It's Friday night, and New York City's—maybe even the country's—most iconic pool hall, Amsterdam Billiards at Fourth Avenue and 11th Street near Union Square, is sold out for a match billed as a "battle of the generations." The game is double jeopardy: The victor must win nine racks of nine-ball and five racks of eight-ball. Tickets cost 40 bucks a pop.
On one side of the nine-foot Brunswick table is Fedor Gorst, AKA "The Ghost," currently the number-one ranked nine-ball shooter on the planet. The 24-year-old Moscow native left Russia and immigrated to southern Indiana in 2022, effectively switching teams at the Mosconi Cup, which pits Europe and America's champs against each other. He is now a permanent U.S. resident.
In the other corner is Earl "The Pearl" Strickland, the 63-year-old Hall of Famer from Roseboro, North Carolina, who was also, in his time, the man to beat. He's sporting the same wiry mustache he's always had and a sweatshirt with his sponsor's sticker, the cue manufacturer JFlowers, taped haphazardly over the breast.
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