The Key Problem with Bar Tables

dnschmidt · 2015-04-08T14:18:07+00:00

85% of what's wrong with bar tables is that they're in bars. They sigmatize the game as one played by drunken losers that are far more concerned with picking up chicks and getting drunk than they are about learning to play this fantastic game. Bar tables, not so much for their size but for their location, have killed this game and it never will be resurrected as it presents a demographic and image to mainstream sponsors, the only hope for making the game more popular, of low income, lowlifes wasting time. I grew up in Pittsburgh. During my misspent youth it was illegal to sell alcohol in pool halls in the state of Pennsylvania. This was the best law ever. Why, because if you went into a pool hall you were there to play pool. You were not there to drink, eat, listen to loud music or pick up chicks since there were very few of them around in any of the pool halls of Pittsburgh. No buddy, you were there to play pool. I had a opponent name Chuck Richardson, nickname: Chuck the Cheese. I was a Research Scientist at Westinghouse R&D Center and he was a Product Manager for PPG. We were both strong 5's and very evenly matched. He and I went at it tooth and nail every night for at least five years. Spectators included Ranger Rick and Tom the Roofer. Catcalls were commonly heard if somebody dogged it. Game was 9-ball race to 5 and we played 3 or 5 sets before we went back home. The stakes were always the same. Loser pays the time. Earl and Efren never played each other as hard as we did. Pool to us was competition, companionship, trash talking and a game that fascinated both of us. I can't see how this could have worked in a bar. Without pool halls there is no pool. Sad fact but that's the way it is. I haven't seen "The Cheese" in thirty years and I don't even know if he's dead or alive, but, if he's alive I bet he still has his Gold Crown III in his house and I had a Diamond in mine, but, it's not the same as playing Chuck at either Jimmy Mario's Golden Cue or Chalky's where the point was to beat him like a rented mule.