Larry Lisciotti

I am not looking to hijack this thread in any way, but something just occurred to me after reading Jay's post. He and Larry played cards... There is a disc for sale that includes some funny moments with Larry off the table. PM me if you want to know more.

Lisciotti fans need to check out the "Road Scholars" DVD.

Diana Hoppe put together some vintage footage to finish out a DVD of road stories told by some of the greatest road players ever. At the end is a tribute to Larry where he somewhat amorously shows Diana a card trick. The exchange lasts several minutes and for me it was a huge surprise at the end of a great disc.

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Good time for a commercial

Drawman623 said:
I am not looking to hijack this thread in any way, but something just occurred to me after reading Jay's post. He and Larry played cards... There is a disc for sale that includes some funny moments with Larry off the table. PM me if you want to know more.

Lisciotti fans need to check out the "Road Scholars" DVD.

Diana Hoppe put together some vintage footage to finish out a DVD of road stories told by some of the greatest road players ever. At the end is a tribute to Larry where he somewhat amorously shows Diana a card trick. The exchange lasts several minutes and for me it was a huge surprise at the end of a great disc.
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The Road Scholars DVD is available off of this link. http://bankingwiththebeard.com/?cat=3 After a number of great road stories by, Cardone, Ronnie, Vernon, Danny Di, me, etc., the disc has a great finish with Diana's confrontation with an "oiled up," Oil Can Larry Liscotti.

Beard
Straight pool for big money was owned by Irvolino and Liscotti.
 
Blue Hog ridr said:
Thats a great pic Terry.
If I remember correctly, Larry had a part in Kid D's book as well. Playing upstairs in a dilapidated room on the east coast.
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that would be Chicago Billiards in West Haven, CT. It was a pig sty of a room that served as a crash pad, pool university, and game destination for some of the most talented and legendary road players.

KC
 
Drawman623 said:
Larry had a sense of humor that wouldn't quit. I watched him play Mike Zuglan during a Joss tour event. It was in Mike X's room in New Bedford, Mass. Larry had enjoyed quite a few Szambucas and as he strode past Evgeny Stalev, the Russian phenom who was amid a 6 rack run to beat Strickland, he said "how's it hangin' Boris?..." and went on to his own match.
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"How's it hangin' Boris?" Now that's funny.
 
Kickin' Chicken said:
that would be Chicago Billiards in West Haven, CT. It was a pig sty of a room that served as a crash pad, pool university, and game destination for some of the most talented and legendary road players.

KC
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Yeah, Chicago Billiards counted some pretty fancy shooters among its regulars. Among them were Joe "Neptune Joe" Frady and Billy "The Kid" Lanna. Those were the days!
 
sjm said:
Yeah, Chicago Billiards counted some pretty fancy shooters among its regulars. Among them were Joe "Neptune Joe" Frady and Billy "The Kid" Lanna. Those were the days!
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Is Joe still around, I haven't heard anything about him in quite a few years?
 
sjm said:
Yeah, Chicago Billiards counted some pretty fancy shooters among its regulars. Among them were Joe "Neptune Joe" Frady and Billy "The Kid" Lanna. Those were the days!
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Didn't Nick Vlahos spend regular time there also? Bill Dunsmore comes to mind also for some reason as having played there frequently. Maybe I'm wrong.
 
one handed

One time Alex "the lion" and his boys from Canada came to our room in Stamford,CT, we found out he beat Larry for a few K the nite before up at Chicago Billiards. So they want to go back and play Larry again,so one of the regulars "Sammy the bull" tells them they will need protection if they go back,but for 10% of any winnings he'll make sure they get out ok. Well they can't make a game at first, for what ever reason, but after going back and forth for awhile Larry says the only way he can play the kid even is if they play one handed. So they play for a 100 game 9ball and after a few games were even or Alex was up a game or two when he runs a rack that was not easy and Larry quits,saying this kid is too good. Even at that stage of his career and how many drinks in him he new he couldn't beat this kid. I talked to Larry many times at tournaments and he always had funny stories about his hustling days out on the road.
 
Kickin' Chicken said:
that would be Chicago Billiards in West Haven, CT. It was a pig sty of a room that served as a crash pad, pool university, and game destination for some of the most talented and legendary road players.

KC
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It took a while to become a Pigsty. In the beginning they had fresh cake there every day or every other day. I would say it was not a Pigsty for 2 years but that is nothing more than a guess. It could've been a bit less or a lot more.
 
Terry Ardeno said:
Didn't Nick Vlahos spend regular time there also? Bill Dunsmore comes to mind also for some reason as having played there frequently. Maybe I'm wrong.
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It's possible that these guys played there at some point, but the action scene being recalled at Chicago Billiards was hottest from about 1996-99, by which time Nick Vlahos, if memory serves, was already deceased. He was a wonderful player with a big future whose early death was a very sad moment in pool in the Northeast. As for Dunsmore, I can't say.
 
The Lizard was hilarious...I met him in Miami yrs ago. He talked non-stop for what seemed to be 2-3 lifetimes occasionally coming up for air. He went to the bathroom, the guy who Larry was visiting is a very good friend of mine, leans over and says;

"If you dropped him off on the top row of the Meadowlands during a Giants game buy the 3rd quarter he would have talked to EVERYONE there".
 
Terry Ardeno said:
I found a new (for me) article on Mr. Lisciotti that I hadn't seen before.
Here's the link......
http://www.laudizen.com/gathered/dugout_and_lisciotti.htm
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Wow! That was a very nice find, Terry. I enjoyed the read! :smile:

Here's a cute article from Sports Illustrated Vault: Money Out of Their Own Pockets: Unknown Larry Lisciotti Chalked Up a Tourney Funded by His Opponents.

Read the entire article, but here's a few snippets of the finals between Steve Mitzerak and Larry Lisciotti:

On his way to the finals of the double-elimination tournament, Mizerak used runs of 57 and 77 to whip a newcomer named Larry Lisciotti. On his last inning, Lisciotti bagged 66 straight. "What'd I miss? Twice?" he grumbled after the game. "If I can make the game go eight innings, I think I can beat him."

Excluding his triumph in the World Nine-Ball Championships last April and a solid fifth-place finish in last year's BCA Open, Lisciotti had won nothing but a pile of money hustling on the road. The players had no book on him, except that he was a bridesmaid in straight pool. He is 29, slender-waisted and wide across the shoulders. He wears open shirts and a hairstyle that makes him look like a tourist from Paris. At 16 Lisciotti ran out of pigeons in his hometown of Old Saybrook, Conn., so he started to travel around the country, rooting out games and circling tables far into the night. He joined the pro tour in 1974. "My face got burned into people's memories," he says. "I couldn't line up any opponents to hustle anymore."

Mizerak began the finals by beating Rempe 150-104, but the game lasted 15 long innings. Then he squared off against Lisciotti at 12:50 a.m. At 12:51 Mizerak scratched into a side pocket while making an easy nine-ball in the corner. Needing two wins in a row, Lisciotti pumped in 59 points. His stroke was rapid and smooth, his confidence was growing with each shot. "Here's what we live for," said Margo. "Where Larry is now is the Land of Dead Stroke. He's not going to miss. Mizerak knows it."

As Mizerak studied his next lie, he started to whistle. Friends say that when Mizerak whistles he knows he is in trouble. Sure enough, his best run was only 22 balls. Lisciotti piled on another 69 to win in a breeze. Now each player had a loss.

As they readied to play the final game, spectators scurried around laying bets. The odds were even. Mizerak had never been beaten back-to-back in championship straight pool, but Lisciotti was playing his absolute best. The game began at 2:30 a.m. Lisciotti won the lag; Mizerak broke. Following an exchange of safeties, Lisciotti spotted a dead two-ball in the rack and blasted it home. Five more balls and Lisciotti left himself with a bank shot that he missed. Mizerak approached a wide-open table. He realized that he needed to lay a truckload on Lisciotti to upset the tempo. Quickly he polished off the rack and spun triumphantly on his heels toward the powder can. On the ensuing break, Mizerak buried the cue ball deep in the rack, ending his run at eight. With both players working cautiously—and Lisciotti lengthening the game well past those eight innings he felt he needed—there was a virtual stalemate until 3:45 a.m. At that point, Mizerak had the table, but he trailed 85-73 and was getting tired. He called the one-ball in the side. It glanced off one lip of the pocket, hit the other and hung on the table. After Lisciotti piled on 48 points, Mizerak washed his hands. Lisciotti needed only 17 more balls, and he calmly drilled them in.

Reporters surrounded the new champion. No, $12,500 wasn't his biggest score; he had taken $15,000 out of Carbondale, Ill. one night last summer. Linda Mizerak raced toward her husband. He slung an arm over her shoulder. "I'm exasperated," he whispered. "My stick feels like a 50-pound board."

About 400 fans still were in their seats at the end. Twelve hundred had attended the final, adding $5,000 to the gate and bringing the PPPA purse money to within $3,000 of its advertised $50,000. Margo announced that the PPPA would sponsor another straight pool gig in Manhattan in January. The association had survived its tournament. As Mizerak and Lisciotti departed, the dawn was breaking.
 
Terry Ardeno said:
I found a new (for me) article on Mr. Lisciotti that I hadn't seen before.
Here's the link......
http://www.laudizen.com/gathered/dugout_and_lisciotti.htm
Click to expand...

I love this description of Larry:

He was a slim young man with a great sense of humor who enjoyed a good laugh with his friends. He had intelligent eyes and a wonderful smile with lips that turned up at the end, lending him a type of Cheshire cat grin...

...I can close my eyes and see Larry now, and watch that Cheshire cat smile morphing into the eyes of a feral cat on the hunt. He was young and handsome in the Dugout days, and so very talented. There was such a mixture of power and possibility in the raw beauty of how he played the game back then, the way he held a cue, how he looked at the table, in the fluidity and grace of his movements.

There are also the hidden words I see shining through the obituary, and they are the words I want to use to describe Larry Lisciotti. He was a pool player and people loved him; he was more than a pool player.

He was beautiful.

Photo courtesy to JAM from Diana Hoppe of Pool Pics by Hoppe
 

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A story about this picture.....

http://www.billiardmemorabilia.com/roadrunnersmag.html


Drawman623 said:
The classic "Roadrunners" photo
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A friend was with Larry at the hospital when he spoke to Ronnie Allen on the phone. The Prince described the worst consequence of having a terminal condition: "Now my bookie is making me post my bets..."

Larry had a sense of humor that wouldn't quit. I watched him play Mike Zuglan during a Joss tour event. It was in Mike X's room in New Bedford, Mass. Larry had enjoyed quite a few Szambucas and as he strode past Evgeny Stalev, the Russian phenom who was amid a 6 rack run to beat Strickland, he said "how's it hangin' Boris?..." and went on to his own match.

Grady Mathews told me that no man could match up better at straight pool than Larry. Few if any have inspired so many New England players

He was quite a character. His picture hangs at Snookers in the New England Pool and Billiard Hall of Fame.
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Liscotti cue

Here is a cue that was made for Larry by Palmer. It was made with a Szamboti blank
 

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