Ahh, Yes - Balcamino
cuesmith said:
Tom,
No I got the cue from John Wright in trade for a Szamboti. When I got it, it had 2 original shafts and 3 made by Doc Frey. I also had a letter from John and a letter from Doc Frey with as authentication. I'd also heard that there were only 3 made, the one I had, Cicero Murphy's cue and another. Many years ago I bought out a cuemaker here in Cincinnati who had lots of old broken cues and parts. Among them was a severely broken Titlist Bushka. I'm not sure what happened to the forearm, but it was destroyed anyway. I am using the bottom parts with a Titlist to make a tribute cue. Should have been done by now but I keep getting sidetracked!
I remember re-tipping 4 or 5 shafts for your Bushka many years ago at Beechmont Billiards in Cincinnati. You made a small score off of one of the biggest nits in Cincinnati that day! First playing gin then pool. He thought he'd get his money back playing pool! LOL The guy you beat was famous locally for hustling kids, drunks and people who just had no chance! I remember the look in his eyes when he realized he was in a bear trap! LOL That was great!
just more hot air!
Sherm
Sherm – “Now I remember you”!
That was a funny hustle I was able to put on Balcamino.
I REALLY WAS IN TOWN TO GET MY ADVERTISING BIZ STARTED (been in biz for 15 years now) and Gary Speath was steering me.
He had told me to just go around to some weekly local bar tourneys and I could clean up. I tried to explain to Gary how I hustled but I could see it was falling on deaf ears. He really wasn’t into the hustle – just liked to play good – AND HE DID. I asked him to just tell me where the action & $ was and I'll take it from there.
I wasn't really trying to even hustle any pool and was just sitting in the bar area having a beer when Balcamino starts hustling me to play Gin. Naturally I turned him down and waited for him to play someone else and watched him play a few hands. He didn't know what the hell he was doing!
I actually had to come & go from St. Louis a couple of times to get & train a good new rep for my product and so it looked even better.
I'll bet I played Balcamino over 15 sets of Gin and he never won once. He insisted we don't tell anyone what we were really playing for (it sure was a lot more than others thought) & Gary had told me I was wasting my time on him because he was the biggest lock artist & nit in OH.
After Balcamino had all he could stand at Gin (& I thought he was going to have a heart attack) - What do you think he says - "Do You Ever Play Pool For Money"?
I remember playing some decent player (I think Balcamino was staking him) and losing $100 or so. I did this to be able to establish that I had a cue so when I played serious later it wouldn’t be so alarming.
Did you know Balcamino & I played pool more than a couple of times - but never in that Pool Room?
I've often thought that if I played Golf - I could have had the trifecta with Balcamino.
Gary almost shit when he got his 20% & he must have laughed for 10 min. He couldn’t believe it! One of the hardest parts was keeping Gary out of the poolroom. After he had heard what was going on, he wanted to come in and see for himself and I didn’t want him to screw anything up.
TY & GL
Ps. - Is Balcamino still around? - If so, Say "Hello" for me. I really did like him.
And what about that guy who ran a coffee/trucker’s stop years earlier out on the interstate. Man, he sure had some nice waitresses.
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