"Greenleaf: Pool's Greatest Champion"

gulfportdoc

gulfportdoc

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Greenleaf: Pool's Greatest Champion (2020)

This is a good book by Sam Korte about Ralph Greenleaf, a subject that has resisted complete research, presumably because of lack of records. Although only 112 pages it gives a fairly good account of Greenleaf's life, career, Marriages, and alcoholism.

Greenleaf may have been the greatest of all time. He was a virtuoso cueist, excelling at both straight pool and 3 cushion, at a time when pool was played exclusively on 5X10 tables. M. Fats went on record stating that Greenleaf was the greatest. And Mosconi held the same opinion. In fact Greenleaf took Mosconi on a number of exhibition tours (a common way for top players to make a living then), where he routinely beat mosconi.

Even drunk he could play well enough to win. But the periodic benders, disappearing acts, and erratic behavior slowed his career to a trickle in the mid 1930s. Still, he dried out somewhat and made a comeback to the top. Unfortunately he died in 1950 at aged 50, likely of cirrhosis of the liver.

This is a very nice read for pool fans. Christmas is coming, lads. Available on Amazon, AbeBooks, and others.
 
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Billy Jackets

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I read somewhere that there were some round robin tournaments, where he never missed a called ball for the entire tournament. That's some pretty straight shooting and knowing your game.
 
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baby huey

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Doc, great post. I am a huge Greenleaf fan. I knew old timers around 4th and Main and Mr. Pockets, where you also played, that knew him and could relate some of his gambling feats. He frequently played decent players eight no count One Pocket and won. But before the non believers chime in, this was a gaffe game Greenleaf had. He run say six balls and spot them back up in a line below the rack. But guess what, those spotted balls were his advantage.......why? Because before he was the 14.1 Champion he was the Line Up Pool Champion. And, they changed the game because of him dominating that form of Straight Pool. All he had to do was get the cue ball on the other side of the line facing his pocket and start making balls and of course he knew how to run out with balls in that position. Other stories included his mastery of the wing shot, where he could get pin point position going two rails. Most players have trouble with that shot and either stop short or go too long. Anyway I digress.........good post.
 
mr3cushion

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baby huey said:
Doc, great post. I am a huge Greenleaf fan. I knew old timers around 4th and Main and Mr. Pockets, where you also played, that knew him and could relate some of his gambling feats. He frequently played decent players eight no count One Pocket and won. But before the non believers chime in, this was a gaffe game Greenleaf had. He run say six balls and spot them back up in a line below the rack. But guess what, those spotted balls were his advantage.......why? Because before he was the 14.1 Champion he was the Line Up Pool Champion. And, they changed the game because of him dominating that form of Straight Pool. All he had to do was get the cue ball on the other side of the line facing his pocket and start making balls and of course he knew how to run out with balls in that position. Other stories included his mastery of the wing shot, where he could get pin point position going two rails. Most players have trouble with that shot and either stop short or go too long. Anyway I digress.........good post.
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Jerry, you're first guy here to reveal this little secret about players giving up, 'run outs' to win!

Artie played many, 'shortstops' around Chicago, 2 block 4's and 2 block 5's to win. AB didn't play banks very well, but the, 'Across corner' banks with correct speed to run balls was Very good. And he was also a, 100 ball runner. Other games he played in 1P were, 1 & safe and a way tougher game, 1 & stop! The stack played a big roll in the later.
 
NH Steve

NH Steve

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One of our pool writer friends -- and I believe he is a member here -- has been working on a Greenleaf based book for years, I believe. I am drawing a blank on his name at the moment, sorry. I think it might be a fictional work, but as in historical fiction, where he really really has tried to do his homework to get Greenleaf right.
 
gulfportdoc

gulfportdoc

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NH Steve said:
One of our pool writer friends -- and I believe he is a member here -- has been working on a Greenleaf based book for years, I believe. I am drawing a blank on his name at the moment, sorry. I think it might be a fictional work, but as in historical fiction, where he really really has tried to do his homework to get Greenleaf right.
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That could be an interesting book as long as it's fact based. Research on Greenleaf today would be difficult because there's no one alive who could have seen him play. So background would have to be from newspaper accounts and 3rd party recollections. His life would make a good movie except that the modern public has never heard of him. The Hustler set in the '20s and '30s.... wow.
 
NH Steve

NH Steve

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baby huey said:
Doc, great post. I am a huge Greenleaf fan. I knew old timers around 4th and Main and Mr. Pockets, where you also played, that knew him and could relate some of his gambling feats. He frequently played decent players eight no count One Pocket and won. But before the non believers chime in, this was a gaffe game Greenleaf had. He run say six balls and spot them back up in a line below the rack. But guess what, those spotted balls were his advantage.......why? Because before he was the 14.1 Champion he was the Line Up Pool Champion. And, they changed the game because of him dominating that form of Straight Pool. All he had to do was get the cue ball on the other side of the line facing his pocket and start making balls and of course he knew how to run out with balls in that position. Other stories included his mastery of the wing shot, where he could get pin point position going two rails. Most players have trouble with that shot and either stop short or go too long. Anyway I digress.........good post.
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What do you mean by "wing shot" in this context??
 
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Ratamon

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I read this in an article about Rambow from 1928:

Ralph Greenleaf, pocket champion, insists on maple. Incidentally, Greenleaf uses the largest tip on his cue of any of the professionals. The tip measures 14mm as compared with 12 to 13mm for the average.

Does anyone know why Greenleaf preferred such a large tip?
 
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