For all of you that tuned in to the LiveStreaming from Fayetteville, NC this past week I just wanted to say THANK YOU.
The week was a BLUR so don't chastize me too hard about the order of the things that I am about to share because I was fighting hard to stay up with the pace of things.
As usual, at the last minute I decided to play in the Great Southern Billiard Tour (One Pocket portion) tournament and while I was two and out, I had a blast. I got the opportunity to play two great players, Leonardo Andam and Dave Grossma. I even scared both of them, if only for a little while.
My biggest THANK YOU goes to Jay Helfert, who suggested to the LIVE STREAMING MANAGEMENT (at the tournament) that they use me in the commentating booth. The thought had never crossed my mind to do any commentating. It just wasn't something I had ever considered in life. That kind of stuff (in my mind) was always consigned to people that specialized in that type of work, right? Well, I was wrong and when INSIDE POOL MAGAZINE asked me if I would like to do a match commentating, I thought to myself, "Why not? It might be fun and who knows, I might get to rub elbows with another great commentator of theirs."
Surprise, surprise, surprise! Can't you hear Gomer Pyle (another marine) saying that? Jay and I had the opportunity to sit in on the first match together and he helped me along with the commentating duties, while we were managed by the Producer, Dustin and JR Calvert. Jay gave me some tips that helped make the job much easier.
The surprises kept coming one after the other. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, opening up one present after another. I asked Grady if he thought maybe he and I could commentate a match together. Grady and I have known each other for a lot of years and I value his friendship. He informed me that he would be delighted to do some commentating with me and I was off to tearing the wrapper off of another incredible Christmas gift. Grady was a blast and with the Internet forum viewers getting into the act and the Producer whispering encouragment and guiding direction, we had lots of fun doing a match together. (THANKS A LOT SMORGASSBORED for the "pants" humor.:smile:
:smile: )
After sitting in the booth with the PROFESSOR, I could have died and went to heaven but NO...............there were more surprises to come.
JR Calvert, the man at Inside Pool Magazine, who makes it all happen asked me if I would like to do some additional commentating with HIM. Well, that just blew me away. I couldn't understand what was happening or why but I was riding a tsunami and it was as exciting as anything I had ever done before. I have always been drawn to excitement and commentating was really exciting for me. It was something new to me and I was having the time of my life. I wanted to interact with the Internet viewers more than I did but wasn't able to do so because of the need to concentrate on the match at hand and my newness to commentating. JR was like SILK. That guy's voice and easy transitioning back and forth between the discussion about the match taking place in front of our very eyes, the interaction with the Internet viewers and the incredible way that he paid his repects to the SPONSORS who were bring the LiveSTream broadcast to the Internet viewers FREE OF CHARGE as well as his kind handling of this newbie in the booth simply made my day.
Dustin, the producer was inspirational every minute of the day. He reminded me of the Walt Disney movie I saw as a child with Jimminy Cricket riding in the horses's ear giving him instruction on what to do at every turn.:smile:
At this point, I just didn't think it could get any better and now my confidence was growing a little and I wanted to ask if I could possible be considered to do the FINALS commentating with my friend Grady Mathews, only to find that he had already headed back to his pool room. I believe Grady had driven to the tournament and I'm sure he had lots going on since he had been at the tournament for quite some time.
Between the matches, I would run to the restaurant located inside of KING STREET BILLIARDS and grab a quick bite to eat or something to drink and make a restroom call. At this point I was running on high octane and couldn't believe I was still feeling excited about being there. After all, I lost two matches in a row and here I was feeling happy. I didn't know why I deserved to be so happy but like any kid at Christmas time, I kept accepting the presents with a smile on my face and a grateful heart. The producer, Dustin asked me if I would sit in with Melissa Little, a WPBA pro on one of the matches and I jumped at the chance. Melissa was so cool in the booth, I felt really comfortable talking with her. She had a great sense of humor as well as a great all around knowledge of pool and I had a blast.
By now, I couldn't think of anything else that could top my good fortune but who does JR now set me up with but the GREAT NICK VARNER. Until you sit next to Nick in a booth and LISTEN to his insight about pool, you will never fully realize just how knowledgeable and realistic he is. NICK was the REAL DEAL and a pleasure to hang out with. Nick had an incredible tournament and played some of the best pool I had ever seen him play. I learned so much from Nick just listening to him talk. Did I say I was having a blast?
When things couldn't get any better, before I knew it I was sitting next to the young, great Mike Davis and I can't say enough about Mike. Fortune had me simply having a conversation with Mike a couple of days prior to the commentating although I had never met him before this tournament. Mike had been drinking a lot of coffee during the tournament and I made small talk with him about his use of coffee and he offered an explanation and said he had been recovering from a severe cold and was tired and even though he didn't like to drink coffee during a tournament he was drinking more coffee than normal because he was still under the weather. Mike shared a lot of information with me and I can tell you that he is defintely one of the good guys and I would be honored to break bread with him down the road. Mike's easy going style allowed us to have a lot of "easy time" in the booth sharing our individual perspectives about the match taking place.
There is no need to talk about the matches right now as all of the matches will be available for purchase. These DVD matches will be VERY HIGH QUALITY RESOLUTION and I plan to purchase some of them for my own viewing (Smorg I don't think I'm going to be able to part with my copies
) Inside Pool Mag should have them available within a couple of weeks. Some of the recorded matches were incredible. I'll just mention one. Hillbilly played a match against Shane Van Boening and his break was working and he never let up on Shane. It was a display of dominance that you seldom see at the end of a tournament and was a VERY QUICK match. Shane had been put in the freezer by Charley Bryant, at least for that match.
I was disappointed to not see Jerry Forsythe and Mike Howerton at the tournament but had a great time. They probably wouldn't have let me sit in the booth with them.
But seriously, I wanted to thank all of you for the kind compliments you made in this thread and in the Chat Room. If I ever get another chance to do some commenating again I promise to try and interact a bit more with the Chat Room.
When I got back from the tournament last night I viewed this thread and all I could say is "OH MY GOD". You guys and girls capped off one of the most incredible weeks of my life.
Billy, your words meant a great deal to me and I would be honored to sit in the booth with you
ANY TIME.
Thanks again, you all made my day.
Joey Aguzin
