Danny Diliberto (Bille Billing photo)
Early in the afternoon I got a text. All it said was “Danny passed this morning”. The news hit my stomach like a punch, even though Danny had been in ill health for quite a while and we had all been expecting the inevitable. But Danny DiLiberto had always been bigger than life, so you sorta expected him to find a way to beat the odds as he had always done during his glory days. But this time, the other guy got to call for the rack.
It will always be one of my best memories, the time I spent with Danny while we put together “Road Player”, the book about his adventures on the road, many of which were actually true. True or fantasy, they all showed the great spirit who came to be so talented in many different areas. He was a pro at four sports, all of which began with a ‘B’. He was a fantastic baseball player and had a favorite bet where he would wager that he could throw a ball or a rock or whatever further than anyone would believe. He took money from pros whose tosses always came up way short of where Danny could land his missile. He was also a great bowler and as a boxer he trained under Angelo Dundee (Ali’s trainer) and had 14 bouts, none of which he lost. He would have been a fantastic boxer but he was found to have glass hands and he finished many fights with broken fingers and shattered hands. Which left him with billiards.
And that worked out pretty well. Only occasionally a tournament player, Danny made his living in the local bars and pool rooms. He lived on the edge for much of his life, with his ability to afford dinner and a hotel room often dependent upon his ability to pocket balls earlier in the day.
Danny would not want sadness now, but celebration. Celebration that he never had to, as he would say, “Work a square job for a single day in my life”. Even though his life was often hard, he always expressed great sympathies for “the squares who have to get up every day and go work for someone else”.
With the passing of Danny DiLiberto, the storied generation of players that began with those in Johnston City has come to an end. They all entertained our imaginations with stories and unmatched cuemanship, and Danny D was always one the brightest flames in that exalted group of candles.
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