Matt_24 said:
Ok, here is Keith.....(well, my version)
Matt, I have to say that actually does look like me! You're a pretty good cartoonist, man. The funny thing about that picture is that when I was wearing a shirt like that and could back it up, I offered Earl the last two. Earl turned it down. I don't know if he turned it down because he didn't want to knock his action or just maybe he couldn't win.
At the same time, I was giving Kim Davenport the 7-ball, and Earl was sitting right there in the pool room. Earl had not peaked yet, and he had to be about 18 or 19 then. Of course, we all know how Earl escalated from there.
Me and Earl did have our battles. There was a lot of hill-hill matches. One time, we were playing in Richmond, Kentucky. It was at the Clyde Childress tournament, and you had to call kicks, no lucking in balls. If you lucked in a ball, the other guy got ball in hand. I made one of the greatest kick shots on Earl and called it. I was dead snookered. I kicked at the 5-ball two rails, went off the side rail, called the ball in the right-hand corner pocket, and it happened to go on. But then I missed the 7-ball down in the corner getting too excited from all the electricity in the building after that shot. The whole place went nuts. I ended up losing the match, 11 to 10, a real heartbreaker.
The next year, I got even with Earl. I beat him 11 to 10 in the finals at the same tournament. I have all the respect in the world for Earl, especially when he was in his prime. I believe that he was, in my opinion, the toughest to beat for an eight-year span as a tournament player, as I have seen. And I've seen a lot of champions. If you didn't get up there and run 5, 6, and 7 racks on Earl, you weren't getting the money. It didn't matter who he was playing back then. Everybody had to fade those 5, 6, and 7 packs that Earl produced time and time again.
