Luther Lassiter, Wimpy, to all that knew him personally. Early 1967, Our first meeting…
John Miller (Popcorn) introduces me to Wimpy during a world class straight pool tournament being held at Charlie Milliken’s pool room in Norwalk, California. Ronnie (Fast Eddie) Allen from San Francisco was managing the joint, but my stories about Ronnie will come later. Unbelievable!
Let me preface this by saying that I was at the tournament site early, a couple of hours before the scheduled 7pm. matches. When I arrived Richie Florence was practicing in the pool room side which was separated from the tournament area by 18′ floor to ceiling black curtains. Inside the black curtains the tournament area consisted of 2 tables surrounded on all four sides by 8 rows of bleachers.
Richie was practicing tough shots, and miss was a girl, then he racked em up, broke safe and began practicing straight pool, his first inning after the break he ran 198 balls and didn’t miss, he just got frozen to a ball, had no shot, uscrewed his cue, put it in his case and walked into the tournament area as it was now almost 7pm. and he was scheduled to play Lou (Machine Gun) Butera in the 7 o’clock round.
My bankroll consisted of a little over $400, so I thought I would try and get a bet down on Richie. Never having seen Lou play, I had heard that straight pool was his best game. However, there was no doubt in my mind that Richie was a better all-around player, and after watching Richie practice I knew that on this night he could, and would, beat anybody.
Lou showed up 5 minutes before post-time, hit about 10 balls, missed a few. I got 5 TO 4 ($250-$200) on the money and took Richie.
Richie won the lag, Lou broke a little bad, Richie ran 14, hung up a backward cut break shot, and Lou ran 150 and out in 14 minutes with Arnie Satin (referee) racking em a little slow… Nice huh?
The other match lasted till 9pm., I forget who was playing, all I knew was, there was plenty of time, about 1hr. & 40 min. to decide who I was going to bet on in the 9 o’clock round to get my money back. So I went out of the tournament room…
Wimpy was still sitting in the same spot as earlier when I met him, he had a handkerchief out blowing his nose, wiping his eyes and coughing. Not having noticed this earlier when Popcorn introduced us, I asked him; “Luther, how do you feel”? Wimpy replied; Not to good, got a little cold and I feel weak and sore (moving his shoulders and arms around in pain).
Lassiter was scheduled to play (Cowboy) Jimmy Moore, a great player, with the smoothest slipstroke I had, and have ever seen. Straight Pool was Cowboy’s best game and nine ball was Wimpy’s, but Wimpy was still the morning line favorite among the so-called pool handicappers.
By match time I had found the same person I bet with earlier, got Jimmy Moore, 5 to 4 ($250-$200) and 25 points. They were playing 150 point games so, for me to win my bet, all my man had to do was get to 125 points, playing a sick Luther Lassiter.
Cowboy Jimmy Moore lost the lag, broke safe, and then Wimpy ran 150 and out. Nice huh?
After applauding him, I followed Wimpy out into the private 2 table back room. I started to cuss him out for telling me how sick he was when Ed Kelly started laughing and told me that’s exactly why he got the nickname Wimpy, always wimpering before a match about how sick he is… Lesson learned – cost me $400 – never judge a book by its cover. Did I hear that somewhere before?
True enough, all his cold symptoms had disappeared. I never bet against him again.
Over the years, Wimpy and I developed a great friendship, more about that later… Jimmy
Coming Soon; Billy (Cornbread Red) Burge!
