Jose Parica
- Thread starter Terry Ardeno
- Start date
Terry Ardeno said:Deadon,
Nice photo!
For some reason, when I saw this picture, the following scene came to mind...
A bunch of construction workers working out of town just got paid and so they wanted to go out and "shoot a little pool"Get where I'm going with this? Anyway, after a few drinks and bar hoping, they feel like it's time. So they all flood into the nearest pocket billiards establishment and begin ball banging. After a few more drinks, they notice a group of little guys softley hitting balls and missing (playing safties) on a nearby table. One especially brave soul ambles over and inquires if they'de like to "play some for some money". The guys who were just approached look sheepishly at one another and if you look real close, $ signs are where their pupils were a few moments ago. "Sure mister, we'll play you some..."
Flash forward a couple of hours later. They'll all scrunched together 4 to a pick up truck cab and the ride is real quiet. Nobody says much as the windshield wipers just go back and forth...back and forth. A few more minutes later, the silence is finally broken...."Man, we should have went bowlin' "
Yeah, I bet just about anyone could have got a game with that bunch. Marlon was playing lights out.
Mike
Terry Ardeno said:
Jose is a GREAT player, one of the greatest ever. And he is respected by his peers, and the other filipinos. But let me state clearly and unequivocally for all to hear. HE AIN'T NO ANGEL EITHER!!!
PoolBum said:
Yep, I remember it now. I'm in my mid 20's and it seems like my memory is betraying me sometimes. Don't know why I thought that match was the semi's or quarterfinals, but I remember watching it. I would have thought that if it was the finals, I would have remembered it was. I guess Parica's play dazzled me so much I caught amnesia.
One Monday night I was getting my APA eightball team ready for the night so I could leave and go to a open 9 ball tournament at Burkats in Monroe NC and walked out the door of Rackem Billiards in Matthews NC and see Jose Parica sitting on a wood bench next door at a laundrymat. I said Jose what are you doing here and he said the guys at Sterling dropped him and his friend Tom Smith off there to wash there clothes and they had closed up at Sterling and he was stuck there, so I said lets go play in a single elimination 9ball tournament a few miles away. Jose said they wont let me play and I said yea its open and I'll call and put in the tournament and does your friend play, and he said yea he plays my speed. We dropped Tom off first so nobody would know he was with Jose and went in ten minutes later with the plan that I would get a friend to buy Tom cheap in the calcutta so nobody saw me bid on him. Well a good ol boy had seen Tom gambling at one hole ten years earlier in Baltimore and started the bid at fifty bucks and shot us out of the water, Jose wins first match and then plays Norris Brady and gets drilled 7 to 2 and Tom wins a few matches and then gets beat by BJ Ussery and were done since it's single elimination. The owner of Sterling ( Fury) called and came down to drive them to Columbia SC for Gradys 1 pocket, 14-1 tournament and I saw Jose 2 days later and since he got drilled by a local player I guess he would not speak to me. I have seen him at DCC and US Open since then and he still nods his head when he see's me but dosen't speak.--Leonard
No Jam this was just a single elimination tournament and Norris was making two or three balls on the break and running out, Jose didn't get to the table more than four times and won two games. Norris can hit'em pretty sporty you know, and Jose left to go to Columbia SC as soon as Tom got nocked out. I don't know if Jose would have spotted Norris anything if he had to play on that table.--Leonard
jay helfert said:
Parica has a PR problem in Manila. Not a lot of pool enthusiasts are sympathetic with him here. Much of it I think is in pool lore. After his series of money-game defeats at the hands of Efren Reyes in the 70s where Efren was crowned king of the money game, Parica still reaped the benefits of his endorsements (with television commercials included) in the public eye well into the 80s. Much of it was seen as an injustice to Efren who struggled in the pool halls to eke out a living.
Although I've never experienced any contact with him personally, so I can't say much about the subject myself. His game is respected, yes. But I can tell you that I don't hear a lot of positive things among local pool enthusiasts when it comes to stories on Parica.
But you can't really ignore his contributions to the game. I remember interviewing Ernesto Dominguez from Mexico telling me that he learned more about the game of pool watching Efren Reyes and Jose Parica than from any other.