Those who knew him best said that, when not at the table, Brooks's temperament veered wildly from crass and angry to suave and generous with his money. Booth wrote that "even when the color barrier was finally broken, many of them, like Strawberry, still avoided making the switch to tournament play because frankly, they could make more money 'undercover.' "īrooks's signature at the pool table was patience and a tendency to avoid an easy shot if it meant long-term advantage. Until the late 1960s, black players were widely prohibited from professional tournaments. "Guys like Strawberry went after the very best high stakes players they could find - fellow hustlers that were good enough themselves that it was no sure thing that 'Straw' would win, but of course much more often than not, he would." Steve Booth, a New Hampshire-based one-pocket player who administers the Web site, wrote in an e-mail: "Top players like Strawberry are not to be confused with low-stakes 'scufflers' that are the kind of guys that slip into a bar and clean out the locals for $5 or $10 a game. He also was a favorite at private, invitation-only games filled with millionaires looking for gambling action. Rarely entering official contests, he preferred after-hours matches against such major pool talent as Grady Mathews, Richie Florence and Bill Staton. "If there's a dollar in Chicago, ol' Berry's gonna come back with at least a quarter of it," he bragged to one of his ex-wives before a trip to the Midwest. The game, often compared strategically with chess, involves two competitors trying to sink eight balls into a designated pocket while blocking the other player from doing the same.Īt his peak, Brooks made and lost tens of thousands of dollars a trip while traveling on the professional pool circuit. In the 1960s and early 1970s, before he went to jail the first time, Brooks had few equals in Washington as a one-pocket pool hustler. 9 into the One Pocket Hall of Fame in Louisville. When he entered a pool hall with his trim, muscular build, he had a confident strut that one friend described as "Frank Sinatra walking into a restaurant in 1958." He was scheduled to be inducted Jan. 17 at his home in Washington, also was very much a celebrity of the one-pocket pool world. In his 73 years, Melvin "Strawberry" Brooks was many things - an Army veteran, an operator of after-hours social clubs, a ladies man with at least nine children, an unpredictable but often loyal friend, a criminal twice jailed on drug-related charges and a Muslim convert called Askia El Amin.īrooks, who died of lung cancer Dec.
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