I was witness to the prime of Mike's career and he truly was one of the all time greats of the game. He was proficient in all pool games! 9-Ball, One Pocket, 14.1, Bank Pool, Eight Ball, like I said, in ALL games he was a championship level player.
I found Mike quite entertaining to watch as well, with his constant chatter to his designated "yes" man and all his theatrics while he was playing. He really liked to play it up to the hilt when he had a very difficult shot, and had you thinking he shouldn't go for it, and then he fired it in and got position, wiping his brow and faking a little faint afterward. Yes he was a dandy all right.
Sure he had a big ego, but he earned it by being the best player in the room. Mike did like to talk about himself but he was nothing like Mosconi with all his *****ing and complaining. Big difference in personality between these two.
Mike, along with Earl, Buddy and Nick were the top dogs in a golden era of professional pool. We had a about ten to twelve years from the early 80's to the mid 90's when there were at least a dozen great tournaments each year, that featured all the top players. The money was nearly as good as the money in the biggest events (other than Chinese Eight Ball) being held today and 25K then was worth more like 50K in today's dollars.
Yes we have many great young players today, some of them perhaps even better than Mike and his contemporaries, but the excitement level is just not the same. The matches back then were dog fights and emotions often flared. The players were not all buddy-buddy, with some serious rivalries. Everyone wanted to beat Earl and Earl wanted to drown them all.
Don't get me wrong, I still like to watch great pool, but that era was a damn good one to be part of.
To close, I never really had any problem with Mike. He was a competitor first and a true sportsman second. I never saw him try to shark anyone or belittle them during a match. He had a sharp tongue but his words were usually spoken in jest and his opponents would laugh along with the audience. How he interacted with fans between matches may be another thing which I can't really say much about, other than I do know he was focused on winning the tournament and not standing around making conversation with people. Mike had a definite plan for how he would prepare for each match and spending time chatting wasn't part of it.
I found Mike quite entertaining to watch as well, with his constant chatter to his designated "yes" man and all his theatrics while he was playing. He really liked to play it up to the hilt when he had a very difficult shot, and had you thinking he shouldn't go for it, and then he fired it in and got position, wiping his brow and faking a little faint afterward. Yes he was a dandy all right.
Sure he had a big ego, but he earned it by being the best player in the room. Mike did like to talk about himself but he was nothing like Mosconi with all his *****ing and complaining. Big difference in personality between these two.
Mike, along with Earl, Buddy and Nick were the top dogs in a golden era of professional pool. We had a about ten to twelve years from the early 80's to the mid 90's when there were at least a dozen great tournaments each year, that featured all the top players. The money was nearly as good as the money in the biggest events (other than Chinese Eight Ball) being held today and 25K then was worth more like 50K in today's dollars.
Yes we have many great young players today, some of them perhaps even better than Mike and his contemporaries, but the excitement level is just not the same. The matches back then were dog fights and emotions often flared. The players were not all buddy-buddy, with some serious rivalries. Everyone wanted to beat Earl and Earl wanted to drown them all.
Don't get me wrong, I still like to watch great pool, but that era was a damn good one to be part of.
To close, I never really had any problem with Mike. He was a competitor first and a true sportsman second. I never saw him try to shark anyone or belittle them during a match. He had a sharp tongue but his words were usually spoken in jest and his opponents would laugh along with the audience. How he interacted with fans between matches may be another thing which I can't really say much about, other than I do know he was focused on winning the tournament and not standing around making conversation with people. Mike had a definite plan for how he would prepare for each match and spending time chatting wasn't part of it.
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