Rumor Has It

Last time I posted was from Kansas, but I didn't mean it would be my last post about Kansas. Still have lots of good material from my final night there, which was last Saturday. I went to visit a place I'd been to before, but never mentioned by name on this blog. It's called Rumors and it's south of downtown Wichita a few miles. I'd made reference to it last year, about how I went in and there was a group of people playing a 10-ball game called "Bowling." This time there was a scotch doubles tournament going on, taking up four or five of the bar's nine tables (all of which are coin-ops). I went to a corner table and played a few games by myself. Nearby I noticed a 1987 newspaper article from the Wichita Eagle that had been framed and hung on the wall. It was a feature about the owner, Terry Young, who had at that point just recently opened Rumors.

After reading the article I went over to watch the tournament folks. I noticed one person was alone at a table practicing, so I went up to him and asked if he knew who Terry was. I was thinking surely the man must've moved on, that there had been a change of ownership, etc. Or if not, he just simply wouldn't be present. Lo and behold, Terry had been in the room the whole time, manning the loudspeaker and running the tournament. I introduced myself and hinted that I'd like to take some pictures. I wasn't surpised that he seemed a tad reluctant, citing the legal aspects of taking pictures of people without permission. So I pointed to the most colorful person in the room, Bill (above), and went up and asked him about being photographed. He offered that he was born in Toledo and spent some time on the rodeo circuit. He agreed to be photographed as long as there was something in it for Rumors. I said I'd send Rumors a print.

After chatting some more with Terry I went back to the guy who had been practicing alone, Jason (below), and asked if he wanted to play. I racked for 8-ball and he sunk the 8 on the break! Terry went and got a key to the table so that I wouldn't have to fork over another 75 cents to retrieve the 8. This time when he broke he sunk nothing. I made a decent run and then played safe. I won that game and he still had five or so left on the table. Then it was my turn to break. I sunk nothing and then he ran the table on me. I made a joke about how few innings we'd played in three games, in about as many minutes. What was left of my solids, 1-7, I ran out 9-ball style. By then I felt I had at least shown those who were watching that I was somewhat comfortable around a pool table. Terry came up to me and asked if I'd like to enter their upcoming 3-ball tournament. Absolutely, I thought. I forked over a $5 and took a seat near some other players.

Three-ball, or as readers of this blog know I like to refer to as San Gennaro Pool, is played differently than what I'm used to. I'm used to "racking" the three balls in a triangle. At Rumors, they line them up in a row parallel to the long rails of the table. What little betting I've done at 3-ball is more of the dollar-per-person variety. At Rumors, it's five bucks up front but each player gets three rounds to get the lowest total score. The break counts as one shot and a scratch is a one-shot penalty. In my rounds I scored a 4, 6, and a 5 for a total of 15. Jason came in first place with 12 shots, and there was a play-off for second place. At Rumors, if you make the Ace (all three balls in on the break) you'll get a huge chunk of change. It's gone up every week and is now up to I think $470.