Bad news guys. There's a lot of players I don't know or barely knew. I never saw Buster Merchant play, but we were at the same place a couple of times. He was in Clinton, Iowa for the big bar table bash many moons ago.
Several people have sent me PM's about players who I either didn't know or only knew by name. Truth be known, I really only knew the players who traveled around for the most part. The stay at home champions could stay under the radar sometimes.
Buttermilk is another guy who I never saw play. I was around him and didn't have any idea how good he was. Lucky me. But pretty much all the top name players of the last forty five years I have seen play. I will say that. From Earl Shriver, Hubert Cokes, UJ Puckett, Jimmy Moore, Irving Crane, Jimmy Caras and Marcel Camp on down. They were a few of the old time players when I was a kid. Their careers stretch back to the 40's and even earlier, so I would hear about Greenleaf back then. He was REVERED by the old time players. And the hustlers still talked a lot about White Rags who had only died a few years before. Clem was another name that came up in every discussion about One Pocket.
Others from the 60's I saw in action, included George Rood, Jr. Goff, Detroit Whitey, Tacoma Whitey, Harry Petros, Joey Spaeth, Sammy Blumenthal, Eufemia, Balsis, Cornbread, Lassiter, Boston Shorty, Danny Jones, Irish, Vern Elliott, Jersey Red, Ervolino, NY Blackie, Richie From The Bronx, Boston Joey, Ed Kelly, Ronnie, Richie, Omaha Fats, NY Fats, Harold Worst, Beenie, Taylor, Cannonball (white and black) and Danny D. There are many, many more who were around in those days as well.
Guys like Ronnie, Kelly and Richie were young men back then, in their prime as players. Truman was around too, even though he was a kid like me. He was already a known Bank Pool player around the Midwest. Buddy was just getting known back in the 60's. Mizerak was a straight shooting youngster, schooled by Mosconi. And Rempe was still called Jimmy Rippy in the Midwest. He was a kid hustler then. I never saw Cranfield play, but I heard all about him. Same with Youngblood Washington from Chicago. Another great player who I somehow missed. I did see Bugs play a couple of times. He and Taylor and Cannonball banked the balls better than anyone else. But Truman got all their respect. Remember he was just a kid back then.
