About Grady Mathews

D

DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have been watching alot of my Accu-Stats videos from back in the 1990s and early 2000s. Mainly the US Open and the Sands Regency Tournament in Reno. Grady is commentating on a lot of these videos.

I never met Grady over the years back when the BCA had the big Mens & Womens tournament in May out in Las Vegas. But from the comments he makes during these videos from various tournaments he sure seems to be someone that had a big time love for billiards, irregardless of what discipline it was. The way he talked about the current players back then (Efren, Earl, Nick, Buddy, Johnny, Jim, etc) and those from the past made me think that he was genuinely a tremendous asset to the sport of pool and billiards.

I would have loved to have met him and talked with him for awhile. He was fantastic on the mic. The times he was in the booth with Bill Incardona, Buddy Hall, Nick Varner, and others, you could truly sense that Grady had a big time passion for the sport.

I never met him. But I sure do miss him. May God bless him.

r/Mike aka DCP
 
Grady is my all time favorite pool player. In all reality, he's probably my favorite "celebrity" of all time. Sure, he may have been a Z-List celeb. But he was and is known by far more people than the average person. Beyond that, he was the quintessential character. He had an unmistakable look and voice and a personality to go with them. And he had a speaking role in at least one movie that I know of. So there's that. 😁

I, fortunately, did get to meet Grady several times at The Derby. And let's just say, if you only knew him by his mild mannered Accu-Stats commentary you'd probably have been a little surprised by how wound up he could get when action was involved. The dude was a relentless and creative woofer and you never had to guess as to whether or not he was looking for a game.

I miss him, too. Hell, even though I didn't technically know them like I "know" the people around me, I miss all those guys who are gone now. And I'm lucky to have met a lot of them down there at The Executive West. It was a special time that I wouldn't trade for anything.
 
Texas Carom Club said:
to have been in a booth with dennis dieckman and grady at the same time would have been larger than life
personality for eons
Click to expand...
I don't even know where to start when trying to imagine how that might have gone.

And for anyone who hasn't already done it, check out Dieckman on YouTube. Just search Dennis Dieckman and you'll be introduced to the definition of eccentric.
 
Jimmy_Betmore said:
Grady is my all time favorite pool player. In all reality, he's probably my favorite "celebrity" of all time. Sure, he may have been a Z-List celeb. But he was and is known by far more people than the average person. Beyond that, he was the quintessential character. He had an unmistakable look and voice and a personality to go with them. And he had a speaking role in at least one movie that I know of. So there's that. 😁

I, fortunately, did get to meet Grady several times at The Derby. And let's just say, if you only knew him by his mild mannered Accu-Stats commentary you'd probably have been a little surprised by how wound up he could get when action was involved. The dude was a relentless and creative woofer and you never had to guess as to whether or not he was looking for a game.

I miss him, too. Hell, even though I didn't technically know them like I "know" the people around me, I miss all those guys who are gone now. And I'm lucky to have met a lot of them down there at The Executive West. It was a special time that I wouldn't trade for anything.
Click to expand...

Jimmy, anybody that spent some time in the action rooms of the Executive West has to have some stories worth reading. How about coughing up a few or pointing us towards them if you have already written some?

Hu
 
JohnnyOzone said:
AND, he was hilarious. After getting married for the 4th time, "If this one doesn't work out, then every 5 years I'm just going to find a woman I hate and buy her a house."
Click to expand...

grady’s lisp is difficult for me to listen to for very long

i heard him say that!

thanks for making me laugh, that is hilarious

he talked a lot of crazed and off color stuff about women and pool and strategy and gambling

i’ve learned so much from him and all those accustats people over the years that i don’t know the difference between what i’ve learned from them and

from what i’ve learned by playing the game

so a big thank you to pat and everyone

🙏🏻🙏🏽🙏🏿
 
ShootingArts said:
Jimmy, anybody that spent some time in the action rooms of the Executive West has to have some stories worth reading. How about coughing up a few or pointing us towards them if you have already written some?

Hu
Click to expand...
I remember the details of anything too wild concerning Grady. The key word there is "remember." The first time I ever drank an entire case of beer was at The Derby in '04. I got there around noon on the first Friday and started drinking. I remember going back to my room around 3 or 4 in the morning to grab what I thought was three or four more beers of many still in my cooler. But I only had two left. I only remember it because I of how confusing it was. I realize drinking 24 beers over the course of 16 hours or so isn't any kind of unbelievable drinking feat by American drinking standards. But it was a lot for me at the time. And while I did manage to kick over a bunch of bottles trying to navigate the seating to watch God know who play some back in the chapel area, I really wasn't in that bad of shape. At least I don't think I was. My buddies probably thought otherwise.

As far as Grady goes, and I don't remember what year this was, but I remember walking down the main hallway towards the tournament room. I could make out yelling and laughing but couldn't really tell what was going on until I got there. Grady was right there woofing at anyone and everyone who walked in. He had a whole crowd of people watching and he was working them just like a professional stand up comedian would. It was very obviously not the first time he'd done this and he also very obviously enjoyed it.
 
markjames said:
grady’s lisp is difficult for me to listen to for very long

i heard him say that!

thanks for making me laugh, that is hilarious

he talked a lot of crazed and off color stuff about women and pool and strategy and gambling

i’ve learned so much from him and all those accustats people over the years that i don’t know the difference between what i’ve learned from them and

from what i’ve learned by playing the game

so a big thank you to pat and everyone

🙏🏻🙏🏽🙏🏿
Click to expand...
See... For me, the lisp is one of the things I love. Try for a second to imagine you didn't know who he was. A skinny old man who talks like the beaver in Lady and The Tramp walks up and asks if you want to play some... He looked and sounded the like the exact opposite of what he actually was: A cold blooded killer on the table.

And for anyone who doesn't get the Lady and The Tramp reference, here you go. Trust me on this one.

 
Jimmy_Betmore said:
See... For me, the lisp is one of the things I love. Try for a second to imagine you didn't know who he was. A skinny old man who talks like the beaver in Lady and The Tramp walks up and asks if you want to play some... He looked and sounded the like the exact opposite of what he actually was: A cold blooded killer on the table.

And for anyone who doesn't get the Lady and The Tramp reference, here you go. Trust me on this one.

Click to expand...

Got me! That cartoon opens into many more looney tunes. I used to get up an hour early every morning when I was a kid just to watch Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies!. If we went to the theater and things started with a Roadrunner short I figured I had gotten my money's worth before the main show began!

If I go missing a few hours y'all know where to find me.

Hu
 
I had an all-day lesson with Grady one time.

When we started he had me shoot some so he could watch, then after a little while he said, "I'm not sure there's much I can teach you." That wasn't true because he had a ton of knowledge about the game, but I took it as a great compliment. At the end of the day he gave me a signed copy of his book.

I always enjoyed his commentary on Accu-Stats, especially with Bill Incardona.

Grady was one of a kind.
 
maha said:
in the 1970's he was probably the best one pocket player in the world. he deteriorate fast later on in life.

he was one of the few earlier players that knew a lot about what really happens in the balls and what shots to play and not. in one pocket.
Click to expand...
😂. We always tried to teach him to jump a ball with a jump cue

He had no chance.

It was like someone with epilepsy trying to do spear fishing. 😂

He gave up very quick. It was so awful. 😂


He was a very close and great friend. Miss him a lot. 😢
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top