Our road stories column is the home for those stories from pool's past. These are stories that have been told to us by various people at various times. There will not be a single contributor but rather different stories from different people. Last months story is available here.
	A World Champion? This months story comes from Jimmy Caras. Back in 1926, on Jan 13th, Jimmy was 17, living in Delaware and going to high school. Back then, you could buy a loaf of bread for 10 cents....and a full course dinner for four for only 65 cents! Jimmy's Dad had a second floor pool room with ten tables. Across the street, there was a pool room with 22 tables, owned by Ralph Greenleaf's Dad. Greenleaf played pool at his Daddy's poolroom, and then decided to leave, to play pool across the country. While he was gone, he became a Pool Champion, one of the best players in the World. Back in those days, there were mostly exhibitions, not many tournaments. The good player's would travel around the United States and play locals, in front of large audiences, in these exhibitions. Greenleaf came back to Delaware to play some of these exhibitions. Greenleaf was to come and play the State Champion, Joe Rego, at his Dad's pool room in the afternoon and then go across the street and play Jimmy (the 17-year-old kid), in the evening at Jimmy's Dad's poolroom. There were over 300 people watching the exhibitions this day. Greenleaf beat the state champion in the afternoon (as he was suppose to) and then came over play Jimmy some straight pool in the evening. Well, here's Jimmy, this kid, playing this champion in front of all these people, and Jimmy beats Greenleaf 100-97! After the exhibition with Jimmy, Greenleaf's wife, Princess Nai Tai came up to Greenleaf and looked him straight in the face and then smacked him! Right in front of everybody! She was trembling as she said, "What? A World Champion?.... and you let a high school kid beat ya!?!" All copyrights are owned by AzBilliards. No duplication is allowed without permission.