Pool's Biggest Showoff

In 2005, U.S. Open 9-Ball promoter Barry Behrman dedicated the event to the Miz.

Although straight pool was his best game, with 9-ball a close second, he was also a superb snooker player, once traveling to England and beating former world champion John Spencer in three exhibition games, a result he modestly dismissed as a fluke. He played excellent three-cushion, and once told me that if he practiced for a couple of months he was sure he could compete equally with the best American players. To underscore his versatility, he won televised "Trick and Tough Shot" competitions in Las Vegas and New York. But he was raised on straight pool. At Gotham Cue in Queens in the late 1970s, he ran 179 and out in one game and began the next game with a run of 90. He ran 285 in a match against Ray Martin, and later pushed his personal high run to 326.

His favorite cue for pool tournaments was a 21-ounce Balabushka with a 12.75 mm tip. To help with shots requiring a long reach, the cue was 58.75 inches long. He also was comfortable with a cue made for him by Richard Black.

It's hard to get used to the idea that Steve Mizerak, The Miz, Mizerak the Machine, is no longer with us. The game has lost a legend and a lot of people have lost a good friend. He leaves behind his wife, Karen (they were childhood sweethearts), two sons, a stepson, and two granddaughters.

I found out about his passing on a news ticker scrolling across the bottom of my television screen, the first time a pool player has ever been so honored. Even in death, The Miz had scored a first. It was a habit with him.

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