Word: efren
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...rookie no-name could pull that off. Besides, pool was an American game. Sure there were good players from Europe, Japan and Taiwan, and there was a sportswriter, John Grissim, who'd been to the Philippines and claimed there were guys in that country, like a kid named Efren Reyes, who could beat anyone anywhere. But the Americans were still dominant. And yet Morales' buddies were throwing out crazy odds, "giving three or four games on the wire," recalls former pro player and promoter Jay Helfert. "The top American players didn't have to win the match, all they...
...tournament. And he cleaned up in the back room, during the big-money action that starts when the crowds go home. Before the fans left, though, the mystery shark signed a few autographs. Only then did he reveal himself, signing not Caesar Morales, but his real name, Efren Reyes...
...Philippines, Efren is known simply as "The Magician," or "Bata," Tagalog for "Kid." Since revealing himself in Texas, Reyes has toured the world, winning, dazz-ling, realigning the game's balance of power and becoming his country's sole bona fide international sports superstar. Efren's exploits are like possessions, bundled up by his countrymen as stories to be shared or traded. The government awarded him the Philippine Legion of Honor in 1999 and his face, along with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's, greets arrivals at Manila's airport. Pool cues have became a hot accessory and new halls have...
...produced one of the most memorable shots on record. "Earl left him on the end rail totally tied up behind the nine ball," recalls Helfert, the tournament director. "It looked like there was no possible way for him to hit the object ball, which I think was the eight. Efren looked at it for a while, then he kicked the cue two rails back and forth across the table, hit the edge of the eight, made the eight, got position on the nine and ran out and won the match. It's by far the most amazing...
Outside, the children are prepared with fresh flowers. They file up the road to the church, singing, four of them bearing the little coffin on a crude wooden frame. Inside, Don Efren plays a twangy banjo and Senora Gudelia and Senora Rosa sing an endless song in nasal harmony while two cousins perform a funereal ritual before the coffin. The other children play for their mothers' attention, or titter, or hold back their tears...