Love/Hate Pool

Thanks for sharing that, bill. Glad i read it.

Dont get too down on the world: there is a wisdom that only comes with age.
 
Just curious Bill...would you respect poolplayers who skip out on hotel bills in the middle of the night? Fairly tough to do that nowadays, but iirc it was pretty common among pro players 40 years ago (certainly never for me, though). Just thought I'd throw a little "truth" in your 'holier than thou' rant. :rolleyes:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
 
Island Drive said:
Before I share this moment, the SSII event at Bogies was the first time in years, I truly enjoyed playing with gentlemen.

Love hate with pool. I know at times I get under ones skin with my statements, but it's because of my background in sports and competition that I act in such a manner. The only reason I even started to play this amazing game is because my father was very strict, and one time grounded me for two months. During that time he thought I'd hit the books and get my grades above a C average. We had a wet bar in the basement, and a 4x8 pool table with clay balls, so instead of reading books, I started hitting balls to pass the time. About a month went by and my dad realized I was NOT studying. I came home from school and the table was gone! He sold it. Shortly after not being grounded I found out there was a pool room in town right next to the bowling alley off Roosevelt Rd in Glen Ellyn IL. I went in there and that's where it started, I was probably 12. My father played for the Chicago Black Hawks farm team before WWII and his father ran a mash unit and then became the team doctor for the Hawks. I was supposed to be a doctor, so my father would not let me play hockey (broken fingers etc) as he knew a surgeon needed dexterity. I started speed skating, and in 1963-64 became the Apollo Ohno of my age group for indoor short track speed skating. Winning the Nationals in West Allis Wisconsin and then flying in a DC 10, I won the North American Championships at the hockey arena in Buffalo NY. Flying to NY was exciting as a young teen, and guess who was sitting next to me as my mentor. Terry McDermott olympic skating gold medal winner, one Jim McCay the tv announce adored because of his attitude and the way he lived life. Another sports figure was also in my life, permanently. My dad graduated from Northwestern University, and was roomed with a young man named Otto Graham who also became part of my inner psyche and such. Otto was and is still considered one of the best QB of all time in pro football before the NFL, then went in to the NFL and played for the Cleveland Browns during it's greatest years. Fast forward to college.
So I'm playing Varner in the Midwest Collegiate finals 14.1 tourney at IU in the bowling alley on orange cloth with no overhead lights, losing 150-148, he then went on to with the nationals beating Carella. I kept playing and getting better, with very limited instruction or help, just a desire to win and compete and it kept my interest. Oh I also in 68 ended up in college giving the finals in my Badminton class as no teacher or student could compete with this long armed competitor.
What's happened to me over five + decades is my disgust for how the sport I chose is looked upon, how many players actions diminish the sport, my support of 3 pro tours that ended up a dead end street, and then the pool drool, and how gambling effects and hurts, and plays out within this demographic thru mother time. Me being surrounded by the right people at the right time growing up, has made me lash out at unsportsmanlike actions of adults in competition. I flunked English class in HS and took makeup courses to graduate and also had a good friend of mine take/pass and sign my name to not flunk my history exam, as I hated history and was more concerned about what's going on today or tomorrow.

So as life played out, I thought working for the BCA would help me get something good going for the sport when they moved to CO and close to the USOTC (Olympic training center) in Colorado Springs, only to realize their pipe dream of getting pool into the Olympics was poorly planned. Soon thereafter the BCA bank account got milked after their move to CO from IA, and in turn the BCA pulled away from supporting the sport like they had in the past, which made them a force within the industry.

So that's my rant, and since I flunked freshman HS English I'm not the best at putting sentences together, but there's something within me, probably from Otto Graham & Olympic Speed skater Terry McDermott and my sporting background, that makes me ''grind my grits'' when I see childish, selfish, egotistical, me me behavior with no respect for the sport or one's opponent. To those of you that are this way you were raised by someone who knows what's right/wrong, I admire you and know you'll do well in life.
Sincerely,
BM
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Bill, I live in Tulsa and have seen you play many times at Terry Young's place, Shooters Olathe and elsewhere. You're a hell of a player and a credit to our game. You're dead-on here brother.
 
OP underscores the need for players to start managing the sport, learning the industry and getting educated on the reality of the future for billiard sports.

The common problem is when people over promise and under deliver. It happens when management just wants players to be on board. They need to prove to the money they have something worth investing in.

Today's generation of billiard industry players are breaking into the organizing aspects. It may not be as close to the levels it was in the golden era. But it is more stable and less dependent on a handful of people.
 
Scott Lee said:
Just curious Bill...would you respect poolplayers who skip out on hotel bills in the middle of the night? Fairly tough to do that nowadays, but iirc it was pretty common among pro players 40 years ago (certainly never for me, though). Just thought I'd throw a little "truth" in your 'holier than thou' rant. :rolleyes:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

We've all made mistakes in life, and dine and dash was one term invented by our age group.... many years ago. Sorry your still holding on too this. Looking back, I should of listened to my dad, but he and I ALWAYS bucked heads. You can throw the first stone if you'd like. :thumbup: Oh yeah, in college one time, me and a friend raided a frig at a frat house, getting tv dinners to eat, and in the day time hustling students for nickel/dime/quarter to eat.
 
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garczar said:
Bill, I live in Tulsa and have seen you play many times at Terry Young's place, Shooters Olathe and elsewhere. You're a hell of a player and a credit to our game. You're dead-on here brother.
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Thanks....how's Terry Young these days, wonderful man. I was watching Matlock play once, he broke the balls (9 ball) and a chunk of the 5 ball surrounding the number 5 hit me in the face :p. That was a first. Tho the heavy bar cue ball was wearing on the phenolics.
 
Island Drive said:
Thanks....how's Terry Young these days, wonderful man. I was watching Matlock play once, he broke the balls (9 ball) and a chunk of the 5 ball surrounding the number 5 hit me in the face :p. That was a first. Tho the heavy bar cue ball was wearing on the phenolics.
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Pretty sure he sold his club and has started playing a lot more. Dave is married to a t.v newslady(super gal) and he works at Shooters in Olathe. He doesn't play a bunch anymore but can still bring the crazy high gear if needed. Next big tourn. at Shooters should be in Feb. C'mon down if you get bored. Danny&Evelyn are still running it. Tourn. is Feb.9-12,'17.
 
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Scott Lee said:
Just curious Bill...would you respect poolplayers who skip out on hotel bills in the middle of the night? Fairly tough to do that nowadays, but iirc it was pretty common among pro players 40 years ago (certainly never for me, though). Just thought I'd throw a little "truth" in your 'holier than thou' rant. :rolleyes:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

Sorry you feel this way, I just happened to be born into this life by those that had good connections and friendships. What happened in your past, and my past are the roots of our thoughts actions and feelings. Because I was unable to realize that as a young man, was what it was. As I've aged, I've come to realize my actions and thoughts have dramatically changed, and it's those deep rooted thoughts that I was given, somewhere at sometime in my life that ''drive me''. I'm sure you....like the rest of us, have been brought up with the good and bad, and that was from parents that lived/died in WWII. They did the best they could to help us live our lives. I played on a pool team in Pueblo last year, with a great man, that had NO parents, that was first for me. You have a great Xmas with family and friends, and I'm gonna spoil my 4 yr old grandson and his fraternal twin brother and sister. I froze a Trantula and a couple 4 Large grasshoppers for the 4 year old. They live at the fish hatchery surrounded by farms and bugs, and he loves them flys :). Peace/Love. Oh yeah Terry McDermott was on stage in his skating tights, in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan show, when the next act to follow was the Beatles.
 
You go ahead and make fun of it Bill. It didn't cost you $700, which 40 years ago is like $4400 today. Dining and dashing on a $10 meal is a bit different than running out on a weeklong hotel bill. You've never owned up to it, and never made any attempt to make good on it. Hold on to it? No...but it's a bitter memory of getting screwed by a pro poolplayer. It never happened again...I can tell you that.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Island Drive said:
We've all made mistakes in life, and dine and dash was one term invented by our age group.... many years ago. Sorry your still holding on too this. Looking back, I should of listened to my dad, but he and I ALWAYS bucked heads. You can throw the first stone if you'd like. :thumbup: Oh yeah, in college one time, me and a friend raided a frig at a frat house, getting tv dinners to eat, and in the day time hustling students for nickel/dime/quarter to eat.
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Scott Lee said:
You go ahead and make fun of it Bill. It didn't cost you $700, which 40 years ago is like $4400 today. Dining and dashing on a $10 meal is a bit different than running out on a weeklong hotel bill. You've never owned up to it, and never made any attempt to make good on it. Hold on to it? No...but it's a bitter memory of getting screwed by a pro poolplayer. It never happened again...I can tell you that.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

Ok,I was a jerk 45 years ago. Have a great Xmas.
 
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I see you have a problem with gamblers. I tend to respect gamblers a lot more than cheaters.

Thats a helluva glass house you're living in.

Liked the story though:thumbup: people change.....sometimes.
Jason
 
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