25 Years Ago in Bonac Sports: 07.26.18

July 22, 1993

Grady Mathews, who, according to Bob Medved, Bailey’s Billiards’ owner, “is one of the top five all-around pool players in the world,” blew into town last week to give an exhibition and to play nine-ball and straight pool matches.

Mathews, who says he may appear to be older than his 50 years “because of all those nights I stayed up playing this wonderful sport,” can still play “50 to 60 hours straight — though not as regularly as I used to.”

“He’s one of the great road players,” Medved said of the lanky, articulate visitor, who defeated Bill Legakic of Lindenhurst 9-5 in a nine-ball match, and downed Joe Quinn, a very good local player, 150-55 in a straight pool contest.

. . . During a conversation that followed the exhibition and matches, the affable, bespectacled Texan, who has, by his account, “lived many places,” said that the “hustler” label would be misapplied in his case. “Whenever I went into a room, I would say right out that I was a good player, that I liked to gamble, and, most times, the owner would get on the phone and somebody would come down. If that didn’t happen, I’d have a cup of coffee, shoot the breeze, and off I’d go.”

“The good players knew me,” he said in answer to another question. “To be honest, I’m going to tell you this: In 30 years, I never lost to somebody who would play me even [no handicap] that I didn’t know.”

. . . Mathews, who had a bit part in “The Color of Money,” which in his view “wasn’t nearly as good a film as ‘The Hustler,’ ” didn’t begin playing in tournaments until the age of 40. He won world championships in 1983, ’84, and ’85, “but, frankly, there’s not enough money in tournaments to make an adequate living. When I gambled, I only had to beat one guy, not 10 or 12 guys playing for small money.”

“These guys don’t get anywhere near the recognition they deserve,” Medved was to say after Mathews had departed. “They’re like grand masters in chess, even better when you consider they not only have to have the mental agility to think many moves ahead, but they also have to have the eye-hand coordination on top of that. To be able to run 100 balls, like they do, you’ve got to be a genius. It’s mind-boggling what they do.”

Fielding a common question that beginning players have, concerning eye movement between the cue ball and object ball, Mathews replied with two questions of his own.

“When you go to take a jump shot in basketball, do you look at the ball last, or at the basket? Say you’re a quarterback and you’re going back to pass — do you look at the ball last, or at the receiver? Likewise in pool, you look at the object ball last.”

. . . “And now,” he said, in bidding farewell to Medved and those who remained from the group of 25 or so aficionados who had watched him play, “I think I’ll get something light to eat, and then I’m off for Philadelphia.”