Inside stories with pros

hang-the-9

hang-the-9

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Many of us hang around the "insiders" of the pool world and some ARE the insiders LOL

What story/event have you heard that others may not have because you were hanging around someone?

I have one about Shaw. Soon after we were introduced because my son had a sponsor shared with him I was talking to him about how he started playing and he told me how he started to play snooker and english 8 ball more and more when he was young. It got so his school work got bad and one day during a large town bonfire he went to look at it and found his table on the pile burning :eek:

I also had the pleasure of hanging around Freddie Angir and Bobby Cotton at one of the CSI tournaments at Griffs sitting at a table directly behind the commentators booth and spent the day talking about everything and everyone including the filming of Poolhall Junkies since Bobby was involved in that. I wish I could remember more stuff from him, but most of it escapes my memory. Was the best seat in the house hehe, Freddie would do player interviews for his notes 2 feet from me and I got to listen in. He'd also drag players over to say hi to us and get autographs.
 
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I remember chatting with Jose Parica over breakfast in about 1997 during a PBT event in New Jersey.

Oddly enough, our chat got around to straight pool and I asked him what his high run was. His answer was 200, and it struck me as a most unusual number for one's high run. I asked him "You mean exactly 200?" and his answer was "yeah, the game was over." He explained that his run came in an action match and, eager to start the next money game, he didn't care to continue his personal best run.

To me, the story encapsulates the mindset of one of the greatest action players our game has ever known. To my knowledge, Jose has never topped that run, but the beauty of it is that he could care less.
 
Buzzard II said:
See, and they say Willie had no sense of humor or personality.
Click to expand...

I have no idea how Willie acted off stage.
But I do remember him well groomed and in a nice suit.
He was polite to me and smiled a lot.
After he beat my brains out(I did pocket a few balls) he gave a trick shot show.
He was funny and was a great showman.
I realize this was his job and he did it well.
He even acknowledged an old time player in the crowd and said he was one of the best players to ever come out of New Jersey.
The old timer had said he played Willie straight pool once and won 1 out of 3 games.
It was nice to see that Willie knew him and that the story was probably true.
 
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