> I went to the 1994 U.S. Open,the first time I had ever ventured to a major tournament like this by myself. One of the first people I saw inside the Holiday Inn was Steve. He graciously signed my white leather Porper,and when I asked where I might find Mike Sigel,he said that Sigel had retired suddenly,despite just having won his 101st title. Later that week,he was in the practice room with a Japanese cue collector,which might have been Lucky at the time. In just a few minutes,he left,leaving me and Steve in the room. Apparently the collector had just offered Steve 20k for his Richard Black Victoria,the one with the ivory columns in the butt sleeve,and said he might wind up having to buy a cue to finish the tournament with,because the collector wanted it BAD. I went upstairs to my room and got my case,and offered to let him use my Schon for the remainder of the tournament,if need be. He asked to hit some balls with it,and said he really liked it,even though the shafts were a little bigger than he liked. I let him use my cue to play his next tournament match,defeating Strickland 13-10. At that point,he offered to buy it in case the collector came thru with the cash,as he said he had 20 more cues at home,but it was going to be 6 weeks before him and Karen made it home. I agreed on the price,considering this legend was going to make better use of it than I had. The collector never came thru,and I still have that Schon,to this day I still think about how well he played with a strange cue,that was so different from what he was used to. Tommy D.