THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609140531
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 110 lines
They drove for hours, from Raleigh and Pittsburgh and Baltimore, for the pool, not the beach.
Hundreds of fans are in town to watch the best 9-ball billiards players in the world compete in the U.S. Open at the Pavilion. They're pool enthusiasts looking to learn from the best.
For some, such as Neal Owens, the temptation was too great. Hearing the click-clack of the colorful balls while watching the seemingly effortless strokes of greats Efren Reyes and Buddy Hall created an adrenalin rush so strong that Owens darted from his chair to the vendor area where cue sticks were selling.
``I had this urge that I had to shoot. I had to get to a table and shoot,'' says Owens, who shows off a left arm tattooed with a giant 8-ball. ``Same with `The Color of Money' and `The Hustler.' I can't watch either of those (movies) without heading into the other room and shooting 20 balls.''
Owens took leave from the Air Force to be at this year's Open. Likewise, Neil and Stacy Nida of Manassas picked up the disbelieving stares of their co-workers when they gushed about their upcoming beach vacation minus the suntan.
``We told people, `yes, we're going to the beach but for a pool tournament, not the ocean.' We put on a pot of coffee and then we're here for the rest of the day'' and night, Stacy Nida says.
Dale Murphy from Richmond is equally avid. After watching pool all day Wednesday, he participated in the event's amateur competition and played so late that his voice grew hoarse by the next afternoon. ``I need to catch a nap,'' he says, ``but I'm afraid I'll miss something.''
Murphy, who skipped church to play pool as a kid, couldn't miss much from his bird's-eye view on the top deck of the VIP seats. He and nine of his buddies are planted on the Pavilion's equivalent of the 50-yard line, smack in the middle of the nine Brunswick Gold Crown III tables. To his left: Joe Kong vs. Ismael Paez. To his right: Richie Hanson vs. Reyes, with Don Polo vs. Jim Rempe in between. It's like a sports bar with nine television sets going simultaneously.
``I'd like to see more of this on television,'' Murphy says. ``I don't think it's a sport that everybody can watch, watch, watch. If you play the game though, it's a good spectator sport.''
So say the diehards who arrive in time for the first matches at 11:30 a.m. and don't leave until the last ball is struck after midnight. Select loot is being hawked in the hallway: the expected $16 T-shirt and $8 hats along with the $119 Billiards Encyclopedia, a 600-page bible of the sport that was six years in the making. For the collector, the $10,000 Balabushka cue is a steal.
Plenty of mingling is part of the mix, too.
``It's not like a football or a soccer game,'' says Stacy Nida. ``Like Grady Mathews. You can walk up to him and say `hey.' You feel like you're part of a special world that nobody else knows about.''
That world has gotten a little bit bigger this year. The tournament began in 1976 in the back room of Q-Master Billiards, promoter Barry Behrman's pool parlor in Norview, with crowds so packed, Murphy says, you wouldn't go to the bathroom for fear of losing your place. Now the largest running tournament on the Pro Billiards Tour, the U.S. Open seats 1,300: 300 VIP seats and 1,000 folding chairs. Big-screen TV, multilevel theater-style seating, and a ban on smoking - despite the tour's Camel sponsorship - make for a class affair.
The improved venue speaks volumes about the sport's growth - with 40 million players in this country and Olympic status in 2004 - but Stacy Nida says the smaller setting had its own charm.
``There was something to be said about sitting on a broken-down bar stool,'' she says. ``You were so close to the players. They'd come talk to you right after they missed a shot. It was great.''
Most of the tour's stars revel in that brand of intimacy, too. Mathews, a pro for 30 years and one of the tour's better storytellers, says he will be ready to leave an event for the day and spend 30 minutes just getting to the door conversing with spectators at every turn. He loves signing autographs, too.
``When the day comes that it becomes anything less than an honor, I will have struck my last ball,'' Mathews says. ``My girlfriend went up to Warren Spahn and asked for an autograph and he said, `Sure. $10.' Ridiculous.''
Giving folks cues - about their game, that is - that's a pleasure, too. Most of the fans admire the players' concentration, but the spectators stay equally focused. Watching shot after shot in a quiet interrupted only by occasional appreciative applause, pool fans study the moves they plan to adapt to their own games.
Mike Shields from Baltimore is smitten from his seventh-row seat. ``I'm 6-foot-6 and I try to study the taller players,'' says Shields, his eyes never leaving the table where Buddy Hall is battling Mark Foss.
Shields has a pass for the entire weekend, and he doesn't plan to leave his seat until the real world beckons after Sunday's finals.
``We're here to make people happy,'' says Steve Mizerak, who won the tournament in 1978. ``They're believers in what we do. We make them wannabes.''
Defending champion Reed Pierce continued on track Friday in his repeat bid by beating Bob Opsahl, 11-2. A Hampton Roads area player, Nick Bewley, provided a morning highlight. After turning 18 on the first day, Bewley played strongly, winning a round before falling to pro player Kim Davenport. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
MIKE HEFFNER
The Virginian-Pilot
John Eriksen has a ringside seat for fellow New Jerseyite Dennis
Bolella's match.
Nine tables are in continuous use at the U.S. Open 9-ball
Championships, being played for the first time at the Virginia Beach
Pavilion. The matches, which begin at 11:30 a.m., sometimes last
until well past midnight.
MIKE HEFFNER
The Virginian-Pilot
Efren Hayes, who won the 1994 U.S. 9-ball Championships, is just one
of the drawing cards for this year's tournament. by CNB