 Tips & shafts By George Fels Consulting Editor George Fels has been writing for Billiards Digest since 1980, and his "Tips & Shafts" column is usually our readers' first stop when they crack open the magazine. For better or worse, pool has been his only mistress for 40-plus years.
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August: Odds And Ends August 2026 [Reprinted from April 2008] Each of us is said to accumulate 30 million facts over the course of a lifetime.
- As the star of his California high school golf team, John Schmidt actually went head-to-head with a promising young contemporary named Eldrick Woods.
- As the star of his Missouri high school cross country running team, Danny Harriman was national class.
- Nick Varner’s college classmates at Purdue University included basketball icon Rick Mount and, closer to home, pool trick shot star Paul Gerni.
- Pool instructor nonpareil Fran Crimi was one year behind Jerry Seinfeld in college (Queens College, N.Y.), not that there’s anything wrong with that. Torturing the same metaphor a step further, she also gave pool lessons to ex-baseball great Keith Hernandez. Whether or not he subsequently asked her to help him move is unclear.
- Both Crimi and WPBA co-founder Palmer Byrd played the accordion when younger. Not only did both women master the requisite “Malaguena,” “Lady of Spain” and “Tico Tico,” but Crimi spent extensive time interpreting the wistful ’70s ballad, “I’ve Got a Brand-New Pair of Roller Skates,” and its elusive francato tempo.
- The most talented pool player/musician, however, has to be the late Gene Nagy. Not only did he study at New York’s fabled Julliard School of Music for a year, but he was poised to become lead trumpet in that school’s symphony orchestra when pool came calling.
- The only college degree holder really active in American men’s pro pool today is Max Eberle (James Madison). Dick Lane (Oklahoma) and Washington State’s Dan Louie are no longer active.
- Tiffany Nelson holds a black belt in the martial art of tae kown do; Kelly Fisher has the equivalent in kung fu. The most accomplished male player along similar lines is probably C.J. Wiley, who studies an obscure art with a private instructor.
- Dan’s Fantastic Fours: The venerable player/analyst Dan DiLiberto has won prestigious titles in all four of pool’s major disciplines. DiLiberto has also fathered children in parts of four different decades and is one of those rara avises who have played four sports professionally (pool, bowling, baseball at the AA level, and 12 wins, 2 draw and 0 losses as a 135-pound boxer named Danny “Kid” Toriani). It was only a case of “glass hands” that shut down his fighting career.
- DiLiberto is not the only pool player to flirt with major league baseball. Noted hustler “Brooklyn Jimmy” Cassas discovered playing ball in the Navy and went to AA ball as a strong-armed pitcher. Jack “Jersey Red” Breit was drafted out of a Police Athletic League by the New York Yankees and went all the way to AAA before getting hurt. Legendary manager Leo Durocher played some tournament pool as a young man; so did the Dodgers’ Walt Alston. But none can top Jimmy Kling, our 1909 World Continuous Pool Champion. Not only is the great and extremely rare Brunswick table model named after him, but he was the starting catcher for the World Champion 1908 Chicago Cubs. In the modern era, pitchers Dean Chance (who was actually a buddy of the legendary Don Willis) and the late “Bo” Belinsky got far more ink for their pool interests than either man deserved; neither could run a rack.
- BCA Hall of Famer Dallas West is one of 15 children. He credits his parents’ prolific tendencies for his being able to quit school early and play pool full-time. “They really lost track of where the hell I was,” he says.
- Talk about naturals: The first time Allen Hopkins ever touched a cue, or so he attests, he ran 12. Old timer Joe Bachel did Hopkins one better, running the entire table on the very first try and subsequently getting in a fight with his buddies, who thought he was hustling them. And the late Al “New York Blackie” Bonife, one of the finest 9-ballers New York ever produced, didn’t even start playing until his early twenties.
- Eat Your Heart Out Dept.: Cuemaker Bill Stroud once quit pool for two years — mainly so he could teach skiing — yet was back in stroke, by his own account, “within five hours.” The late Johnny Ervolino took several such leaves, but largely owing to his extremely compact stroke, regained top form even more quickly than Stroud. The all-time comeback story goes to Hall of Famer Joe Balsis, who went on a 17-year hiatus to work for his father-in-law, then returned to become a world champion within two.
- Dumbest Single Thing I Ever Heard Around Pool Dept.: You may have a story to top this, but at least you’ll have had a decent run for your dough. A local single-mom player, who shall remain nameless, used to leave her two small daughters with their grandmother for up to six months a year so she could run off to Arizona and somehow exist as a pool groupie. Her rationale? “I really just can’t deal with being old.” Ignoring for the moment the parental aspects of her lifestyle, I once attempted to point out that one of her favorite players was a human slug whose IQ could very likely be measured in single digits. “I know,” she sighed. “But he sure can play that bar box 8-ball.” At which point I gave up. |
