Willie Mosconi Quotes (or others from that era)

ForumGhost516

ForumGhost516

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hey guys I am currently wrapping up our inaugural straight pool league season and am doing an achievement award for one of our older gentleman and would like to include a quote from Crane Mosconi or something like that.

Basically something about the game.

Anything will do.

THanks

Charlie
 
When Crane was having some difficulty and asked Mosconi if he had any advice, Willie said "Don't miss!" (from an interview with Crane on Freddy The Beard's page - http://indexandlinkstobeardstuff.blogspot.com/. Crane took it seriously.

There's a bunch of good interviews on Freddy's page (Mosconi, Crane, Caras, Miz, Balsis, etc.). You might surf through there to find good quotes.
 
Posted 03.26.07 — "He's probably never been to Minnesota." — Willie Mosconi, world champion pool player, on infamous hustler 'Minnesota Fats' — [Get thousands of quotes from Carlo DeVito's The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations...]
 
Quotes from or about Luther 'Wimpy' Lassiter.

"I watch a man shoot pool for an hour. If he misses more than one shot I know I can beat him."

"The undershirt is the most foolish item in a man's wardrobe. I shall never wear one again." – at Johnston City, Illinois, November 1963

"Man is the strangest of all the Lord's creatures. The trouble with man is he doesn't know how to live ... I'm a pool player, so they ask me, 'Haven't you done anything with your life except shoot pool? Haven't you ever worked?' I always tell them, 'Well, no, sir, I can't say that I've ever worked.' That always gets those rascals, 'cause they always ask, 'But how have you managed to live?' Oh, Lawdie, that's so silly. I tell them, 'Sir, I live like a tree – 3 percent from the soil and 97 percent from the air.' You know, that's true." - to Tom Fox at McAnn's Saloon in New York City, 1967, during the World 14.1 Continuous Championship, which he won after defeating Jack "Jersey Red" Breit, with a score of 150-73.

"I don't know why so many people love to play pool. Might as well ask why a hen lays eggs or a cow stands still while a farmer burglarizes her."

When another hall of famer, 'Champagne' Edwin Kelly was asked who was the toughest player he ever played against, he responded that it depended on the game but that if it was "9-ball, it would have to be Luther Lassiter...Wimpy was the best...He was the best shot-maker that I ever saw."
 
Mosconi once said "there are two speeds to hit a ball - soft and softer"
 
In Irving Crane's interview he said he once asked Mosconi for advice during a match and Mosconi said "don't miss".

Should have read the entire thread before I posted, somebody else already posted that quote.

Here is one from Fats. "Putting a tuxedo on a pool player is like putting whipped cream on a hot dog".
 
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Ponytail said:
Quotes from or about Luther 'Wimpy' Lassiter.

"I watch a man shoot pool for an hour. If he misses more than one shot I know I can beat him."

"The undershirt is the most foolish item in a man's wardrobe. I shall never wear one again." – at Johnston City, Illinois, November 1963

"Man is the strangest of all the Lord's creatures. The trouble with man is he doesn't know how to live ... I'm a pool player, so they ask me, 'Haven't you done anything with your life except shoot pool? Haven't you ever worked?' I always tell them, 'Well, no, sir, I can't say that I've ever worked.' That always gets those rascals, 'cause they always ask, 'But how have you managed to live?' Oh, Lawdie, that's so silly. I tell them, 'Sir, I live like a tree – 3 percent from the soil and 97 percent from the air.' You know, that's true." - to Tom Fox at McAnn's Saloon in New York City, 1967, during the World 14.1 Continuous Championship, which he won after defeating Jack "Jersey Red" Breit, with a score of 150-73.

"I don't know why so many people love to play pool. Might as well ask why a hen lays eggs or a cow stands still while a farmer burglarizes her."

When another hall of famer, 'Champagne' Edwin Kelly was asked who was the toughest player he ever played against, he responded that it depended on the game but that if it was "9-ball, it would have to be Luther Lassiter...Wimpy was the best...He was the best shot-maker that I ever saw."
Click to expand...

Another one from Lassiter..."The hardest thing about straight pool is staying awake".
 
I heard this on a classic billiards tourny in New Jersey during the late 80's and hopefully someone can fill in the gaps or correct my mistakes (it's was awhile ago), but Mosconi was playing another well known pro player in straight pool, race to 300 or so?? They lag for the break, Mosconi wins the lag and proceeds to run every rack to his 300 or so points, other guy never took one shot. After the match, the commentator asks Mosconi if he had any advice for your opponent, Mosconi said yea, practice on your lag.:D
 
sk8ordie said:
I heard this on a classic billiards tourny in New Jersey during the late 80's and hopefully someone can fill in the gaps or correct my mistakes (it's was awhile ago), but Mosconi was playing another well known pro player in straight pool, race to 300 or so?? They lag for the break, Mosconi wins the lag and proceeds to run every rack to his 300 or so points, other guy never took one shot. After the match, the commentator asks Mosconi if he had any advice for your opponent, Mosconi said yea, practice on your lag.:D
Click to expand...

I heard a similar story where a local NYC player was playing Mosconi in an exhibition and before the match the local player was practicing the opening break over and over. a lot of top NY players were watching this. So Mosconi wins the lag and the other player breaks but leaves a shot, Mosconi runs 150 and out. Afterwards Cisero Murphy says to the local player "you should have been practicing lagging"
 
Perhaps the greatest of them all.

"I am ruthless in cutting out everything which has no direct playing application. That is why I fail to see anything at all, except mere waste of words in the everlasting discussion about transmitted side. Quite a big book could be filled with what has been written for and against the possibility of transmitting side from the cue-ball to the object-ball, but I have yet to meet a man who can play any better for all this spilling of ink.....But get away from theory, put the balls on the table and I will prove to you that the influence of side on the cue-ball is transmitted to the object ball to such an extent that you cannot play billiards without allowing for it."

-Walter Lindrum 1949
 
after running about a rack and half from mosconi's break at an exhibition the little kid with a smile on his face looked up to the great man as he said " you crappy kid you think you are going to show me up on this exhibition."


i never will forget that
 
"I never shoot a shot that I don't know I'm going to make." - Willie Mosconi, as personally witnessed in Kansas City, 1980

Scott
 
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