U.S Open entrant: Is this the Joe who's a brother in law of Cheyenne Pete? If so haven't seen his name in a tournament since the late 80's.
Joe Villapando
- Thread starter Island Drive
- Start date
Here is another thread on this guy:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=42036
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=42036
Island Drive said:
Here's a neat story about Joe V as we used to call him. Reid Pierce, U.S. Open Champion was playing in one of our big bar table tournaments a dozen years ago or so at Rackateers. Reid has almost lost to one of the locals, I think it was Eddie Brown and was losing 8-4 when he went on a tear to beat Eddie 9-8 and bellowed, "HOW YA LIKE IT NEW ORLEANS? THAT'S WHAT YOU CALL SEASONING!". It was an exclamation that might have been made by anyone coming back fromo such a deficit. A couple of matches later, Joe V and Reid are playing and Reid has Joe V 8-3 and is cruising along like the champ that he is. Joe V and I used to hit the local tournament scene weekly especially on the weekends and I would do the driving, although I played in the tournaments just not too well. Anyway Joe is standing next to me and while I'm not a tall guy, Joe is SHORT and he is looking up at me and he says, "You know, one time way back when, I was playing this real good player and he had me stuck just like this and I came back to win the match. I locked on Joe's eyes (hoping to put my two years of psychology to work) and said, Joe, I know that if anyone has a chance of doing this YOU DO. Let's see what's going to happen. Well Reid misses and leaves JoeV a few balls to run to win making it 8-4. The next game JoeV makes the nine on the break. The next game he breaks runs to the four ball and makes a 4-9 combo making it 8-5. The pool room was full of electricity. I could feel it in the air. It was all over me and I wasn't even playing. The next game, Joe breaks and runs out the rack making it 8-6. The next game Joe doesn't make a ball on the break and Reid comes out swinging but has a tough rack and can't get out and leaves Joe another easy out with the score now 8-7. JoeV is wound up like a little short spring, shooting at everything, the next game Reid gives the table to Joe but played a mediocre safe and JoeV gets out that game too tieing it up hill/hill. Now the electricity has redoubled and everyone is in dead sweat, eyes glazing, everyone's perspiring, the tables are wet, the players are soaked and so are the sweators but no one is leaving this match. I can't remember how the last match went except the last 4 balls that Joe made were excruciating for me. LOL As the winning nine ball fell in the hole, I could not contain myself and screamed, "HOW YA LIKE IT MISSISSIPPI!" It was a reflex and I couldn't help myself. Reid came unglued started screaming and wanted to bet me ten million dolllars (a slight exaggeration) or whatever I could come up with and said a few choice words but there was no amount of money that I could have won that day that could have taken the place of the feeling that I had when my buddy JoeV stopped Reid in his tracks. Reid has always been a MUCH better player than myself and it wasn't really that I was happy that Reid lost. I was just so jazzed with what had just happened to my buddy that I couldn't hold it in. It was Joe's day for a come back victory or extraordinary proportions.
GET SOME, JOE V!
JoeyA
New Orleans