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As a kid, I had the pleasure to have the late Jimmy
Caras as my pool instructor. While touring Scandinavia,
this four time world champion stopped by our pool-hall to give us,
so-called, prodigy kids instructions, and to play an exhibition 14.1 match.
What I remember most of Jimmy Caras' class wasn't as much his
"teaching" but more so the exhibition match later that night. While
playing our top ringer, I was stunned by how this old fart Jimmy could be so
"lucky" — every shot he made was easy, short, and straight
in. While the shots that our guy had to endure were all
difficult — long, cut-shots, etc. Of course I soon
understood that it was all about position play and thinking ahead — the most
important components of tying racks together ... and winning.
Needless to say, boring & old Jimmy Caras beat our flashy homie — big time.
Although the match was recorded, I haven't yet been able to get hold
of any of the footage (which I even helped shoot), and strangely
enough, there is no YouTube footage of him playing either.
However, I found this video of a 14.1 TV-match with Willie
Mosconi vs Jimmy Caras from 1963 in Chicago, playing for
$3,500 ($34,000 in todays money).
Anyhow, this was the first time I realized that I was living in a
fishbowl — seeing how our local guy, my idol, was getting smacked senseless by some old dude from the 'shallow continent'.
Well, little did I know that I would later pick up this silly sport
again, and worse yet, that it would be in California. My life is just an ongoing irony!
Here is a New York Times article about Caras, written shortly after his
passing: Jimmy
Caras, 93, Champion at Pool, Dies.
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