fred bentivegna
Verified Member
I just remembered an incident that occurred at Bensingers in the 60s that confirms my belief that the old-timers were a different breed and much tougher to beat. Isadore "Pony" Rosen was playing Polack Vince the Killer, a game of 3 cushion billiards, 25 points for $10. They were playing even. Pony came up, ran 13 billiards, and then astonishingly, played a deliberate safety and ended his inning! Staring at a frozen Q ball and the other 2 balls 10 feet away, a flabbergasted Vince called Pony a long string of nit-names. Since only a handful of players in the history of the game had ever ran a 13, the purist in Vince couldnt understand how Pony could sacrifice his chance at immortality for a stinkin 10 dollars. Pony's honest reply was typical of the mind-set of the Depression-era hustler, "Why should I shoot? I didnt have a good shot."
the Beard
the Beard