This is one of a series of pool history blogs hosted by author R.A. Dyer. Check back regularly for the newest interview excerpts, documents and other archival material related to pocket billiards history. For more information, visit www.poolhistory.com or the main Untold Stories pool history blog.
That's Samm Diep's final AZbilliards report (above) from the 2010 U.S. Open, which concluded on Saturday in Virginia. Azbilliards.com reports more than 3 million page views and more than 1 million unique visitors during the tournament, a new record for the website. Such viewership should come as heartening news for those who fret about the future of our sport. Obviously, there's worldwide interest. Through social media, we can get the word out to our friends.
Besides the excellent video reports from my friend Samm (founder of pooltipjar.com), AZbilliards also delivered both real-time scoring and updated brackets during the U.S. Open. The website was essential viewing for pool fans. AZbilliards counted with the support of Simonis Cloth, the TAP leagues and Lucasi Hybrid Cues to finance its coverage.
Accu-Stats, Billy Incardona and Danny DiLiberto
Also be sure to support Accu-Stats Video Productions, founded by Billiard Congress of America Hall of Famer Pat Fleming. If you didn't catch the tournament live through Accu-Stats pay-per-view service, you can order the DVDs from their website. I particularly love it when professional pool curmudgeons Bill Incardona and Danny DiLiberto commentate the matches. They consistently deliver some of the most knowledgeable and funny play-by-play reports that you're likely to hear in pool -- or really in any sport.
England's Darren "Dynamite" Appleton became the newest U.S. Open 9-Ball champion Saturday after sending pool titan Mika Immonen to the one-loss side and then prevailing during a see-saw tactical battle with American Corey Deuel in the finals.
The 32-year-old native of Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England was the only competitor to go undefeated during the week-long tournament, arguably the most prestigious in pool. The U.S. Open this year drew the biggest names in the sport from more than 30 countries. For the first time ever, women also competed along with the men.
Much of the suspense during the late stages centered on Immonen, ranked by many as the world's best. The Finish player had won the previous two Opens in 2009 and 2008 and appeared poised for a three-peat this year. On the final day of competition Immonen and Appleton were the only two undefeated players in the event. Immonen also was favored to win his hot-seat match against the Englishman.
But it was not to be. Immonen trailed by a small margin for much of the contest, but had a chance to tie it up at 10-10 in the 20th rack. But then Immonen jawed a steep cut shot along the short rail, leaving a quick three-ball run out for Appleton. Final score: Appleton 11, Immonen 9.
Immonen then joined the two other remaining players on the loser's side, the Philippines' Warren Kiamco and 2001 U.S. Open champ Deuel. First Kiamco and Deuel would play, and then the winner of that game would meet Immonen for a chance to meet Appleton in the finals. Deuel beat Kiamco in the first match, but only barely. In fact, if not for a new rule this year requiring competitors in the semi-finals and finals to win by a two-game margin, Kiamco would have won. The Filipino was leading Deuel 11-10, but ended up falling to the Ohio player 14-12.
Deuel then met Immonen in the one-loss finals. The inventor of the soft-break had blanked Immonen during the U.S. Open finals nine years ago, and looked to runover the Iceman again this year. Immonen kept it close during the early going, but then Deuel began to pile on games. Deuel punished the Iceman for every mistake and then broke and ran the final three. The final score Saturday: 11-3
With his dreams dashed of becoming the only man to win three consecutive U.S. Opens, a clearly dejected Immonen pledged now to seek another record: Earl Strickland's five U.S. Open victories. Deuel, for his part, said he felt fortunate to have come so far. "I just think I played my best match at the right time," he told Nick Leider of Billiards Digest, moments after the victory Saturday.
With the Iceman's third-place finish, what would be remembered as an epic U.S. Open showdown was set up between Deuel and Appleton. The Englishman pulled out to a quick lead, but then Deuel fought his way back from an 11-9 deficit to get to the hill, 12-11. If Deuel would have taken the next game, the U.S. Open would have been his. But a dry break allowed Appleton to tie it up at 12-12.
Appleton then broke and ran the next game, bringing the score to 13-12. Deuel fought back, tying the match yet again. But the American handed the next game to Appleton after a scratch. Appleton then broke and ran the next game, winning the championship 15-13.
The final run out was a relatively simple affair, if such a thing is possible during the final game of America's most prestigious pool tournament. I've posted a video (above) of the run-out, from InsidePooMag.com. "At that point, the only way I was going to miss was if my hand fell off," said Appleton, quoted in Billiards Digest.
Appleton is the first English player to win the U.S. Open. Besides winning the World 10-Ball Championship in 2008, Appleton also won the World Pool Masters title in 2009. Asked how this title compared to the others, and Appleton responded: "I think I'll enjoy this one more."
Video highlights
Check out the coverage of the Friday's action, in the video report from Samm Diep and AZbilliards, just below. You can also review the video highlights of the previous day's actions in my earlier blog posts.
Video from azbilliards.com
Three-peat for Mika Immonen? That's the question for pool fans as the U.S. Open draws to its grand finale today in Chesapeake, Virginia. The Iceman from Finland, winner of both the 2008 and 2009 events, remains one of only two undefeated players. The other is former World 10-Ball champ Darren Appleton of England, who Immonen will play today in the hot seat match. The two remaining players on the one-loss side are Corey Deuel of the USA and Warren Kiamco of the Philippines.
"Of course, I'm thinking about it," Immonen told Nick Leider of Billiards Digest when asked about the possibility of winning the U.S. Open an unprecented three years in a row.
Immonen on BD Cover
The U.S. Open is one of the most prestigious pool tournaments in the world and the closet thing in the United States to a national pool championship. Promoter Barry Behrman began the 2010 extravaganza with a full field of 256 giant killers. The best players from the Philippines, Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic, Peru, Taiwan, Austria and many other countries all made the pilgrimage. Women also competed for the first time this year.
Immonen last year became only the second person in its 35-year-history to have won the tournament twice in a row. The first was Hall of Fame player Nick Varner, who accomplished the startling feat two decades earlier. If Immonen cements his third consecutive victory today, his record likely will stand for decades.
And at this late stage, Immonen certainly is considered the favorite. He's the most highly ranked player of the four left standing, and over the last two years has won just about every tournament there is to win. During his last game Friday he unceremoniously stomped Jason Klatt of Toronto by a score of 11-4. At one point, Immonen broke and ran six racks. Nonetheless, Corey Deuel, Warren Kiamco and Darren Appleton are all extremely dangerous. For instance Deuel, the 2006 U.S. Open winner, also stomped Klatt (11-1) during the last loser's side match Friday and earlier in the day eliminated Shane Van Boening. Deuel is now the last American in the field.
The only person to have beaten Deuel so far is Darren Appleton, who plays Immonen today for a spot in the final. Appleton also scored victories Friday over Efren Reyes, 11-5, and David Alcaide, 11-8, to inch within one game of the championship.
Warren Kiamco is the wild card. The only loss so far for the extremely dangerous player from Cebu, Philippines was his 11-10 heart-breaker to Corey Deuel. The two meet again at 1 p.m. (EST) where Kiamco will have his chance at revenge.
Django on BD Cover
The final is at 7 p.m.. Many fans appeared to be rooting Friday for Immonen, if for nothing else because he might make history. Said Cathy Jo Sawyer Almanza: "it's tough to pick a winner, but since three in row has never been done in this event, I'm hoping that Mika does it."
Newest HOF Inductees at U.S. Open Francisco Bustamante became the newest player inducted into the Billiard Congress Hall of Fame. He received the honor Thursday during a banquet at the event. Also,Terry Bell and Larry Hubbart, founders of the American Poolplayers Association league system in 1979, were inducted in the Meritorious Service category.
Here's a quick bio of Bustamante, from the BCA website:
"Bustamante, nicknamed “Django” because of a resemblance to the lead character in a Western film of the same name, was born in the Philippine province of Tarlac. He began playing pocket billiards at 10-years-old, and began competing in the United States in the early 1990s. He hit his stride in the United States in 1997, winning two Camel Pro Billiard Tour events. He was named Billiards Digest’s and Pool & Billiard Magazine’s Player of the Year in 1998 after notching four major tournament wins, and he earned Billiards Digest’s and Inside Pool’s Player of the Year titles again in 2002, winning five major events in the U.S. and abroad, and finishing second at the World Pool Championship.
Bustamante finally garnered his first recognized world title in 2010, winning the WPA World 9-Ball Championship in Doha, Qatar. His strongest game is 9-ball, where his blockbuster break is legendary; although he is more than proficient at all the major games, as witnessed by his All-Around title at the 2008 Derby City Classic."
You can read Ted Lerne's great profile of Django online this month, at billiardsdigest.com.
Follow the action
Also check out Samm Diep's great coverage of Bustamante's induction ceremony, and highlights from Thursday, in her azbilliards report, above. You can find the tournament brackets at AZbilliards.com and watch the action live through the Accu-Stats pay-per-view webcast. Here's the link.I'll also be occasionally updating the Pool History Facebook page with news from Chesapeake. You can check out the page here.
Mika Immonen made it Thursday to the final 8 of undefeated players in this year's U.S. Open, having grinded out a late 11-10 victory over former champ Gabe Owen. The dwindling group of undefeated players after the fifth day in Chesapeake looked like a United Nations contingent: they included American Corey Deuel, England's Darren Appleton, young Canadian Jason Klatt , Spaniard David Alcaide, Lo Li-Wen of Taiwan and Germany's Ralf Souquet (the second place finisher in last year's open) and Germany's Thorsten Hohmann.
U.S. favorite Shane Van Boening also remained in the hunt, but from the one-loss side. On Thursday he ran over two very capable opponents, including road player Chris Bartram. Bartram was the only person to have beaten Mika Immonen during the U.S. Open in 2009. Unimpressed, the "Dakota Kid" eliminated Bartram in an 11-0 shut-out. Peruvian Manny Chau didn't fare much better. Chau fell to SVB by a lopsided 11-1.
A Van Boening victory against Gabe Owen today could set up an interesting matchup with player of the decade Johnny Archer. Archer was sent Thursday to the one-loss side by Lo Li-Wen of China. But he remains very much in contention. Other players still alive on the one-loss side include former U.S. Open champs Owen, Rodney "The Rocket" Morris and Nick Varner. Also alive on the one-loss side are "Korean Dragon" Charlie Williams, newest Hall of Fame inductee Francisco Bustamante, Filipino Ronnie Alcano, crowd favorite Efren "Bata" Reyes, and Jesse Engel, a relative unknown from Minneapolis.
In fact, it was this last player that helped legends Mike Sigel and Earl Strickland to the exit door. Engel is just 18 years old. According to a short article on the NYC Grind website, the Minneapolis teen-ager now plays on the Seminole Pro Tour and was runner-up in the 19-and-under division at the BEF Junior National Championships in 2009 and 2010. You can read the article here.
Besides Sigel, Strickland and Bartram, other notable eliminations Thursday included Mike Dechaine, Stevie Moore and Filipino Lee Van Corteza. The last woman standing was Gerda Hofstatter, who ended up with 65 game wins to 96 losses. She was eventually eliminated by Adam Smith in a close match. "I got the $1,000 bonus for highest woman (finisher), and I also got into the money in the main field," said Hofstatter. "I (also) earned a few hundred bucks and a priceless experience."
Meanwhile, two of the more interesting television matches Thursday included Reyes 11-7 defeat of Spaniard Marc Vidal and Sigel's last stand against a player from the Czech Republic.
Reyes versus Vidal
Crowd favorite Reyes started out slow in his match, fell behind early, and for the first five games or so appeared extremely uncomfortable. After grinding out a particularly tough victory in the 10th game, the Magician asked for a time out. He returned girded for battle, and eventually pulled away from Vidal in about the 15th game. Vidal had proven adept at escaping from many of Reyes' traps, often by spinning the cue ball around obstructing balls. But victory nonetheless slipped away. Reyes beat Vidal by a four-game margin.
Sigel versus Hybler
The legendary Captain Hook met Roman Hybler of the Czech Republic during a late game on the one-loss side. Sigel trailed for much of the match, but key errors by the Czech player allowed Sigel to stay in it. Sigel won the fourth game with a spectacular combination on the two. After that it was a dog fight. Late in the set Hybler stepped away to take a break. Sigel, citing the rules, continued to play and sank the nine-ball in Hybler's absence. "The guy left and I just shot," Sigel said to a tournament director. The game was counted in Sigel's favor, but he nonetheless fell to Hybler after both got to the hill.
Follow the action
I've posted AZbilliard's excellent video round-up of Wednesday's action above. (Still waiting on the Thursday's update.) You also can keep up with the tournament at Accu-Stats, which is webcasting several matches each day. You can find the link here.I'll also be occasionally updating the Pool History Facebook page with news from Chesapeake. You can check out the page here
Mika Immonen made it Thursday to the final 8 of undefeated players in this year's U.S. Open, having grinded out a late 11-10 victory over former champ Gabe Owen. The dwindling group of undefeated players after the fifth day in Chesapeake looked like a United Nations contingent: they included American Corey Deuel, England's Darren Appleton, young Canadian Jason Klatt , Spaniard David Alcaide, Lo Li-Wen of Taiwan and Germany's Ralf Souquet (the second place finisher in last year's open) and Germany's Thorsten Hohmann.
U.S. favorite Shane Van Boening also remained in the hunt, but from the one-loss side. On Thursday he ran over two very capable opponents, including road player Chris Bartram. Bartram was the only person to have beaten Mika Immonen during the U.S. Open in 2009. Unimpressed, the "Dakota Kid" eliminated Bartram in an 11-0 shut-out. Peruvian Manny Chau didn't fare much better. Chau fell to SVB by a lopsided 11-1.
A Van Boening victory against Gabe Owen today could set up an interesting matchup with player of the decade Johnny Archer. Archer was sent Thursday to the one-loss side by Lo Li-Wen of China. But he remains very much in contention. Other players still alive on the one-loss side include former U.S. Open champs Owen, Rodney "The Rocket" Morris and Nick Varner. Also alive on the one-loss side are "Korean Dragon" Charlie Williams, newest Hall of Fame inductee Francisco Bustamante, Filipino Ronnie Alcano, crowd favorite Efren "Bata" Reyes, and Jesse Engel, a relative unknown from Minneapolis.
In fact, it was this last player that helped legends Mike Sigel and Earl Strickland to the exit door. Engel is just 18 years old. According to a short article on the NYC Grind website, the Minneapolis teen-ager now plays on the Seminole Pro Tour and was runner-up in the 19-and-under division at the BEF Junior National Championships in 2009 and 2010. You can read the article here.
Besides Sigel, Strickland and Bartram, other notable eliminations Thursday included Mike Dechaine, Stevie Moore and Filipino Lee Van Corteza. The last woman standing was Gerda Hofstatter, who ended up with 65 game wins to 96 losses. She was eventually eliminated by Adam Smith in a close match. "I got the $1,000 bonus for highest woman (finisher), and I also got into the money in the main field," said Hofstatter. "I (also) earned a few hundred bucks and a priceless experience."
Meanwhile, two of the more interesting television matches Thursday included Reyes 11-7 defeat of Spaniard Marc Vidal and Sigel's last stand against a player from the Czech Republic.
Reyes versus Vidal
Crowd favorite Reyes started out slow in his match, fell behind early, and for the first five games or so appeared extremely uncomfortable. After grinding out a particularly tough victory in the 10th game, the Magician asked for a time out. He returned girded for battle, and eventually pulled away from Vidal in about the 15th game. Vidal had proven adept at escaping from many of Reyes' traps, often by spinning the cue ball around obstructing balls. But victory nonetheless slipped away. Reyes beat Vidal by a four-game margin.
Sigel versus Hybler
The legendary Captain Hook met Roman Hybler of the Czech Republic during a late game on the one-loss side. Sigel trailed for much of the match, but key errors by the Czech player allowed Sigel to stay in it. Sigel won the fourth game with a spectacular combination on the two. After that it was a dog fight. Late in the set Hybler stepped away to take a break. Sigel, citing the rules, continued to play and sank the nine-ball in Hybler's absence. "The guy left and I just shot," Sigel said to a tournament director. The game was counted in Sigel's favor, but he nonetheless fell to Hybler after both got to the hill.
Follow the action
I've posted AZbilliard's excellent video round-up of Wednesday's action above. (Still waiting on the Thursday's update.) You also can keep up with the tournament at Accu-Stats, which is webcasting several matches each day. You can find the link here.I'll also be occasionally updating the Pool History Facebook page with news from Chesapeake. You can check out the page here
Video from azbilliards.com
Mika Immonen continues to roll on undefeated during the 35th annual U.S. Open this week in Chesapeake, Virginia. The winner of the last two U.S. Opens easily swept past Max Eberle, 11-5, in one of the featured matches Wednesday night.
But while playing with confidence, Immonen's game was not without errors. And on occasion those errors cost him. For instance, Eberle responded to a missed ball in the 13th game with a spectacular table-length kick. The kick then opened the door to a deliberate and plodding run-out by Eberle. But Immonen responded with several victories. Eventually Immonen's relentless ball pocketing sent Eberle to the one-loss side.
In other action from the winner's side, Thorsten Hohmann beat Lee Van Corteza 7-11. Hohmann dramatically fought back from a 7-2 deficit to win the set. Corteza played almost error free for the first half of the match and Hohmann played without mistakes during the second half. For much of the last 20 minutes, Corteza's only defense was to scowl at Hohmann from his chair. Hohmann took the last nine games in a row, several through break and runs.
Nick Varner also beat Ernesto Dominguez, 11-10, on the winner's side and Efren Reyes beat Japanese player Tomoo Takano 11-2. Mike Sigel beat Ivaylo Petrov 11-5, but he won't be meeting Earl Strickland in a winner's side match. That's because the five-time U.S. Open winner lost Wednesday night 11-10 to Jesse Engel. Engel's victory sent Strickland to the loser's bracket.
Hofstatter the Last Woman Standing
Meanwhile, in action from the one-loss side on Wednesday, Mike Dechaine eliminated Scott Higgins 11-8; Alex Pagulayan eliminated Tony Crosby 11-3; Shawn Putnam eliminated Robert Pole 11- 4 and Dennis Orcullo eliminated Chris Szuter 11-6. Other eliminations included Chris Bartram's 11-9 victory over Roberto Gomez, Shane Van Boening's 11-3 victory over Steve Sones, John Schmidt's 11-6 victory over Steven Page 11-6, and Gerda Hofstatter's squeak-by 11-10 victory over John Timmermans.
Hofstatter is the last woman standing, making her a shoe-in for the $1,000 prize that promoter Barry Behrman is offering for the woman who finishes the highest in the event.
A few of the more interesting sets to watch out for include Johnny Archer's upcoming winner's side match with Stevie Moore, Nick Varner's upcoming match with Rodney "The Rocket" Morris and Ralf Souquet's upcoming match with Raj Hundal. Still waiting to hear whether they'll be played on the TV table.
I've posted AZbilliard's excellent video round-up of Tuesday action above. (Still waiting on the Wednesday update.) You also can keep up with the tournament at Accu-Stats, which is webcasting several matches each day. You can find the link here.I'll also be occasionally updating the Pool History Facebook page with news from Chesapeake. You can check out the page here
Video from azbilliards.com Samm Diep and AZbilliards provide more great coverage of the U.S. Open 9-ball championship currently underway in Chesapeake, Virginia. Johnny Archer's dramatic battle with Dennis Orcollo is highlighted in the video above. Archer is a former U.S. Open winner, player of the year and player of the decade. Orcollo was this year's champion at the World Pool Masters tournament.
Sarah Rousey, Dave Bollman and several other top players were eliminated on Tuesday, the third day of action. Road player Chris Bartram, the only person to have beaten 2009 U.S. Open champion Mika Immonen during last year's tournament, eliminated Rousey 11-5 during an evening match. That's a picture of Rousey on the right, courtesy of Billiards Digest. In other action, Gerda Hofstatter eliminated Joanne Mason Parker 11-4 during a late match.
Some of the top players expected to make appearances in matches today include George San Souci, Scott Frost, Mika Immonen, Max Eberle, Nick Varner, Ernesto Dominguez, Lee Van Cortezza, Thorsten Hohmann, Jose Parica, Daryl Peach, Francisco Bustamante, Oscar Dominguez, Darren Appleton and Ronnie Alcano.
Accu-Stats will be streaming many of those matches online, including Santos Sambajon's match with Tony Crosby at 11 a.m. and Jennifer Barretta's match with Scott Higgins at 1 p.m. For more information, check out Accu-Stats pay-per-view site, which you can find here.
I'll also be occasionally updating the Pool History Facebook page with news from Chesapeake. You can check out the page here.
My friend Samm Diep, founder of Pooltipjar.com, provides the first day highlights for the 2010 U.S. Open in Chesapeake, Virginia. Check out her video report from AZbilliards.com, above. The story of the day was Shane Van Boening's 11-3 upset loss to Mike "Fireball" Dechaine of Maine. Van Boening, a former U.S. Open winner, never got close. The Dakota Kid now has an uphill battle to win the tournament through the one-loss bracket.
By contrast, Mika "Iceman" Immonen easily swept past opponent Joey Arbuckle 11-4. Immonen has won the U.S. Open the last two years in a row and is in the hunt to win it again this year.
WPBA pro Jennifer Barretta also made news. Women are competiting in the prestigious event for the first time in history, and Barretta, by beating David Ross 11-5 in her opener on Sunday, joined in that history by becoming the first woman ever to win a U.S. Open match.
Promoter Barry Behrman is offering an added $1,000 prize to the woman who finishes highest in the event. The overall champion will take home $40,000. The second place finisher wins $15,000.
In defiance to the shoddy economy, the Open this year has a full 256-player field for the first time in a decade. You can check out the progress of your favorite player here, at azbilliards.com. Accu-Stats is also webcasting on a pay-per-view basis. Here's the link.
Mike "Captain Hook" Sigel, a three-time world 14.1 champion, began playing pool at age 13 and then turned professional at 20. He won his first U.S. Open 9-ball championship in 1975, and then went on to spectacularly amass nearly 40 additional 14.1 and nine-ball titles. He was inducted into the Billiard Congress Hall of Fame in 1989, at the age of 35. Sigel was the youngest male ever to be inducted by the BCA.
And now, after a long hiatus, Captain Hook is back! He recently won the Bob Stock Memorial 9-ball Tournament, and placed fifth in the Seminole Tribe of Florida Empire State Championships. Also expect to see Sigel at this year's U.S. Open 9-ball Championship, Oct. 17-23. He's a three time winner of the event.
The very cool Accu-Stats video company this week has webcast a live 14.1 match between Sigel and NYCgrind.com founder Jerry Tarantola. You can start watching the video by clicking on the screen, above. Sigel and Tarantola are playing to 125. The entire match can be viewed here.
It's been nearly 25 years ago now, but way back when I used to live in San Jose, Costa Rica. I spent a ton of time in various pool halls there, including a place called Center Pool. I wrote a piece earlier about a hustler I met there, a man by the name of Luis Calderon -- better known as "Pichitas." He was something of a legend in the pool halls then. I eventually went back to Costa Rica and produced a short documentary about Pichitas. A couple of months ago I dusted off that old documentary and posted it up on the Internet.
Lo and behold, one of my old buddies from Costa Rica, Hernan Aguilar, saw the video and has sent me video of his own trick-shooting prowess. It seems that the legend of Pichitas lives on in Costa Rica. I've posted up one of Hernan's videos, above, but there are tons more at his YouTube channel. I can't tell where Hernan is shooting in these videos, but it looks about like what I remembered of the now-closed Center Pool. The only difference is that with Center Pool, you had to go up a flight of stairs. With this pool hall, you have to go down. (I will note, however, that either up or down, all the best pool halls involve a flight of stairs.)
Thanks to Hernan for sending along this video. He looks like someone you'd want to steer clear from if you're ever in San Jose, looking to make a game.
Earl Strickland's emotional outbursts have earned him a lot of criticism over the years. But judging from internet traffic, they also have brought a lot of attention to the sport. As of March 7, 2010, the image of Earl smashing his pool cue in frustration during a Mosconi Cup event has been viewed 181,233 times (181,238 if you count the five times I watched it that day). I've included the video, above, for your amusement. But know that Earl is not alone for engaging in such over-the-top antics. Some of the very greatest players in our sport have been known to snap a cue -- or worse -- in a fit of pique. Check out, for instance, the-- R.A. Dyer
My apologies. I don't have a proper post for today. I'm busy working on a column. But if you're bored and looking for something to read, here's a link to a story about my favorite pool-hustling ghost: U.J. Puckett. Known by some as "Ugly Puckett," the former 9-ball champ died nearly 20 years ago. Now some say he has returned from the grave, apparently drawn by the pretty ladies down at a Fort Worth pool hall. This story might serve as a cautionary tale for theBranch Water Tavernin Houston, which replaced one of Jersey Red's favorite haunts, The Cue & Cushion. Also, at the top of this post, I've attached the first part of Harry Reasoner's famous interview with Puckett.
Irving "The Deacon" Crane, a 1978 inductee into the BCA Hall of Fame, possessed so much patience that he would sometimes spend quiet hours practicing safeties against himself. But he was also aggressive enough to rack up crazy big runs, including his flawless run of 150 and out against Joe "The Meatman" Balsis during the 1966 U.S. Open. You can see the first part of that run in the video posted above (and the rest of it posted elsewhere on this blog).
Crane, remembered fondly today as "The Deacon" of pool, is the subject a short online tribute this month by his old friend Stuart Jack Mattana. Writing for the first time for the online PoolSynergy project, Mattana describes Crane as "the perfect combination of patience and aggressiveness," a refined gentleman and a fine role model. "Irving’s technical excellence and fundamental soundness helped him maintain world class level performance up to the age of seventy -- of today’s older players, at least for me, only Jose Parica comes close to having duplicated Irving’s prolific run of sustained excellence," opines Mattana.
Crane won major world tournaments or title matches in 1942, 1946, 1955, 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1972 -- that is, Crane was named champion during four different decades, a stunning achievement. And he doubtlessly would have won a great deal more if not for having the misfortune of playing during the same era as Willie Mosconi.
Mattana also notes that the Livonia, New York native was one of just a few players ever to run 300 balls on a 5 by 10 table. (Others include Mosconi and Ralph Greenleaf.) "Irving didn’t pocket the balls as well as Lassiter, and his position play was not quite on a par with that of Mosconi, but he managed the table with as much elegance as any player of his or any other era, and showed great imagination in his play," writes Mattana.
Crane died in 2001. You can read Mattana's warm tribute to his old friend at Gail Gazebrook's blog, which you can be find here. You can find the rest of the footage of Crane's 150-ball run elsewhere in this blog. Keep clicking on the "older post" button to view the entire sequence of videos.
If you've been following along lately, you might know that we've begun a online poll intended to get to the heart of the age-old Greenleaf-Mosconi question. That is: which player really was better, Ralph Greenleaf or Willie Mosconi?
Historian Charlie Ursitti recently picked Mosconi. To support this position, Charlie points to Willie's winnning percentage in world championship competition. "The numbers don't like," he says. To get another view I gave a call over the weekend to author J.D. Dolan. A resident of Michigan, Dolan is one of the nation's foremost experts on Greenleaf. The author's expertise comes as a result of the decade he has spent researching Greenleaf's life as part of his work on a future novel.
And Dolan, perhaps not surprisingly, says Greenleaf was the better player. The author says Greenleaf played fast, and with confidence -- not unlike Ronnie O'Sullivan, the famous English snooker champion. "Have a look at some of Ronnie O'Sullivan's videos on YouTube. His fast and perfect games are just the way people described Greenleaf's," said Dolan.
And so, upon J.D.'s recommendation, I am presenting here an incredibly fast perfect snooker run by "The Rocket."
As an aside, I have found that YouTube is quite annoying in that it prohibits videos of longer than 10 minutes in duration. But O'Sullivan runs these balls so fast that he requires no more than eight minutes.
OK, now tell me again why the cue sports aren't permitted in the Olympics?
Reader Roy Zornow reminds us of this cool video of Jean Balukas, Fran Crimi, Steve Mizerak and several other legends shooting pool on the Charlie Rose show. Roy went looking for the video after coming across the footage of a young Jean Balukas shooting pool on TV, which is also reproduced here on this blog.
Roy writes that there's an interesting magazine article from 1991 that references a televised match Balukas had vs. Robin Bell in Las Vegas at the Women’s Final of the Brunswick World Open 9-ball tournament. You can find the article here.
OK, here's a YouTube playlist that includes all three parts of my documentary film Pichitas, in sequence. I reference this movie in an earlier "PoolSynergy" post. It's really quite annoying that YouTube only allows videos that are 10 minutes long or shorter. Neither does is offer any convenient way to link these shorter films together. I'm going to research this further and see if I can find some better way to upload this film.
Be that as that may, Pichitas was created (by me) in 1992. It was shot on Super8 film in San Jose, Costa Rica. I lived there for about three years during the late 1980s. The pool hall featured in the film is known as "Center Pool." Like all great rooms, it was upstairs. It had about 30 tables -- including some 10 footers. At the time it was about the coolest place I had ever seen. I pretty much lived there between 1986 and 1988. Sadly, it's changed locations and I'm not sure it even exists any more.
This is the third in a series of posts submitted in coordination with other online pool writers. It's part of the Pool Synergy project hosted this month by billiardcoach.com. Look for more installments in the future.
As usual, I'm taking great liberties with my homework. Our PoolSynergy assignment this month was to write about "some activity, training, or experience outside of the world of billiards and how that could be applied to help a person's pool game." Well, first off--I'm not really going to write about anything. Instead I'm submitting the first part of a documentary, the one you see attached to the top of this post. It's called "Pichitas" and it's about Costa Rican pool players. And as for it describing an "activity, training, or experience that could help a person's game" -- well, you can be the judge.
The documentary is something I put together about 18 years ago. It ran briefly on cable access TV in Houston and then pretty much has been sitting in my closet ever since. I got my son to create an electronic file of the film that would be appropriate for use on my blog -- and viola -- here it is.
And so how, you may ask, does this film illustrate some activity outside the world of pool that can help a person's game? Well, the fact of the matter is that I came to pool largely because of my willingness to go exploring. I lived for several years in Costa Rica, spent much of that time wondering around the streets of San Jose, and finally ventured up the steps of "Center Pool," which is the pool hall featured in this film. There I met a wonderful cast of characters, some of whom were vaguely disreputable. I watched them play pool and I fell in love with the game.
So, that's it. Go exploring. Take risks. Learn about other people. That's the activity outside the pool world that led me to improve my game.
OK, I know it's a stretch -- but whatever. I was never much good at homework anyway.
And be sure to come back to the pool history blog to watch parts 2 and 3 of Pichitas. I'll post them up soon.
You read it about it The Hustler & The Champ. Here's the video proof of the most watched pool match in U.S. history. Picture and sound quality is pretty lousy, but it's the only copy out there that I have come across. You can read about the pool match in detail in my book (that's it there to the right). The famous televised pool match was put together by pool promoter Charles Ursitti and the guys from Wide World of Sports.
That's Samm Diep's final AZbilliards report (above) from the 2010 U.S. Open, which concluded on Saturday in Virginia. Azbilliards.com reports more than 3 million page views and more than 1 million unique visitors during the tournament, a new record for the website. Such viewership should come as heartening news for those who fret about the future of our sport. Obviously, there's worldwide interest. Through social media, we can get the word out to our friends. 
