Paul Newman 1925-2008

First Night Jitters

I am pleased with our team's performance last night. We didn't win, but that's not the important thing. We lost 2-3 to a team from Ace Bar, playing at Ace Bar, on the most embarrassingly, atrociously imbalanced table in the world that ruled out any kind of soft, slow shots. The arc of some of the rolls was actually pretty sickening. We had a hard time adjusting and got off to a poor 0-2 start. Then Josh played third and won in a somewhat lucky fashion when his opponent, a very green new player, had ball in hand on the 8 ball and flubbed a straight-in shot. Josh then went on to do something that impressed me. He asked aloud how many timeouts his opponent had left. And when somebody said all timeouts had been used, he went on to play a pretty risky yet effective safety (the thinking being a gamble that she wouldn't know how to get out of the safety). And it paid off as she went for an unnecessarily hard kick shot out of the safety while her captain was forced to keep quiet. He got ball in hand and won to put us at 1-2.

Then it was my turn to play. Thinking we were going to be forfeiting the fifth and final game because we only had four players at that point, I was bound and determined to do my best to give us at least two points for the evening. I went up against a SL5, won the lag by the narrowest of margins, then lost the first game. I won the next two, then he came back to win the fourth and the fifth. Then I caught on fire and came back to win the last two to win the match 4-3. Their captain came over a few mintues after my opponent and I had shaken hands and said "We have it that you still need another game to win." I was almost furious. They had neglected to assign somebody the scoresheet and were instead playing on the other pool table. I was a little fearful that the mistake was ours. But then he said "You know what, it's not a big deal. I was over on the other table toward the end." Me being a little miffed that their scorekeeping error had killed the post-win buzz I'd been enjoying, I said "Look, I came here tonight with three dollars in quarters. I ran out and got one more dollar in quarters..." and then slapped the remaining fifty cents down onto the table. Three-fifty spent on pool is half of seven dollars with each game costing a dollar and split between both players. That ended that discussion.

By then Abdi had showed up so we knew we wouldn't have to forfeit the final match. Indeed, we were well within reach of a win. Abdi went up against a SL4 so he only had to win two games to his opponent's three. Abdi got off to a rickety start and found himslf down two games to none. But in the third he was dead-on for a cross-corner bank on the 8. I was coaching him and I could tell he didn't feel comfortable banking. But it lined up perfectly and I told him "Just use the force." He went on to nail it. I congratulated him on avoiding a shutout and told him he only needed one more to win it for him and for us. With the overall score of the night tied 2-2 and their match being tied hill-hill, I was impressed how he seemed to play with a lot more confidence under the pressure. Eventually he found himself with a two-ball runout for the win, with both balls close to side pockets. He made the first ball but then missed what normally would be a fairly easy cut on the 8 ball into the opposite side pocket.

After signing the sheets and walking down 5th Street back to Sophie's we had a chance to unwind at the bar. He was obviously still livid with himself, but I couldn't find myself thinking anything other than this: I was kind of glad he had missed it. I tried to explain to him how we had just come off like three or four consecutive 1-4 losses last season. And putting together a new team and starting out the first match of the season is always somewhat of a crap shoot. But we had come back from being down 0-2 and damn near won the match. Being able to say "We were an 8 ball away from the win," has a real nice ring to it. Him being so distraught, I told him "Hey man, I can only say 'What won't kill you will only make you stronger.' Look at how humbled you are. I am actually sort of glad you missed it. Because you are going to think about that shot for weeks. But next time you'll totally take your time on the 8, you'll ask for a time out, whatever. You're never going to miss that shot again in your life. You got it out of your system tonight." I think he understood what I was saying and agreed.

Post-break, back at home

Wow, an entire month has passed since my last post. All I can say is that the end of the APA summer session has dovetailed perfectly with a two-week jaunt I just made through Europe. Most of my trip was spent with Yvonne in Warsaw, Poland, where she is from. But before our rendezvous in Warsaw I had traveled solo to spend a few days in Perpignan, France to check out a photography festival.

Needless to say, pool has been on the back burner the past two weeks. The only bar pool table that I saw my whole trip was in Perpignan. Unfortunately, there was what appeared to be a large stack of lumber on top of the table. Once I got to Warsaw I had a lot more time on my hands. One night Yvonne and her sister, Joanna, and I went to check out "Blue Club Billiards" (above). Basically it's a pool hall combined with a bowling alley in the basement of the library building at the University of Warsaw. As Yvonne and Joanna were getting us some drinks I racked all the balls in the triangle and moved the head ball over to the side of the rack several inches and set myself up behind the string for a straight pool break shot. I nailed it and got a nice scattering of the pile. The only other memorable shot I made was during a game of league rules 8 ball, me vs them, in which I gave myself the handicap of double banking into my last pocket. On the far left side of the photo you can see that I had come really close in an earlier shot, leaving my 8 ball hanging in its pocket. At some point soon after this photo was taken I made a sweet two-rails-around-the-table kick shot (approximately from where the purple 4 ball is in the photo) and pocketed the 8, albeit on a double kiss.

On my last day of the trip we went to Warsaw's equivalent of the Empire State Building, the Palace of Culture and Science. Inside, there was an exhibition on Albert Einstein that had some cool physics displays. My eye immediately went toward one in particular, a model of Newton's Cradle that utilized cue balls instead of the usual steel marbles. It's the image that will stay in my head this week as I try to get myself back into the game before league play resumes next Monday.