OLD GUYS ONLY j/k

JoeyA

JoeyA

Efren's Mini-Tourn BACKER
Silver Member
This one is for you guys or maybe the ones who are wondering what lies ahead for you.

Many people wonder if they are able to compete at advanced age and often give up trying to better themselves. They even give up the thought of competing.

This man that I am writing about is a living legend and should be an inspiration to any of you that wonder if you can still compete. He is still making history today at 76 years of age. That is remarkable and while you may not be able to accomplish the things that he has, you can certainly compete at practically ANY AGE.

A friend and I once took the opportunity to take a pool lesson from Ray and we concentrated on patterns for nine ball. Wish now, I had taken a straight pool lesson. :smile:

Ray (Cool Cat) Martin, has just defeated Oliver Ortmann, (World 9 Ball Champion and World 14.1 champion among many other titles) at this year's 71st World Straight Pool Championship.

The fact that Ray hold THREE WORLD TITLES IN STRAIGHT POOL isn't lost on any of the competitors in this year's event.

Ray won his first straight pool championship while an earthquake was going on. Concentration at it's best.

He's still got a long way to go in this event but it's great to see him still playing well.

I hope you will join me in offering Congratulations to Ray Martin on this nice victory!
 
Awesome! Thanks for sharing that Joey! It's great to see people who are in the "older generation" still willing and able to be competitive...

How many times in golf have we cheered on Tom Watson hoping he would make a comeback at the British Open (and almost has several times in the past few years!). Or when Jack Nicklaus when he won the '86 Masters at age 46...which isn't quite 76, but by "golf standards", he was considered "washed-up" and "non-competitive" anymore!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO RAY!!!

Jason
 
Thanks, JoeyA. Maybe there is some hope for an old lady who didn't even learn to shoot pool untiil age 60...12 years ago...do the math...lol
Nell Drake
 
nelldrake said:
Thanks, JoeyA. Maybe there is some hope for an old lady who didn't even learn to shoot pool untiil age 60...12 years ago...do the math...lol
Nell Drake
Click to expand...

My mother surprised me a couple of years ago when she told me she was going back to finish her Bachelors degree...at age 63!!! When I asked her why she wanted to do that as it definitely wasn't necessary...her reply "Because I want to...and more importantly because I can..."

She worked her butt off taking night classes and got her degree...I think all but one of her professors were younger than her...

Jason
 
52?

nelldrake said:
Thanks, JoeyA. Maybe there is some hope for an old lady who didn't even learn to shoot pool untiil age 60...12 years ago...do the math...lol
Nell Drake
Click to expand...


Nell,

Best I can cypher that makes you about fifty-two or is it thirty-nine?

Go Ray! It is very nice to see him win against world class competition regardless of how deep he goes.

Hu
 
99 critical shots

I believe, "The 99 Critical Shots Of Pool", by Ray (Cool Cat) Martin, is the best book out there for pool players, and a must read for all levels of player.
 
Hope that Ray wins it. He would be a great inspiration to all of us old guys. Hell he is an inspiration now.
 
It's nice to see Ray out there competing and playing well.

I'm 61 and I still feel good at the table. Some of the best players of my generation have packed it in. I feel sorry for them. If winning is everything, that's a shame. I'd love to see something develop for the advanced age group. I now have the time to go out and play on a more regular basis. Finding out where I stand would mean a lot, to me.
 
About the only thing I could be competitive in at my age is napping :boring2:.

I bet I can out-nap anyone on this forum :thumbup:!!!

Maniac (wishing Ray (Cool Cat) Martin continued success!)
 
tom mcgonagle said:
It's nice to see Ray out there competing and playing well.

I'm 61 and I still feel good at the table. Some of the best players of my generation have packed it in. I feel sorry for them. If winning is everything, that's a shame. I'd love to see something develop for the advanced age group. I now have the time to go out and play on a more regular basis. Finding out where I stand would mean a lot, to me.
Click to expand...

When competing against younger players who would rather play then eat, winning is everything will beat you. You are not the same person you once were regardless how well you may still play.

I remember staking a staking a former world champion against a much younger player who he should have easily beat. After several hours of being around even you could see it in his eyes, this just didn't matter to him anymore. We were fooling ourselves.
 
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It might be easier to play the 'ghost' than the 'Ghostball'.
Good shooting Ray.

..speaking of old guys, I wanted to watch Jose Parica play last night...
..I've seen him play just about every game but 14.1....
soooo....I start watching when Jose has 16 and Mike Sigel is at the table.

never got to see Jose hit a ball...Captain Hook got out.
Mike looks like he did 35 years ago.....
...the only thing he's missing is his hair
 
Mr. Martin, good luck and play well the rest of the tournament, you've already won in my book.
What an inspiration.
 
nelldrake said:
JAMSGOLF, tell your mother I said "You go, girl!!!"
Nell Drake
Click to expand...

I WILL I WILL...The tables finally turned. She had said she was proud of me throughout my entire life (well...with the exception of a few teen-years) and she knew just how proud I was of her for doing it!!!

She will admit to a few phone calls for some Algebra help from me...but that was about all I could help her with...

I just remembered. One of her favorite professors was a History professor...who happened to be one of my favorites as well...when I took his class about 10 years ago...it's kind of a switch for a professor to teach the child a decade before the parent!!!!

Jason (Proud Son to a Mom with a B.S. Degree - in more ways than one!)
 
JoeyA said:
This one is for you guys or maybe the ones who are wondering what lies ahead for you.

Many people wonder if they are able to compete at advanced age and often give up trying to better themselves. They even give up the thought of competing.

This man that I am writing about is a living legend and should be an inspiration to any of you that wonder if you can still compete. He is still making history today at 76 years of age. That is remarkable and while you may not be able to accomplish the things that he has, you can certainly compete at practically ANY AGE.

A friend and I once took the opportunity to take a pool lesson from Ray and we concentrated on patterns for nine ball. Wish now, I had taken a straight pool lesson. :smile:

Ray (Cool Cat) Martin, has just defeated Oliver Ortmann, (World 9 Ball Champion and World 14.1 champion among many other titles) at this year's 71st World Straight Pool Championship.

The fact that Ray hold THREE WORLD TITLES IN STRAIGHT POOL isn't lost on any of the competitors in this year's event.

Ray won his first straight pool championship while an earthquake was going on. Concentration at it's best.

He's still got a long way to go in this event but it's great to see him still playing well.

I hope you will join me in offering Congratulations to Ray Martin on this nice victory!
Click to expand...


Very nice thread Joey!

I'm a huge fan of Ortmann, but if he had to lose, I'm glad it was to Ray Martin.

I remember when I was 15 years old back in 1974 & Mr Martin had won his 2nd World 14.1 Championship. I called him on the telephone to offer my congratulations. It was amazing that he even wanted to talk to some whacko kid who called him at home out of nowhere! Naturally I never forgot that. A few years ago, I called him again & asked if I would send him an 8x10 photo of him that my son was able to download, would he be kind enough to sign it. It now hangs nicely in the poolroom along side Earl, Shannon, Grady, Billy, Hopkins, Buddy & many of my other favorite players.

I'm so happy for him. He needs no extra validation on him being one of the all-time best 14.1 players, but it's very nice to see that he added another major win at this time in his life.

Congratulations Mr. Martin!
 
I saw his picture on the front page of our "Tampa Bay Times" earlier in the week... apparently he lives about 30 minutes from me in Largo FL... was actually considering trying to track him down for some private lessons...
 
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