In the mid-sixties I worked Summers behind the counter at Belmont Billiards in Belmont Shore. We had billiard books for sale and one of them was by Minnesota Fats titled “The Bank Shot and other great robberies” as I recalled. One day Minnesota Fats himself came in and he had a photo of him eating 6 fried chickens. A good friend of mine challenged him to make the shot of a ball on the spot and he shooting from behind the line. This friend of mine had a trick off-center cue ball which he placed behind the line for Fats to use. Fats noticed the fake but used it and made the shot anyway.
For those of you that have seen the movie “The Color of Money” you may remember that Paul Neuman gave Tom Cruise a Balabushka(sp) cue stick which today I’m told are worth around $25,000. Well I bought one from a contractor who came into the pool room on occasion. It cost me $70, the same price it cost him from the old man that made them in New Jersey. A few years later I sold it to the grocer who took over the lease for $70. How stupid was I?
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