I'm not sure but it seemed like the late Steve Cook had taken quite a bit of time off in the 70's and 80's. He won the all-around at the Stardust in the early 70's against a very strong field and then it seemed like I never heard his name again until 1991 or 1992 when he made it to the final of the Legends of One Pocket event against Allen Hopkins. I don't know if he actually took time of in those middle years or maybe he didn't finish well....but it seems an awful long time for a player of his caliber to have not knocked off at least one or two big events.
Have Any Top Pros Made Good Comebacks?
- Thread starter Johnnyt
- Start date
I use to hang around with Steve many weekends from the mid 1980's to around 1990. He always played back then. He played in alot of the Florida tournaments and was houseman/manager of several rooms in the Tamp Bay area at that time. Johnnyt
Jay, I've always thought that Buddy, with his cue-ball control, could have been a phenomenal 14.1 player. But I've never heard of him playing it. Did he just not like the game for some reason? Did he not see any money in it?
Let's put it this way, John S. wouldn't like what Buddy thought of 14.1 lol. Johnnyt
Kieth McCready
Kiether stopped playing and snapped 3rd. off in the US OPEN. 2003 I beleive.
Kiether stopped playing and snapped 3rd. off in the US OPEN. 2003 I beleive.
Bob Vanover quit for quite some time in the middle of his career and then came back playing better than ever in his late 40's and into his 60's...
He plays on my league team and even now in his 70's he's amazing...
He plays on my league team and even now in his 70's he's amazing...
Buddy could play Straight Pool. In fact he has run over 200 balls in practice. First of all there just weren't enough Straight Pool tournaments, maybe one a year. Buddy was a "working" pool player, who wanted to play every week, whether it was a bar table bash or a big table tourney. That was how he made his living. He didn't mind driving five or six hundred miles to play, and then hop in his car and drive another five hundred miles to the next one. Buddy knew the highways of the eastern USA better than just about any man alive.
Second, Buddy did not care for the game of Straight Pool that much. For whatever reason, the challenge of continually making balls did not appeal to him. It was boring to him. You did hit the nail on the head though. With his phenomenal cue ball control, he might have run three or four hundred balls if he had the patience for it. But he didn't.
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Jay...It's completely different when you are FORCED to quit playing, versus choosing to quit playing. During his "time out" Rodney probably thought of little else (probably the same with T-Rex)...and came back with a vengeance. He's certainly playing great pool these days!
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Why was he forced to quit playing?
The short answer - No!
He was in prison for about 4 years. I've always thought that Rodney was going to be the next Earl if he hadn't had to stop playing. He was a dominant player back then and only 24 or 25 years old. He had just won the U.S. open in dominating fashion, drilling Reyes in the final. Then he wins his next event the Grand Prix Puerto Rico for big money, then he goes to prison. I felt at the time that he was clearly the man to beat. He played more effortlessly back then.
Here's a story of Ralf Souquet playing some 14.1 fairly recently with Bob V. in Dallas (they are good friends, and Ralf likes to practice with Bob anytime he comes through the Big D). Ralf had run over 200 and missed, thinking he'd likely won the match. Bob V. came back and run 250 and out on RALF SOUQUET! 
So, I guess you could say that Bob V., even in his 70's, still plays mighty strong. 
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
So, I guess you could say that Bob V., even in his 70's, still plays mighty strong. Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
... Bob V. came back and run 250 and out on RALF SOUQUET!
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
WOW! Does anyone know if any player other than Bob V. has run 250 or more while in their 70's?
I agree. Johnnyt
Let's not forget Sammy "The Sham" Fielder, from the 1960's. Sammy got his nickname from the rock and roll group "Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs" who were popular at the time. They had a hit tune called "Wooly Bully" and every time someone would drop a quarter in the juke box, Sammy would yell out from across the room, play 'Wooly Bully" and before he knew it the name had stuck.
As one of the best One Pocket players of his day around the Seattle-Tacoma area, Sammy was known for giving outrageous amounts of weight when playing. Spots as much as eleven and the break were common and one story tells of the time when a local who mistakenly thought he had a strong game, kept bugging Sammy to play him one time for a C-note. Sammy finally had all of the guy he could take and agreed to play. He gave the shmuck fifteen and kept the break. The guy never got a shot. Sammy went fifteen and out.
When things started heating up over in Viet Nam, Sammy, like so many other young men at the time, found a draft notice sticking out of his maibox. He went down to the local recruiting office, which by coincidence was only a couple of doors down from his favorite poolroom, and agreed to give Uncle Sam three years of his life. Thirteen weeks later, and ten pounds heavier, Sammy headed off to southeast Asia.
Sammy had been in country only two months when he and his platoon were jumped by a company of NVA's, while walking down a path out in the bush. The fighting was fierce. Sammy, who was good sized, and carried the .30 caliber M-60 let loose a lethal burst of fire in the direction of the enemy. Suddenly there was a flash, followed by a lightning bolt of excruciating pain, and then darkness. The last he remembered, before waking up in a hospital in Saigon, was someone beside him screaming for a medic. One month to the day after being in the firefight he was released from the hospital and given a medical discharge from the Army. He was on his way back home.
On a warm sunny afternoon, Sammy limped back into the vary same poolroom he had walked out of only a few short months before. The regulars tell him how glad they are to see him, buy him a beer, and ask him about his time away. Sammy takes a long drink from the beer bottle and only tells them that it was a hell of a place to be and he was just glad to be back home. As he takes another pull off the beer, Sammy gazes across the poolroom and sees a young girl dropping quarters into the jukebox. Play "Wooly Bully", Sammy yells.
"Screw you!" She yells back.
Sammy "The Sham" Fielder limps out of the poolroom and never sets foot in one again. Some say he married the "Fat Lady" in a carnival and got a job guessing people's weight. Something he was once very good at.
As one of the best One Pocket players of his day around the Seattle-Tacoma area, Sammy was known for giving outrageous amounts of weight when playing. Spots as much as eleven and the break were common and one story tells of the time when a local who mistakenly thought he had a strong game, kept bugging Sammy to play him one time for a C-note. Sammy finally had all of the guy he could take and agreed to play. He gave the shmuck fifteen and kept the break. The guy never got a shot. Sammy went fifteen and out.
When things started heating up over in Viet Nam, Sammy, like so many other young men at the time, found a draft notice sticking out of his maibox. He went down to the local recruiting office, which by coincidence was only a couple of doors down from his favorite poolroom, and agreed to give Uncle Sam three years of his life. Thirteen weeks later, and ten pounds heavier, Sammy headed off to southeast Asia.
Sammy had been in country only two months when he and his platoon were jumped by a company of NVA's, while walking down a path out in the bush. The fighting was fierce. Sammy, who was good sized, and carried the .30 caliber M-60 let loose a lethal burst of fire in the direction of the enemy. Suddenly there was a flash, followed by a lightning bolt of excruciating pain, and then darkness. The last he remembered, before waking up in a hospital in Saigon, was someone beside him screaming for a medic. One month to the day after being in the firefight he was released from the hospital and given a medical discharge from the Army. He was on his way back home.
On a warm sunny afternoon, Sammy limped back into the vary same poolroom he had walked out of only a few short months before. The regulars tell him how glad they are to see him, buy him a beer, and ask him about his time away. Sammy takes a long drink from the beer bottle and only tells them that it was a hell of a place to be and he was just glad to be back home. As he takes another pull off the beer, Sammy gazes across the poolroom and sees a young girl dropping quarters into the jukebox. Play "Wooly Bully", Sammy yells.
"Screw you!" She yells back.
Sammy "The Sham" Fielder limps out of the poolroom and never sets foot in one again. Some say he married the "Fat Lady" in a carnival and got a job guessing people's weight. Something he was once very good at.
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Mike Sigel came back after ten years off to beat Loree Jon Jones. :grin-square:[/QUOTE]
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHHAH!!!!!!!!!
Now that's some funny stuff.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHHAH!!!!!!!!!
Now that's some funny stuff.
A quick update on the Sammy "The Sham" Fielder.
Sammy passed away last week at the age of 63. Some say it was the five-pack a day cigarette habit, others say it was from a broken heart after divorcing his wife of forty-two years, the carnival "Fat Lady". Another pool legend bites the big one.
Sammy passed away last week at the age of 63. Some say it was the five-pack a day cigarette habit, others say it was from a broken heart after divorcing his wife of forty-two years, the carnival "Fat Lady". Another pool legend bites the big one.
