Hey JAM, Thanks for posting so much information about me. To answer your question about my cue. My good friend Dana Bufalo had every detail. My cue was made by Paul Drexler of PFD cues. My break cue is an old Meucci Original. I won most of my tournaments with the Meucci. I still love and play very well with Paul's cue.
The Next Great Pool Story
- Thread starter tom mcgonagle
- Start date
tom mcgonagle said:
Hey Tom, good luck with your book. I bet if you check some of the threads on here, you will find some to contribute to. We always need knowledgeable people like you to offer your opinion.
I've found that many people on here love to hear pool stories about great players, big money games etc. I'd like to know who the best players are that you've played with, and how you did. Any big money games to report on?
You may never have heard of me, but I've written a book also. I never won anything except a few money games
. Oh, I did win the San Francisco City Bar Table Championship over 20 years ago. We played in the Moscone Center, a pretty cool name for a pool tourney I thought. I'll never forget it, the place was packed for the Finals. I won $1,000 plus a new Heubler Cue. I lost my trophy. 
jay helfert said:Hey Tom, good luck with your book. I bet if you check some of the threads on here, you will find some to contribute to. We always need knowledgeable people like you to offer your opinion.
I've found that many people on here love to hear pool stories about great players, big money games etc. I'd like to know who the best players are that you've played with, and how you did. Any big money games to report on?
You may never have heard of me, but I've written a book also. I never won anything except a few money games
Can you believe it, 11,000 stinkin' posts. Now, if I only had a dollar for each one, I'd throw an AZ party.
SJM put up $40 for me and Dr. Bob to play JoeyA and ?? some One Pocket yesterday. The first game we played alternate shots and the second game we played alternate turns. Bob and I shut them out 16-0. I had to tell someone. :smile:
Hey Jay, New England had plenty to offer when it came to great players. Carlos Vierra, Larry Loscotti, Larry, (Boston Shorty) Johnson, Bob Ingersoll, Mike X. Rick Marcos, Bill (The Chicken Man) Dunsmore, Beau McGarret, and the list could go on and on. The two players I had the most problems with were, Mike (The Albany Flash) Zuglan and Nick Vlahos. The last two gentleman were in a league of their own in the eighties.
Money games were something I never shied away from. My most expensive game reached a point of four hundred a rack. That's when I knew things wee serious. I responded by running six consecutive racks and breaking the guy. I left with well over four thousand. I also took some lumps. Toby Sweet came to my room in Lawerence, MA. and within half an hour had me stuck twelve hundred at a hundred a rack. I managed to come back and escape losing only three hundred. Toby was tough as nails.
Money games were something I never shied away from. My most expensive game reached a point of four hundred a rack. That's when I knew things wee serious. I responded by running six consecutive racks and breaking the guy. I left with well over four thousand. I also took some lumps. Toby Sweet came to my room in Lawerence, MA. and within half an hour had me stuck twelve hundred at a hundred a rack. I managed to come back and escape losing only three hundred. Toby was tough as nails.
.....I like this guy, Tom McGonagle. He doesn't have to come on here and say he beat everyone and exaggerate what he played for and how much he won.tom mcgonagle said:
I am going to order his book and hope someday to get it autographed by the author. This guy obviously loves pool and for people to say he is a traveling salesman, coming thru here to advertise his book only is out of line. Do any of these people know what it takes to write a book and get it published? Maybe that is why he has not come on the forums previously as he was busy working on his book and getting it aligned with publishers and national websites such as Amazon. Kudos to you Mr. McGonagle.
PoolPro, By far the best line I ever heard from a pool-player. My wife loved it to. Thanks.
Everyone else here is independently wealthy with no life but AZB?
Everyone else here is independently wealthy with no life but AZB?
Watchez and others want to drag this on forever so I am posting something I buried when BigTruck made his efforts to calm the waters. How many have researched Tom's book as much as I have before making your posts for or against what he is doing here? As for his posts on this forum, so far they are in the three threads promoting his book. No other contributions. The follow-up posts in this thread were badgered out of him. As I have said, I'm not judging him now. I can't, nothing really to judge by except his book promotions and Mike H said not to judge him by these. However I am not going to sit here and meekly accept the hounds nipping at my heels.
Hu
(included text written earlier)
For those that think I am such a meany here are Tom's posts:
The first two are from the night before, the same post crossposted on the Wanted/For Sale Forum and Main Forum shilling his book.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=129102
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=129102
The next day he posted his third post, the thread starter here, on the main forum. Any time anyone describes themselves are their accomplishments as great I am underwhelmed by their modesty. I have talked to Olympic gold medalists who didn't use great concerning themselves. This one garnered my first post after checking his prior posts and noting his only interest here seemed to be a daily advertisement. Not his first post as the objectors to my actions have claimed, his third advertisement with no other posts.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=1639625#post1639625
After reading his fourth post here, the one that was a bit snide below, I red repped him.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=1639827#post1639827
The red rep button is for posts that we find offensive. I found this post and his entire pattern of posting offensive. I am also aware that the red rep we give is only one-half the value of the green rep we give so if I turned out to be mistaken I could green rep him one time and not only take away the red rep but give him that much value in green rep.
Anybody that cares to check will see that I don't jump on posters for being newcomers and often welcome newcomers. I don't welcome spammers and that is what Tom showed every intention of being. I have absolutely no apologies for my actions at this time. I see multiple questions asked of Tom concerning pool and no answers. Also to set the record straight, I have read every review offered of Tom's book. It seems to be about love and family with pool as the background. That doesn't make it a pool book. Something mentioned about vice too and the whole storyline resting on a hustle. Wonder where the vice and hustle takes place?
watchez said:
Everyone else here is independently wealthy with no life but AZB?
Watchez and others want to drag this on forever so I am posting something I buried when BigTruck made his efforts to calm the waters. How many have researched Tom's book as much as I have before making your posts for or against what he is doing here? As for his posts on this forum, so far they are in the three threads promoting his book. No other contributions. The follow-up posts in this thread were badgered out of him. As I have said, I'm not judging him now. I can't, nothing really to judge by except his book promotions and Mike H said not to judge him by these. However I am not going to sit here and meekly accept the hounds nipping at my heels.
Hu
(included text written earlier)
For those that think I am such a meany here are Tom's posts:
The first two are from the night before, the same post crossposted on the Wanted/For Sale Forum and Main Forum shilling his book.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=129102
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=129102
The next day he posted his third post, the thread starter here, on the main forum. Any time anyone describes themselves are their accomplishments as great I am underwhelmed by their modesty. I have talked to Olympic gold medalists who didn't use great concerning themselves. This one garnered my first post after checking his prior posts and noting his only interest here seemed to be a daily advertisement. Not his first post as the objectors to my actions have claimed, his third advertisement with no other posts.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=1639625#post1639625
After reading his fourth post here, the one that was a bit snide below, I red repped him.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=1639827#post1639827
The red rep button is for posts that we find offensive. I found this post and his entire pattern of posting offensive. I am also aware that the red rep we give is only one-half the value of the green rep we give so if I turned out to be mistaken I could green rep him one time and not only take away the red rep but give him that much value in green rep.
Anybody that cares to check will see that I don't jump on posters for being newcomers and often welcome newcomers. I don't welcome spammers and that is what Tom showed every intention of being. I have absolutely no apologies for my actions at this time. I see multiple questions asked of Tom concerning pool and no answers. Also to set the record straight, I have read every review offered of Tom's book. It seems to be about love and family with pool as the background. That doesn't make it a pool book. Something mentioned about vice too and the whole storyline resting on a hustle. Wonder where the vice and hustle takes place?
tom mcgonagle said:
Toby was one tough cookie. He tortured lots of guys. Do you know that he used to give Buddy Hall the eight ball, before Buddy became "Buddy" if that makes any sense.
Funny thing Hu - last I checked, this was still Mike Howerton's site and he has already given Tom his 'blessing'. You might be hurt by this, but your opinion and your research of this poster doesn't matter. Put Tom on ignore if you don't like the theme of his posts.
Maybe someone needs to teach Tom how to do a signature to his posts so he can really take full advantage of AZBilliards and its spam capabilities. At least his signature/spam would have something to do with pool.
Maybe someone needs to teach Tom how to do a signature to his posts so he can really take full advantage of AZBilliards and its spam capabilities. At least his signature/spam would have something to do with pool.
apparently you missed the parts where I acknowledged that
Apparently you missed the parts in several posts where I acknowledged Mike and respected his wishes. Or perhaps you just like grinding old axes? How much of your cheap shots have to do with this thread and how much with old grudges?
Hu
watchez said:
Apparently you missed the parts in several posts where I acknowledged Mike and respected his wishes. Or perhaps you just like grinding old axes? How much of your cheap shots have to do with this thread and how much with old grudges?
Hu
My goodness
I guess a few people woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
Tom-
I look forward to reading the book. I have a pool story idea and one day I might put it down on paper. Congrats on doing just that....I am sure it wasnt easy.
Good luck and AZ is a good place. You just have to treat it exactly like a buzy pool room. Tons of characters, good guys/gals, and jackasses.
Appears your a very good player as well. Keep shooting and posting.
Frank
I guess a few people woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
Tom-
I look forward to reading the book. I have a pool story idea and one day I might put it down on paper. Congrats on doing just that....I am sure it wasnt easy.
Good luck and AZ is a good place. You just have to treat it exactly like a buzy pool room. Tons of characters, good guys/gals, and jackasses.
Appears your a very good player as well. Keep shooting and posting.
Frank
ShootingArts said:
You might be shocked but I don't remember ever having an old grudge with you. I would have to search but honestly I don't care. And you can classify my shots how you wish and to justify that this is 'your' forum and you can police who posts here and what they post about if that makes you happy in 'your' world.
Maybe I'll buy you a copy of Tom's book so we can be best friends.
anybody through with their snow shovel yet?
Anybody through with their snow shovel yet?
I need one to shovel a lot of BS! As usual you are full of it. You and your multiple ID's hold grudges forever and are always waiting to get in a cheap shot. I don't give a tinker's dam if anybody buys Tom's book or not. Actually I'll be glad if people do, I like someone getting a return for their effort. Everybody that wants to buy a book from Tom to spite me, please do so and let him know that is the main reason you bought it. I'll check with him about how many people were willing to plunk down $18.00 just to spite me in a week or three.
As for the continued posting disrupting this thread, it would have disappeared pages ago without the cheap shots from you and your buddies. You are the ones providing this welcome and insight into AZB for Tom.
Hu
watchez said:
Anybody through with their snow shovel yet?
I need one to shovel a lot of BS! As usual you are full of it. You and your multiple ID's hold grudges forever and are always waiting to get in a cheap shot. I don't give a tinker's dam if anybody buys Tom's book or not. Actually I'll be glad if people do, I like someone getting a return for their effort. Everybody that wants to buy a book from Tom to spite me, please do so and let him know that is the main reason you bought it. I'll check with him about how many people were willing to plunk down $18.00 just to spite me in a week or three.
As for the continued posting disrupting this thread, it would have disappeared pages ago without the cheap shots from you and your buddies. You are the ones providing this welcome and insight into AZB for Tom.
Hu
Tom is new here, got the message, so lets move on.
Someone posted 100 times about wanting to sell the Eddie Robins books for twice what you could pay the actual author and get them for. I got bad rep messages saying its not my business...whatever. He's just trying to sell a book, not rob people like others on here occasionally do.
Personally, I'd love to hear more of his war stories.
Someone posted 100 times about wanting to sell the Eddie Robins books for twice what you could pay the actual author and get them for. I got bad rep messages saying its not my business...whatever. He's just trying to sell a book, not rob people like others on here occasionally do.
Personally, I'd love to hear more of his war stories.
ShootingArts said:Anybody through with their snow shovel yet?
I need one to shovel a lot of BS! As usual you are full of it. You and your multiple ID's hold grudges forever and are always waiting to get in a cheap shot. I don't give a tinker's dam if anybody buys Tom's book or not. Actually I'll be glad if people do, I like someone getting a return for their effort. Everybody that wants to buy a book from Tom to spite me, please do so and let him know that is the main reason you bought it. I'll check with him about how many people were willing to plunk down $18.00 just to spite me in a week or three.
As for the continued posting disrupting this thread, it would have disappeared pages ago without the cheap shots from you and your buddies. You are the ones providing this welcome and insight into AZB for Tom.
Hu
Multiple ID's --- sounds like you are drinking coffee with someone else today. Sorry to disappoint you again, but I have and have always had only one ID. Again, you live in a fantasy world. Hope you enjoy your space.
And let me finally get this straight - you don't care if people buy Tom's book and will actually be glad if he becomes a NY Times bestseller, you just care that he would have posted something worthwhile, in your mind and in your world, first before he tried to get people to buy his book.
You might need a snow shovel but sounds like the rest of us have been invited to a fish fry, as we watch you flop back and forth.
Hey Tom,
Welcome aboard. I looked at you website and notice you are in Billerica. I am in Bedford on Old Billerica Road. I just got into playing a few months ago after and extended break. Where do you usually play? I usually head up to Maxamillians. Can't beat the scenery up there.
- Dave
Welcome aboard. I looked at you website and notice you are in Billerica. I am in Bedford on Old Billerica Road. I just got into playing a few months ago after and extended break. Where do you usually play? I usually head up to Maxamillians. Can't beat the scenery up there.
- Dave