Hustler & The Champ: Willie Mosconi, Minnesota Fats, And The Rivalry That Defined Pool
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Hustler & The Champ: Willie Mosconi, Minnesota Fats, And The Rivalry That Defined Pool

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In the tradition of Pulitzer Prize nominated, Positively Fifth Street, here is a riveting account of a high stakes shoot-out between pool’s two most famous personalities.

It was Valentine’s Day, 1978, and Howard Cosell was hosting the long-awaited show-down between the best-ever tournament player, Willie Mosconi, and the game’s most famous hustler, Minnesota Fats. This was The Great Pool Shoot-Out, one of the most highly rated televised sporting events of the year, exceeding even World Series games and basketball championships. R.A. Dyer, author of the best-selling Hustler Days, which recounts the rise of pool during the 1960s, writes of the acrid, but mutually beneficial rivalry between Fats and Mosconi, and how the televised shoot-outs came to embody that rivalry, which was nothing less than a bitter rift within the soul of American pocket billiards. Fats and Mosconi were born the same year, but were vastly different characters: one stood for artistry, the other for show business; one brought dignity to pool, the other made it fun. They are without a doubt the two most important players ever to hold a cue. This is the ultimate tale of American sportsmanship.

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Description

Willie Mosconi was pool’s greatest champion―the winner of fifteen world titles, the holder of records that have remained undisturbed for generations. Minnesota Fats was pool’s most important trickster, a man who built his fame and fortune upon deceit and guile. In 1978, both men came together for what would become the most viewed pocket billiards match in American history. Before a breathless nation, pool’s two most important personalities set out to prove who really was best.

Mosconi may have been remembered as one of the most dominant sports figures of all time, a man who had laid low some of the greatest players in history―but no one would pose a greater threat to his legacy than the man-child Minnesota Fats. So when the consummate perfectionist and the unapologetic gambler finally went head to head for what Howard Cosell described as one of the most fascinating televised segments he ever hosted, all of America would ask the same question: Who would win?

The Hustler & The Champ tells of both men’s hardscrabble march to greatness, of their bitter decades-long rivalry, and finally of the televised shoot-out that revealed pocket billiards to millions even as it exposed the deep contradictions within all of organized competition. Through the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the resurgent 1960s, R.A. Dyer follows the lives of both men and tells the story of America’s conflicted love affair with the sport of rogues.

From Booklist

In 1978, Minnesota Fats played Willie Mosconi on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Fats was the most famous pool hustler in the world; Mosconi was the best pool player in the world. Where Fats was funny and lovable, Mosconi was flinty and unlikable—a match made in ratings heaven. The two embarked on a brief career together: while Fats entertained the audience, Mosconi won the matches. Dyer, the author of Hustler Days (2003) and a columnist for Billiards Digest, puts the events in historical context—lots of it—using the men as symbols of the long-running war between the soul of the game and its corporate image. It’s a great concept, and Dyer’s indefatigable digging unearths some gleaming nuggets. His you-are-there prose style can overreach, however (he writes “he would have said” too often), and he repeats key points the reader already understands. But for those who love pool for all the “wrong” reasons, Dyer is indispensable. After all, the name that became synonymous with pool was not that of clean-living Mosconi—but lying, cheating, overeating, unforgettable Fats. Graff, Keir

About the Author

R. A. Dyer is a columnist for the nation’s premier pool magazine, Billiards Digest. He is currently statehouse reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and before that, was a reporter for The Houston Chronicle, where he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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Additional information

Weight 1.34 lbs
Dimensions 9.07 × 6.35 × 1.08 in

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