John Schmidt - Part 4 (Breaking Barriers, Breaking Records)

Allison Fisher 0:16

That was incredible mental toughness.

John Schmidt 0:19

It was Ali, you know what was the toughest thing about it, honey? It was this. It was easily this. Run 430 and scratch, and then have your racker just look at you like, I mean, you don't take a break. You just rack them up and keep going.

Allison Fisher 0:31

It's unbelievable to keep coming like that.

John Schmidt 0:33

Some of the skids I had, I would run 390 and have a little one-foot baby shot, and it would just konk and skid on me. And I just rack them up. I mean, what else can I do?

Allison Fisher 0:44

Gosh.

John Schmidt 0:45

Doug, one day we're driving back to the hotel. That's what else you could do.

Allison Fisher 0:48

That's amazing. Amazing.

John Schmidt 0:50

The reason I stayed with it was because I knew this is for a limited amount of time. It's for one month. It made Predator happy and proud, and my family and my dad. And so I had I had good incentive to like try really hard because it's only going to be for a month. But I'm telling you, if you guys ever get bored and you want to feel pain, go shoot in 1800 to 2,000 balls a day, like I did. And after two days, I swear to God, like you need it was awful. At night, I would have ibuprofen and ice, and I literally couldn't even move and lift myself out of bed and then a hot shower and stretching. And then that first rack in the next morning was brutal. The pain in my shoulder. I don't ever want to do it again. But if I would have gotten out, here's the butt, coulda, woulda, shoulda. But I do believe this. People have held this against me. Said, well, you know, Shaw did it in a week and you did it in four months. I wasted the first three and a half months because I didn't know what I was doing. If I'd have had the right shoes, the template rack, and that town chalk, I honestly believe I'd have been a threat to break it in the first 30 days. Because as soon as Jerry gave me that chalk, 12 days in, bingo. Because I got rid of the skids. Now, when Shaw tried to break my record, I turned on the TV and I looked at my family. I went, he could do it. And my dad's like, Well, what are you talking about? I go, Well, Shane Van Bone used Master Chalk. He has no chance. Shane played for a week and he ran 308, which is incredible. You ain't running 608 with that master chalk. You could forget it. As soon as I saw Shaw had that town chalk, I'm like, well, this could be this could be interesting.

Allison Fisher 2:25

And the template rack you mentioned.

John Schmidt 2:26

And the template rack because I used the Sardo, which means I really had less real estate, but whatever. The run Shaw did is incredible. It's freaking incredible. But I sort of set the boundaries. Everybody knew you got to have the template and you gotta have the uh the town chalk, or you ain't even gonna try it.

Allison Fisher 2:44

And you gotta have the shoes.

John Schmidt 2:45

And you gotta have the Hoka shoes. Now I see them damn things everywhere. My buddy told Hoka, he wrote them a letter, said, My friend just broke the world record. He was on the New York Times with Kobe Bryant. This is a big deal.

Allison Fisher 2:58

Unbelievable.

Mike Gonzalez 3:00

Yeah, and with the extra height, you know, you you probably reach 2.3% more shots than you could have with your regular shoes, right?

Allison Fisher 3:08

Yeah, little hill doesn't hurt.

Mark Wilson 3:10

No, not at all. Well, the pounding that you take to do that, you've got to be in some kind of fitness level. And if I was to start off training Allie and get her ready for the for the really make an assault, this is what would be uh fitness would be a component, nutrition would be a component. And pounding in those type hours, if you played like John did, it's unbelievable. Uh the marathoning because it frees you up. You face so many tough shots that when you face one under pressure, your arm is limber and you get through the ball nice, and and you're not afraid of yet another miss because you've missed so many times you're now impervious mentally to being upset or frustrated or feeling pressure. You just do it.

Allison Fisher 3:49

Can I just ask you a question, John? Oh, sure. When you're doing that record, what nutrition do you have in between? How do you sort of you know what's the nutrition, the hydration?

John Schmidt 4:02

Well, what does it take? That's a great question. And looking back, I probably did it wrong because I've kind of learned a little bit since then about intermittent fasting and less carbs, but I was carbing up pretty good. What I was doing, and I kind of use chemical warfare if you want to know the truth. I bought this little five-hour energy drink at a health food store. And the day I broke the record, I was on about a half a bottle of that. It was amazing, you know, 2,000 IOUs of vitamin B12 or something. But anyway, normally I would eat like um a smoothie, like a fruit smoothie. So a lot of carbs, blueberries, strawberries, mango. And then for lunch, I was stopping and having like shrimp fried rice, which gave me a ton of carbs, but I was crashing out. Like we would start at 8 a.m. and at about 11, I'm starving and I'm exhausted. And we would eat for an hour and then I would play till four and I'd crash out again. Looking back, I wish I could try this during intermittent fasting where I'm not eating any food one meal a day. I'm sure you guys have all heard of this because the energy that I feel from that is wild, and I think I could sustain it longer. Um, you know, and now I don't need four months. If I really tried to break the record again, there's no saying I could break it, but now I can start day one with hoca shoes, intermittent fasting, and the town chalk. And I'm gonna put a picture.

Allison Fisher 5:24

Are you gonna try? Huh? Oh, you're going to try.

John Schmidt 5:27

Well, well, here's the thing a lot of players to protect their own ego will say, Well, I don't try to break. Everybody, when they play straight pool, is trying to shoot till they miss. So anytime I take a rack of straight pool and I shoot a break ball, I'm hoping to run 1100. But just recently, I got a table set up and my friend set up a camera. I'm not real techie, as you guys can guess. All I gotta do is plug this thing in, hit a button, and I can record for 10 days. So I'm gonna I'm gonna have to rack for myself though, which is gonna royally suck. But I'm gonna try, um, not now because it's summer. And in Wyoming, when the summer hits, I ain't doing the indoor stuff. I'm gonna go out and camp, fish, guns. But when the winter comes and it's cold and you stay indoors, I might give it a real concerted two-week effort. Maybe even have one of my friends rack because I think that I know what I know now at the game. I managed to run 393 a few months ago and scratched on the break. And I was just seeing like how the table played and can I still play straight pool. But I think that I know how to break the balls better now. I definitely know the right way to rack them, the right chalk, the right shoes, the intermittent fasting. I think I could break it. I really don't think it would be a giant shock if I ran 850. Now, I might not ever run over 400 again. I don't know. I don't know what the future holds, but um, you know what Shaw did is incredible. And if there's 8 billion people in the world and I got the second highest run in history, I'm okay with it. Um the thing I take away from all of it is it it's like golf, Mike. It's not my it's not the lowest golf score I've ever shot. It's what can I do consistently? And with Pool, I didn't run 832, but I've run over 300 now 50 times. And that means more to me than the the than the one luckiest run I've ever done. Don't get me wrong, I trade in 20 of those 300s for a 900. But um again, when I'm in a rocket chair, I just want to know what I can do, and and that's the only way you find out.

Allison Fisher 7:32

Yeah, fantastic consistency. And it it would be nice if they had a straight pool tournament where the the runs, the the winning and losing was more than like 150 points or really long championships longer runs.

John Schmidt 7:46

Well, the thing is, too, and this means nothing, but it means something to me, is when I'm playing straight pool, sometimes I'll have a big run of three or four hundred, but I know deep down that shot at 283 I would not have shot in a tournament. Like you try to make some crazy, but some of my runs are nice, they're over 400, and every shot I would shoot against Torsten, and that means a lot to me. It means I'm playing the game right. Um, you know, I'm not banking balls in or playing crazy high-speed caroms to keep the run going. Um, but oh but all that being said, a 500 to 800 ball run is supersonic. And the the amount of shot making and position play and and really just pool experience you need to pull that off is absurd. You guys know you guys are both great players. I mean, you both know how hard it is just to run like 150. And then when I run 280, people are like, oh darn shucks, you know, like normally you'd be told you're a good player, but in this high run derby thing, it's like loser.

Allison Fisher 8:48

There's expectation on you now.

John Schmidt 8:50

Well, me and Jason have set the bar so high it's almost screwed the game up.

Allison Fisher 8:53

Yeah, it's fantastic.

Mark Wilson 8:54

One of the things that John told me, and you can explain it to them, was that he'd run 400 balls twice going into this. And he when he finally broke the record, and I see him we're at Mike Durbin's place, and he goes, Mark, you cannot believe how much I learned going from 400 to 600. And I'm like, How could you learn anything more? Probably in the history of pool, there's 14 people ever ran 400 balls. So if you run 400, how much more could you possibly need to know? And he goes, No, it was incredible. Just talk about that a little bit, John, because I think it's illuminating.

John Schmidt 9:26

In my defense, though, the style that you had to play straight pool for the last 25 years with hand racking and master chalk was the general consensus was you break the balls hard. But that will introduce scratching on the break, and then of course you got to fade being hooked after the break. But it was hard for my pride and ego to admit I gotta break the balls different. This ain't working because I I've scratched on the brake so many times, but like that's how you've done it, you know. So, Doug, we're sitting there having dinner one night, and Doug's like, Look, my high run's 54. I'm not telling you nothing. But what if you broke the balls way easier? Like every time, no matter what. He goes, You'd at least never scratch. I go, Yeah, but I'd be hooked a lot, and then I'd have to really run a tough rack. I go, but I'm willing to try it. And the first day I tried it, I think I run a couple of runs over 300 that day, and they were like butter. And I didn't scratch, but one time on the break in like six days, and I went, Oh, wait a minute, I've been doing it wrong all these years. Now, meaning if you hand rack the balls for me, I wouldn't break soft because it won't work. But if with the template and the town chalk, I'm gonna take break shots that we've always hammered and I smooth them in and just open half the rack. And I mean, that's the way you play tournament straight pull, too. You don't want to scratch on the break, but this is home run derby, so it's different. But yeah, I basically had to admit, I mean, you gotta understand, I got a pretty big ego. Like I'm a 400 ball runner, I'm not changing how I do it, but I changed, I had enough humility and sense to go, I think there's a better way. And I'm gonna shoot this break shot soft. And my and I mean, people that watch the 626 would be like, wow, you hit that soft. What are you doing? Well, I ain't scratching, I'll tell you that. So it was very hard for me to like, you know, I don't know, it'd be like Nicholas in his prime, just one day going, I'm not hitting the power fade no more. We're gonna do something different. And it was very hard to wrap my mind around not hitting a break shot the way I've hit it a million times. And it was just me and Doug discussing this, you know. It wasn't like Torsten Holman was giving me this bike because he breaks hard and he wins every championship. And I'm like, no, no, my runs are ending on scratches. If we eliminate the scratch, that's one giant variable, then I just have to not get hooked. And on the 626, oh man, I had to run some of the toughest racks where I broke soft, two balls come out, I had to make a bunch of secondary break balls and use every bit of skill I had. I didn't just crack them open and it was a bunch of stop shots, you know. So, you know, at 41 years old, what was I? Well, no, no, I was 46 years old. That was very hard for me to just say, wait a minute, we're gonna do this completely different with all the experience that I had. And um, look, I know I don't know everything. I'll be the first to take advice. Mark's taught me things over the years, and so you can always learn. And that's what I meant when I said, Mark, I've learned some stuff that you're not gonna believe until you watch the run. And you'll be like, What are you thinking there? Why'd you hit that three miles an hour?

Mark Wilson 12:34

So describe the one dual one, the the learning new position play and like that. That's very insane.

John Schmidt 12:39

I mean, basically, when I teach people that aren't, you know, they can run maybe 20 or 30, so they're they're just starting out with straight pull, in a nutshell, you have to you have to think of the game as like you're gonna usually have four choices a one, two, three, and a four, four being the most difficult, one obviously the easiest. It's your job as a player. If I ask you, Mike, what is the one on the table? What's the easiest one? And you point to the seven ball. And I go, if you shoot that in and stop, are you gonna be shooting a one or a two? No, that looks like a three or a four. Then don't shoot it. You've got to shoot a two to get back to a two to hopscotch back over to a one and stay in that family of ones and twos, because that's what me and Allie are doing when we play. We are staying at the ones and the twos. If you throw in a bunch of threes and fours, you're gonna get tortured. Um, even at my level, that's really simply what I'm doing. I'm trying to play the easiest shots and stay in line and make it simple. And if you can do that, you can run hundreds. You can be a great player.

Mark Wilson 13:41

What he taught me, he he set up a shot about a foot from the side pocket and moved the cue ball just off angle. And he said, Mark, I call this one a one. One difficulty. I'll never miss it, no problem. And I can put the cue ball anywhere on the entire table from the slight angle. I said, okay. Then he moves it about a ball's width thinner, and he goes, Now I call this a two difficulty. I'll make this and I can still get to anywhere on the table. It's just not quite as easy as when it's just a hint flatter. Then he moves it to the three, another ball and a half width. I'll never miss this shot. But now if I hit the thick side or thin side of the pocket, the cue ball sometimes ends up a foot and a half off where I really wanted it. And then he moved it another ball and a half width. I'll never miss this shot. I'll make it every time. I'm athletic, I got this. But now sometimes if I hit the thick or thin side of the pocket, the cue balls are three to four feet off of where I need to be, which often snowballs and compounds. And now you got he can make he's got to make four or five fours in a row. He can't get back to a one to a one, a one to a two, back to a one, a one to a one. He said, I'll never run 600. And it was illuminating because I'd never thought about the percentages of that before. Oh, yeah. So that was very entertaining. And he showed me the run uh twice, and I watched the entirety of it. It's the most remarkable thing. He uh what was it, 44 break shots?

John Schmidt 14:58

44 and a half, right? Yeah, 44 break shots. Yeah.

Mark Wilson 15:01

Nick Nick Varner says, I can't believe anyone made 44 break shots to begin with. Okay. And then, but during that, zero bank shots. Zero. Right. So I've never seen that.

John Schmidt 15:13

I find myself on that because that would have really pissed me off if I'd have ran 626 with a bunch of ugly racks. I shot every shot in that run that I would have shot against Torsten in the finals, and I'm proud of that because I'm not taking away from other high runs, but any run over 500 is usually going to be more complicated than my last marriage. There is going to be all kinds of goofy shots and stuff. My run was very simple, which is kind of why people don't appreciate the game. They go, It's so easy. Well, I made it look easy. That all didn't happen on its own. I had a little bit to do with that, you know. And so when you're playing the game right, it that's what it should look like. And then I'm proud that, you know, one of my pool heroes, Mark, got to see every shot and really judge it. You know, because if you just bank a bunch of balls and shoot a bunch of low percentage shots, you really just got lucky. And I don't feel that I lucked the 626. I skilled it and I'm proud of that.

Mark Wilson 16:07

When you watch that run, he'll he'll break open the rack and it'll be um well played, but none of the shots are ever threatening. And so he'll go through two racks like that, and then the third rack, it'll be heinous. It'll be the rack from hell. There'll be clusters on both sides with no insurance ball available and no brake shot available, and then you and then he has to thread through that, then he gets through it, and then he'll run two more racks where you'd say, Okay, he's gonna run these. He's got this one, he's got this one, and he goes through there smooth. But the focus that requires to make it look smooth and easy, then that third rack again, heinous. You know, just you gotta just everything's gotta go great. And it was uh just remarkable and phenomenal. And he was never really in trouble, maybe only but three or four times where he really had to come with a tough shot.

John Schmidt 16:54

Well, the the thing about that run and that day and the day before that matters to me, doesn't matter to anybody else, but as but you have to you have to find relevance in this kind of stuff to find the focus. But like when I the day before, my last four innings were 378, 126, and 26 and 626. So if I run 1,100 balls in four innings, that's good pull. I don't care if you break a record or not. And that's it's an accumulative thing like golf. Like, you know, you don't want to shoot 65, 65, 90. It's all about keeping that score solid and a good. I know that I know that if I played a thousand-point money match with Torsten and I get to a thousand balls in four innings, I've done my part. And if I lose, then we just pay off. Yeah, but that, you know, um, but I've always been like Ali, I got to play a little snooker. I'm nowhere near as good as you, of course, but I've ran 146 on a six by 12 and six other centuries. It's pretty good. It is good, but I feel that straight pull and snooker were kind of similar, but when I played snooker, I did not care about beating one of you guys. I just was obsessed with running a sentry, and I couldn't do it for the first two months. I played it every day. The deflection of that little ball really screwed me up. Then I started using the skinnier shaft, and then I started zipping off some 60s and 80s, and I watched uh Ronnie O'Sullivan a lot. So I started understanding the way that so anyway, I got proficient at it, and I was obsessed with the number. What I see wrong with people's practice in all forms is they just carry, they just care if they beat Bill or Steve. I'm like, well, maybe Bill or Steve played bad that day. You beating them don't tell me nothing. Well, if you and if me and Mike play golf and Mike beats me, maybe he played terrible. I just played more terrible. Oh, you shot 71. Oh, that's good playing, Mike. So you got to get wrapped up in your performance and your number way more than I won a match. Like winning a match. I've won matches on tour where I've played god awful and won the match. And I've played matches where I've ran seven racks and lost 11-10. And people are like, oh, you suck. And I'm like, no, I'm actually hitting them pretty good. So that's just the way my mind works. And I think people don't practice correctly. Obviously, you guys did, Mark and Allie. You guys are world beaters. But some of my friends that are trying to get better, I don't think they practice right. You know, and a byproduct of all this straight pool, as corny as it seems, to just lock yourself in a room and play straight pool, the byproduct is it used to be 200 is where I got nervous. And now it's kind of three and 400. But basically, I was able to make myself nervous for free and do it every day for years on end. Because when I'm on a break shot at 400, oh, believe me, I feel heat. I mean, I've only done 400 ten times. It ain't like I can do it twice a day. So I'm nervous when I do it. Well, that's gonna lend itself to when I'm playing Earl Strickland out there in front of a crowd because I'm nervous then too.

Allison Fisher 19:55

Yeah.

John Schmidt 19:56

You know, but your body becomes accustomed to the nerves. I mean, you watch a pro you you know, you watch these pro fighters, these UFC fighters. I mean, they're nervous. I they're lying if they say they're not, but they look fairly relaxed. They know what getting hit in the face looks like, smells like, tastes like. They do it every Tuesday. The average guy gets in a fight and he might have a heart attack just from the adrenaline dump. Now, how are you gonna play good if you've never felt pressure? Well, I put pressure on myself every day with this straight pool. And it's corny, I know, because it doesn't matter to nobody, but it mattered to me. And that's how I was able to win a U.S. Open Nine ball or a Derby City one pocket. So that's I don't know. That might help some.

Mike Gonzalez 20:39

Let me ask you this, John. How did the pool world react to this feat? And was it what you expected?

John Schmidt 20:45

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, it was not good. I damn near got death threats from it. I got told I'm a liar, I'm a cheat, I didn't really do it, um, I'm a phony, I'm a fraud, I just want to be relevant because I'm a has been. I had to read that kind of stuff, and I'm like oh yeah. Yeah, it was brutal. And I said to a guy, I said, you know, my wife stood there and watched every ball, and my good friend Doug Desmond, when when you insinuate that I'm lying, I mean, you're calling them a liar too. And honestly, if you said this to me standing around a campfire, I don't know how it would end up. I was pissed. I mean, some of these people said stuff that horrific to me, and they tried to discredit now half the pool role was great, and they just they just heaped adoration on it and accolades, and I loved it, and it was great, and it felt great, and I'm proud of it. But I really was surprised at the amount of hatred and the amount of um, you know, it's just saying that I suck and I can't carry Willie Moscone's cue case and all that. I'm like, man, I didn't set out to I'm not claiming to be the greatest. I just wanted to be thought of as maybe one of the greatest. I never said I'm the greatest as Stray Pool, but I'm pretty damn good. Like, is it that's So bad to just say good shooting, John. You know, so it was it was kind of a um some of the comments I've had to read over the years, like ugh, it's been rotten. But some of it's been great too.

Mike Gonzalez 22:12

I'm kind of guessing it was probably five percent of the voices, and you just heard them a lot more than uh most.

John Schmidt 22:17

Oh, that's a good point.

Allison Fisher 22:19

Yeah, true.

John Schmidt 22:20

Yeah, I mean, I I'll tell you this on A Z Billiards, there's like 423,000 sentences that were read about written about that record being broke when I broke it. And I'll I'll be honest with you guys, about a third of it is complete hatred, like just going off on me. Now, I bring a lot of that on myself because I talk politics, and so this is their chance to get under my skin and tell me I suck and all that. I get that. But you know, like a guy just yesterday, just yesterday on YouTube, one of my matches says, I don't know why everybody thinks this guy John's such a big deal. His game would not hold up against Irving Crane and Balsus and all that. It's like, well, I think it would. I mean, like the numbers don't lie. You can hate me all you want.

Allison Fisher 23:00

I think that's a great thing.

John Schmidt 23:01

Yeah, I mean, I think I would give anybody a battle. You know, so you know, people sometimes I know it's a reflection of how they feel about themselves. And I'm easy to hate because I'm a blabberjaws and I talk politics and I'm a great player, so it's easy to hate me, but I'm pretty damn wonderful in case you haven't noticed.

Allison Fisher 23:22

We think you all, John. We think you all.

John Schmidt 23:25

No, I I'm a I'm a my friends here in Rock Springs are like, what is with all the hatred? I'm like, well, you guys, you guys are nice to me, so I'm nice back. I said, the people that hate on me, I'm real quick to put them in their place, and you guys are also not competing against me. A lot of times, people that say bad things leave out the part where I gave you the seven and then ran off with your girlfriend, okay? You're leaving out some tidbits of the story.

Mike Gonzalez 23:49

Yeah.

John Schmidt 23:49

I treat people as good as they treat me, which is why Mark and I have been friends 20 years. He's a great guy, treats me great, and I think I do the same for him. And so um you kind of get what you give with me, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 24:03

Well, you know, Mark can Mark can relate to this as a baseball fan. Roger Maris, when he broke Babe Ruth's record, he wasn't the most popular guy on the block list.

John Schmidt 24:13

Oh, no, he got death threats over it, Mike. It started fights and bars. I mean, it was losing hair. Yeah. I mean, the guy, um, the guy that landed on the moon, the astronaut, I mean, they accuse him every day of lying, and he punched a guy not long ago. I mean, he's 80 years old and he punched a guy. I mean, whenever, again, this goes back to whenever like it would have been very easy for me to be one of those pros that never say a word, never ask anybody to play, and never try to scale the skyscraper and just be right here, and everybody likes me. But I chose the path of there's eight billion people. If four billion of you hate my guts, I'm gonna be okay.

Allison Fisher 24:51

You can never please everyone.

John Schmidt 24:52

I got Ali on my side and Mark Wilson, we're gonna be all right.

Allison Fisher 24:55

Yeah, you can never please everyone. You can't go through moves like that.

John Schmidt 24:58

No, you're gonna deal with animosity and jealousy, and and people have really showed their true colors to me. Some of them have been great breaking that record, and some of them not so great, and that's okay. I got a memory like an elephant. I'll remember, you know. Um, it taught me a lot about people and about myself because I did a video the day before I broke the record, and I literally was like, I think I gotta quit, guy. I mean, because you know, you just can't believe the money we were spending, the physical and mental turmoil, my poor wife trying to support this thing, and Doug and Jerry McWarter and my dad, and just it was looking back. I don't know how the heck I pulled it off without imploding because um that day that I ran that 490 and missed the brake ball, I mean, it was totally a choke job. It was an easy shot by my standards, and I just I chunked it and it was purely. I mean, I've just never been that far. I'd never ran 490, so I didn't know how my body would react, and it just froze up. I I yanked the queue back super quick, death gripped the queue, decelerated, jumped up. Other than that, I did great.

Mike Gonzalez 26:09

Yeah.

Mark Wilson 26:09

One last thing on that, Mike. Uh I watched the run, and and John is as you can gather, is a little bit manic at times, and he got down to where he was on uh, let's see, it was 520. Yeah, five twenty-four. And Doug says to him, he's got three balls right near the corner pocket. And he Doug says, You need two to tie and three to break the record. So John uh gets up there and he shoots the first one in automatically, and then he looks at Doug and says, How many do I need? And he says, one to tie, two to break the record. Well, John makes the next ball. So now he's tied. He goes to the bathroom, and it's a ball that he's never ever missed in his life, I don't think. And he goes to the bathroom and washes his face and hands, thinking, I'll never get back here ever again. I've got to make sure. And he came out and damn near missed it. I mean, he hit the fat side of the pocket, right?

John Schmidt 27:05

Well, I'll tell you something, Mark. It's funny you remember that. And real quick to finish this up, it's the dumbest thing I've ever done. I need one ball to break the record. And I went to the bathroom. I could have slipped on water in there and knocked myself out on the stink or had a heart attack and never broke the record. I don't know what I was thinking. You know, I could have twisted my ankle, whatever. I should have just made that ball and got the record. Looking back, I don't know what possessed me to leave that table. And you know, or a customer will come up and rake the ball or something. So, like, like, like, I mean, really, because they were all standing there watching. My luck, I come back and there's some waitress just bouncing balls around or something. So, so it's funny how it all worked out, but uh yeah, I couldn't think straight. I said, Doug, how many do I need? He goes, You need two. So I'd make one, I'd look up now what you got to make this ball to tie the record, and I'd make it. You still need one more. Let me go to the bathroom, Doug.

Mike Gonzalez 28:02

I can't do it.

John Schmidt 28:04

It was nuts, man. But but it's just really fun to get to talk about and relive it with you guys. And um, you're you're a great crew of people, and uh, it's really been an honor to have you guys contact me on this. Thank you.

Mike Gonzalez 28:16

Well, let's let's let's put a bow on this segment with this. Yeah. There's been three people that have been on the pool moon: Jason Shaw, Willie Moscone, and John Schmidt.

John Schmidt 28:29

Well, thank you. Yeah, I'm proud to be be part of that group and to be talked about in that group. It's it's an honor.

Mike Gonzalez 28:34

Good. Uh before we let you go, we probably need to have you comment on being captained by one Mark Wilson in the 2014 Moscone Cup. This one in England.

John Schmidt 28:46

Well, it it was an easy one for me because Mark and I are such good buddies, and I of course don't want to let him down. Um, but he was a great captain. He did all the right things, said all the right things. But when your team just gets trounced, they blame the coach, which is ridiculous. I'm the one out there shooting the balls, you know. Um, but it was it was it was pure elation for me to get to play for Mark as we're such good friends. Now, um, but Mark was in a tough spot there. I mean, you were in England. Uh, the fish and chips there, Alley, is amazing. I would move there just for the the buttered, the buttered cod and the vinegar. Oh, so I miss it. We don't worry. We don't do it right in America. It's all beer battered crap. But um, yeah, it was fun and exciting. And uh I was pretty happy with the way I played, not well, maybe not totally, but but the other players that we just don't gel. And I and I'll tell you why. I'll tell you real quick why. It's real simple. At the Moscone Cup, we're all supposed to act like a team and be a team. Well, everybody on that team I've played for 10,000. And he's tried to get my sponsor and my girlfriend, and I've tried to get his sponsor and his girlfriend, and he's beat me for 10,000. I beat him, and then we're supposed to all be like best friends for four days. It's like it's the it's hard to do, and there's just something in the chemistry we don't have right. And then the sixth man, the crowd, is like, here's the thing Team Europe has all them chants from the writer cup, and damn Appleton and all we got one person going, USA. Like, it doesn't have the same like vibe, you know. And so we really need like a choreographer to make some songs for Team America and some cartoon videos of the players talking crap or something has got to change because the sixth man has got us beat. Like, you know, when you get out of line in the Moscone Cup and a thousand people go, ooh, like you suck, like it's very unsettling. You know, and then Shaw bumping his chest. I want to see Jason Shaw come to Rock Springs and act like that at one of these bars. He wouldn't like it. But no, playing for Mark was an honor. Um, you know, and and just and he he just did all the right things as a captain, but with team play, he's not the one shooting the ball, so he can only do so much.

Mark Wilson 31:04

I I thought of every kind of a way and and who to put on the team, it was up to me. And and so uh John was uh a phenomenal talent, of course. And so I was thinking if I could bring us all together, so um through my good buddy Amir Pishhdad, we got into the U.S. Navy SEAL compound. And you can't do this, it's not open to the public, they're not training grade school teachers, but I wanted the guys to learn uh toughness, brotherhood, and winning. And we all got to do that. Uh it was it was quite a feat. So and John made the team partly because we had Bergman and Justin Hall on the team, and then you got old guy here as a captain, but they respect John and well, listen, I thought, boy, he could, you know, solve some of the uh lower rank guys, you know, maybe get by the nerves because John has experience in that realm, and and John's uh I relate to him well, and he can convert, you know, convert that to them and blah blah blah. And so uh that was a uh you know a big part of why John was on there. We had a lot of talented people that could be on there, but uh John was on there a little bit more of a uh level-headed uh guy. So yeah, and it was a tremendous experience all the way around. Now, when you walk into Tower Circus in uh Blackpool, that is the most threatening, intimidating place because it's built kind of like the Coliseum. The fans are right on you, it goes very straight up, it's not out to the side at all, and then they're chanting, Schmidt, Schmidt, you play like you know, and then just no, is that not true, John?

John Schmidt 32:36

We're in the dressing room, you guys, and I mean this is only my second month, and the room is shaking like they're chanting on the bleachers, and they're all drunk. 1,200 people getting drunk, and the pictures are like vibrating off the wall. Is exactly me and Shane Van Boning look at each other just like you know, and Shane, Shane now, one thing about Shane, Shane's pretty easygoing, he got a good sense of humor. I was rooming with Shane one time, separate beds. I was rooming with Shane, and we're watching the news, and Obama came on TV, and I go, I go, Shane, what do you think of Obama? Shane goes, he can't beat me. And so Shane's got a good sense of humor, but even Shane looked uptight in this thing. Yeah, and and when those pictures were shaken off the wall and I had to go out there and play Mark Gray. Now I beat him. We we played great. We broke and ran six racks in a row. You could watch it on the thing. It was about as good a performance as I was. I was proud of that. And while I'm doing this, 1,200 people in tandem, John Schmidt, you play like shit. Like it's a daunting, daunting thing. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 33:44

All right. Before we uh before we sort of wrap this up, John, is there anything else we haven't touched on about your career that you'd like to bring up before we kind of close it up?

John Schmidt 33:54

I would like to thank Predator. Predator has really stood by me. Um, and I'm I'm looked at as a washed up has been. I don't go out and compete as much, and they haven't forgot about me or thrown me away. And I really appreciate that. And they take good care of me and help me when they can, and and so I appreciate that. It's very easy to just disregard the older players, um, but they haven't done that to me, and I'll never forget it, and I'll never leave them. Um, Mark Wilson has has gone out of his way many, many times to make my life and career better personally, financially, and I could never thank you enough for that, Mark. I love you. And Ali, I'm kind of pissed at you. You're so damn gorgeous, and you never age that I'm not happy about it. So I don't know. You're gonna have to work on that.

Allison Fisher 34:37

You know, it's it's it's been such a wonderful thing to listen to you. Uh, because a lot of things I didn't know. I don't think how you've overcome a lot of things and really entertaining. And I think you should do a book on mental toughness.

John Schmidt 34:49

I buy it. Well, thank you. Thank you. I'm a huge fan of yours, and uh, I just think you're a doll. It was great to see you.

Allison Fisher 34:56

Thank you. Thanks so much.

Mike Gonzalez 34:57

So, John, uh, we've begun a tradition here on Legends of the Queue where we're going to ask all of our guests the same three questions. You're the first guy on the firing line here, and we're gonna let Mr. Wilson ask question number one.

Mark Wilson 35:14

Okay, John, if you were 20 years old again and had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

John Schmidt 35:23

Well, this is not to disparage pool, but I was a golf nut. I probably would have tried to stay with golf. But if I was forced to stay with pool, okay, and then I I would have competed more and more often, and I would not have changed cues at the height of my powers. When I was playing my best, I changed to that. That I don't want to name the company, they're a great company, but I didn't adjust to that change and it ruined me for two years. I couldn't make a ball. So looking back, um, that's probably two of the biggies. I just would have played more when things were going right, and I wouldn't have changed cues.

Mike Gonzalez 35:55

Fair enough.

John Schmidt 35:55

But you know, you gotta live with your decisions.

Mike Gonzalez 35:57

All right, question number two. We're gonna give you one career mulligan, which you'd appreciate as a golfer, one shot to do over that might have made a difference. Where would it be?

John Schmidt 36:11

One shot. You know, it's funny. I've been very lucky in that when I've gotten to the finals, it's always kind of seemed to roll my way. I haven't had too many of those that are brutal, but oh man. Well, oh yeah, no, probably with that Jack Cooney game where I needed one ball. That because believe me, losing that four grand at that time of my life was like you guys losing a million dollars. It was brutal. So looking back, maybe that one. Yeah, maybe that don't run 11 Jack and don't make me break my Q. Because that really set me back for a good year where I had to build my bankroll and get another cue and decide if I was even going to keep playing pool. That's one I'll remember pretty good.

Mike Gonzalez 36:53

Yeah, that's a pretty good one.

John Schmidt 36:54

Uh it was brutal at the time, it was horrific. Oh, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 36:58

Let's go to Ali for the final question.

Allison Fisher 37:00

And the third and final question is how would you like to be remembered?

John Schmidt 37:05

Oh, that's easy. I that's easy. I I I think I'm misunderstood. I think people, if they'd get to know me and give me a chance, would go, well, gosh, he you know, and I bring it on with the talk at politics and tell them people off. I bring it on. But everybody that knows me personally seems to like me. So I think I'm a good human being with a good heart and good intentions. I just don't take to getting bullied and belittled as well as most. So so I just wish people kind of got to know me for the real me and give me a fair shake because I think they're gonna say I'm a good player, but it's easy to be a good player. Is it easy to be a good person? I think I'm a good person, relatively. So that's what I'd like to be remembered for. You know, I'm not a thief, drug addict, owe people money and all that. I yes, I talk about Trump once in a while. Cut me some slack here. I live by myself, I got nothing else to do.

Mike Gonzalez 38:01

Uh Mark, uh, thank you so much for bringing your buddy John Schmidt onto the program.

Mark Wilson 38:06

Oh, I knew he'd be a good fit for this, and I'm kind of glad that he gets to kind of you see the humanity of him. Uh speaking of him, he one time he sent me a picture. This is when Trump was first getting elected. And uh I was at Lindenwood, and uh I look at my phone, I don't know. He's sitting there in American flag shorts with an AR-15 and an American flag in his hand, waving it. He goes, I played in U.S. Open Finals, I've never been this nervous my entire life. And he was sincere. He wasn't making it.

John Schmidt 38:36

I locked myself in my room for eight hours and watched that election with a gun in my hand and a beer and my Trump hat on. Oh, no, none of my buddies cared. They're like, Oh, yeah, whatever. I'm like, oh, it was life and death.

Mike Gonzalez 38:49

And as Allie would say, he looks like an American. American.

John Schmidt 38:53

Oh, yeah.

Allison Fisher 38:54

Absolute pleasure. Really enjoyed it.

John Schmidt 38:56

Uh yeah, yeah. Thank you. You're all class, Allie. You're you're just you're great.

Mike Gonzalez 39:01

Thanks so much for uh adding your story to all the greats we'll talk to on Legends of the Q.

Allison Fisher 39:08

Thank you for listening to another episode of Legends of the Q. If you like what you hear, wherever you listen to your podcast, including Apple and Spotify, please follow, subscribe, and spread the word. Give our podcast a five-star rating and share your thoughts. Visit our website and support our Paul History project. Until our next golden break with more Legends of the Q, so long, everybody.