This is a fun story about the old-school billiard industry and their "us versus them" antics with other entertainment folks such as actors and boxers.
Apparently they'd all get together for an annual baseball challenge match, with no shortage of drunken antics from either team. This year's match was "The Actors", a troop of popular comedy actors versus "The Schaefers", the billiard men.
This particular (1896) match was fairly historic in that it included many legendary billiard industry characters of the day, playing (for fun) on the actual baseball field that the Chicago White Sox originated on.
Jake Schaefer Sr. "The Wizard" was there, Bensinger - Brunswick's president was there (with his vice president Charles Miller), William Mussey - legendary room owner was there, Hoppe's manager Charles Tennes was there, William Spinks the chalk inventor was there....
They even wore uniforms made from Simonis Billiard Cloth !
And it sounds like they had a blast.
Maybe we need some events like this today, to build a little comradery...
appeared in Billiards Magazine Sept 1924
Apparently they'd all get together for an annual baseball challenge match, with no shortage of drunken antics from either team. This year's match was "The Actors", a troop of popular comedy actors versus "The Schaefers", the billiard men.
This particular (1896) match was fairly historic in that it included many legendary billiard industry characters of the day, playing (for fun) on the actual baseball field that the Chicago White Sox originated on.
Jake Schaefer Sr. "The Wizard" was there, Bensinger - Brunswick's president was there (with his vice president Charles Miller), William Mussey - legendary room owner was there, Hoppe's manager Charles Tennes was there, William Spinks the chalk inventor was there....
They even wore uniforms made from Simonis Billiard Cloth !
And it sounds like they had a blast.
Maybe we need some events like this today, to build a little comradery...
appeared in Billiards Magazine Sept 1924
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