I stopped in at my local pool room and one of our senior road agents who still manages to drop by the pool room from time to time was there and we struck up a conversation about players from yesteryear.
Ernie Sellers has been around pool all of my adult life and even before that. He's got a lot of miles on him but he is still sharp and remembers some of the top players from yesteryear.
I thought maybe some of you would like to hear their names and what Ernie's thoughts were.
Ernie said Johnny Fitzpatrick played just under Luther Lassiter. Johnny Irish was a top player from the East Coast.
Marcel Camp was from Miami I think and Ernie said he witnessed Marcel winning 10 games in a row and his partner in crime said they might lose a game every now and then and Marcel replied "We don't ever have to lose a game, EVER".
Another player from yesteryear was Scarface, who visited New Orleans in 1948. He apparently had a birthmark on his face, maybe close to his eyes.
He as a good gambler.
Connecticut Johnny was another top player from those early days of pool.
Oh yeah, Johnny Fitzpatrick reportedly gave Squirrel Carpenter the 7,8 playing 9 ball when Marshal Carpenter was quite young and beat him.
Ernie had witnessed John Schmidt practicing a year or so ago and I asked Ernie how the players of yesteryear compared with the players of today and he said that today's players are more advanced than the players of yesteryear. Just a few thoughts to consider who lived and breathed pool for his entire life. Ernie was one of the few people that I knew who made a living playing pool his entire life. Ernie likes the horses and still claims he is way ahead of the horses. He doesn't play pool any longer but he is in his 80's now, seems to be in pretty good shape and gets around just fine.
JoeyA
Ernie Sellers has been around pool all of my adult life and even before that. He's got a lot of miles on him but he is still sharp and remembers some of the top players from yesteryear.
I thought maybe some of you would like to hear their names and what Ernie's thoughts were.
Ernie said Johnny Fitzpatrick played just under Luther Lassiter. Johnny Irish was a top player from the East Coast.
Marcel Camp was from Miami I think and Ernie said he witnessed Marcel winning 10 games in a row and his partner in crime said they might lose a game every now and then and Marcel replied "We don't ever have to lose a game, EVER".
Another player from yesteryear was Scarface, who visited New Orleans in 1948. He apparently had a birthmark on his face, maybe close to his eyes.
He as a good gambler.
Connecticut Johnny was another top player from those early days of pool.
Oh yeah, Johnny Fitzpatrick reportedly gave Squirrel Carpenter the 7,8 playing 9 ball when Marshal Carpenter was quite young and beat him.
Ernie had witnessed John Schmidt practicing a year or so ago and I asked Ernie how the players of yesteryear compared with the players of today and he said that today's players are more advanced than the players of yesteryear. Just a few thoughts to consider who lived and breathed pool for his entire life. Ernie was one of the few people that I knew who made a living playing pool his entire life. Ernie likes the horses and still claims he is way ahead of the horses. He doesn't play pool any longer but he is in his 80's now, seems to be in pretty good shape and gets around just fine.
JoeyA
