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Best players I havent heard of...

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Offline bbtuna

  • 1465
  • TS, Dynamo, Tornado, Warrior, & Fireball
Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #30 on: February 14, 2008, 02:42:52 PM »
papafoos,

great to have you on board

Offline foosinaround69

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Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #31 on: February 14, 2008, 06:29:04 PM »
pappafoos,

              Iwas in FT Sill in 86.  I was in the newest part of the base at that time called "Hollywood" There was a place called the carousel for us guys to go to and play all sorts of games.

Offline papafoos

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Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #32 on: February 14, 2008, 10:25:22 PM »
foosinaround69, I ran a couple of tournaments for MWR around that time.  The first year we used a DM clone that played pretty bad.  The second year, I loaned them two tornadoes.

In 1985, two of our kids won Oklahoma State rookie doubles.  One was 12 and the other was 14 at the time.  I think that was their first large tournament.  The older guys played in a bar called Gertlestones and we had a couple of arcades that held tournaments.  I often wondered how many players stationed at Sill who just never was able to locate where we played.(no widespread internet back then)

bbtuna, thanks for the shoutout.  If you see K Rhoades, tell him hi for me.  When he says "who?", remind him that we used to go eat breakfast together every year at Worlds.  Maybe this will inspire him to get in here.  Tell him the smell of bengay is pretty potent here.

ED, I've got Tony Turner trying to play again.  Looks pretty rusty right now, but he still has the passion.  He can still pass.

Offline foosinaround69

  • 115
  • No garder snakeshot here, just the AnacondaBackpin
Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #33 on: February 14, 2008, 11:00:22 PM »
Pappafoos

        Funny you say that. As I said before I went to play off base at a pool hall and got beat by a real young kid hmmm?:'( Maybe he was one of your kids... lol ...or Tommy A ????..never know..
Of course to my defense I really had never played on tornado at that time. I was a dynamo man all the way!!! (gotta blame it on something...lol) ;D As for the base tourny the table they had was this small table but not too bad for what it was...I think it was a vulcan table...Painted men blue and white & red and white!!! Even had a horrible white ball that didn't roll all that good. I wish I could of went to a good tournament where you guys were!!!

Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #34 on: February 18, 2008, 07:50:25 PM »
well i am not claiming to be great because i have not played against anyone that is even remotely good or competitive at foosball. But on that note i have not lost in quite a long time i prolly only play against the same 10 people over and over again but the closest the games will get would be 10-4 at best. With that being said more of u "foosball experts" need to start playing in central new york. A tournament to enter would be nice but unfortunately foosball is dead in CNY and i have not been able to find a tournament to enter in my area...hint hint cough cough.......i believe the time has come for foosball in cny again and perhaps u can find a few more "foosball experts"

Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #35 on: February 19, 2008, 02:10:20 AM »
lookingforachallenge,

What part of CNY?


AC


Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #36 on: February 19, 2008, 02:51:40 PM »
I OWNED everyone i knew all the time...Not even close...scored 54 straight goals against a buddy of mine....and beat any two friends everytime......Then i went to a local tournament and was shocked....I did have a decent pull kick and a push....saw the snae shot an bought a table and for the past year have been bashing balls as much as possible....You will find that the game is decided on the 5 bar.  You can have a decent shot up front and still win if you get more chances to shoot.  Generally the great 5 bar guys are good 5 bar defensively because they understand passing... My strength is my 3 bar I can at times be ligts out against good defenders....but get beat on the 5 and thats why all ive been focusing on the most is the 5.  I get frustrated when i go two and out at the tournaments..but what keeps me focused and gives me the want to practice is the fact that I have a high percentage shot...and being told that by the big guns.....I HATE losing more than anyone...but if i don't learn something from it i might as well quit....

I guess what im saying is, if youve never played tournment level guys be prepared to be humbled....But if you really love to play find what you do well..work it...and then find out what you stink at and TRAIN it...

Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #37 on: February 19, 2008, 05:25:46 PM »
AC,

CORTLAND, CORTLAND COUNTY specifically...

Offline Rios

Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #38 on: February 20, 2008, 05:57:24 PM »
"What do you wanna bet says I can throw this football over them mountains?"

Offline Steve

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Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #39 on: February 20, 2008, 09:24:31 PM »
I to am 50 lost my wrist and some speed but the new players need so catching up to the 70s players. Does Bob Curtin still have his awsome pull shot I havent seen that in many years.

Offline foosinaround69

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Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #40 on: February 21, 2008, 01:24:17 AM »
"Hurtin Curtin" doesn't play as much as he used to so no he doesn't have that shot quite like he did. I will say I don't think there has ever and I dare say "EVER" been a harder or faster pull shot then his. For those of you who don't know him ask some old school players in your area and they will tell you what I'm saying is true...I promise....Wow!!!

Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #41 on: February 21, 2008, 09:57:19 AM »
coach woulda put me in wed won state,,,,,,  I be in a hot tub with the girl of my dreams....

Offline bbtuna

  • 1465
  • TS, Dynamo, Tornado, Warrior, & Fireball
Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #42 on: February 21, 2008, 01:47:23 PM »
i saw a bunch of the big names in the mid to late 70's and to this day, I have never seen a harder wrist shot than Wizwell's pull...then or since...almost frightening...much different than anything else I have ever seen...now I have seen one or two pullkicks that were "harder" but they were not well known players

I started and played 75-76-81 (ish) and i can say without hesitation that today's players are every bit as good and if they had banks and good angles to shoot consistently they would all do that every bit as good as in the past

Offline Steve

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Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #43 on: February 21, 2008, 06:21:06 PM »
I got to play wiz and doug at doulphen coin in Mt Pleasant we lost of course I remember any hole open he would hit he had a nice cut shot from his pull But Curtin had him beat on speed and power. sorry I cant spell played foosball instead on homework.

Re: Best players I havent heard of...
« Reply #44 on: February 15, 2011, 10:36:56 AM »
Okay, you guys are killing me with all the old names and places of my youth. 

On Bob "the giant killer" Curtain (so named because he invariably beat Fury in singles every time they played), I ran a Michigan State Championships for Tornado in 1996 and he showed up (not to compete, but just to socialize/reminisce) and we had a great trip down memory lane even then.  In fact, several of the regulars from late 70s/early 80s Dolphin Coin tournaments showed up that weekend.  (Dolphin Coin -- I loved those Mt. Pleasant tournaments and college bars!) 

On John Smith -- that was partially true.  He and Daniel played regularly within their local area, but didn't ever "tour" except for the big ones and even then they mostly kept in the south/southwest of the USA.  The first time I ever played them was at a Tornado Nationals in Oklahoma around 1984 or so, and they torched Spear and me.  Then again, we had never played against "real" Tornado players until that tournament (we were still trying to play TS/Dynamo-style).  But at our best we might not have beat them as they had apparently amassed a record number of consecutive tour match wins (something like 78 at the time) going into our match.  What I do remember most about that match was that John pretty much molested my defense in goalie and Spear's defense at the five-row with a style we in Colorado later came to call "sudden-impact, instant hammer." His pull shot was by no means a long raging deadman like I saw Wiswell do so many times on TS but an instantaneous take-off.  My bait defense -- usually quite effective on the smaller-goal TS and Dynamo tables) was useless because the instant I showed him any hole the ball was gone before I could close it up.  His five-bar series was the same in that he brought the ball to a stop next to his second man, ever so slightly edged into it to make Spear either hesitate or commit, then slam -- he seized the first hole he saw with a power lane or lightning wall before Spear could react (at the time you could slam passes better than now because the balls were softer and easier to catch). 

Anyway, Curtain had a blister of a pull, John Smith had one, and Wiswell was out of this world.  I remember at '79 Worlds in Minneapolis: when his matches were called he would go to a nearby table (in view of his opposing goalie) and slam in two or three racks consecutively on an open goal seemingly as hard as humanly possible.  On those TS Browntops, most solidly hit longs would go in and back out of the goal but in Wiswell's case they flew back out of the goal and up into the air and down the row of tables to his left.  Add in the recoil he threw in for maximum effect on those already shaky, lightweight tables and it was truly scary.  The net result was, however, that the opposing goalies lived on the long whole, and Wiswell would proceed to eat them alive with straights and splits.  (There was a young kid there who seemed to learn a lot from that, named Dave Gummeson...)

Another great pull-shooter from the same era was Ronny Nevois, whose techique at the time was to start the match with his first pull shot being literally the hardest split you've ever seen or imagined.  Then once both your defense (and butt cheeks) were totally locked up on the split, he'd pick you apart with straights and longs. 

Back to the original subject of this thread, my favorites (besides myself ;)) for "best players I haven't heard of" (but some of which you all might remember) might include Colorado's Erwin Burke, Dan Brack, Doug Moe, Lee Roley, Eric Baumgartner and Sergio Trevino (Gus Trevino's older brother, who took second in Super Singles to Dan Kaiser); Wisconsin's Aaron Gilmore (Amedio's older brother) and Ron Greenwald; Vermont/Oregon's Shaun Irish (who in the late 1980s went to a Tornado Worlds and videotaped it, went home to Essex Junction Vermont and practiced everything he saw until he could duplicate it exactly, came back the next year and whupped on a bunch of Pros but got overrun 'cause he had no defense); Ohio's Frank Garbuglio; Buffalo's stunningly good looking brother and sister team of Jeff and Sharon Clark (anyone remember "Bob-B-Q's"?); and Chicago's Jerry "JK" Knowles, George Petroheleos, and Don Becker (seen on the cover of "The Complete Book of Foosball" playing against Johnny Lott).  If I really think about it I'm sure I could come up with a list of many more (especially from Colorado), but in my view these were all amazing, sometimes even extraordinary players who for various reasons either never toured or never really followed up on their total foosball potential.  (You know the usual list of silly "distractions" or excuses, like having a real life, work, school, family, other obligations/other sports, bankrupt pro tours/manufacturers, etc). 

Well, that's my food for thought for now...

Respectfully submitted,
Larry Davis

"There's a fine line between 'hobby' and 'obsession' and I... I crossed that line many years ago." 


« Last Edit: December 05, 2011, 09:31:32 AM by LarryDavis »