Harold Worst vs Lassiter

Celtic

Celtic

AZB's own 8-ball jihadist
Silver Member
Interesting tidbit of information from Danny D on the legend that is Harold Worst.

Harold Worst was supposedly looking for action against Lassiter but could not play because it was Sunday.

According to Danny D it was a good thing for Harold because in his opinion (and there are few who were actually around to know these things first hand) he would not have beaten Lassiter for the cheese.

From many of the accounts I have heard, in Lassiter's prime he was the best and dominated the era that included the brief appearance of Harold Worst.

Lassiter IMO might be one of the more underrated and forgotten champions of any era. People who talk of the "greatest of all time" tend to mention Efren, Strickland, Mosconi, Greenleaf, but so often Lassiter sort of gets passed by in the discussion. Worst as often as not gets more notice than poor Luther.
 
I found Danny's comments very interesting. I love to hear from guys who were at Johnston City and who actually played legends like Lassiter and Worst talk about them.

Yeah, it looks as though Danny didn't think Worst would've beaten Lassiter for the money, but apparently he was more than willing to gamble against Lassiter. Danny was asked if Worst was as good as, say, Johnny Archer, and without hesitation Danny said, "Oh, yes," and then said that Worst was a better all-around player than Archer.

For anyone who doesn't know, Worst was not only the all-around champion at Johnston City and Stardust, but was also the world 3-cushion champion, na dby all accounts a fearless high-stakes gambler at any game.

In the opinion of many, of course, Lassiter may have been the best 9-ball player ever.
 
Celtic said:
Interesting tidbit of information from Danny D on the legend that is Harold Worst.

Harold Worst was supposedly looking for action against Lassiter but could not play because it was Sunday.

According to Danny D it was a good thing for Harold because in his opinion (and there are few who were actually around to know these things first hand) he would not have beaten Lassiter for the cheese.

From many of the accounts I have heard, in Lassiter's prime he was the best and dominated the era that included the brief appearance of Harold Worst.

Lassiter IMO might be one of the more underrated and forgotten champions of any era. People who talk of the "greatest of all time" tend to mention Efren, Strickland, Mosconi, Greenleaf, but so often Lassiter sort of gets passed by in the discussion. Worst as often as not gets more notice than poor Luther.
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I guess it depends on what area you are in. When I was coming up in pool, Luther was mentioned as much as Mosconi was. That said, I also believe Worst had the best of Lassiter.
 
One other interesting comment from Danny. When asked if he had played Worst, he said "Yes," paused, then added "I didn't win, but he didn't miss."
 
PoolBum said:
Danny was asked if Worst was as good as, say, Johnny Archer, and without hesitation Danny said, "Oh, yes," and then said that Worst was a better all-around player than Archer.
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And from that you can extrapolate just how good Lassiter must have been if Danny think's Harold would not have gotten there against him. Archer as good as he was did not really like playing Busty for the cash. He ran a 13 and out against him and Busty simply wanted to double the bet, Archer declined, kept the bet the same and lost the next set.
 
Celtic said:
And from that you can extrapolate just how good Lassiter must have been if Danny think's Harold would not have gotten there against him. Archer as good as he was did not really like playing Busty for the cash. He ran a 13 and out against him and Busty simply wanted to double the bet, Archer declined, kept the bet the same and lost the next set.
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Yes, and when Johnny signed the table he wrote, "I ran 13 racks," and when Busty signed the table he wrote, "I won."

I agree with you that Lassiter sometimes seems to be the forgotten player when the all-time greats are talked about. He should always be in the discussion of the greatest player of all time.
 
You can always come to Tuscaloosa and talk to Marshall Carpenter about them, he knew them all. He's 87 and still plays almost every day. I've talked to him about Worst and Lassiter several times, and he has some good stories about all of them.

The "who was the best ever" stuff is silly however, it depends on many factors and it will never be something that can be answered.
 
Thomas McKane said:
You can always come to Tuscaloosa and talk to Marshall Carpenter about them, he knew them all. He's 87 and still plays almost every day. I've talked to him about Worst and Lassiter several times, and he has some good stories about all of them.
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If Marshall is ever willing to let you post some of his thoughts on them or post here himself let him know I would be hugely grateful to him for his first hand knowledge and stories as would many others here. Most of us have heard of "the squirrel" before but have been unfortunate to have seen him play.
 
Thomas McKane said:
The "who was the best ever" stuff is silly however, it depends on many factors and it will never be something that can be answered.
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Just because we can't figure out who was the best ever doesn't mean there isn't a right answer, and it certainly doesn't mean that it's not interesting to talk about.
 
Having seen Lassiter play Eddie Taylor in 1967, I still think he's one of the best ever. It was at Oxon Hill High School, Maryland, an exhibition put on by Red Jones, a pool enthusiast who was manning the Air Force desk at the White House, along with Bill (Weenie Beenie) Staton, who owned Jack and Jill's at Arlington, Virginia.

Lassiter and Taylor played straight pool, and Taylor didn't have a chance, even though Luther gave him a couple tries at the table. A great exhibition, and Beenie did trick shots in the middle with the two.

It's a very short list, the greatest all round player. I've said it before, Lassiter is up there, as well as Mike Sigel. If you saw Lassiter play, you're one of the lucky ones.
 
WildWing said:
It's a very short list, the greatest all round player. I've said it before, Lassiter is up there, as well as Mike Sigel.
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Sigel was one of the all time greats. Not "Mike the Mouth" of the IPT era but the "Real" Mike Sigel, Captain Hook when he was actually a professional pool player in his prime. The IPT will hurt the way history looks back at Mike Sigel and that is a sad thing.
 
Celtic said:
Sigel was one of the all time greats. Not "Mike the Mouth" of the IPT era but the "Real" Mike Sigel, Captain Hook when he was actually a professional pool player in his prime. The IPT will hurt the way history looks back at Mike Sigel and that is a sad thing.
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Sigel is without a doubt on the short list of the greatest players of all time. His IPT performance should have no effect on that, just like no one should look at Willie Mays and claim that he couldn't be the greatest all-around ball player because he played past his prime.
 
Ronnie "Fast Eddie" Allen concurred, saying in a recording available online that Harold Worst was the greatest pool player he ever saw. According to Fast Eddie, there is no doubt that Mosconi was the best at straight pool, and in his opinion no one could have beaten Buddy Hall or Richie Florence at nine-ball when they were in stroke. But Mosconi, Hall and Florence were single game specialists. Even the great Efren Reyes plays primarily two games: nine-ball and one-pocket. Within the last 50 years there has been only one player who was a world champion at three-cushion billiards, nine-ball, one-pocket, straight pool and snooker: Harold Worst. Allen goes on to tell an amusing and illustrative story. It was around 1965 and the world's greatest pool hustlers were in Jacksonville for a tournament. They included Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter, Eddie "The Knoxville Bear" Taylor, "Cowboy" Jimmy Moore, Weenie Beanie, Squirrel, Joe "The Meatman" Balsis, "Handsome" Danny Jones, and a young, larcenous Fast Eddie. Suddenly a Western Union messenger delivered a singing telegram, saying that someone named Harold Worst was at the Biltmore Hotel and would play any taker a session for $1,000. It was "the damndest thing," according to Allen. So he called Worst's room and told him to "bring plenty of money" because there were twenty people lined up to play him. When Worst showed up, he was "the essence of a gentleman," wearing a suit and tie. He didn't bother to practice, and "never hit a ball." He just tossed $1,000 on the table and asked who he was playing. The hustlers decided to put up Jimmy Moore, and Worst beat him 11-6. Then Allen suggested that they put up Wimpy, because "Lassiter ain't never lost playing nine-ball to nobody." But Worst beat Lassiter, 11-9 and 11-10. At this point, according to Allen, "This guy has not missed a ball, so we don't know what to do." They decided to resort to begging and stealing. The hustlers only got their money back by persuading Worst to spot Allen the seven ball. From that point forward, they either dodged Worst (as Lassiter and Taylor did), or demanded the mortal nuts (as Allen did more than once). Sometimes they sent "undercover" players to his home room in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and tricked him into bad games. But from what I have been able to gather, Worst always won playing head-up, and even when giving up what seemed like the nuts, he sometimes still managed to win. He was that good, in his prime.....
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worst was better than lassiter jmho
 
bbb said:
and in his opinion no one could have beaten Buddy Hall or Richie Florence at nine-ball when they were in stroke.
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But... what if Buddy and Richie both played each other and both were in stroke???
 
As far as the above post. I don't think "anyone" has the game to beat an "in stroke" Earl at his peak. Efren did not have it in the Color of Money match for the first two days, no one had it. Earl when he was "right" was the closest thing to a 9-ball machine that this game has ever seen. He had the break, he had the ball pocketing, he had the shape play, he had the safety play, and after Efren showed him the kick safe game Earl took that lesson and mastered that pretty damn fast too.

Earl has a surreal top end game of 9-ball. The "ONLY" player I think might have actually beaten Earl's best was Yang in his prime, and Yang in his prime was not actually human, he was a machine built by IBM to be the "Deep Blue" equivalent of a pool player.
 
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