Mark Wilson - Part 2 (The Journey From D-Player to Professional)

Just curious, did you take notes, like when you finished your day, did you ever take notes about the game?
Yeah, not as religiously, but I certainly made notes of things that had triggered something, I thought, or what I wanted to make sure I emphasized. And to give you an idea of this, this is the craziest thing ever.
I don't even think I told you this before, Ally. Let's say I'm the worst player in Jerry's pool room. Now, Jerry's the best player by far, high-level pro, could even four days with Nick Varner.
So, you know, he's playing good. And then there was a bevy of guys that I considered to be life masters, meaning they've run a hundred balls playing 14-1 straight pool. So, if you do it one time, you're a life master.
And they were there. That was our A players. And then there was a bevy of B players that could run 40 balls in straight pool and two or three racks of nine ball, nine foot tables was everything then.
There was no such thing as bar tables for that era. I guess there was in bars, but never in the pool room. And so, everybody comes there that's serious.
And then there was some C players, and I was probably among the 18-year-old D players that had just began. And so, we would challenge each other and play games, a buck a game, $2 a game.
And it really wasn't winning so much money, but it was that I don't want to be the worst guy in here. And so, this would happen.
Where, you know, I would lose and I would win, and then if you beat me, I would try to get a quick lesson off of Jerry the next day, and I would practice all day and wait till you got off work and try to ambush you, so that I'm not the worst player
anymore. And there was one specific shot that I always missed. It was a little half cut down the rail that was up a couple of diamonds and maybe a diamond off, and the cue ball was near the long rail on the other side of the side pocket.
And he made it 75% of the time. I doubt I made it 30%, but I'm equal to him on the rest of the shots. Now we're terrible players.
And I thought, you know what? Tomorrow, tomorrow I'm dedicating the first four hours of my practice to that one shot, and then Tim will never beat me again. And Tim, he was a little bit of a hothead, but he was fun.
He was very competitive, but he would get angry if I happened to beat him. And so I'm like, tomorrow I'm just going to play and I'm going to know every time how Jerry's told me, I'm going to do it exactly like Jerry told me.
Then I'm going to just get that tip to finish straight every single time. So I'm sleeping thinking like this the whole time. Go to bed sleeping that, wake up thinking that, Jerry gets there, I go to work.
So I'm just going to dedicate. And I set up careful and I hit the ball, just like he told me, but it didn't go in. Now that's weird.
I did everything he said. And I'm going to know that tip finish all day long. That's my job.
I got to know it. I bought 100 lessons. If I don't pay attention, if I don't do what he's telling me, hit it again, miss it again.
Now I'm pissed. Now about the third or fourth time, now I'm about ready to break my cue. And now I've give up all together on any form of technique.
I'm just going to rip that as hard as I can. That pocket's going to know that I mean business. And then I get, psychologically, it's weird what goes on in your head.
I go, come on, calm down, calm down, relax. Now you promised yourself you're going to do this. And yeah, you don't even know your last tip finish and you promised yourself all night, damn it.
So I get back and then I make a couple. And then I think, okay, okay, I got it. Then I missed three or four.
Now I'm pissed. Then I'd make a couple. Then, oh, I don't even know my tip finish the last 10.
What am I doing? And so I'd sit down for a moment, calm down. Okay, relax.
So this cycle persisted for the little over an hour. And I planned to devote four hours to this. And finally, again, another spell where I didn't know one single tip finish despite the fact I promised myself.
And so I said, you know, you do that one more time. You're not going to be here. Now, I'm living my whole life to be at Cue Neek every day.
And I thought, you know what? You don't deserve to be here. And also with Jerry, he likes money.
Okay. And so when I'd walk in, he'd smile, but it was basically, he could write down on his notepad, $20. Mark's going to spend $20 today.
And so, which is true. So anyway, I'm over there and I get all angry again. And now another, now relax.
No, no, you're going home. You don't deserve it. You take your cue apart, you're not going to be here.
But my apartment has nothing in it. You know, I mean, there's nothing more boring than my apartment. But it's just a life support place.
And so, I phased out three or four times like that. And now we're about an hour and 20 minutes in and I've kind of calmed down and gave myself a break. And then I didn't pay attention and then I go back.
So I thought, okay, you're putting your cue away. You don't deserve this. And so I took the balls up there after an hour and 20 minutes and Jerry's worried about his 20.
And he goes, hey, what's up? I go, I'm just not into it today. So now I'm walking back to my apartment.
It's maybe one o'clock in the afternoon at the latest. And I'm thinking, this is crazy. Your whole life, you will need to be up there.
You're not thinking any better in your apartment. You can't, but no, I went there and I sat in my apartment. I wouldn't allow myself.
I wrestled with this terribly. And I just stared at the wall. No, you don't go up there.
You don't follow. You don't even know where your tip's at. You bought 50 lessons and now you don't pay attention.
You're not going up there. And I swear to you, it was so horrific. You couldn't have put me in prison and been more, I wanted to be there so bad.
Oh, it just killed me. And I think I may have had to do that to myself one other time. But now, today, guess what?
I never not know where my tip's at now. I don't want to have to go through another one of those prison sentences like that. That was awful.
That is amazing.
Ali, how would you like to live in his head?
Oh yeah, exactly.
The discipline and dedication.
Psycho for sure.
And the isolation.
Think about this.
We're talking about 50 years ago or so, right? 1975-ish. Where in America is this repeating itself?
Who in America is doing what you did 50 years ago?
Well, nobody would even do it then. It was so crazy.
Well, I also think you brought up something earlier when you were talking was that the distractions now. There's too many distractions. Lifestyle, social media, phones.
Everyone has a phone. There's so many distractions now. It's really tough, I think, on youngsters.
And the discipline isn't there.
And the attention span is everything you do. You got to do two minutes or you can't. So yeah, I think there's some of that, but then it kind of goes to the lack of discipline and then a lack of really focus on what is it that you want.
And I wanted this so bad. I wanted it so bad, but there was no signs of hope. I had completely flatlined.
You'd say, this patient has died. I mean, there's no hope. Even Jerry, I don't think Jerry really even believed in me, but he would put on the brave face because I paid him for a lesson.
But I don't think he even really believed. I think he's still stunned.
So what brings you back from something like that? Those feelings, what brings you back to the table?
You know, I hate the fact that I'm this bad. I can't believe I'm this bad. I've never been this bad.
And I'm not really a quitter. I do remember this. I made a vow to myself when I quit my job, I'd saved up $2,000, which I thought was a lot of money.
My apartment's a hundred a month, but I don't spend down on anything else. I thought, you know, and people would always quizzically like, are you insane? What are you doing?
And I thought, you know what? I don't know if I'm going to succeed. But what I do know is I'm going to get another job, and I'm going to save up another $2,000.
And then I'm going to do it again, and then I'm going to do it a third time. And then at that time, I may have to take a hard look at this, but I am going to give it a hell of a go.
I just knew that it was all I was willing to do, but I don't know why. I don't, there was no, I don't even know what the point was. It's just that I loved it, is what I knew.
It really didn't have a purpose. There was no tournaments. You couldn't make, even the US Open, probably only paid two or $3,000, which was a lot of money at that time.
But it wasn't life-changing money at all, because probably the median good income, you made $15,000 a year or something like that, if you're just a working person. Maybe not even that much.
So you go back to that one year where you're going to invest your $2,000 nest egg, you're going to see if you can make it go a pool, you're going to commit your whole life to it.
At some point that year's over, and you got to say, wait a minute, how am I going to make a living? Can I do it planned pool? And if so, it isn't going to be playing any sort of professional circuit that didn't exist as you said.
What was going through your mind in terms of how you're going to live?
Well, I was young, and I made a vow to myself that I'm going to go all the way on pool, which means I'm not going to have a wife, I'm not going to have a house, I'm not going to have a new car, I'm not going to have kids, because it's not fair to
them. And I don't know when or if I ever make any money, but I don't care. And so the trade for not having a standard life, I'm just not a very conforming person. That trade was, I'm going to devote everything to pool and just see where it goes.
I think it's almost like being a nun in the church or something. I mean, it was that type of a, like I just made the sacred vow, I'm going to stick it out for a while and just see, but I'm not really a half-end guy.
I kind of either do it or I don't do it.
It's a lot of sacrifice, isn't there, in trying to be good at something?
I think that, but it wasn't viewed as sacrifice. It was, I could not wait. I literally could not wait.
I wish he opened the pool room at eight in the morning. I mean, I would be up and gung-ho. You've never got a more positive, enthusiastic guy for this than I was.
Where it came from, I don't know. Well, I was kind of that way in baseball for sure. We would play in January.
I mean, those. We don't care.
I can relate somewhat to what you're saying, Mark. I mean, for those that know me would see that when I get into something, get my teeth into something, I am all in.
I don't know that I would have necessarily taken pool to your level, but even today at age 70, I finished my morning cup of coffee. I can't wait to come downstairs and grab my cue stick. Yeah.
You don't travel anywhere without your cue, do you?
I do not.
No.
I was very much that way. It's weird too. I don't really care about anything else, but I would never leave my cue in the car, ever.
It's like my pride and joy. I don't go anywhere without it. That's my whole defining thing.
So how long were you in Madison working with Jerry?
Well, I moved there to study.
I used to commute 186 miles each way and buy a hotel for a weekend to pay for a lesson.
Then I made that commute two out of four weekends a month, and then three out of four weekends a month, and then I just finally moved there, stayed there eight years, but heavily three years, I would say. Real heavy into that.
When did he get you and introduced to sailor?
No, he didn't. He never really mentioned much about sailor. It was the other guys in the pool room.
And they were saying, you know, advanced stuff, sailor is your guy, you know, over in Racine, Wisconsin, which I'd never heard of, but a couple hours away. And I finally, at first I dismissed it because you couldn't possibly be better than Jerry.
But finally pursued sailor down the way. But this was a couple of years further down the road. Okay.
Yeah. Right when I was playing with Jerry, he wouldn't open yet in family, so he wouldn't open on holidays and stuff. So I'd encouraged him to do that.
And then I'm there nonstop. I said, well, I'll tell you what I'll open on Christmas Day and I'll open on Thanksgiving Day, because I have nothing else to do. And there's not going to be any business.
So then I would surreptitiously hit balls rather than work. And then if somebody came in, I'd dispense the table, but then I had to wait. And then, oh yeah, Jerry has this famous cue collection.
He's got a Bellow Bushkin, a Zambodi, a Josh, and they're all high-end collectible cues that he acquired. And they were never to be used. Some of them had never hit a ball, so he thinks.
So, because I would be there working by myself and I'd just be looking longingly like, what would the Zambodi even hit like? I mean, I can't even imagine. I was, oh my God.
And then nobody, I looked both where I was, nobody's there. I'd have to go down there. I wouldn't chalk it, but I would just play with it for just a little bit, just to see if it was magic, you know?
And that was kind of a funny time too. He says, you know, you play pool here all the time.
I'll tell you what, I'll pay you $2 an hour when you work the counter, but what I really want you to do is I want you to go through all my house cues twice a week with a wet towel, a dry towel, and some 600 sandpaper, and make sure they're clean and
not sticky. And if you see one with a bad tip, I want you to take it in the back room and put a tip on it. So he taught me how to put tips on by hand. And so I would do that.
And he would pay me $2 an hour. And then every other Tuesday was payday. And so I'd write down all my hours.
And then, you know, every other Tuesday, we would go in there and he'd figure up, you know, well, I always owed him money. I'm like, I don't know how much longer I'm gonna afford to work here. You know what I mean?
It was kind of a funny thing, but it was really like going to grad school. It was totally worth it. And then he says, I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll tell you what I'll do. Pool times $1.80. So every hour that you write down that you worked, I'll let you have two hours of free pool and we'll just trade.
That way it won't be a cash thing. And I'm like, hey, so now I'm going from $2 an hour to $3.60 an hour because I was going to pay for the pool either way. And so I gave myself effectively a double raise there.
So that was good. And that was just, that was probably the first five years I was in Madison, started off like that. But I'm scratching by on my 2,000 miserly.
I didn't, there was no extravagance whatsoever. It was like the most austere type of a life, but it was a happy time because I wasn't obligated. I don't have a phone bill.
I don't have, I had a student's apartment to the electrician, he was paid for, and the water was paid for. It was a hundred a month and I just didn't spend any other money except for just a modest amount of food.
Interesting, interesting. Like I said earlier, I don't know who today, 50 years later, is making the kind of personal sacrifice that you've made to get as good as you got.
The, it was, yeah, no, absolutely insane, but I just wanted to try it and just, you know, I'll go back, I'll do something different. I just can't live my life in a factory. I just know I can't do it.
And I used to see that all the time and then guys would save up for their retirement because they were miserable at their job. And then two years later they die after they retired. It was, I just can't go that route.
So when did you begin augmenting your $3.60 cent non-cash income with other, other pursuits like betting, hustling, whatever?
It wasn't really hustling.
It wasn't, but there was guys in the pool room, we played for a dollar a game, $2 a game. And if I won 20, that was good. And if I lost 20, it hurt, but it was still worth it because I'm gaining.
It was always a lesson or a little gain. And then, you know, that happened, you know, probably six, seven months in, I was starting to do that. But I was never brought up to gamble.
I'll never forget there was a guy named Larry Paquette, and he was a very experienced player, but I was now finally hitting the balls better than him. But then we would play, and I would so choke on the money ball that I ended up losing 40 bucks.
And it really, that was a stinging loss, not because of the amount, but more because I know I'm better than him, but I just couldn't cash it in because my entire life, my grandparents and parents, you save that money for college and don't even think
about spending any birthday money that you get, it goes in the bank. And so I was so predisposed that I shouldn't be doing this, that it was kind of like betting on dogfighting or something like where you know, you should lose for even doing
something so against God, you know, so it was just kind of like that. I knew I shouldn't be doing this, but I wanted to get better and they told me, ensured me that's how you get better.
So it took a while to get past that stigma of not doing it and then embracing it. I think also one of the things in my life, when I look back is I wasn't, I was a good athlete but not aggressive enough.
And so if you hit me, I would hit you and I was okay that way, but I would never really attack.
And then I met a player, Jeff Carter and boy, you talk about like he would be like charming and witty guy, but he was also moody and temperamental, but a phenomenal player and he was hyper aggressive.
And so he would stay with me because I had an apartment and I would allow it because I might learn something. And I really did adore him. I idolized his skill set, but it was just significantly double me for sure.
He was actually good and he was very confident and cocky. And so, which I never was, but he did get me into the aggression thing better and taught me some things. He was a little bit irreverent.
He really didn't care if he did tear your cloth or whatever. I mean, where I was always real careful and perfect, you know? And but it developed me.
It helped a lot in my early days, despite the fact that I did go through some terrible, painful. He'd take me on the road and I'd lose all the money at Player's Places, but he was experienced. He didn't lose, but I would occasionally.
And he would take me in places where he knew I could win. And I wanted to do it for the experience.
It wasn't even about the money, although all the money ever represented to me was that I could go longer without having to go back to work, where I could just solely devote myself to pool. Really? Yeah.
And so, that's what it meant. I really didn't care about whether you're not going to get rich anyway, you know.
So, I was doing that, and I can remember times I had to go back to the hotel because he couldn't go in with me, and I'd lost for whatever reason. Sometimes it wouldn't even sound, but anyway, it just happened.
And he'd be laying there watching TV, and he knows that I probably won, and he had his head behind his shoulder. He wouldn't even look at the door, and I was dreading facing him for losing our bankroll. And he'd say, what do you weigh?
Meaning, how much did I win? And I'd say, oh, well, no, it wasn't really that. What?
I mean, serious. Come on, tell me, how much do you weigh? I say, no, because he made the nine on the break a couple of times, and you gotta be kidding.
You surely, no, there's no way. Oh no, I did. Oh, come on, you know, and then it would get a little bit more vulgar at that point.
And then, oh, I can remember sleepless nights of the stinging rebuke that he gave me for losing in places.
But I wasn't the experience that we're playing on the road on crappy tables with negative attitudes and bad plays, you know, and then stupid rules and all these different various things that my emotions would get in there.
And then I start to doubt myself and then I'm not playing good.
Then the other guys get lucky and oh, some tragic, I can't remember one night, I was thinking about just stopping on the road, throwing my cue out in this cornfield and never, ever playing again.
I know he's going to be mad at me. We've all thought about snapping the cue or throwing it in our minds, haven't we? I don't think this has not crossed anyone's mind.
Have you ever broke a cue?
Me?
No. I've never broken a cue. I've never broken it in half, snapped it or anything, or held it up to a fan.
Do you know what was funny though? When I first, well, early in my years in America, I played in US Open women's straight porn. It was alongside the men.
This was the first time I'd ever seen Mike Siegel play. First, I hadn't really heard much about him because I hadn't lived here. They're saying this is a great Mike Siegel.
He was playing Ralph Sucay in the final. I'll never forget it. He stood there.
He missed an easy shot into the side pocket. He stood there and he held his cue and he gradually bent his cue. He had both hands on it and he bent it and bent it and bent it till it snapped.
I'm like, oh, I've never seen anything like that before. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing that the guy snapped his cue right there in slow motion. I was like, that's a great Mike Siegel.
Wow.
Yeah.
Mike, have you ever broken a cue?
No, never even thought about it.
Well, you're mature.
When I was young, I'm thinking to myself, man, it cost me a lot of money for this cue, which wasn't much, but it was a lot at the time, right? So why would I do something silly like that? Have you broke a cue?
No, but I've banged it hard enough it could have broke.
I mean, I am completely blanked out pissed and I banged it, but it didn't. But Jeff Carter broke a lot of them. I mean, and vicious.
I mean, oh my goodness, they would be toothpicks. It wouldn't just be broken half, but the greatest cue breaking episode ever. I've seen a lot of them over the years.
Strickland was famous, but there was a guy at Cue Neek one day and I was watching, he lost this match and he went over and he shook his opponent's hand and he went over and he took the top off of his case and opened it.
And the cue was still together. And he just gently pushed it over his knee until it broke. And then he deposited it into the case.
And I just loved that cue breaking because it was, there was no emotion, there was no violence or, it was just real calm. He just quietly did it.
Good clean cut.
Yeah. It's one thing disrespecting your own property, but don't ever break it over a table.
Yeah, no, we completely agree, right?
Bad form.
Well, it's stupid to begin with, but there was a kid, that kid I was telling you about, Tim, we used to call him Linhead. And he had this real tight, curly hair, but he was fiercely competitive, and he was prone to little bouts of anger.
And so Viking Cue is right there in Madison. In fact, that's where I first lived when I moved to Madison was right above the factory.
But Tim would sometimes, if I was getting the best of him, he'd bang his cue on the rail until finally the shaft would snap off and it cost 40 bucks. But the problem was he was gone for two weeks because he didn't have a cue.
And so Jerry would see this and Jerry needed the revenue. And so when he'd snap and break a cue, then Jerry would be out without that business for a couple of weeks. And Tim would play a lot of different people.
So one day this is happening, Tim was acting up and Jerry said, Tim, Tim, Tim, don't break the cue. Listen, just take one off the wall and I'll just charge you 10 bucks. So Tim thought that was a good idea.
So he would pay the 10 bucks. And sometimes he'd start seeing himself getting excited and he would prepay knowing that he's going to break a cue. And I would love it because I know I'm starting to get the best of him at this point.
Well, then Jerry said, Tim, Tim, I got some cues in the back room. Mark hasn't put a tip on. I'll only charge you five bucks for those.
And so this made very good economic sense. So then Jerry would see him acting up and he says, Tim, you want me to get one? One day he goes like this, better bring two.
And Tim would violently, but then Jerry wasn't without business for a while and I wasn't without a customer either. So that was good.
Who were some of your other influences? You mentioned Jerry Briesath, but during that whole time where you're spending a lot of time there in Madison, who else really influenced you?
Boy, there was a bevy of great players in there. It's a real talent. And Randy Lamar was this guy and he won the state championship a number of times and he could fend off pros.
He was a hundred ball runner, but he had this grit, he had this fight. Like even if you get him down, Randy's still going to beat you. And I always admired that so much about him.
His tenacity level was just, it was very, very uncommon. And there was sometimes little bar tournaments nearby and we would go play in them, but it'd be like the Randy Lamar benefit. I mean, you're just playing because he's going to beat you.
He's going to win this tournament every time because he desperately needs it. And so that was one guy, but his stroke was not pretty by comparison to other guys. It wasn't a bad stroke.
I don't mean like that, but it wasn't as like there was this other guy left-handed, Kenny Cross, and Kenny was left-handed and smooth and his delivery, and he was confident and he kind of exuded this thing that was very, very motivating, I would say.
But then there was, oh my goodness, Jeff and then there was Bill Kress was around there. He was a gambler that was kind of a swashbuckler, scrappy kind of a guy.
Then there was a guy that won the Collegiate Nationals, Andy Tennant, and with the prize came a lesson from William Musconi. I'll never forget, he was a real kind of odd guy, but non-emotional guy.
He won to beat Jerry so bad, and Andy had run 100 balls before, but Jerry would get the best of him every time. But Jerry was world-class. He has a winning record career-wise against Dallas West, who's just 40 miles south in tournaments.
Jerry's probably like 11 and 7 against Dallas West, who's in the Hall of Fame. But Andy wanted to beat Jerry so bad, and Jerry would come out from behind the counter, and they'd play, and Jerry would get the best.
He would be a little more consistent, but very good. Andy was too. So one time, after Andy won that, he went and got this lesson from Moscone, and he always talked to the monotone voice.
And he would come in and he'd go like this, Jerry, I can beat you now. Like that. Then Jerry would just kill him, and then Andy wouldn't be around for a while.
But he was a tremendous player. But I bet there's eight or ten more guys that are life masters that would come in there. Mike Van Vleck and Jim Fitzpatrick.
And they were all guys that were just like gods. But even, it is true, they were this good. It wasn't me embellishing this.
It was road players that come through, and then it would just get smoked. I mean, they just crossed Cunique off the list, so you can't win there. And they just wouldn't, finally.
Were there people that stopped playing with you as you got better?
Oh yeah, sure, of course.
But that was quite a ways down the road. There was a guy that was the editor of the newspaper, and a real learned, classy guy, Joe Capicella. And he would play me, and he didn't need the money.
He had a good income, but he'd make me play him a game of straight pool, 75 points for a dollar in the time, or $2 in the table time. And so we'd play probably five or six games a week, you know, two or three nights.
And the first year, maybe the first nine months, he was beating me 75 to 20 or 15 like that. Way better player. And then I'd do something stupid and shatter them open.
And then he'd get all those. He wouldn't put a big run on you, but he didn't make unforced errors like I was prone to do, and I would take desperate chances, and that's why I'm not very good, so it didn't work out.
But so he beat me like that, and I just kept playing, you know. We played two games a night, and two or three times a week, and then the score started to get to be 75 to 30, and then 75 to 40. Finally, I was 75 to 50.
I'd improved quite a bit. But at this point, I've lost 100 consecutive games. Most people wouldn't stick to it that good, you know, but so that's why I was talking about tremendous ignorance earlier.
You got to stick at it. And then finally, I won a game, which was epic because he would be kind of in the top of the C or bottom of the B class. And so I won one game finally.
And now I've devoted my whole life to it. And then I started to hold him off. I was only 175 to 60, I'd lose.
Well, finally, I started to beat him on a pretty consistent basis. And one time I beat him three times in a row. And he came in and I'd lost over 100 games in a row.
I wouldn't even want to know how many. But he said, I said, okay, Cappy, you ready? He goes, oh no, too tough, old buddy.
And so he quit. And most people will be upset because I've lost more than 100 consecutive games. But it was such a badge of honor that Cappy, who's the house man that just hardly anyone can beat, I now have outgrown.
And so, and I really wanted to move into that upper group anyway. So it was, it was just like going to school. I mean, he taught me so much and consistency.
And I really, guys like him, I owe a lot to, no doubt, even though they'll never get, they'd be unsung heroes of my early pool career. I would say he would be a good model for that.
Yeah. You know, you look at the written record for some of you folks and course, Mark, we got to get you a wiki page first of all, because everybody has a wiki page.
Oh, old guy don't know wiki page.
We need to get a Wikipedia page for you to outline all of your record.
But if you look at the written record, there's sort of this big gap from, let's talk when you're 20, just getting started serious at pool to 1994, when you're playing in the first Moscone Cup, right?
So you got to kind of fill that void in progression from 75 to 94, that's almost 20 years.
Yeah.
How your game advanced, who influenced you, what were the breakthroughs you were making in your own game? What other personal struggles were you going through? Just kind of take us through what that progression continue to be.
So the first year is kind of what I've just described, maybe the first year and a half to two years.
And about that stage, I was up to, now I'm probably at this point not hardly beating Cappy, but I'm a C player now, okay? So a little bit better, not great, but probably, oh yeah, I do know, my high run was 22, okay? Straight pool.
But what had happened, I missed the break shot, I missed the two ball that hung in the pocket and a ball that I shattered out of the pack came across and knocked it in. So it's a legal 22, but not a clean 22.
Do you love how we can remember things like this?
Oh, that's vivid.
Fascinating. How long ago was that?
I remember, yeah, exactly. I remember the first time I broke and ran a racket and nine ball on a nine foot table. It was just epic, kiddo.
So there's moments like that. Well, anyway, so now I'm getting a little better and they opened up this thing called the Wisconsin State Nine Ball Tour.
Each month you'd play once, it'd be in Milwaukee and then Racine and then Green Bay, Appleton, Beloit, Madison, and back to Milwaukee and the Kenosha, something like that, and you'd play 10 of these events.
It cost $30, which was quite a bit more money back then, especially for someone living like I was, and I wasn't skilled enough at all.
But it drew 200 ball runners, pros, the best players in Chicago, the best players in Milwaukee, Dallas West came, Tommy Spencer, Jim Mattia occasionally, would come over from Michigan.
I so wanted to be part of that group, even though I didn't have the skills. But you're guaranteed you'd play in a group of five and you got to play four times, win or lose. I was looking at it as like tuition.
Yes, maybe I don't win, but I'm playing with the very guys I want to learn to play against, and I want to see what they do. People kind of chided me like, what are you doing? You don't need to drive to Milwaukee, I'll play you for $30.
I go, no, I understand, but I just want to see them and I could lose to you or anyone else. But I just want to play them. I'm going to go there, my whole heart was in it.
I'm nervous as hell. I play and then I lose 7-0. Then my next match, I lose 7-1, and then I lose my third one, 7-0.
Then I'd be over there, I got an hour before my next match, I'm over there, I got one match left, wouldn't matter, win or lose, what's going to happen. I am practicing it like it's a world championship. It's so serious.
Then because if I could just get two or three games, I got more for my $30. I did this and I went and there really wasn't, well, there were some not great players too.
I'm describing a lot of good ones, but there was a few that they were slightly better than me, but not great. At the end of 10 of those tournaments, I went to all 10, my record was zero wins, 40 losses.
I can remember a couple of times I got down to the last game and my heart was throbbing so hard, I was praying that God would just let the nine ball go in on the break because it would validate I'm heading the right direction, and it would give me a
surge of confidence out of this. But it never happened and I lost every match. If anybody said to everybody, who's the worst player that played all 10 of these? Hands down, it's unanimous, I for sure, it's me.
But also in that same span of time, I would leave, I would stay and watch the single elimination finals, and then I would drive an hour and a half back to Madison, and the pool room would still be open for an hour and a half, and I would not stop by
the apartment, straight to the pool. I got things to work on from the day that I saw, that I didn't do, what I need to do for next month. We got cracking that night on it.
Then at the end of those 10 tournaments, if you also said who was the most improved player of that, it would also be me at that point. Despite I was up to horrible or just like that. I never won a match for the whole year.
Then midway through the second year of doing that, I somehow had a miracle and won one. I don't know how. It had to be an act of God that the stars lined up.
I probably got a little lucky or a couple of people took me a little lightly.
Then I was having, at this point, because I'm playing so much pool, that I would have a little sprees of where I play like perfect for three games, and then I'd be paralyzed for seven games. Then it would just go back and forth.
But I probably had that little spree at the exact moment, and then the guy's feeling pressure like, oh my God, this horrible player is about to beat me. Then somehow I won one, and I'm telling you, it was $300.
The tires on the car did not touch the road on the way home. I swear, it was just like a floating, like I cannot believe this. I won this.
I can do this. I'm getting it. I'm going to be good.
Once again, did not stop by the apartment, straight to the pool room that night till the end. And right back there when he opened, I could not wait. It was even more motivating.
You know that, hey, maybe I could. Maybe if you knew how gruesome, how hideous it had been for so long, to have one little breakthrough was the most inspiring. I was inspired anyway, but this was like a super magnet.
You know, I mean, now I really got to do it. And so that was probably my, that's where I started to break through. And then I started to score in the money every time, top eight every time.
And then starting to get third and second and then first. And then finally I won three in a row a couple of times. And it came with a pretty nice little trophy.
Then they have a big playoff at the end. And I won that a time or two. And then the straight, then at this point, now I'm playing the pro division in the straight pool.
And that was held at the Mecca Auditorium in Milwaukee, the home of the sports shows associated with that. So thousands of people come through and they have big seating and two tables and referees and I won the pro division of that.
And then at that point, then I'm starting to roll. But this is probably four or five years in of every day, minimum 10 hours a day, minimum, willfully. It wasn't like I said, oh, I got to practice.
I couldn't wait, could not wait to practice. And I was burning through a tip, a le pro tip, not from sanding it, but from chalking it in four to six weeks. And burning through shafts where they just get too flexible from so much playing all the time.
And my hand is still, I mean, this hand that looks sometimes like I didn't use soap, but it's just like a tattoo. It's underneath the epidermis. You can't rub it off from playing so much and just love it.
You know, I mean, just love it so much. It was just, it meant everything to me. But also, you know, I'd made a commitment and, and there was no, when you're young, I don't have responsibilities.
You know, I chose that to be inless because I knew it wouldn't be fair to my wife and kids. So I can't do that. And I know there's no retirement.
I know there's no money in it. I understand that I'm trading for a happy life. And so that's why, you know, today I'm still passionate about giving back to the sport.
It's provided me a tremendous life. And there's some of my constituency that's better. You know, I should have got a million dollars like Tiger Woods or something like that.
I never felt that way. I always felt like it doesn't owe me anything. But my goal is when I get to the old folks' home, I have to have the best real stories of anybody that ever lived.
Otherwise, my life's a failure because they all lie. You know, everybody is, oh no, Sonny, I used to be one of the best, or I used to do this, or I invented the spaceship. You know what I mean?
Like, no, it's all lies. I got to have real stories or else it invalidates anything I ever sacrificed for.
Your stories and the pool tape.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I still love pool.
And a book, which we'll talk about, but you could just, all the old fogies in the home, you could just hand them one of your books, you know.
We've got proof.
They're so annoying. I couldn't tolerate it. I hope I just die in a ditch before I have to do that.
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