The Big Ball

Cornerman

Cornerman

Cue Author...Sometimes
Silver Member
In 2025 AD, there are still bars across the USA that have the oversized cueball, and patrons enjoy playing, oblivious of how good this game could be played. I grew up with the big ball, and it’s a memory. Not necessarily good or bad, but it’s a memory.

Falls Sports Lounge
Home of Dearborn’s (Michigan) best burger for 7 of the last 9 years

Freddie <~~~ this can’t help
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9533.jpeg
    IMG_9533.jpeg
    336.6 KB · Views: 69
I liked the big ball. I have heard some top players did too. It was the eight hundred pound gorilla on the table. It could give a level of cue ball control that was sick! You could squeeze past a ball with it and the ball would rock out and back leaving the cue ball locked up where jumping was the only way to escape. Before jump sticks and everybody learning to jump that was a guaranteed foul.

The big ball was a big part of the "draw for show, follow for dough" mentality. Few people could draw a foot or two and fewer yet could draw with any kind of control.

It seemed like the big cue ball was a lot bigger and heavier than the other balls. The once in ages I stumble on one now it is like flashing back to the early eighties or before. A fun session and if anyone is shooting with me they learn about old men and old balls.

Hu
 
Where i learn to play in the midwest the 'big rock' ruled. Once you figured it out you could do some crazy shit with it. Players like Matlock, Shuput, Hyland, Rod Curry were absolute wizards with it. Matlock was/is a good 3c player and he could power the shit out of the big ball with that monster stroke. He did things no one else even dreamed of. He was giving a top Tulsa player the 8b on a Valley with the big ball and he played a 'SIX RAIL' safety and locked the dude up good. The whole joint was just like 'WTF did we just see?'?? Six rails and a perfect hook on a 7' table with that grapefruit cueball. Stupid.
 
Last edited:
Played countless hours on Valleys with the oversized ball. Still will screw around casually on one of those, mostly with people who can't even spell "pool", much less play it. I practice difficult banks or multi-carom shots.

When I was playing competition, I was always aware, every shot, that the cue ball was oversized and that was going to affect what I could do. I changed patterns, purposely missed shots for fake safeties, etc. Did alright, though.
 
ShootingArts said:
I liked the big ball. I have heard some top players did too. It was the eight hundred pound gorilla on the table. It could give a level of cue ball control that was sick! You could squeeze past a ball with it and the ball would rock out and back leaving the cue ball locked up where jumping was the only way to escape. Before jump sticks and everybody learning to jump that was a guaranteed foul.

The big ball was a big part of the "draw for show, follow for dough" mentality. Few people could draw a foot or two and fewer yet could draw with any kind of control.

It seemed like the big cue ball was a lot bigger and heavier than the other balls. The once in ages I stumble on one now it is like flashing back to the early eighties or before. A fun session and if anyone is shooting with me they learn about old men and old balls.

Hu
Click to expand...
You could cut/bank balls that would not go with the reg. size cb. If you had a good break with a reg. cb using the big one was like cheating. The rack opened up like it was hit by dynamite.
 
Cornerman said:
In 2025 AD, there are still bars across the USA that have the oversized cueball, and patrons enjoy playing, oblivious of how good this game could be played. I grew up with the big ball, and it’s a memory. Not necessarily good or bad, but it’s a memory.

Falls Sports Lounge
Home of Dearborn’s (Michigan) best burger for 7 of the last 9 years

Freddie <~~~ this can’t help
Click to expand...
Hold on! Are you near Dearborn? I am in Detroit for the rest of the week.
 
jasonlaus said:
Once you draw the big rock more than a few inches your action is over lol
Click to expand...

True Dat! Any action you got after drawing the big ball was gonna be the best in the place, maybe somebody they called in. You draw that big ball and people would gather around to watch too. If you drew that thing three feet or more and got shape you were announcing you were something special. No more playing the guys that came in for pool and a few beers. I tried to make sure the money on the table was as good as it was going to get before showing off with the big ball.

Trick was that once you accepted the difference the big ball was easier to handle than a regular cue ball. In the late seventies and early eighties I could make one do everything but stand on it's hind legs and beg!

Hu
 
garczar said:
You could cut/bank balls that would not go with the reg. size cb. If you had a good break with a reg. cb using the big one was like cheating. The rack opened up like it was hit by dynamite.
Click to expand...
At the White Spot in Fife we had a ring game table that played every night. The one ball gave up the ghost more than once on that table. The big ball provided a shattered one ball after a million breaks. Oh and we called it the Pumpkin ball.
 
jasonlaus said:
If you can't play the big ball you can't play. Once you draw the big rock more than a few inches your action is over lol
Click to expand...

ShootingArts said:
True Dat! Any action you got after drawing the big ball was gonna be the best in the place, maybe somebody they called in. You draw that big ball and people would gather around to watch too. If you drew that thing three feet or more and got shape you were announcing you were something special. No more playing the guys that came in for pool and a few beers. I tried to make sure the money on the table was as good as it was going to get before showing off with the big ball.

Trick was that once you accepted the difference the big ball was easier to handle than a regular cue ball. In the late seventies and early eighties I could make one do everything but stand on it's hind legs and beg!

Hu
Click to expand...
I used to be able to draw that big cue ball like a champ.

FWIW, I have always been able to draw the cue ball better than almost anyone I ever played with.

I had one guy even nickname me "Monster Stroke" when he saw me put a power draw on a shot the first time.

Lots and lots of people have asked me how I put so much action on the cue ball and I show them, but almost all of them are unable to duplicate it.

I have also had people come from the other side of the pool room over to my table and ask me how I break so hard. They said the could hear it from the opposite side of the room.

Another guy I used to play would always stand behind me when I shot. He said he wanted to see what I was doing to move the cue ball.

To me, I don't think I am doing anything special, but I think it comes from hours and hours and hours of table time since I was a kid working in a pool room.
 
Last edited:
HawaiianEye said:
I uemmm

I used to be able to draw that big cue ball like a champ.

FWIW, I have always been able to draw the cue ball better than almost anyone I ever played with.

I had one guy even nickname me "Monster Stroke" when he saw me put a power draw on a shot the first time.

Lots and lots of people have asked me how I put so much action on the cue ball and I show them, but almost all of them are unable to duplicate it.

I have also had people come from the other side of the pool room over to my table and ask me how I break so hard. They said the could hear it from the opposite side of the room.

Another guy I used to play would always stand behind me when I shot. He said he wanted to see what I was doing to move the cue ball.

To me, I don't think I am doing anything special, but I think it comes from hours and hours and hours of table time since I was a kid working in a pool room.
Click to expand...
How tall are you?
 
ShootingArts said:
I liked the big ball. I have heard some top players did too. It was the eight hundred pound gorilla on the table. It could give a level of cue ball control that was sick! You could squeeze past a ball with it and the ball would rock out and back leaving the cue ball locked up where jumping was the only way to escape. Before jump sticks and everybody learning to jump that was a guaranteed foul.

The big ball was a big part of the "draw for show, follow for dough" mentality. Few people could draw a foot or two and fewer yet could draw with any kind of control.

It seemed like the big cue ball was a lot bigger and heavier than the other balls. The once in ages I stumble on one now it is like flashing back to the early eighties or before. A fun session and if anyone is shooting with me they learn about old men and old balls.

Hu
Click to expand...
Ditto bro!!👍🏻😆
 
I knew some great players that loved action on the little table with the big rock in my formative years. Personally, as tempting as the action was, I wasn’t a fan of that niche circus game equipment.
 
Something about them big balls make it really tough to draw with them, But if you can you really have a good stroke. The funny thing is i have no issues with a billiard ball. I'm assuming the decent cloth on the table, Bars not so much.
 
ShootingArts said:
True Dat! Any action you got after drawing the big ball was gonna be the best in the place, maybe somebody they called in. You draw that big ball and people would gather around to watch too. If you drew that thing three feet or more and got shape you were announcing you were something special. No more playing the guys that came in for pool and a few beers. I tried to make sure the money on the table was as good as it was going to get before showing off with the big ball.

Trick was that once you accepted the difference the big ball was easier to handle than a regular cue ball. In the late seventies and early eighties I could make one do everything but stand on it's hind legs and beg!

Hu
Click to expand...
Most of the joints we farmed had the big rock. Hu's right about holding back, unless there's just no action and you were trying to impress that bar maid w the baby blues!!
Once you put on a show tho, that was it. Time to move on. Place is dead for ya.
 
garczar said:
You could cut/bank balls that would not go with the reg. size cb. If you had a good break with a reg. cb using the big one was like cheating. The rack opened up like it was hit by dynamite.
Click to expand...

I used to be able to hurt the ears of people for a few tables around. Problem was it hurt my ears too! I had a half or three-quarter speed break that almost always pocketed balls so I rarely used a full power break. Even now if I use a full power break the first couple of balls tend to hit a pocket and pop out on seven footers. Shooting softer they stay down so no sense breaking out a gorilla break which is hard on my arm these days.

For a few years I had a four ball break on a bar table hitting a full rack. Two balls would go straight in the bottom pockets, two balls would crisscross into the bottom pockets. With four balls gone on a bar table finding a runout wasn't too hard if I needed one. I wasn't exactly a bar table specialist but that was all that was nearby when I had a feud going with the big city police department. Son of a bitch had tried to strongarm steal a cue I bought new. The cue was shattered in the fight. Turned out the guy was an undercover cop. I couldn't go into the city after dark for a few years after that.

A pain in the ass because the big roads to anywhere were in the city. It was over a hundred miles into unknown territory to go the opposite direction. A pain for a nightly trip when I owned businesses or was a working stiff getting up early every morning so I found myself on seven foot bar tables a lot. A few nines but they were all old and very ratty. A few eights and sixes too. Eights were neither fish nor fowl and for some reason I disliked sixes so much I wouldn't play on them. Never got the feel for six foot tables. I played a good bit on the super eights. Always wondered why they came into existence? To use up damaged slate that had accumulated over the years?

Been a long time since playing on super eights but my favorite practice pool hall had them and I didn't find that playing on them hurt my game since I played on other things too. Left town a few years and when I came back my favorite hall and owner were both gone.

The good ol' days when times were rotten! I miss the old days and the young Hu. He was dumber than a box of rocks sometimes but somehow managed to survive all of the dumb situations he got in! Amazing thing, I have a lot of scars from foolish activities but none put there by other people.

Hu
 
There was the big ball and magnetic balls. One had a metal frame that the ball was cast around. It could roll funny as it was always a little off balance. Then the lead ball, it weighed way more than the rest as it was cast with metal in the mix.. Possibly as heavy as a big ball. 🤷‍♂️
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top