Mosconi, crybaby??

[Gabber]

this is a segment from an interview with Alan Hopkins in BD mag,

Q As a kid, who did you look up to and why?
A “I didn’t really look up to anyone, I wanted to see certain players play, and kind of wasn’t really wasn’t impressed when I went to see them play. Maybe I just got to see some bad matches but I remember my father taking me to see Mosconi play an exhibition match in Hillside, NJ. I was very disappointed because all he did was complain and act like an idiot. He was really the biggest crybaby I’ve every seen in my life. He was really bad for the game, he really turned me off to the image of what I was coming to see. He was playing a young kid at the time, and he wouldn’t play an old kid, in fact, some boy he was playing in NY ran 40 some off the break and he walked out of the joint and said, ‘People are here to see me play, not you’. I just didn’t really care for his attitude and it really turned me off to pro players at the time. But I still wanted be a great player and go play in the pro tournaments.

????? Gabber

 

[pro-player]

Willie was a quiet well-mannered guy. He's only human, so anyone can get a little upset at anything.

 

[LC3]

this is a segment from an interview with Alan Hopkins in BD mag,

He was playing a young kid at the time, and he wouldn’t play an old kid, in fact, some boy he was playing in NY ran 40 some off the break and he walked out of the joint and said, ‘People are here to see me play, not you’.

If someone's going to make negative comments about another person in public, he should at least give details and show all sides of the situation. How old was this "young" player? How old was the "old kid" Mosconi wouldn't play? Did he say why he wouldn't play him? What was the young kid's behavior like during the match? I'm not saying Mosconi couldn't have been wrong, but that Hopkin's comments are too vague to be taken at face value.

 

[Bluewolf]

[You do not fool me Gabber. I know that you are not from this country. I know how much fun you have getting certain people all stirred up.

Gabber is really a nice, silly, guy

Laura

 

[Gabber]

Re: Re: Mosconi, crybaby??

[You do not fool me Gabber. I know that you are not from this country. I know how much fun you have getting certain people all stirred up.

Gabber is really a nice, silly, guy

Laura

I'm not trying to stir anybody up .

This is the first time I have heard anybody say this . Why would the man lie ? As far as I know , W. Mosconi was Mr Pool.

Its not uncommon for great players to be a little eccentric or to be bad losers . The more you want to win , the harder it is to accept your loss .

I once did a demonstration with a pro and he got the hump when he had to watch me pot balls . His reaction 'they came to see me 'was exactly the same .


I was just wondering if anybody could add clarification to this story .

Gabber.

 

[Gabber]

Fast L

Show the man, the great one, his due respect, go throw mud or some old sour grapes articles on some one else. You could write a book on what jealous competitors of him said about him.

In the first place , I didnt write the article and I made no comment on wether it was true or not . In fact the question marks after the post indicates my doubt.

Do you ever read a post before you begin your vitriol.

Once gain , because of your paranoia, an innocent post is turned into an attack .



Well done Larry.


Gabber

 

[Hopster]

I see Larry hasnt changed. Still calm cool and collected.
I posted this same interview on CCB, i have read other articles about Willie going ballistic. It takes nothing away from his game, a lot of guys who were stars in other sports also had huge tempers and huge egos also.
It takes nothing at all away from his accomplishments, just shows that he is human like everyone else.

Btw- Greetings Folks !!

 

[Gabber]

Hopster.

I see Larry hasnt changed. Still calm cool and collected.
I posted this same interview on CCB, i have read other articles about Willie going ballistic. It takes nothing away from his game, a lot of guys who were stars in other sports also had huge tempers and huge egos also.
It takes nothing at all away from his accomplishments, just shows that he is human like everyone else.

Btw- Greetings Folks !!

Welcome Hopster.

This is my point . Even superstars are human . Just because you can play great pool , doesnt make you a great person . [ off the table or on ]

 

[Gabber]

Gremlin

Gremlin ,

If I am on your ignore list , how can you offer advice to other posters wether they should or should not read my posts , when you dont read them yourself . ?

.

Its simple , either you are one of these people who make snap judgments about people you dont know on the basis of one or two posts , or you do read them and you are only fooling yourself .

Please dont comment on posts you have not read . If you use the ignore list , you cannot follow a thread in its entirety . Therefor you do not know the whole story.

I thought a Gremlin was a 'spanner in the works ', a fictional creature whose purpose is to screw things up and cause things not to work .

Nice friendly name .

Gabber

 

[Jimmy M.]

Re: Re: Mosconi, crybaby??

FAST LARRY:

Surely fast larry, being older than dirt, was around to see Mosconi play, and that being the case, he must certainly know that Mosconi had a reputation for getting a little heated sometimes. I've heard of Mosconi getting upset many times when someone was beating him in an exhibition for the same reason ("they're here to see ME play"). I've heard the stories from so many credible sources (far more credible than some crack-pot on a web board who just looks for threads that he can argue in), that I believe them to be based on fact.

The guy who started this thread probably just heard this for the first time, and wanted to question if anyone else had heard of this behavior from Mosconi. The answer is yes. Anyone who's been around the pool room [not the local bar playing league], and around players who have been around for any significant amount of time, knows of these stories. They aren't secrets. The line on Mosconi is that he could be a hot head. Big deal. Why do you need to insult him and accuse the poster of not having anything intelligent to talk about?

Fast Larry, you know what your problem is? You're a bitter old man who is far past the prime that you were never in. Have fun picking on league players and trying to impress non-players with your trick shots.

By the way, if you think you want to tell me I'm one of the "bozos who can't run three balls", just save the bandwidth and hobble your ass out here so we can play. I may not be the best player breathing, but I know I'd be stealing from you.

 

[macguy]

Mosconi

Willie was a quiet well-mannered guy. He's only human, so anyone can get a little upset at anything.

I am sorry to tell you but, he was a creep of the highest order. He only became even a little tolerable towards the end of his life when he was a little senile. I must have seen a hundred of his exhibitions and it was always the same thing. Most of the time people went away shaking their heads in disbelief, that this was the great Mosconi they had always admired. I once saw him ejected from Bakers poolroom in Tampa in the middle of an exhibition match with Eddie Taylor. He was so bad Mr. Baker ended the match, giving the money to Mr. Taylor. It was a 1000 point catch up match that was to last 5 days if I remember right. It went on just over one night before Mr. baker had, had enough. I am not sure Mosconi even had a nice side, I know I never saw it.

 

[Hopster]

Re: Mosconi

I am sorry to tell you but, he was a creep of the highest order. He only became even a little tolerable towards the end of his life when he was a little senile. I must have seen a hundred of his exhibitions and it was always the same thing. Most of the time people went away shaking their heads in disbelief, that this was the great Mosconi they had always admired. I once saw him ejected from Bakers poolroom in Tampa in the middle of an exhibition match with Eddie Taylor. He was so bad Mr. Baker ended the match, giving the money to Mr. Taylor. It was a 1000 point catch up match that was to last 5 days if I remember right. It went on just over one night before Mr. baker had, had enough. I am not sure Mosconi even had a nice side, I know I never saw it.

Wow Mac, you sound like you have seen him many times. I read on Jimmy Reids site about some of his other antics. Im really surprised, i never saw him play live, only on tapes a few times.
Its a shame that a guy who was a champ and was looked up to would act like that in public.

 

[bruin70]

i've heard the annecdote before, or one like it.

big deal. i have never painted any pool player as a saint. you play in sh%t, you smell like sh%t. the only truely good guy pool player i know is robles.

 

[LC3]

Re: Re: Re: Mosconi, crybaby??

...you would have to prove to me Mosconi would see a kid run 40 balls and during his run he would walk out on all those paying customers, that could not have happened. No way. Back then he drew so very big crowds, did a lot of shows in highschool baskeyball gyms and filled the places up. You dont take their money and then walk out and dont play.

My thoughts exactly. It couldn't have happened the way the article describes it.

 

[macguy]

Re: Re: Mosconi

Wow Mac, you sound like you have seen him many times. I read on Jimmy Reids site about some of his other antics. Im really surprised, i never saw him play live, only on tapes a few times.
Its a shame that a guy who was a champ and was looked up to would act like that in public.

In small defense of Mosconi though, I will say that the job with Brunswick was no bargain. They offered free exhibitions to almost anybody who had Brunswick tables in their place. He would come to a town and do as many as four exhibitions in a day. Often afternoon and evening in the same place. I don't think he made any big money doing this, it was just a job and I am sure after a time it really sucked. I was at a place where he had just done a show and a couple of guys approached him and asked if he would come to their condo and do an exhibition, it had a billiard room. They said they would give him a $1000. for the night. He asked if they were Brunswick tables, they said no and he had to decline. Jimmy Casas once told me Brunswick was very hard to work for. He said he was as far as he knew, the only employee to ever collect a pension from them, No one ever lasted long enough to retire. Back to Mosconi, whoever said he worried about who he played is wrong. He always played a local champ if there was one, or whoever. It did not matter to him. They always played 150 point games and they never went more then a few innings before he would run out. He would run hundreds, afternoon and evening, any tables, any conditions it did not matter. Some local champ would run 50 or 60 thinking they were doing something, only to have Mosconi run the game out in the time it took him to smoke a cigarette. I saw him play so many times because he did so many exhibitions and I loved watching him play. He would be in an area and may do as many as 15 shows in a week, it was not hard to see him as much as you wanted. I thought nothing of driving 50 or a 100 miles to see him. I played him a few times when there was no local that had the nerve to get up and play. I could play too, but it didn't matter, a couple innings and it was over, truly an amazing player.

 

[Gabber]

Fast larry

Hi this is fast, first, I nailed gabber from the get go, another one of these snew-ka blokes looking down his nose at us wanting to trash our top player of all time, I'll stand on that initial assesment.

Ok. You are entitled to your opinion .

Then you say this .

"Most of what you all are saying about Mosconi is true. "


So , please tell me , if its true how can I trash him with the truth . Its an article in a pool mag. , I didnt write it .

On another thread you defend your right to speak the truth , calling great players losers,who through whatever circumstances had a bad end to their life . Although you spoke the facts , you could have been a bit more sensitive to others that knew the person involved . But , of course , it never occurred to you .

Now somebody says something about your hero and YOU immediately take offence and proceed to TRASH me .

You are a hypocrite, you have one standard for yourself and
another for everybody else .

Gabber


If the shoe fits .......

 

[Snapshot9]

Willie Mosconi ...

Willie Mosconi was always one of my Pool idols, and in 1968, when in San Diego in the Navy, I won a tournament at the Billiard Tavern in Diego. Nice place, 33 tables, private playing rooms, close circuit TV's, fountain by the bar and eating area.

Part of my reward for winning the tournament was that I got to play an exhibition match with Willie Mosconi. It was quite an honor for me. Willie beat me 150-117 in straight Pool on a 10,000 dollar table with a 3,500 dollar chandelier hanging above the table. Small stadium seating was fenced off by the table. I did have a 77 ball run against Willie, which I felt pretty good about since I was playing against one of my idols. Willie was very cordial and friendly, but I did catch a look when I ran the 77.

He was an exceptional player, and the record books still reflect that.

I also played Jimmy Montaya in San Diego when he was just 15.

Back then I had the handle of Mako
(little shark) and later Lil Scotman.
Today it is Scott 'The Shot'.
.

 

[Jimmy M.]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Mosconi, crybaby??

Nice to see you came over from ccb and dont like being called a bozo, if the shoe fits, wear it. oooooohhhhhhuuuuuummmmmm,
Fast Larry

Dear Dork:

I didn't come over from the CCB, dork. And what is "oooooohhhhhhuuuuuummmmmm"? I don't speak "dork", so you'll need to translate. As far as bozos, you're the only bozo who can't run 3 balls around here (as you said, if the shoe fits, wear it).

Bye, dork.

P.S. If I used your walker around the table, would you play then?

 

[L.S. Dennis]

Yes, alas Mr. Mosconi was in fact know to be a hot head who couldn't stand to lose. To further illustrate this point let me relate a true story. A friend of mine used to publish a now defunt pool news letter and in one issue he did a phone interview with Mosconi's wife Flora. During one point in the interview he asked her "was Willie a nice guy?" after a brief hesitation she responded, "well he always dressed nicely". I thing that pretty much sums it up on Willie. A tremendous player, probably the best staight pool player ever to come down the pike, but the guy was a jerk!