Okay, not really. But, I kicked a ball in 2 rails and got shape on the next ball....was chalking up when I realized jose was watching me. Why the hell is parica watching me was my thought at the time. Tried taking some deep breaths to calm my nerves took the shot and missed a pretty easy one.
To answer my own question I made one hell of kick and thats why he was watching me. Any of you who have had problems "getting rid" of the crowd in your mind have some tricks to refocus on the game?
It's part of the deal -- you never know who'll be watching. Two quick stories:
I think it was in college and a poster showed up advertising that Irving "The Deacon" Crane, Joe "The Meatman" Balsis, Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter, and I think Cicero Murphy were going to be giving an exhibition at a pool hall across The Bay in Oakland, California. This would have been around the mid-70's.
So me and a shooting buddy from the USF rec room fly over on a Saturaday afternoon to watch. Frankly, I can't recall what the exhibition itself entailed. What I do remember is that all four champions were warming up, by playing each other 1pocket. This was a game that was highly alien to me at that time in my life, and they way they were playing it probably scarred me, at some deep subconscious level, for life. In a nutshell their games were going *a maximum* of five minutes a game. Many did not go three minutes. One champion would break, the other champion would bank or cut or combo a ball and run eight and out. It went like this for about an hour. In my mind, I grew up thinking that 1pocket was the simplest game in the book, not much more to it than any game of 9ball or 8ball.
Anyway, at some point they did the exhibition, now lost to memory, and afterwards my buddy and I get a table, inspired by the effortless play of the four champions. The next thing I know, I'm staring at a long straight in 9ball and Mr. Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter is looking at me, and my shot, right down the barrel. Of course I dog my ever loving brains out and miss by a mile and I say something like, "Heh, heh. You sharked me Mr. Lassiter." And Wimpy just turned away like he'd just seen a dog take a crap on the sidewalk. You gotta love this game.
My second recollection was at the US 1Pocket Open up in Kalamazoo in 2000. It's Friday night before the tournament starts and I'm playing Steve "Cookie Monster" Cook some $20 1pocket and, if that were not bad enough, Efren is on a stool watching us intently. The only thing I remember about that session is that I hit a pretty cool two-railer against Cook and Efren just kind of looked at me and, almost imperceptibly, nodded in appreciation. Little did I know at the time that I'd be playing "The Magician" the second round the next day :-o
Lou Figueroa
