Pool
You know how sometimes you think about a thing you know, a thing you find so second nature you almost cannot believe there was a time you did not know it, about it, how to do it, or whatever? This is how I feel about pool. But I can try to think about how it started, where it is, and where it's going. Let's begin with what is undoubtedly a common story - I did not play pool when I was young. Sure, these days, there are all sorts of kids divisions and tournaments, but generally, you have to be tall enough to actually hold a cue and use it with some precision, so until you're 7 or 8, you don't play much pool, and until you're 11 or 12, you probably are pretty terrible. I don't remember picking up a pool cue before the age of 13. We had moved to Long Island from Brooklyn and there was a pool hall in Island Park on Austin Blvd, I couldn't tell you the name of it (I could probably look it up) but now it's Michael's Billiards. My dad worked nearby and suggested we go check it out. I think this was the first pool room I ever played in. I knew nothing, not how to hold a cue, or the concepts and math involved in the game, nothing, a clean slate.
But my dad knew how to play pool. He had, in his younger years, worked in a pool hall for some time, and was pretty decent, as I recall. It's hard to point to his skill, he wasn't playing enough to keep getting better, and he never had any decent competition. At his peak, he would probably have beaten me at mine handily, but today, I expect the tables may be turned from when I was a boy. He was the one who put the cue in my hand, explained the concepts, and helped me appreciate the game. I enjoyed going to play with him, just some father-son bonding time. We had gone bowling and other such activities, but something about pool made it stick with me in a way nothing else had. As I started college, I would still play with him, but less and less, instead opting to play with my newfound friends on Friday nights. After all, when you're under 21, there aren't a whole lot of pool halls to play in, because it isn't the first place you think of when you think "family friendly." You're going to have to squint hard, but this place used to be a pool hall. It was fine to be under 21 here, they just didn't serve. During high school (I think?) and definitely during college, I could be found here on various Friday and Saturday nights. Dave and Jeremy were often here shooting with me. Behind this was Governors, a comedy club I had visited a few times, and once, I saw Gilbert Godfried there with Ira. But Gillians (now Dave and Busters, but before they competed) also had pool tables, and the one in The Source mall on Old Country Road was another big Friday night stop. I remember playing on those tables during and after college, but one especially good night of reminiscing with John and Bruce about the good old days long after college was over. The other Dave and Busters out in Massapequa also had pool tables, I think? But I can't remember if Jeremy and I ever went.
21+
Once I turned 21, a lot of doors opened in the pool world. First, you could walk into any bar, and plenty of them had pool tables. Also, you could go to any pool room and stroll right in, anytime. One such room was Raxx on Hempstead Turnpike. There was still a fair bit of Dave and Busters, and I think Jillians was still a thing, and I didn't spend much time in the city, except to occasionally get Halal Guys or visit the NYU bar strip on Bleeker. I was still living at home and working out in Hauppauge, so this was life, pool every week or two, it was nice.
The Keystone
You ever think about your life and realize that just 5 or 6 small nudges or choices have a profound impact on significant parts of the trajectory but the setup is huge? I think about this random day often. See, a random nudge had gotten Carolyn to send my resume to her prospective employer. And that employer had to send it to Marcos Silva at IDP. And I had to interview and work at E&I and then pass the .NET test to work at Newline Cinema and get shafted on a raise to apply to Magazine Agent and only because I knew Cold Fusion from the luck of working at Hofstra Web Dev thanks to Harry Baya recommending me and Brian Ferris giving me a chance. And the office just happens to be in the shared conference space in the offices at 575 Lexington Ave and I just happen to know Penny who is managing the business and technical aspects of this office. And she just happens to be extra busy on a random Tuesday when she was going to meet her friend Joanne at a nearby bar, Overlook on 44th and 2nd, for drinks and karaoke after work and I just happen to be working a little later and she suggests I tag along, sending me on ahead to keep Joanne company until Penny can wrap up and arrive. This is how I'm introduced to karaoke, but that's another post itself. And after many months of karaoke, one Tuesday night in May, Tony, the bartender (whose brother Chris plays pool too) says, hey, you play pool, right? I say I love to play pool. He says great, get yourself on the train and go up to Marty O'Briens at 88th and 2nd they need an extra player on the Overlook B Pool Team. I cannot recall right now, but I'm fairly sure I was already familiar with the bar, since I also attended karaoke there most Thursday nights.
And So, APA
It turns out that at the time, in NYC, the pool scene was still growing, and people were working hard to pull pool out of the seedy dive bars and into a fun activity you could do to meet people, like bowling, but without the grossness, or darts, but without the competition and lack of a handicap system. There were lots of places to play pool - ABC and Soho below Union Square, Slate and Society around Flatiron, Eastside off 86th and Lex, and Galaxy in K Town being the larger halls, but countless (100 at least) bars with a coin-op table. Overlook was one, Marty O'Briens was another. And along came the APA. The American Poolplayers Association. It was a league, with divisions and teams and dues and schedules that operated much like a sports team. Eight players allowed on a squad, and on pool nights, five of them would shoot a handicap match against their rival opponents from another bar in the division. Seasons were 14 to 16 weeks long, 3 times a year, with breaks in between for playoffs and resets. Divisions were location-contrained (Upper East, Upper West, Midtown, Downtown, etc) and had anywhere from 6 to 16 teams, sometimes multiple divisions on the same days, and pool was every day, Sunday to Thursday. Only Friday and Saturday, where bars and halls had no trouble attracting business, would you take a break from the league. But probably end up playing pool anyway. There were other leagues too, Megabucks (Vince), NAPL (Tony Robles), as well as numerous house leagues that played only in a single location (ABC and Society still have house leagues). But I had stumbled upon the APA, and was now a member, way back in 2010.
It Begins
APA uses a handicap system to keep things fair. It was always a little sexist, men started at 4 (out of 7) and women started at 3, dropping no lower than 2 based on your performance. Almost everyone loses their first match, unless they are fairly good shooters. You could, if you were already very good at pool, declare yourself any rank you wanted, and many people entered the league on their first day as 6s and 7s, and remained there for decades. So my first night, I join the Overlook B squad (a bar could field two teams on the same night because games were both home and away) and play my first match. Gary is the captain, Jerold the co-captain, Frank, Nick, and Mat and we were the Long Pigs and if you asked me under penalty of death to tell you who Mat was, I could not. The rest I remember well. I lost my first match, and became a 3, but I was hooked. I played a young woman, also a 3 or maybe a 4, and she handily beat me. But everyone was friendly, people supported one another, you could even take a timeout and get help from your teammates about what to do next. And the next week, we played at home, so I could sing during karaoke AND play pool AND have a drink AND have some great food. Basically heaven for me, a 27 year old who was watching life slowly slip by.