I didn't. I tried to play him. He threatened me with violence. Just as he did the previous year.
And no a lot of people didn't see it or hear it because it didn't happen.
Eric and you are dishonest people. Your levels of dishonesty and bullying are despicable.
Interestingly through you never attacked him when he was advocating for objective aiming systems. That would have been interesting to see two full blown liars going at it.
Somewhere around the last third of my match with John, like when we are 5-3, Dennis Spears walked into the arena. I don’t know Dennis but I was told that he is a local open level player that plays pros like John Schmidt 1pocket even. He goes and sits next to John’s wife. I pretty much ignored him and didn’t think anything of his presence in John’s corner, even though he would clap loudly every time John would make a good shot.
We progress to the point in the match where I have John 6-3 and eventually, late in one of the next two games, John shoots an intentional laying the CB up behind two balls on the spot. The owed ball is spotted and I am now sandwiched between two balls and I think to myself, “No way John knows that shot.” John says he learned that shot from someone from St. Louis and I can buy that. I myself learned it years ago watching a match featuring Mark Jarvis with Freddy the Beard commentating. If I recall correctly, Mark loses the last game and Freddy comes out of the booth and tells him the shot. Mark sets it up, shoots it, and a light bulb comes on.
In any case, now I start to pay attention to John’s corner.
My wife has often said I have hearing like a dog. What I start to notice is that from my player’s chair Dennis is sitting out of my line of sight, literally crouched down behind one of the arena’s wooden pillars. So now I’m trying to listen in to what Dennis is saying to John every time I’m near the left corner pocket near John’s corner.
Some folks have wondered, “What could anyone say to John in a just couple of seconds that would benefit him?” But it was way more than that. The entire time I was standing at the table trying to figure out what I was going to do, Dennis was mumbling away to John with plenty of time to assess the table and brief him on his options. Dennis was doing that while holding both hands up to his mouth, sort of like you see baseball players during a pitcher/catcher mound conference.
I feel that John getting coached cost me at least one of the two games John goes on to win at that point, and we finish the night at 8-6. (And no: there was no prior discussion, much less agreement, on cornermen or coaching.)
So immediately after the conclusion of play the first night I walk over to the far side of the arena where AZers Koop and Mitch are sitting and I ask them if they could see what was going on in John’s corner and one of them says, “Oh yeah. It was totally obvious from here that he was getting coached. We had a clear view of it.”
So I go up to Ed, the owner of Sandcastle, who was still in the booth, having done commentary, and we have the following conversation:
Lou: “I got a complaint.”
Ed: “What is it?”
Lou: “John was getting coached by the black guy in his corner.”
Ed: “Oh yeah. I could see it from the booth. I was waiting for you to say something to put an end to it.”
Lou: “It can’t happen tomorrow.”
Ed: “OK.”
My corner slept the coaching. I don’t blame them. We’re all pretty new to this kind of stuff and to be honest we never thought anyone would stoop to that. In any case, I know they have beaten themselves up enough about it. So that’s the answer to why Lou’s corner didn’t say anything.
The next day before John and I start again, I go up to Ed again and we have this conversation:
Lou “There cannot be any coaching today.”
Ed: “I talked to John about it and he admitted to it and I told him that can’t be going on.”
Lou: “All I know is that I won’t tolerate it today.”
And what Ed does is to talk to Dennis, one of his room players, and tells him he cannot sit anywhere near John, and that was the end of that.
Lou Figueroa
