Jeff,
I know that Mosconi proposed as little cueball travel as possible. In his biography he lists as perhaps his finest accomplishment a 125 and out run (when games were to 125) in a championship match (don't remember the opponent - buy his biography and study it) where he claims he was never more than 8 inches from any of the 125 pocketed balls.
Mosconi is also well known for liking to get into the middle of the pack with the cueball and shoot outwards from there (as opposed to many other top players who prefer middle of the table).
He also brought his own balls to each exhibition - which emphasizes a point SJM has made in a PM that the slow rolling game not only requires good level tables, but also benefits from clean, polished balls (which is why I have a commercial ball polisher in my basement pool room).
Lastly I will re-post a drill and Mosconi anecdote from the KC guys. Willie promoted a straight pool drill (also described in his instructional books) where you line up 12 or 13 object balls along the foot string, take ball in hand and fire them into the far corner pockets. He proposed doing it with ball in hand for each shot, then when you are good, trying to do all 12 or 13 in sequence with just ball in hand for the first shot, trying to get perfect position each time for the next object ball. The KC guys report he showed this drill to some doofus in KC who couldn't even begin to make 2 or 3 in a row. The jerk was just complaining loudly about how this was a stupid drill and wasn't even possible; finally stating he would bet no one could actually do this (I don't remember the amount he would wager). The KC guys ran immediately to Willie, who came to the table and bet that not only could he do it, he could do it in less than 1 minute. Wagers were placed and Willie fired away. Bang, bang, bang Willie made all 13 in a row, perfect position each time, less than 30 seconds. I've tried the drill, just seems impossible to me right now (4 or 5 in a row seems pretty good).
You hear lots of opinions about the best shotmakers of all time (ie. Efren, Lassiter, Sigel, Mizerak), but these guys saw them all and considered Willie head and shoulders above the others (of course these are degenerate pool gamblers and about as reliable as your vintage '74 Pinto). The pro's seem to uniformly hate him, but I suspect there is always a little jealousy tinting their view.
when they first tried this drill. It seems real easy, but in my case, I get bored before I get past the first 9. I think I made 16 or 17 the first time, and haven't really given it the effort again.