Playing with a Broomstick

Lou, good story.

I have also played a few games with a broomstick. Most of them have come about in the same time frame you speak of. (back in the 70's) Only at bars and only consisted of a few games from people who didn't believe the challenge.

The last one I encountered lately, I was shooting with a putter!

I was visiting a traveling golf tournament funded by a series of bars. The challenge consisted of three holes in 6 bars. Teams traveled to each one and tallied their score for the 18 holes.

While visiting my brothers team at one bar, I got into a game with a guy that was about a 5 level player. We ended up playing some 5 dollar 8 ball to kill the time. He played with a regular cue. I played with a putter that was not being used in the golf tournament.

Beat him out of 20 dollars. (covered my bar bill) :smile:
 
When referring to one of the better players at our local poolhall, one of the railbirds was fond of saying, "That guy is so good he can beat you with a broom handle, then sweep the place out at closing time."
He always said that, sometimes.
 
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woodyosborne said:
a local room owner now has a three(or four or five) piece waynes holmes cue courtesy of his wife. she saw very little humor(unlike others) after he lost $400 to a guy shooting with a mop handle(custom??)
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lol. My wife bought me my Gina. I have no doubt that I'd have to throw my body over it if she saw me lose to the mop.

Lou Figueroa
 
zy112 said:
I don't quite have a story like the OP's, but Ive seen it done in my old fraternity basement and they actually made some balls... Naturally, we moved on to one handed pool with a broomstick.
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Nice.

Lou Figueroa
 
ShootingArts said:
Lou,

A great story! I'da been sucking air a second when he reversed things on me too. Glad you got it going. Those little lightweight plastic headed brooms or a sponge mop played best for me.

I've played several different guys with a broom way back when, mostly redneck country boys that had heard the story and had to try it. I have played with a sponge mop and a string mop, still a little wet from somebody mopping the floor with it too.

Steve was the one always ready for something different. On different nights we played with mops, brooms, and just a handle from a little broom. I found the sweet spot in the broom straw playing with a broom like Lou played with, not all the way to the end but where the straw was loose enough I could get my fingers all the way around a handful of it. Fortunately in all of my games both players were playing with something silly, usually the same broom or mop, so I did just fine. I learned anything that is rounded that you can get chalk to stick to will let you use a little spin, operative word being a little! I used to leave the chalk off until the money got right. :thumbup:

Now I am going to let readers in on the origin of SPF, the famous Set Pause Fire of some of the top instructors. It came about from playing with a wet string mop! With that wet mop head swinging back and forth, it would swap directions about halfway through your stroke when you pulled the mop back and fired pulling your stroke way off course. Inserting a long pause to let the strings stop swinging back and forth made the mop play much better. Some folks shot with a mop so much the pause got to be a habit. There you have it, the origin of SPF!

Hu
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I have not tried the mop, but thanks for the tip, Hu.

Lou Figueroa
 
Johnnyt said:
I've played pool with a broomstick just fooling around. At least I can't remember gambling using it. Now those bowling that used the shuffleboard pust is a different story. I could bowl a 300 game every time if I needed to. I made a LOT of money that way. Just can't remember what I did with all that money.

Great story from the OP by the way. Johnnyt
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Thanks, JohnnyT. Funny how all that money that passed through our fingers just sorta evaporated :-)

Lou Figueroa
 
JE54 said:
Good story. Sounds like I should get rid of my cue and learn to play with a broom. I can't do much worse. That way once I get beat I can sweep up and make some money for bus fare. LOL
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Thanks, JE54.

Lou Figueroa
 
Underclocked said:
In my late teens, before going off to the Navy, my Mom bought a pool room/cafe. One of my duties was to sweep the floor about three times a day with a big old push broom. When action on the tables was slow, I would offer to play someone a game of snooker using the handle from that broom. I had flattened the end opposite the threads and glued a piece of shoe leather on the thing. I could unscrew that handle and be ready in seconds! :)

More often than not, I won. My reference to shooting with a broomstick in the shaft thread was not without foundation. :grin-square:
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It sounds so preposterous, playing with a broomstick, it'd be hard to refuse to play (or believe it can be done, if you haven't done or seen it).

Lou Figueroa
 
Big Perm said:
Made my first and only pool table when I was 7 years old:

Base was a 2 x 4 piece of plywood
Rails were pieces of baseboard nailed to the plywood, with holes in the right places for pockets
Golf balls were used for the pool balls
A towell was the felt
Broom stick handles were the cues

Country boys are low-tech creative :wink:

Like the story Lou, gracias for a good read....
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De nada, Big Perm.

Lou Figueroa
 
JoeyA said:
Good one! If only someone in Daly City, California could tell us if old Vince is still around.

Now who says Lou is just a dark cloud hanging over AZB? Just speak up. I dare ya.

This 70's story is about as good as it gets. ;):thumbup:

JoeyA
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Thanks for the kind words, Joey. And about the dark cloud hanging overhead... I'm just hanging around waiting for Freddy to get wind of the "Best Bank Pool Players" thread. The guys who have said what they've said are soooo screwed :-)

Lou Figueroa
 
Bob Callahan said:
Okay, I guess I have to confess and come out of the closet--broom closet, that is. I ran 6 balls with a broom once. This isn't some great and glorious story like some have told here...it doesn't involve tons of money, or any famous players, so I suggest you skip it and read the next post down...but if you are still with me, it happened in the most run-down poolroom I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot, since in my past, I haunted some of the worst ones in Appalachia. So, it's the mid-70's, there's sawdust on the floor, the walls and ceiling are insulated with a thick layer of yellow grease, there are heavily used spittoons made from old lard cans sitting at the foot of every table. I was killing time waiting on my soon-to-be ex-wife while she was doing something I don't remember in this tiny, two-traffic-light town in eastern Kentucky. There were some teen/early 20's types playing check on the back table--this tells you what kind of players they weren't. It had loose rails, and lots of big stains that looked more like urine than ceiling leaks. Kinda smelled that way, too. The only light for this table was whatever spilled over from the adjacent table. And let me tell you--it was big action: 50¢. In the hour or so I played, there were about 5 or 6 different players floating in and out of the game. I was playing nip 'n' duck--lose a few, win one, you know the routine: win just enough to pay for the table time. (I kind of like playing on bad tables sometimes to get a little perspective--but not enough to take up golf.) Anyway, when it got near time to leave and pick up the ex, I pointed out that the house stick I had been using wasn't nearly as straight as the tobacco sticks I'd seen in the fields coming in to town. They all agreed, and I said I could probably do better with a broom handle. There was an industrial-strength, pretty much worn-out broom sitting in the back corner--probably used to sweep up the sawdust for the previous 20 years or so.... I picked that darned thing up, made a big show of chalking it to much laughter, and ran 6 balls and out. The balls were setting perfectly for stop-shot shape, which was pretty easy to do with even a fat old broom.

I said, "Boys, you wouldn't mind if I quit, would you?"
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Loved it. It's funny how things can work out that way.

A few years ago some neighbors invited my wife and I over for dinner. They asked me to bring my pool cue, because they'd heard of my exploits, such as they are, and wanted me to play on their new 8 foot home style table. So, in anticipation of being asked to perform like a trained seal, I went to the pool hall that day and practiced a half dozen simple trick shots, like the four in a row off the side pocket, the railroad shots, stuff like that, and a couple of proposition shots.

Well, after dinner, sure enough, it comes: "Lou, do you know any trick shots?" Now, I'm not a trick shot kinda guy, but I put on my best showman's attitude, made up a little patter as I went along, and made every single one of the shots on my first attempt. (It didn't hurt that their table had huge, giant, yawning pockets.) The crowd went wild. I unscrewed after the last ball dropped. I wish I had had your line and said, "Boys, you wouldn't mind if I quite now, would you?"


Lou Figueroa
may have to steal that line
in the future :-)
 
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klockdoc said:
Lou, good story.

I have also played a few games with a broomstick. Most of them have come about in the same time frame you speak of. (back in the 70's) Only at bars and only consisted of a few games from people who didn't believe the challenge.

The last one I encountered lately, I was shooting with a putter!

I was visiting a traveling golf tournament funded by a series of bars. The challenge consisted of three holes in 6 bars. Teams traveled to each one and tallied their score for the 18 holes.

While visiting my brothers team at one bar, I got into a game with a guy that was about a 5 level player. We ended up playing some 5 dollar 8 ball to kill the time. He played with a regular cue. I played with a putter that was not being used in the golf tournament.

Beat him out of 20 dollars. (covered my bar bill) :smile:
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Thanks, Doc. But what end of the putter were you using? The blade or grip?

Lou Figueroa
does not know
the putter
 
Gentlemen, thank you for those wonderful stories. May the new year bring you sunshine and warmth every day.
 
great story

Wow Lou..you write quite well. Thanks for a great story. I noticed you described vince as: "well heeled" meaning he was flush with currency. I thought "heeled" was an old west term for packing a pistol? Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong. I would like to add another colloquial charmer to my arsenal.
 
Matt Stockman said:
Wow Lou..you write quite well. Thanks for a great story. I noticed you described vince as: "well heeled" meaning he was flush with currency. I thought "heeled" was an old west term for packing a pistol? Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong. I would like to add another colloquial charmer to my arsenal.
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well–heeled
Pronunciation: \-ˈhēld\
Function: adjective
Date: 1897
: having plenty of money : well-fixed

I need to stop posting from my phone when im drunk. Stupid winter weather in Chicago can drive a man to the bottle!!
 
It is funny

Matt Stockman said:
well–heeled
Pronunciation: \-ˈhēld\
Function: adjective
Date: 1897
: having plenty of money : well-fixed

I need to stop posting from my phone when im drunk. Stupid winter weather in Chicago can drive a man to the bottle!!
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I didn't want to interject into your conversation but I see you found your answer about "well heeled" Heeled meant you were toting iron, well heeled meant you were toting cash, lots of it in the eye of the person that thought you were well heeled. Funny how similar expressions can mean totally different things or opposites mean the same thing depending on tone. The latest thing I have noticed is "sick". It can mean real good or real bad.

A lot of the well heeled folks in the pool halls used to be heeled too!

Hu
 
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