Forgive my rant. It's long. I'm frustrated. I've been playing this game for 30 years. I love this game. I love playing for money but I'm one of those rare birds that happens to be an excellent player and yet will still play for fun, not only for money. I don't care, I just want to play. I'll teach a beginner or intermediate player for free if he covers the table time. I play for the sake of the game. My guiding principle in pool is, ala Gelett Burges, "It is in the blood of genius to love play for its own sake, and whether one uses one's skill on thrones or women, swords or pens, gold or fame, the game's the thing."
But lately I've been bombarded with what can only be called "A Mongrel Horde of NITS". Here is just a minuscule sample:
1. A guy comes into our pool room last month and beats up on one of our C- beginners. The kid happens to be a friend of mine and I tell him to quit, the game is no good. The other guy is obviously laying down and trapping my friend. He's so obvious I am able to tell the kid what shot the guy is going to "miss" and where both the cue and object balls are gonna end up. So my friend gets wise, listens to me, and quits $40 down. Cheap lesson right? So I challenge the guy for a measly $20 a game. He automatically asks for the seven and the break and won't play without the spot! Then he says he will call a guy! For $20 a game?!?!? I tell him if he's gotta call a guy for $20 he's got problems and should just take up corn hole instead, but to go ahead and call the guy. It happens to be someone I've beaten to death years ago so I know it ain't gonna happen. Where is the HEART?
2. On four separate occasions in the last month I've had four different players quit on me in the middle of a set. Now, thankfully I got paid. They didn't air me. But what kind of eunuch does it take to just say, "Screw it. I can't win, take my money?" One guy I can almost understand, he had lost one set already and was down 11 to 1 getting a ton of weight and hadn't had a makable shot since the first game (which he won). But the other guys just quit after a few racks. What makes it worse is every one of these guys BARKED AT ME for a game and then begged for a spot. I never asked one of them. I didn't challenge them. But they quit before the game was over. Where's the HEART?
3. The barking leads me to my next example. For a year now scores of guys come into the pool room (or run up to me when I visit other places) and say "You wanna play for some?" Sure I reply. The next words out of their mouths? You guessed it: "What will you give me?" Most have never seen me, don't know me, never heard of me, have no idea if I can make a ball!! WTF? But I'm game and I usually offer the last two in 9 Ball or 9-8 one pocket etc. It's not enough, they run and go ask someone else. I'm not against lesser players getting a spot nor asking for one. I give them all the time. But since when is it acceptable to challenge someone you don't know and then immediately ask for a huge spot? Contrast this with a kid who works at the place where I usually go. I walk in, see him practicing (he's learning) and I say I'll give you 7-2 games in eight ball, I'll shoot one handed. This kid knows me. He knows how I play. He's watched me play one handed for hours. He immediately pulls out a $20 bill and says "Let's go". He loses, pays, says "I'm getting that back from you very soon." He's not a player, but he's got something these other NITS don't: HEART. And I figure the next time he gets that spot he's gonna rob me and I'm gonna be just fine with that. And I won't change the spot, I'll just keep trying to beat him because he earned it.
4. A regular who likes to gamble but fits the profile described in #3 keeps asking for a game. This guy can play. He can run out regularly. He's not helpless. He's a player. Get the idea? But play even? Nooooo! Finally he barks at me enough and I say, "I'll play you even, then we can adjust after a couple sets." He cusses, complains, whines and then finally agrees. We play one set, he loses, unscrews and whines for thirty minutes about needing a spot. Pays me and leaves. Two nights ago he comes back, begs for a game and a spot, gets one from me and then backs out because I wanna play by the game rather than sets. He finally agrees but wants to play too cheap. Eventually he agrees to enough money for me to miss sleep and stay to play. Then the whining begins. First he whines about 10 Ball rules. Then he whines because he supposedly thought the last two was the same as having the nine ball (who doesn't know that??). Then he whines when he fouls on a jump shot and says he didn't hit the cue ball but I show him the OBVIOUS scuff mark on the cue ball caused by his phenolic tip. Lastly, he goes ballistic when I three foul him. I told him in three separate games he was on two fouls and he said ok, and carefully made sure he didn't foul. The last time he made contact but scratched and then swears he has "never heard of any three foul rule" and doesn't believe ANYONE ever plays that way and quits! Then he whines when I tell him he's persona non grata and will never get another game with me because I'm not playing with a whiny NIT who cheats and then needs me to access the WPA web site with my iPhone to prove a rule. Where is the HEART?
5. A road player comes into our place this past Sunday. He's stalking the room and my buddy asks, " You looking for a game?" He says yes in either banks or one pocket. My friend plays neither but I bite. I agree to one hole but he says, nah I want to play banks. I tell him this ain't Kentucky. He laughs and everything appears to be on the way to a game. Banks ain't my thing. I'm barely competent frankly. You won't see me on a road trip to Ohio or Kentucky any time in the foreseeable future. But what the heck. I get my cue, agree to play and go hit a few banks to loosen my arm. The guy backs out. Says he ain't slept in three days and just got back from Tennessee (which ain't far by the way). So I say, we can go cheap, just $20 a game. He gets his girlfriend and puts his tail between his legs and runs. This guy ain't a world beater. He's a low level shortstop but HE'S A ROAD PLAYER about to match up with a guy who hasn't played banks seriously since the Bush administration and wasn't any good then. WTF? Where is the HEART?
6. This is the last one I promise. Two guys have started frequenting our room. They usually have some friends with them. One of them keeps telling his buds how good he is and that he's gonna hustle everyone there eventually. He keeps asking us if we know this phantom world beater and then describes him: yep you guessed it, he's describing himself. Anyway he flashes money to his buds, talks trash. It's all BS. We all know it. Every time we ask him to gamble he's got an excuse. Anyway, I'm going to get a beer and he meets me with his friends in tow and says, "Let's go, five hundred a rack!" I say sorry pal, I only got four hundred on me but if you wanna go for $100 that's fine by me. He gives the typical BS, "That ain't enough." So I go get my best friend there who has a trunk full and he tells the guy that he will play him. Guy says no, he wants me. Ok, my friend will back me. Again, we know he's full of it but it's a matter of principle now. We razz this guy relentlessly and his own friends start in on him. Yet he's still coming in almost every night talking smack and never playing. NO HEART.
When did all these HEARTLESS NITS start coming to pool rooms and where did they come from?
I'm tired of NITS.
But lately I've been bombarded with what can only be called "A Mongrel Horde of NITS". Here is just a minuscule sample:
1. A guy comes into our pool room last month and beats up on one of our C- beginners. The kid happens to be a friend of mine and I tell him to quit, the game is no good. The other guy is obviously laying down and trapping my friend. He's so obvious I am able to tell the kid what shot the guy is going to "miss" and where both the cue and object balls are gonna end up. So my friend gets wise, listens to me, and quits $40 down. Cheap lesson right? So I challenge the guy for a measly $20 a game. He automatically asks for the seven and the break and won't play without the spot! Then he says he will call a guy! For $20 a game?!?!? I tell him if he's gotta call a guy for $20 he's got problems and should just take up corn hole instead, but to go ahead and call the guy. It happens to be someone I've beaten to death years ago so I know it ain't gonna happen. Where is the HEART?
2. On four separate occasions in the last month I've had four different players quit on me in the middle of a set. Now, thankfully I got paid. They didn't air me. But what kind of eunuch does it take to just say, "Screw it. I can't win, take my money?" One guy I can almost understand, he had lost one set already and was down 11 to 1 getting a ton of weight and hadn't had a makable shot since the first game (which he won). But the other guys just quit after a few racks. What makes it worse is every one of these guys BARKED AT ME for a game and then begged for a spot. I never asked one of them. I didn't challenge them. But they quit before the game was over. Where's the HEART?
3. The barking leads me to my next example. For a year now scores of guys come into the pool room (or run up to me when I visit other places) and say "You wanna play for some?" Sure I reply. The next words out of their mouths? You guessed it: "What will you give me?" Most have never seen me, don't know me, never heard of me, have no idea if I can make a ball!! WTF? But I'm game and I usually offer the last two in 9 Ball or 9-8 one pocket etc. It's not enough, they run and go ask someone else. I'm not against lesser players getting a spot nor asking for one. I give them all the time. But since when is it acceptable to challenge someone you don't know and then immediately ask for a huge spot? Contrast this with a kid who works at the place where I usually go. I walk in, see him practicing (he's learning) and I say I'll give you 7-2 games in eight ball, I'll shoot one handed. This kid knows me. He knows how I play. He's watched me play one handed for hours. He immediately pulls out a $20 bill and says "Let's go". He loses, pays, says "I'm getting that back from you very soon." He's not a player, but he's got something these other NITS don't: HEART. And I figure the next time he gets that spot he's gonna rob me and I'm gonna be just fine with that. And I won't change the spot, I'll just keep trying to beat him because he earned it.
4. A regular who likes to gamble but fits the profile described in #3 keeps asking for a game. This guy can play. He can run out regularly. He's not helpless. He's a player. Get the idea? But play even? Nooooo! Finally he barks at me enough and I say, "I'll play you even, then we can adjust after a couple sets." He cusses, complains, whines and then finally agrees. We play one set, he loses, unscrews and whines for thirty minutes about needing a spot. Pays me and leaves. Two nights ago he comes back, begs for a game and a spot, gets one from me and then backs out because I wanna play by the game rather than sets. He finally agrees but wants to play too cheap. Eventually he agrees to enough money for me to miss sleep and stay to play. Then the whining begins. First he whines about 10 Ball rules. Then he whines because he supposedly thought the last two was the same as having the nine ball (who doesn't know that??). Then he whines when he fouls on a jump shot and says he didn't hit the cue ball but I show him the OBVIOUS scuff mark on the cue ball caused by his phenolic tip. Lastly, he goes ballistic when I three foul him. I told him in three separate games he was on two fouls and he said ok, and carefully made sure he didn't foul. The last time he made contact but scratched and then swears he has "never heard of any three foul rule" and doesn't believe ANYONE ever plays that way and quits! Then he whines when I tell him he's persona non grata and will never get another game with me because I'm not playing with a whiny NIT who cheats and then needs me to access the WPA web site with my iPhone to prove a rule. Where is the HEART?
5. A road player comes into our place this past Sunday. He's stalking the room and my buddy asks, " You looking for a game?" He says yes in either banks or one pocket. My friend plays neither but I bite. I agree to one hole but he says, nah I want to play banks. I tell him this ain't Kentucky. He laughs and everything appears to be on the way to a game. Banks ain't my thing. I'm barely competent frankly. You won't see me on a road trip to Ohio or Kentucky any time in the foreseeable future. But what the heck. I get my cue, agree to play and go hit a few banks to loosen my arm. The guy backs out. Says he ain't slept in three days and just got back from Tennessee (which ain't far by the way). So I say, we can go cheap, just $20 a game. He gets his girlfriend and puts his tail between his legs and runs. This guy ain't a world beater. He's a low level shortstop but HE'S A ROAD PLAYER about to match up with a guy who hasn't played banks seriously since the Bush administration and wasn't any good then. WTF? Where is the HEART?
6. This is the last one I promise. Two guys have started frequenting our room. They usually have some friends with them. One of them keeps telling his buds how good he is and that he's gonna hustle everyone there eventually. He keeps asking us if we know this phantom world beater and then describes him: yep you guessed it, he's describing himself. Anyway he flashes money to his buds, talks trash. It's all BS. We all know it. Every time we ask him to gamble he's got an excuse. Anyway, I'm going to get a beer and he meets me with his friends in tow and says, "Let's go, five hundred a rack!" I say sorry pal, I only got four hundred on me but if you wanna go for $100 that's fine by me. He gives the typical BS, "That ain't enough." So I go get my best friend there who has a trunk full and he tells the guy that he will play him. Guy says no, he wants me. Ok, my friend will back me. Again, we know he's full of it but it's a matter of principle now. We razz this guy relentlessly and his own friends start in on him. Yet he's still coming in almost every night talking smack and never playing. NO HEART.
When did all these HEARTLESS NITS start coming to pool rooms and where did they come from?
I'm tired of NITS.
