Feb 11, 2007 I just decided that I am going to make a sincere effort to get back into the games of billiards. I used to really dig the sport, if you could call it that. Some would regard it as a large board game. Whatever the case, I recall that in college I could hold my own pretty well in the Union and at various bars. I would rarely play for money, but did sometimes just because it made the game more exciting. My best college friend, Cliff, and Matt Zimmer were always my greatest challengers. We would play 15 to 20 hours per weekend if we could. I would get another couple hours of practice on the weekdays if I could fit it in. We always played 8-ball with 2 players, Cut-throat with 3 players, or doubles 8-ball with 4 players. Somehow, 9-ball never appealed much to me. It has definitely taken over the media billiard circles. Cliff and I would play 9-ball after we got out of college, primarily because the blue-collar bars would have no other option for the coin tables. If you wanted a table, you were expected to play the winner for money (or at least the table rights), and 9-ball was “the game.” I used to hate the “slop counts” rule, but I know why it has to be that way now. The possibility of combo wins and caroms keeping you alive make the game more appealing now. I was visiting Cliff in Lawrence while he was in graduate school. He owned a bar there called Harbor Lights and we hung out there a lot. I liked to consider myself a semi-serious student of the game, but I could never beat the bar players that had the years of practice on me. One night, while playing on the betting tables at Harbor Lights, I tried to “play safe” by driving a ball to the rail and leaving the cue-ball in a difficult position for the competitor. This is completely legal in regulation play. The pros sometimes play safe several times in a row until someone leaves an open shot by mistake. The guy I was up against completely lost his mind and threatened to kick me out or have me kicked out by the house. We had some heated words, and as I recall, Cliff played the diplomat and got us back to a respectable status.

What brought about this sudden interest in pool is my desire to finish my basement, the perpetual mess of a leftover pool room. The other thing is watching the movie “The Hustler”, with Paul Newman. This movie earned Newman a Best Actor Oscar and a place in my top movies of all time. Love that flick.

Here’s my favorite excerpt from that film, a great soliloquy about passion and excellence, pool or otherwise!

“Fast Eddie” Felsen : “….there at a cheap, crummy pool room. Now why’d I do it, Sarah? Why’d I do it? I coulda beat that guy---coulda beat him cold, he never woulda known. But I just had to show him. Just had to show those creeps and those punks what the game is like when it’s great, when it’s REALLY great. You know, like anything can be great, anything can be great. I don’t care…..bricklaying can be great if a guy knows. If he knows what he’s doin’ and why and can make it come off. When I’m goin’, when I’m REALLY goin’ I feel like a…..like a jockey must feel. He’s sittin’ on his horse and he’s got all that speed and that power underneath him, he’s comin’ into the stretch, the pressures on him, and he KNOWS, he just FEELS….when to let it go and how much. Cuz he’s got everything workin’ for him, timing and touch. It’s a great feeling, boy, it’s a real great feeling, when you’re right and you know you’re right. It’s like all of a sudden I got oil in my arm…..the pool cue’s part of me. You know, it’s a pool cue….it’s got nerves in it. It’s a piece of wood! Got nerves in it. Feel the roll of those balls, you don’t have to look, you just KNOW. Ya make shots nobody’s ever made before. And you play that game the way…nobody’s ever played it before.

Sarah : “You’re not a loser, Eddie, you’re a winner. Some men never get to feel that way about anything. I love you, Eddie.”