Nice thread here about one of Pool's great champions. Jimmy did get the label of "Bridesmaid" for all his runner-up finishes in major events. Not so bad a record though, considering he was in fields FULL of champions. He just had trouble winning the critical match to put him over the top.
He did have one of the stranger strokes I ever saw. As soneone else said, he "cued" down on the cloth, almost off the cue ball entirely. But when he followed thru, he could hit anywhere he wanted on the ball. Strange but effective. I suspect it came from a career as a hustler. It would have been a good move to show that stroke to his opponents.
Meanwhile, his stroke was one of the sweetest in the game. Jimmy had an exaggerated slip stroke and he could do wondrous things with the cue ball. A couple I remember included drawing the cue ball three rails, when he started out about one inch from the object ball. Try that sometime! And he had that shot down where you shoot a ball in the side pocket and force follow the cue ball forward and down table. This is done from an off angle. Does that make sense?
In his day, his stroke was the most powerful in the game, kind of the Mike Massey of his era. Jimmy was a super friendly guy too, and once he met you, he never forgot you. He was soft spoken and a real gentleman. He had a nice soft drawl and liked to laugh a lot. I always enjoyed being around him. In my lifetime, he was the best older player I ever saw. Still playing high level pool well into his 70's. And gambling too. I heard he could still run 100 balls when he was over 80 years old. I don't doubt it.
Oh and one last thing. I WENT TO JAIL WITH JIMMY! Yes, you heard right! Jimmy was in L.A. for one of Fred Whalen's big tourneys in the early 70's and someone challenged him to a Snooker match. I think it was that Harry Cohen guy. Jimmy played jam up Snooker too by the way. So they went to a poolroom nearby that had a snooker table, and start to play for $50 a game with six red balls. I'm sweating the game along with quite a few others when someone says to me. "Aren't you one of the refs at the tournament?" Sure I say and pretty soon this guy is asking me how I play Pool. SWEET!
Make a long story short, pretty soon we are in action at $5 9-Ball on the next table over. We're paying off every two games ($10) and I've got the guy stuck like $40 or $50, when all Hell breaks loose. It's the cops coming in en masse, and there are a couple of plain clothes guys already inside. They immediately "bust" Jimmy and his opponent and then one of the plain clothes cops says those guys over there were gambling too, pointing to us.
SHIT!
Sure enough a couple of cops approach our table and one pulls the last Ten dollar bill out of the corner pocket. I had just gotten paid. Double shit! Now we are taken outside with Jimmy and the other guy and handcuffed. I'm keeping real quiet, cause you don't want to mess with the L.A. cops in those days. The kid I had been playing is mouthing off big time though, calling the cops names etc. They put me and him in the back seat of a patrol car, and the kid won't shut up. I tell him to quiet down. I'm scared. The cop in the front seat turns around and slaps the kid on the face HARD! That shut him up, and scared me shitless. I'm sitting right next to him remember, handcuffed behind my back. Helpless in other words.
We get to the police station and while we are waiting the kid pipes up again. The same cop comes over and slams his head face first against the wall. He's bleeding from his nose, but finally shuts up for good. Jimmy is standing nearby and tells me not to worry. He asks me if I have any money and I say sure. He says we will probably be able to bail out, and sure enough after an hour or so in a holding cell, they give us the option of bailing out for $52.
After Jimmy and I bail out (the kid got taken to the drunk tank, and didn't get to make bail, I think they held him for the entire weekend), we get outside and Jimmy tells me to just forget about it. It's a misdemeanor and if you don't show up in court, they will forfeit your bail and that's the end of it. They gave us back our money, except for the "evidence" from the last game. I lost $10 and Jimmy $50. Jimmy had won a couple hundred before the bust so he was cool.
We took a cab back to Hollywood and I saw him in the tournament the next night, as if nothing had happened, although everyone there was talking about it. I guess it went with the territory when you were a pool hustler, but it was a new experience for me. Thank God I got busted with Jimmy, because he helped me out that night. We laughed about it a few times over the years when I saw him again. TRUE STORY!!!!
