No doubt, Danny was a bona fide pool legend.
A quick story from the 2013 Tunica event: Danny and Al (the gentleman always sitting front row on the old Accu-Stats tapes in his white Panama with his wife Marsha) were sitting across from me at the bar and we were all enjoying some nice meals coming out of the kitchen and Danny looks at me and asks, “Are you a pool player? And I said, “Yes.” And he asks, “What’s your name?” And I replied “Lou Figueroa” and he said, “Never heard of you,” lol.
So then I started talking about being at the US Open One pocket tournaments up in Kalamazoo and the Louisville DCC at the Executive West, and listening to Danny on Accu-Stats, and suddenly Al says, “”You’re the guy with the three-piece cue!” And we talked about the Sheldon Lebow three-piece for awhile. All of which led to a great discussion on pool.
I had the chance to ask Danny about his infamous $20K match with Ronnie Allen, hear him tell some great Jack Cooney, Jimmy Reid, and Billy Incardona stories, his opinion of aiming systems (you don’t want to know) his Accu-Stats commentary, who his favorite co-commentator is/was. And so, Danny is on a roll telling stories, and I stop him at one point and tell him, “You know, I love your commentary, Danny, except for one thing.” And he said, “What’s that?” And I warned him, “You’re not going to like it.” And he insists, “Tell me!”
And so, I told him: “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard you say during a 1pocket match, when a guy plays a safety, ‘He didn’t do much there.’ Or similarly, ‘That was just a survival shot.’ And Danny, I’m sitting watching this and say to the screen, ‘There was nothing else he could do.’” And Danny responded, “I feel there’s always something you can do.” And I say, “Sure. From the booth that’s easy to say. But sometimes you just have to accept what the table affords you and I think you could phrase your commentary so it doesn’t sound so negative.” And you know what he said? He said. “OK. I’m going to change that. Thank you for saying that. And when that comes up, I’m going to say it was because of my conversation with Lou Figueroa.”
Now, I doubt he ever ended up saying that on a live mike but it was kinda cool of him to say it and take the criticism so graciously.
Rest in peace, Danny.
Lou Figueroa