Stars have aligned for me in this sport as it has with many of us. My grandparents had moved in with us after their leaving the Philippines to spend the rest of their years in the U.S. They became regulars at the local senior center with Mama doing a lot of knitting/crocheting activities and my Papa participating in shuffleboard, chess, and ... pool.
He never played the game when he was younger, but decided to take it up to pass the time. He bought a book, the best book he could find on the subject: Robert Byrne's Standard Book of Pool and Billiards.
The book became my bible once I stole it from Papa in 1983. This is when realized that I really loved the game and that there were actually books on the sport. So, I sought other books. They had one at the local library: Billiards: Hustlers & Heroes, Legends & Lies and the Search for Higher Truth on the Green Felt - John Grissim. I found my own copy years later from Amazon and pull it out a few times a year!
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=344196#post344196
In what seems today like just a passing three or four paragraphs about pool during his travels around the world, tucked between a trip to Borneo and bedroom romp with a pool-playing lesbian whom he thought he got pregnant was a quick story of his stop in the Philippines. His opponent in the PI was some shy kid that the locals goofed on by the name Efren Reyes. Grissim describes him as having the stroke that clearly made him a professional caliber player well above his own skill level. He also mentions that he heard that Reyes was the number 2 player in the Philippines. The two played a game or two of 1/15 8-ball (as this would have been the version to come over to the PI when it was an American Territory) and they played on 10 ft tables in tough conditions.
I didn't think much about the excerpt other than his description of playing pool in the Philippines. I tucked that little reading memory aside until a few years later ... something from Steve Mizerak (Winning Pocket Billiards possibly). In it, Mizerak went on to talk about the best 9-ball players. He mentions for some odd reason a non-American player: Efren Reyes from the Philippines. This is before I had heard of Efren coming to the States as Cesar Morales. Maybe that book told that story. I can't remember anymore. CRS.
That a country as tiny as the Philippines is mentioned for pool is one thing. For one to present Efren Reyes by name and then another to say he is one of, if not the best 9-ball player was just an outrageous discovery by a young Filipino-American just relatively starting out in this sport. And this discovery is as much a reason of why I continue to love this sport as anything. I never saw Efren play until the 1993 World Team Billiards Event. And, I am extremely fortunate to watch him play in person as often as I have, considering he was already getting past his prime at that time. Yet he never dropped much out of "prime" until just really couple of years ago.
So that's my story of when I first heard of Efren. And I've been following his story ever since.
Freddie <~~~ 10 ft tables, in case someone missed that
He never played the game when he was younger, but decided to take it up to pass the time. He bought a book, the best book he could find on the subject: Robert Byrne's Standard Book of Pool and Billiards.
The book became my bible once I stole it from Papa in 1983. This is when realized that I really loved the game and that there were actually books on the sport. So, I sought other books. They had one at the local library: Billiards: Hustlers & Heroes, Legends & Lies and the Search for Higher Truth on the Green Felt - John Grissim. I found my own copy years later from Amazon and pull it out a few times a year!
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=344196#post344196
In what seems today like just a passing three or four paragraphs about pool during his travels around the world, tucked between a trip to Borneo and bedroom romp with a pool-playing lesbian whom he thought he got pregnant was a quick story of his stop in the Philippines. His opponent in the PI was some shy kid that the locals goofed on by the name Efren Reyes. Grissim describes him as having the stroke that clearly made him a professional caliber player well above his own skill level. He also mentions that he heard that Reyes was the number 2 player in the Philippines. The two played a game or two of 1/15 8-ball (as this would have been the version to come over to the PI when it was an American Territory) and they played on 10 ft tables in tough conditions.
I didn't think much about the excerpt other than his description of playing pool in the Philippines. I tucked that little reading memory aside until a few years later ... something from Steve Mizerak (Winning Pocket Billiards possibly). In it, Mizerak went on to talk about the best 9-ball players. He mentions for some odd reason a non-American player: Efren Reyes from the Philippines. This is before I had heard of Efren coming to the States as Cesar Morales. Maybe that book told that story. I can't remember anymore. CRS.
That a country as tiny as the Philippines is mentioned for pool is one thing. For one to present Efren Reyes by name and then another to say he is one of, if not the best 9-ball player was just an outrageous discovery by a young Filipino-American just relatively starting out in this sport. And this discovery is as much a reason of why I continue to love this sport as anything. I never saw Efren play until the 1993 World Team Billiards Event. And, I am extremely fortunate to watch him play in person as often as I have, considering he was already getting past his prime at that time. Yet he never dropped much out of "prime" until just really couple of years ago.
So that's my story of when I first heard of Efren. And I've been following his story ever since.
Freddie <~~~ 10 ft tables, in case someone missed that
