"Playing Off The Rail"- Any Big Fibs?
- Thread starter cuetechasaurus
- Start date
Tony lived around a mile from where I worked when I was in Cali. We would get together @ lunch time to shoot a few. Hell of a nice guy and yes he does swear that much. (your right Bob must be the company). I think a while back he realized that there is no money in the playing side of pool. He works hard to make money in the business side and from what I have seen does ok. I know he moved from there a couple of years ago but he used to practice on a 10 foot brunswick with 4 inch pockets in a garage out back of the house he was renting. It was a humbler I gotta say. He has a great sense of humor and fits what is written about him in the book.Bob Jewett said:
When I read his book, my 9 year old (who was 5 at the time) asked if I would read to him. I had Tony practically in tears when I was reading to him the way I did to my 5 year old... "Ok I will give you the eight you greedy ... uhh... guy you... if you think that you can handle my.... uh... good... uh.. game. You are... uh robbing me you... man... you."
There for a while I ended up being the relay between him and Hal Houle. Hal would say that young punk couldn't hold some of the players chalk let alone play against them and Tony would say that old man is lucky to drop a couple balls in a row if they are sitting by the pocket. It was fun.
JV
huckster said:
Maybe i have the time Period wrong but certainly even if im off by a year or two, Flaco, Tony Robles, Al Lapena, even Stew the Shoe and Juan Blass IMHO were above Rob and in my belief plenty more- Wasnt this around the time of the "All About Pool Tour"?. I dont remember Rob being a force at all. I think he was around Johnny B/ Mt Vernon Tommy speed back then. Anyway he has made it now, a force at any level.
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Just found out that Tony didn't beat Tang Hoa OR Ernesto Dominguez in the LA Open like it says he did in the book. That whole chapter must have been made up then, or at least most of it, because it says he goes far in the tournament.
I doubt if Tony played Archer for money straight-up too.cuetechasaurus said:
I got a video as well on "Bucktooth" woofing at Efrin & Archer for an hour!
Can you record what you have on a VCR, I like a copy of that and maybe we can exchange videos. If so drop me an e-mail at RonatLighthouse@aol.com (Bucktooth's brother here).
Ron Coook
Can you record what you have on a VCR, I like a copy of that and maybe we can exchange videos. If so drop me an e-mail at RonatLighthouse@aol.com (Bucktooth's brother here).
Ron Coook
Tony Annigoni
I always loved his name, kind of rolls off your tongue. And yes, T-bird could play. He won some fairly big tournaments out West over 20 years ago, and mixed it up with some of the best hustlers alive back then. When he got his nose down over the cue, you were in big trouble. He reminded me of Dan Louie when he was screwed down tight. You just "knew" they were not going to miss.
David McCumber was and is a great writer/author. I believe he is presently the Editor of a major West Coast newspaper. And he knew Pool, being an active amateur player for many years. I rate his book third only to Walter Tevis' two masterpieces, The Hustler and The Color Of Money. David got his characters right and described most of them to a tee. But he did take some writer's "liberties" in telling the story of his road trip with Tony.
For one thing I think Tony beat Tang and Ernesto at Hard Times in one of our big events back then. All the top players used to come out for those tournaments, held right before the Sands. Tony may have finished 4th in one of them I believe. It would not surprise me if David "juiced" Waterdog for keeping mum. That was not beneath the Dog to ask for a gapper.
As for Tony's speed back then. He was somewhere between a strong shortstop and a top player. Definitely road man material. He played hard for the cash and wasn't a quitter. I personally saw him pull a few matches out of the dirt, and get the win when it looked to be all over. He was not what I would call a high roller, being comfortable playing a set for $500 or $50 a game. A thousand dollar set would constitute big action for him.
He played good 9-Ball, maybe the 7 under the best players. One Pocket was not his road game, but he could Bank a few if need be. His best game was Straight Pool, and I dare say he was (and maybe still is) the best at this game on the Left Coast. Pity the poor 9-Baller who fell into the trap of playing Tony 14.1. Very few 9-Ball champions would have a chance with him at this game. Only the East Coast guys who grew up on 14.1. Even top flight guys like Keith and Kim would have no business tangling with Tony at Straights.
He strolled into my room at Hollywood Park a few years back and began hitting balls on a real tough Gold Crown where everyone gambled, mostly One Pocket. We practiced some Banks and he beat me a few games, when very few players could in there. Then he asked me what the high run was on that table. I told him no one ever played Straight Pool here. So he says he thinks he can run 100. I told him no way. Hell, you couldn't even shoot a ball hard down the rail.
He tries a few times and pretty soon comes up with an 88. I was floored. He tried a couple more and then quit. He says he knows he can run 100 here, and off he goes. He never did try again, but a few other good players came in and tried to make a high run there, and couldn't.
Tony is a VERY intelligent man also. VERY! I enjoyed his commentary the few times he has done a pool match. He has been the mastermind behind some beautiful poolrooms and brought the USPPA back to life when it was on life support. KT should have called on this guy and not Dumbo to help him get the IPT off the ground. If he had, the IPT might have worked.
Gotta run now.
I always loved his name, kind of rolls off your tongue. And yes, T-bird could play. He won some fairly big tournaments out West over 20 years ago, and mixed it up with some of the best hustlers alive back then. When he got his nose down over the cue, you were in big trouble. He reminded me of Dan Louie when he was screwed down tight. You just "knew" they were not going to miss.
David McCumber was and is a great writer/author. I believe he is presently the Editor of a major West Coast newspaper. And he knew Pool, being an active amateur player for many years. I rate his book third only to Walter Tevis' two masterpieces, The Hustler and The Color Of Money. David got his characters right and described most of them to a tee. But he did take some writer's "liberties" in telling the story of his road trip with Tony.
For one thing I think Tony beat Tang and Ernesto at Hard Times in one of our big events back then. All the top players used to come out for those tournaments, held right before the Sands. Tony may have finished 4th in one of them I believe. It would not surprise me if David "juiced" Waterdog for keeping mum. That was not beneath the Dog to ask for a gapper.
As for Tony's speed back then. He was somewhere between a strong shortstop and a top player. Definitely road man material. He played hard for the cash and wasn't a quitter. I personally saw him pull a few matches out of the dirt, and get the win when it looked to be all over. He was not what I would call a high roller, being comfortable playing a set for $500 or $50 a game. A thousand dollar set would constitute big action for him.
He played good 9-Ball, maybe the 7 under the best players. One Pocket was not his road game, but he could Bank a few if need be. His best game was Straight Pool, and I dare say he was (and maybe still is) the best at this game on the Left Coast. Pity the poor 9-Baller who fell into the trap of playing Tony 14.1. Very few 9-Ball champions would have a chance with him at this game. Only the East Coast guys who grew up on 14.1. Even top flight guys like Keith and Kim would have no business tangling with Tony at Straights.
He strolled into my room at Hollywood Park a few years back and began hitting balls on a real tough Gold Crown where everyone gambled, mostly One Pocket. We practiced some Banks and he beat me a few games, when very few players could in there. Then he asked me what the high run was on that table. I told him no one ever played Straight Pool here. So he says he thinks he can run 100. I told him no way. Hell, you couldn't even shoot a ball hard down the rail.
He tries a few times and pretty soon comes up with an 88. I was floored. He tried a couple more and then quit. He says he knows he can run 100 here, and off he goes. He never did try again, but a few other good players came in and tried to make a high run there, and couldn't.
Tony is a VERY intelligent man also. VERY! I enjoyed his commentary the few times he has done a pool match. He has been the mastermind behind some beautiful poolrooms and brought the USPPA back to life when it was on life support. KT should have called on this guy and not Dumbo to help him get the IPT off the ground. If he had, the IPT might have worked.
Gotta run now.
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jay helfert said:
Good post Jay. I do know for a fact that Tony did not beat Ernesto in that tournament, and someone else told me that Tony didn't beat Tang in that particular tournament either. He probably didn't play either one of them, maybe McCumber forgot some names and just used them off the top of his head. But yes, you are right about it being a great book. I just couldn't put the damn thing down!
One more thing I am wondering about; is there a slightly different version of the book floating around?? Because I read a different copy of the book about four years ago, and I could have SWORN at the very end of the book, Tony makes a very very big score off of Kamikaze Bob, and then the book ends. In the one I read recently, it doesn't mention that. Does anyone else know?