just a level above them all.
As said you really had to see him in person.

My father had great respect for Cicero Murphy, but he always enjoyed recounting a match between Mosconi and Cicero. After a miss by Cicero, Mosconi did his thing. Balls falling one after another, kerplunk, kerplunk, kerplunk and on and on without end. Cicero just sat there slowly shaking his head.
 

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I saw him somewhere around 20 times so I consider your father and I to be incredibly fortunate. We understand each other when one of us says he had to be seen to be believed.
I also was there when Appleton ran the 200 and it was an exceptional run but it still fell short of Mosconi.
My opinion of who the 5 best 14.1 players of today are (and this is in order).
Niels Feijen, Hohmann, Appleton, Schmidt and Immonen.
These guys are all exceptional players but Willie Mosconi was on a whole nother level.
Might seem hard to believe but I think of the people who've seen him play, to a man, they'd agree with that statement.[
/QUOTE]

I agree.
And being from the N.Y.N.J.Philly area I've seen a lot of great 14.1 players since the early '60s and while there were some true artists Willie was just a level above them all.
As said you really had to see him in person.


oh yeah. I've seen most of the modern day practitioners play in person. Not a one has made the game look so simple, so elegant, so effortless as Willie did.

Lou Figueroa
 
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