My Visit with Bugs

I visited Bugs at St Margaret's Hosp. monday. I brought him another 1k (grand) collected from the good folks who participated in Steve Booth's charity raffle. I have another 1k to give to his daughter Sondrea tomorrow. That makes about 5k so far with more to come. Later, for a real revelation regarding how tuned in Bug's family was to his profession.

You might never see another champion the likes of the mighty Bugs Rucker. He could play anywhere, on any table, for any bet. He didn't even have his own cue stick. Even if someone gave him one, he would usually sell it within a week. He could play with one directly out of the wall racks. He ducked no champions, but many champions ducked him. If you were dumb enough to play him a short set, like two out of three for all of it, nobody outside of Cornbread Red or Ronnie Allen could handle that kind of pressure like he could. Let's celebrate him a little while he is still with us.

Bug's daughter Sondrea and I were visiting him at the same time, whereupon I discovered that she didn't have a clue as to what her daddy did for a living for all those years. Finding out he was the world's bank pool champion for 20 yrs. and a member of the Bank Pool, and One Pocket Hall of Fame was a complete surprise to her. All she could relate to what he did was that he would leave town for a few weeks and return home flush with money. It turns out nobody in the immediate family knew anything about his pool career including his son, his mother and his wife! "They thought I was just a bum." was Bug's reply to me. Why he never told them anything remains a mystery. I can only guess that his family was probably very religious and strait-laced. (This later proved to be the case)

Bug's Birthday
Today, Aug 18, is Leonard "Bugs" Rucker's 69th birthday. He is spending the day in St Margaret's hospital with a bad case of diabetes and a missing leg. He asked me to bring him a special birthday lunch, king crab legs and baby-back ribs. I dont know if that's a healthy thing to do, but I'm gonna do it anyway. The meal cost pretty good too, so I put him to work autographing balls. I brought my son, Dino with me. Bugs hadn't seen Dino in about 15 years, but his mind is still sharp and he recognized and acknowledged Dino immediately. That made my son feel good and glad that he had come with me. Happy birthday to a great champion.