fasteddiecues
Verified Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2006
- Messages
- 14
nick name in indy
nick name in indy
brian ears gregg .dan waldo walton
nick name in indy
brian ears gregg .dan waldo walton
suki said:However I don't know how many we will miss as I feel a lot of players that would be recognized in the West have never been heard of East of the Mississippi. Especially in the early years of pool when there was no internet.
Now the following I would suggest I am not sure everyone knows but I sure did and even in my early years I never got past Nevada playing pool.
Sax Del Porto Don't know if he had a nickname, cannot remember
Mark (the snake) Haddad
"One Eye" Hank Hurst
"Texas" Tony(forgot last name)
"San Jose" Dick (some people thought that was me. lol)(no last name)
"Filipino Gene" Gene Ventura?
Billy Palmer
Lettuce Larry(Oyler)
Ray(surfer) Suden at least that what we called him, might have another handle, he spent awhile on the east coast.
I am sure there are a lot more
shooters1411 said:Sax Dal Porto nickname is Sax his real name is Angelo some people did call him San Francisco Fats and when he did go back east he went by Mask Marvel he was a great one-pocket player. I wish more people that knew him would add more stories about him. I never meet him. His son Paul is a great friend of mine.
fred bentivegna said:I knew Sax from various tournaments. Very nice man, but I never ever seen him play onepocket. He was a good straight pool player.
the Beard
Okay, I made some changes. I only don't have Gary Spaeth on there because I don't have a nickname for him. "Crazy Whitey" or "Crazy George"? For "Calhoun", you're talking about the guy I have listed as Bill Kelleher -- should be Louis Kelleher?Dick Mc Morran said:You're right Fred, Sax rarely played one pocket. Steve, heres a few more for you. I'm pretty sure Calhoun's first name was Louis, also his most common nick-name was "Hoon". Geo. Michaels was known around the Northwest as "Crazy Whitey" (Don't know why, cause he sure wasn't) Also you might include Charlie Brown (thats his real name) from Henderson, Texas. He is known throughout the South as the "King of the calcutta buyers" and an absolutely fearless stakehorse. Charlie couldn't play a lick himself, but if you asked him what he did he'd say, " I'm a stakehorse " He was (is)the world's greatest pool handicapper. Rarely picked the wrong horse, and would really bet it up!
Also you have Joey Spaeth on your list but you left out his son, Gary.
Great job putting all those guy's together!
Dick
PS> A couple more, Andy "Amarillo" Olguin, Charles "CB, Lonesome John", Bailey. also Joe Salazar's most common nickname is "Tracy Joe".
NH Steve said:Okay, I made some changes. I only don't have Gary Spaeth on there because I don't have a nickname for him. "Crazy Whitey" or "Crazy George"? For "Calhoun", you're talking about the guy I have listed as Bill Kelleher -- should be Louis Kelleher?
NH Steve said:Okay, I made some changes. I only don't have Gary Spaeth on there because I don't have a nickname for him. "Crazy Whitey" or "Crazy George"? For "Calhoun", you're talking about the guy I have listed as Bill Kelleher -- should be Louis Kelleher?
fred bentivegna said:Steve I think he is talking about Hound dog Calhoun who spent much time around Detroit's Rack and also Florida.
SJ Dick, is the Geo. Michaels you're talking about an old timer with a huge pump handle stroke? At the Stardust tourns. I knew him as Tacoma Whitey. There is another Geo Michaels from Chicago who has been living in San Fran. for the last 15 years that also plays pretty good. His hair has been pure white since he was 30 years old.
the Beard
fred bentivegna said:Steve I think he is talking about Hound dog Calhoun who spent much time around Detroit's Rack and also Florida.
SJ Dick, is the Geo. Michaels you're talking about an old timer with a huge pump handle stroke? At the Stardust tourns. I knew him as Tacoma Whitey. There is another Geo Michaels from Chicago who has been living in San Fran. for the last 15 years that also plays pretty good. His hair has been pure white since he was 30 years old.
the Beard
hemicudas said:Two George Michaels? Say it ain't so.
fred bentivegna said:My Geo Michaels is about 2 years younger than me. He was also the owner of Winning Garb, the pool shirt line.
the Beard
shooters1411 said:Does anybody know what Bucktooth is up to? Haven't heard anybody talking about him in a while.
shooters1411 said:Sax Dal Porto nickname is Sax his real name is Angelo some people did call him San Francisco Fats and when he did go back east he went by Mask Marvel he was a great one-pocket player. I wish more people that knew him would add more stories about him. I never meet him. His son Paul is a great friend of mine.
jmorton said:It's been like 30 years. But I have heard some. The one and only time I can remember seeing Sax was at a pool hall in Palo Alto, CA around 1977 or so during a tournament. He was there with his wife. He was with a young tall blond pool player named, Ray (Billy Ray) Suden (sp?)
That's when I met and played an "up and coming player from Medesto," named Kim Davenport. I played Kim 9-ball for $5 / game and lost 6 games in a row then I quit. Don't remember much about it except that Kim seemed to put a lot of spin on the ball then and seemed to get out.
Anyway, I'm from Fremont, CA, and that is where Cole Dickson is from. I used to play pinball machines at the bowling alley. I had a friend and we'd play those pinball machines. Well, my friend also played pool. He told me there was a poolhall on the other side of the parking lot and that I should check it out. That's when, for better or worse, I started hanging out at the poolhall when I was around 15.
I will get back to more about Cole later but let me just say that the owner of the poolhall was Louie LeBlanc. He watched Cole play from when Cole just began to play to when Cole hit the road. If I remember right, Old Louie told me that Sax taught Cole lots about pool. He said that noboby that young gets that good so fast without someone teaching them.
So now, back to Sax and Billy Ray. Here I am in Palo Alto at this tournament at the Golden (something. maybe Golden Cue or Gold Crown, I can't remember.) I've just lost my $30. And Billy Ray keeps walking over trying to make a game with Kim. All the while Sax and his wife are along the wall behind the next row of tables.
Billy Ray tells me he wants to hustle Kim. He's really eager to play. But Kim isn't biting just yet. Kim says he wants to wait until after the tournament. Anyway, it looked to me that Billy Ray was a protege of Sax. And Billy Ray could definitely play. I watched him at California Billiards running rack after rack of nine ball a couple of years later while practicing. He mentioned that he had beaten Cole. But I took that with a grain of salt because here it was several years after Cole's game peaked around '72 and the heavy partying really hurt Cole's game. Anyway this is what I was thinking at the time. But don't get me wrong. Billy Ray could play.
Sax must have been around 70ish or so. But he was still into the sport. I can't say he was Mexican. I'd probably say he was more Spanish. 5'8" On the stocky side, not a skinny build. Probably could have grown a full beard if he had wanted to. He wore a hat I believe but he was not bald, if I remember correctly.
Well, not much of a story about Sax but that's about it. I never did stay to see if Billy Ray and Kim matched up, either.
I believe this is where Toni Anigoni used to hang out as a kid. In this poolhall is where I first met Toni. Man, he was a prick back then. Don't get me wrong. I like Toni. I lost $20 betting on him to beat Moro at Hard Times in the big once-a-month Sunday tournament. Toni ran out about five racks in a row. He was playing really tight shape. He was looking really good. Then he missed a two footer six ball with a 30 degree cut. Then his game never came back to that level.
I think I made a mistake betting on him. There was no money, really, in the match. It was just an early round of the tournament. And Toni probably had somewhere else to go. I asked what happened. He said he just missed. Well, you all know hustlers. Why run ten racks and let everybody see when there's no big cash at stake.
Back to Cole. I never even heard of Cole until he came in off the road one spring. Here I am a 15 year old kid and I meet this near legend. Cole was probably about 19 at the most then. I'd say it was 1968. He had charisma. A really confident guy but in a low-key way. Long blond shoulder length hair. Large hands. He would bring up five balls at a time from the ball return.
Anyway, a few times I'd watch him shoot for a half hour or so. He'd run 60 balls in straight pool effortlessly. He shot the 14th ball on the table once. As the cueball was coming around two rails getting shape for on the break ball he said, "Uh ow. This is my favorite shot."
He racked 'em. Facing the rack from the head of the table, the break ball was about 3" to the right of the center of the side of the rack. The cueball was about 18" toward the head of the table and he had about a 15 degree cut to make it.
Cole's right-handed. So he has to reach for the shot. He gets his right leg up on the table. He jacks the cue stick up like to 60 degrees. He fires the object ball into the pocket. The cue ball jumps into the air about 2 feet. Now I am right there with my face in the shot right next to Cole. The cueball comes down right in the middle of the rack. It momentarily lands there spinning like at about 100 mph. But in about 3 seconds it slows down and grips the rack. Suddenly the whole rack just opens up.
Man, what a flashy shot!
Here's my last story, for now. About two years later Cole comes back off the road, again. He's in a faded green VW beetle. There's a football size dent in the left front fender. He said they hit a deer outside of Houston. Well, he's got a partner who owns the car.
Well, a day or two later, Cole has a table and has been knocking them around a bit. He's now sitting on a bar stool on the far side of the table next to another table with his cue stick standing up leaning against the table. His road partner is standing next to him. He's got long shoulder length straight brown hair. He's a little taller than Cole and thin like Cole. (The lean and hungry type.)
Cole looks around. Might be thinking this place needs some livening up. He stands and walks over to the foot of the table. He places the 8 ball on the foot rail at the center diamond. He walks over to the head rail and places the cueball on the rail at the center diamond.
Cole says, "Squirrel. Make this shot." So his partner stands up from leaning on the pool table and grabs the cue stick. He confidently strides up to the head of the table with the cue stick in his hand like the grim reaper with his sickle.
Squirrel stands behind the shot. He immediately bends down. He quickly takes one alignment stroke and from center rail to center rail he shoots the cueball 9 and a half feet and in an instant the 8 ball is going straight into the right corner pocket like it was nothing: glass smooth!
I told some hotshot Flip players about 2 years ago this story at Hard Times in Bellflower and immediately they said, "Phillipinos can make that shot."
Well, I know it's certainly possible. I've seen Efren and D'jango and a few others play but to date I've never seen anyone other than Squirrel make that shot.
I pulled my hair out for at least 37 years trying to find out who this "Squirrel" was. Finally I did find out. He was Keith (Little Squirrel) Thompson. Some of you old timers probably remember that he made his way out to Johnson City around '70 with no intention of playing in the tournament. But he did. He won the 9 ball and the All Around.
I met a guy from Texas about ten years ago who knew Squirrel but didn't know his real name. He asked me if I knew what Squirrel was doing nowadays. I said of course not. Well this guy told me that Squirrel had become a preacher. How about that!
JM
SJDinPHX said:JM, Sax del Porta was Portuguese. Marshall Carpenter was Tusc. Squirrell's name. I don't think he became a preacher but I could be wrong.
Dick
Deeman said:Dick,
Of course. Another proud product of Alabama. See we aint all bad players.
Actually, the way my game is going, chopping cotton is looking more attractive. As far as Squirrell-- he's never been a preacher; although the Lord's name has definitely been used in his presence. He does have his hand in a few other things, though.SJDinPHX said:Deeman,
I have always thought that the deep South, (and Texas and Okla.) produced about 80-90% of the best player's and card men in the country.
You guys only had two options. Chopping cotton, or chopping up big money scores. Not hard to figure out which was more fun.