Old versus New

fred bentivegna

fred bentivegna

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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
 
KindlyOleUncleDave

KindlyOleUncleDave

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comment

comment

fred bentivegna said:
.... 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
Click to expand...

Clarity, sweet clarity. I owe you two cups of coffee.
 
fred bentivegna

fred bentivegna

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Hijacked from AZ forums

Hijacked from AZ forums

Quote:
Originally Posted by jay helfert on AZ forums
You'll love this one. Pancho is in The Billiard Den and is playing a sucker $5 9-Ball. They play all day and about Midnite the guy quits stuck $180! The time is $16 and the poor sucker looks at Pancho and asks "Can you get the time?" Pancho's reply "Time, what time, I thought we were playing for the time!"

You gotta love it. They ended up splitting the time. That was the best Pancho would do.


Ah, the good old days. God punished Pancho for his sins, however. He had the worst behaved kids in the history of civilization. When he was staying at my house I caught his 10 year old grandson, Benjie, stealing $200 from him. The kid got busted when he put the bills in his shoe and my dog dug 'em out and was running around the house with the money in his mouth. True to the hustler code I didnt snitch on the kid but I made him put the cheese back. The same kid was barred from Chris's Billiards for life at age 5, for scarring up the billiard chairs with a knife.


the Beard
 
Y

yobagua

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Hey Beard. I loved Pancho. He taught me many moves when I was but a wee lad myself. Though I didnt turn out bad like his kids. He kind of took me under his wing and taught me a lot. I miss him.
Hey whatever happened to Finnegan.
 
Terry Ardeno

Terry Ardeno

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You missed your real calling

You missed your real calling

fred bentivegna said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by jay helfert on AZ forums
You'll love this one. Pancho is in The Billiard Den and is playing a sucker $5 9-Ball. They play all day and about Midnite the guy quits stuck $180! The time is $16 and the poor sucker looks at Pancho and asks "Can you get the time?" Pancho's reply "Time, what time, I thought we were playing for the time!"

You gotta love it. They ended up splitting the time. That was the best Pancho would do.


Ah, the good old days. God punished Pancho for his sins, however. He had the worst behaved kids in the history of civilization. When he was staying at my house I caught his 10 year old grandson, Benjie, stealing $200 from him. The kid got busted when he put the bills in his shoe and my dog dug 'em out and was running around the house with the money in his mouth. True to the hustler code I didnt snitch on the kid but I made him put the cheese back. The same kid was barred from Chris's Billiards for life at age 5, for scarring up the billiard chairs with a knife.


the Beard
Click to expand...


Fred,
As great a pool player as you are (I won't say "were" out of love & respect),
you missed your real calling.
Who needs Jay Leno or any of them second rate comedy boys. WE in pooldom have "The Beard" and nobody can tell a story in such a consistantly funny manner as you. "Worst behaved kids in the history of civilazation"..."Barred for life at age 5"....where do you get this stuff!?
I keep prodding you to pen an autobiography. Maybe after the DVD project, you can re-consider.
Pretty please.:)
 
fred bentivegna

fred bentivegna

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Finnegan?

Finnegan?

yobagua said:
Hey Beard. I loved Pancho. He taught me many moves when I was but a wee lad myself. Though I didnt turn out bad like his kids. He kind of took me under his wing and taught me a lot. I miss him.
Hey whatever happened to Finnegan.
Click to expand...


Yoba, I dont recall who Finnegan was. Was he an habitue at Ye Billiard Den?

the Beard
 
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yobagua

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Finnegan was Little Frankies Yes man. East coast guy. Everybody knew him. Hung on to you like a wet rag.
 
fred bentivegna

fred bentivegna

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Too many fried brain cells

Too many fried brain cells

yobagua said:
Finnegan was Little Frankies Yes man. East coast guy. Everybody knew him. Hung on to you like a wet rag.
Click to expand...

Theres a cloud opening up slightly, but I cant put a face or an incident into it. I'll have to ask Little Frankie, he has mercifully left me and returned to New York.

the Beard
 
P

philip guagliardo

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hi

hi

Your right Freddy the old guys didn't want to give up nothing including you . One day in Bensingers freddy was playing an arch rival Tommy the sailor , now Tommy if he wasn't drunk was a hell of a player very creative unfortunately for him he was half in the bag ! Freddy had tommy 6-0 and a ball hanging in his hole , well Tommy was just going to take the scratch and follow the ball in the hole but a freak occurred both balls got jammed the object ball on the inside of the pocket and the cueball on the side of the object ball frozen sideaways the cueball though was touching the table by a centimeter in the pocket . Freddy said its a scratch and Tommy replied its still on the table and play the game over cause you cant shoot and hit the cueball ! Naturally Freddy winning 6 zip said NO WAY and they proceded to argue and neither one giving up finally Freddy went under the table and unscrewed his cue and found a slit in the pocket and figured he could hit the cue with the shaft back on the table , but the slit wasn't big enough for the
tip to get thru so he got a knife and chiseled the bottom of the pocket which was exposed and cut enough of the pocket out and just about laying on his back blasted the cueball back on the table ! It was priceless ! anything you won in Bensingers you earned nobody that could play gave up anything ! Naturally Freddy went on to win the game and naturally it was Tommy's last barrel .

Freddy you are now clasified as an old timer ! Race Track Phil
 
Last edited:
fred bentivegna

fred bentivegna

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Tommy never forgave me

Tommy never forgave me

philip guagliardo said:
Your right Freddy the old guys didn't want to give up nothing including you . One day in Bensingers freddy was playing an arch rival Tommy the sailor , now Tommy if he wasn't drunk was a hell of a player very creative unfortunately for him he was half in the bag ! Freddy had tommy 6-0 and a ball hanging in his hole , well Tommy was just going to take the scratch and follow the ball in the hole but a freak occurred both balls got jammed the object ball on the inside of the pocket and the cueball on the side of the object ball frozen sideaways the cueball though was touching the table by a centimeter in the pocket . Freddy said its a scratch and Tommy replied its still on the table and play the game over cause you cant shoot and hit the cueball ! Naturally Freddy winning 6 zip said NO WAY and they proceded to argue and neither one giving up finally Freddy went under the table and unscrewed his cue and found a slit in the pocket and figured he could hit the cue with the shaft back on the table , but the slit wasn't big enough for the
tip to get thru so he got a knife and chiseled the bottom of the pocket which was exposed and cut enough of the pocket out and just about laying on his back blasted the cueball back on the table ! It was priceless ! anything you won in Bensingers you earned nobody that could play gave up anything ! Naturally Freddy went on to win the game and naturally it was Tommy's last barrel .

Freddy you are now clasified as an old timer ! Race Track Phil
Click to expand...

Everytime Tommy would get drunk he would bring that shot up. There has probably never been a situation like that ever again. The cue ball was somehow jammed in the back of the pocket where you could only hit it from underneath the table.

the Beard
 
fred bentivegna

fred bentivegna

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clarification

clarification

I just remembered how to better describe the situation Race Track Phil mentioned. Both the cue ball and the object ball jammed up while attempting to fall into the pocket. They were beyond the lip but clogged together partway down into the hole and halfway above the bed of the table. That's why the only way to hit the cue ball was from under the table.

the Beard
 
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