Lazarus as some of us know, was the guy who was a friend of Jesus Christ and that when Lazarus died, Jesus went to his tomb, said a prayer and raised him from the dead.
Now that was some kind of miracle but I am going to share another one with you today.This is the true story of a pool player who by all accounts was done...kaput. The story takes place at Rackateer's Sports Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 1900's. The pool room was owned by Gerald Huber, the author of "The Green Felt Jungle" and "Humphrey" (as the locals liked to call him) had these very large pool tournaments with huge Calcuttas (player auctions) and top players came from all over to play in his events.
1995 U.S. Open 9 Ball Champion, Reed Pierce and winner of other notable tournaments such as the 1998 Camel Tour Kasson Open, and the 1994 PBT Dallas Open was entered in this tournament. As I recall there was a full field of 128 players. BTW, Reed was also selected to represent the U.S. twice in the Mosconi Cup, in 1997 and 1998.
I had lived in Jackson, Mississippi from 1974 to 1980 and watched Reed grow into the player he had become and knew he was the real deal. The hangout back then in Jackson was "The Office" and many a big dollar match was played on those bar tables.
Anyway, Reed is playing one of the top local players, a guy named Eddie Brown and Eddie has Reed's ears pinned back pretty good, leading Reed 8-4 in a race to 9. At this time the tournament is about 3/4 finished and Reed was a favorite to win the event but is getting spanked by Eddie Brown. Well Reed goes on a tear, and starts playing like the U.S. Open 9 Ball Champion that he is and winds up beating Eddie 9-8 for the match. Reed basking in his strong comeback bellows, "How you like it New Orleans?.....THAT'S WHAT YOU CALL SEASONING!" It was an exclamation that might have been made by anyone coming back from such a large deficit. Well, that boast didn't sit too well with a lot of New Orleanians, but it was a hell of a come-back by Reed so you just have to sit there and let the champ have his moment.
The very next match Reed has a match with top veteran pool player by the name of Joe Villalpando. Joe lived down in New Orleans for several years at this time and was one of our own by then. Reed is stoked from his previous come-back win and is playing with confidence and bearing down on Joe V (yeah, that's what we called him down in New Orleans, other places called him Little Joe and probably a few other nicknames here and there). Reed is now playing hard and has Joe V stuck 8 games to 3 games in a race to 9. With Reed needing only 1 game for the match win, it wasn't looking very good for Joe V.
Joe V was a pal of mine and he and I used to hit the local tournament scene quite often. We would play in as many as 3 tournaments a week back then. I would be Joe's chauffeur, confidant, and student, learning the ways of the pool world. While I would do the driving, I also played in the tournaments just not as well as Joe but I was learning all of the time.
So back to the story. Joe is standing next to me watching Reed playing like the champion that he was, giving Joe very little opportunity to get back to the table and Reed is up 8-3.
Well Reed misses and leaves JoeV a few balls to run. Joe cleans up the table and makes the score 4-8 JoeV.
While I am not a tall guy, but Joe is REALLY SHORT and he is looking up at me and he says, "You know Joey, one time way back when, I was playing this real good player, and he had me stuck just like this and I came back to win the match." By this time, Joe had to be in his 60's and Reed could easily have still been in his twenties.
I immediately locked on Joe's eyes (hoping to put my two years of psychology & hypnosis therapy to work) and said, "Joe, I KNOW that if anyone has a chance of doing this, YOU DO. Let's see what's going to happen!"
The next game JoeV makes the nine on the break, now 5-8 JoeV. The next game he breaks runs to the four ball and makes a 4-9 combo making it 6-8 Joe V. The pool room was full of electricity. I could feel it in the air through the high humidity that Louisiana pool rooms are known for. The electricity was palpable, but it was the humidity that was making it difficult to make a ball on the break or even run out. The electrical feeling was all over me and I wasn't even playing. The next game, Joe breaks and runs out the rack making it 7-8 JoeV. The swagger had suddenly left Reid as he realized that there was a chance that he might lose this match. JoeV is wound up like a little short spring, shooting at everything and making almost every ball he shoots at. Again, Joe doesn't make a ball on the break. Reed comes to the table and again has a very tough out and can't get there so tries to lock JoeV up with a good safety which turned out to be a mediocre safety and Joe kicks the object ball in and ties the match up hill-hill (8-8) racing to 9. Now the electricity has redoubled and everyone is in dead sweat, everyone's eyes are glazing, everyone's perspiring and the tables are soaking wet. The players are soaked with the humidity and constantly wiping their cues down with dry towels. The sweaters are perspiring but no one is leaving this match. I can't remember how the last match went except the last 4 balls that Joe made were excruciating for me. LOL
As the winning nine ball fell in the hole, I could not contain myself and yelled as loud as I could, "HOW YA LIKE IT MISSISSIPPI!" The crowd went nuts. My yell was a reflex, and I couldn't help myself. Even though Reed and I have always been cool with one another, he came unglued and started screaming and yelling that he wanted to play me for two thousand dollars and give me the 7 ball or for whatever I could come up with, and he said a few choice other words that sometimes happens when the rug is pulled out from under your feet but there was no amount of money that I could have won that day that could have taken the place of the feeling that I had when my buddy JoeV stopped Reed in his tracks. Reed had always been a MUCH better player than me or even JoeV, for that matter, but not THAT DAY. It wasn't that I was happy that Reed lost. I was just so jazzed with what had just happened to my buddy JoeV that I couldn't hold it in. It was that day when JoeV earned the nickname "LAZARUS"for a come-back victory of extraordinary proportions.
GET SOME, JOE V! Ooo-rahhhhhhhh! Happy Birthday my friend.
JoeyA
New Orleans