Ronnie Rosas, Mexican Ronnie

[neolux]

I only started going there in '95.
Boy, when Efren was in town, that place was rocking .
Hollywood Billiards was rocking too when they had tournaments .
Saw Efren play 3-cushion with a Meucci in the second floor there .
I sure miss the 90's.

I met Ron back in 1992 on the Player's Choice Pool League in No. Hollywood. He was very cocky and was beating the crap out of everybody who challenged him. He also would win the local bar tournaments most of the time. Around that time, I met Catfish at Hollywood Billiards. I remember watching guys like Hollywood Jack, Drummer, Ted the Vulture, Thai Bob, and a cast of other characters get their hustle on and get into action with a lot of fish and road players. I remember one night, Tang Hoa was playing some dude from the Billiard Connection for considerable stakes, and their was a huge crowd of railbirds gathered round. I was pretty young and new to the pool scene back then, but I am fortunate to have witnessed some of the old guard of pool.

I also remember the heyday of Hard Times in the mid-1990s. I started going there after Hollywood Billiards closed due to the 1994 earthquake. I remember hanging out there several nights a week with Catfish and Chuck Markulis (RIP) watching the likes of Efren, Earl, Morrow, King Kong, CJ, Tang, and others play their best games (especially when all of the Filipino players were in town! Again, according to Catfish (he's still in the HT Bellflower area) it's up in the air about HT's fate.

I drove up to Sacramento to visit Little Al Romero a few weeks back. He's still making cues at 84 years young. He made me a shaft for one of his old cues that I have, and made a special pool cue for Ron Rosas as a gift (Ron is happy as a clam!) I really miss those times of my youth, but time must march on!

I hope that pool makes a come back. I know that there are a lot of young guns coming up and competing in matches streamed on You Tube. A lot of the younger players seemed to have "gained" their pool knowledge from watching instructional DVDs and You Tube videos (I had to learn my fundamentals the hard way...and it wasn't cheap). It would be nice to get interviews and pool stories from the older, senior, players while they're still alive. There are so many colorful stories that they have to tell (Ron has a million of them!). Maybe Jay Helfert could work his magic to assist in this. Just a thought! G. Rocco

 

[neolux]

I went to Million Dollar twice last January and never ran into Ron. I took a little trip to Ventura and played Jerry. I’ll be back to Burbank in September, I’ll try harder to contact him and play some

My buddy was just out there. They open around noon but you have to use a different door and use the 'secret' knock. Just kiddin' on the knock but there are using a different door.

I told Ron the other day to take a "walk up the ally." I am sure that there is a "Secret" door back there...I'm sure there's only a clean up crew "fixing the golf table..lol!

 

[neolux]

I saw Ronnie play several times at Hard Times. Maybe a year after it opened. A friend that played on a bar league team I was on introduced me to HT. Bar leagues were really popular back in the 80's. I think that he league was the Southern Calif Cocktail Lounge League. A cocktail lounge I stopped in on my way to pick up my wife had a team in the league and a couple of guys asked me if I wanted to play on the team. I thought "Why not? It's a chance to get out and have a few drinks during the week and a few laughs. Little did I know how serious it was. I would put up a quarter when I got tired of bending my elbow my eyes were good but I had no knowledge of the game at all. What an eye opener. HT was like a Wild West show. A culture I never knew existed. I was hooked. Fortunately I was in my 50's & my business was established. Many a time I have given thanks for not discovering the game when I was young. He was so smooth and seemed to get action without a lot of barking. Before he seemed to silently disappear into, as Tate so aptly put it, the "Life" he was playing with one of the prettiest Schons I have ever seen.

I moved out the area and only got to HT about once a month but kept up with quite a few friends who stilled played there regularly. I have often wondered what happened to Catfish, Calvin and many of the other regulars who were there every day for what seemed like forever. For may years it has been a shadow of its former self but in its heyday it was a magical place with Ron and all of the players Jay mentioned. Road players came in constantly always knowing they could get a good $ game especially when Mark and a few others were there to back the action. So happy I was able to experience at least a part of those times.

Catfish and Calvin are alive and wel! Catfish can be found at Good Times Billiards in Lakewood California on a daily basis. Calvin also stops by there on a regular basis, too! A lot of the older players go to Good Times billiards in Lakewood the first Wednesday of every month at noon to play a senior eight ball tournament for $20.

 

[WobblyStroke]

I'll still say pool is a stupid thing to know how to do.

"I've always excelled at things there wasn't much money in."
- Grady Matthews

 

[pt109]

The early years at Hard Times (1988-1994) were the best years. We were putting on a couple of big tournaments every year and all the top players (except Sigel) would come. The place was absolutely packed and you could barely get in the door. Finding somewhere to watch the matches was another chore. We had seating for maybe 250-300 at the most, and people were standing everywhere on the sides of the bleachers. Just as many people hung around outside the tournament arena to watch the gambling action going on out there. Hard Times was a three ring circus of pool in those days. Even outside there would be a large crowd smoking and talking pool. Lucky me, I was in the middle of everything, the TD.

I’m guessing Sigel didn’t go to Hard Times because of playing conditions…I found the cloth terrible. The cloth was cleaned with a damp cloth.
I went there early 90s to a tournament because Jay was running it….I was there with Canada’s top billiard mechanic at the time…
….he told the guy who cleaned the cloth that he was creating mud under the cloth….the tables played somewhat like British snooker tables.
I had my last good French tip on my Szamboti….had to go hunting for a replacement after this tournament.
Lost to Son of a Gun just before the money…..Francisco Galindo won it.
I enjoyed the trip though…stayed a few extra days.

 

[jay helfert]

I’m guessing Sigel didn’t go to Hard Times because of playing conditions…I found the cloth terrible. The cloth was cleaned with a damp cloth.
I went there early 90s to a tournament because Jay was running it….I was there with Canada’s top billiard mechanic at the time…
….he told the guy who cleaned the cloth that he was creating mud under the cloth….the tables played somewhat like British snooker tables.
I had my last good French tip on my Szamboti….had to go hunting for a replacement after this tournament.
Lost to Son of a Gun just before the money…..Francisco Galindo won it.
I enjoyed the trip though…stayed a few extra days.

Probably my fault. I let him clean the tables like that because they had so much chalk on them. A good brushing may have been better, just took longer. I'll take the blame for that one, although no player ever complained to me about how they were playing. Ernesto had set up all of them the week before the tournament. They rolled straight and true, with good rails and new cloth.

 

[pt109]

Probably my fault. I let him clean the tables like that because they had so much chalk on them. A good brushing may have been better, just took longer. I'll take the blame for that one, although no player ever complained to me about how they were playing. Ernesto had set up all of them the week before the tournament. They rolled straight and true, with good rails and new cloth.

Can’t beat a vacuum…..clean, dry, and more thorough.

 

[pt109]

I was a decent street chess player…..but I wouldn’t play if the set wasn’t Staunton.
A friend asked why not once. I told him to beat a player you have to have pattern recognition….I don’t want my time
taken up with identifying pieces……same goes with playing nine ball.
if you don’t see the pattern within seconds after the break, you probably can’t beat anybody.

 

[WobblyStroke]

I was a decent street chess player…..but I wouldn’t play if the set wasn’t Staunton.
A friend asked why not once. I told him to beat a player you have to have pattern recognition….I don’t want my time
taken up with identifying pieces……same goes with playing nine ball.
if you don’t see the pattern within seconds after the break, you probably can’t beat anybody.

Some patterns are more obvious than others. Problem is that the best pattern isn't always the most obvious one you see first. How many times have you seen a vid of yourself playing and you see the pattern clearly and go about your business in the game, but upon playback you see that there was at least one better option for the route you took. I know this happens in 8b all the time for even great players, but happens in 9b way more often than ppl think imo even among pretty decent players 550-630.

 

[Garo 7]

I knew Ron too. Perhaps not as well, or for as long a time as others here. But, for a year (or 2...?) he taught me and we hung out whenever he was in-town. Which seemed pretty often, at least that is how I remember it. In-fact I think I was there when he got that Palmer cue in the stock photo above. I picked him up at his hotel to give him a ride to the hall that night, and he had a new cue. I remember him telling me how it was different , better... because his old one had a steel joint. He was so excited about it he was doing practice strokes on the table in his room.

 

[Garo 7]

Or, maybe the cue isn't a Palmer - the photo credit made me think it might be - but I remember the cue and when he first acquired it. I also remember the man in that photo. Very, very well.