El Jon Stops by the Watercooler

Mornin'. Grab yourself one of those tiny paper cups (you know, the ones that look like an inverted dunce cap) and join your friends here to talk about the events of the day in tennis. Today, I have news that will please all of you L. Jon Wertheim fans: El Jon has a new book out, and the only thing even remotely disappointing about this is that it isn't a tennis book. In fact, you probably couldn't further from a tennis book than Running the Table (although that might be an pat title for a Roger Federer autobiography), which is making a living at pool the old-fashioned way - by hustling.

Subcultures are always fascinating, and this is one of the more compelling ones. It's kind of like small-time boxing, except less clean and above board. If that doesn't make you rush out to buy the book, you'd better stick with Needlepoint the Polish Way or Confessions of a Model Railroad Freak. Here's some of publisher Houghton-Mifflin's PR copy:

"The elusive world of the pool hustler is not widely known and is part of a dying subculture in today’s technologically savvy world. In RUNNING THE TABLE (Houghton Mifflin, October 9, 2007) Sports Illustrated writer L. Jon Wertheim tells the true story of Danny “Kid Delicious” Basavich. You’ll be amazed how this overweight, bipolar kid with a voice like Wolfman Jack’s and an obsession with pool managed to stay incognito and hustle for as long as he did and win as much money as he did. RUNNING THE TABLE follows Kid Delicious and his setup man, Bristol Bob, on a four-year hustling odyssey in pool parlors and dives across America."

Pretty intriguing, no? I never had the pleasure to meet The Kid. I was invited to lunch with Jon and The Kid recently, but I was during my vacation so I missed it. But Jon told me quite a bit about The Kids story as he was working on the book, and all of it was fascinating. Jon recently did an interview for an on-line book site, and you can read that here.

Running The Table elicited some jacket-worthy praise from otherr authors, including the author of Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis. How's this for an endorsement: "L. Jon Wertheim is one of America’s best sportswriters, but Running the Table is much more than just a sports book. Yes, this road story about a bipolar pool hustler is filled with colorful characters, rich detail, and rat-a-tat action. But it is also something more important: an authoritative account of the last dying days of a great American subculture.”

You may remember a few months ago I heaped praise on one of the funniest, strangest, most oddly compelling books I've read in ages, Samuel W.Fussell's Muscle. Running the Table has the potential to be just as much of a literary bottle-rocket, and I look forward to reading it.

I spoke to Jon this morning and he sends his best - he actually refers to y'all as The Tribe. I'm going to lean on him to maybe give away a few signed copies of the book, perhaps via some kind of a contest here. Maybe he'll drop by and post a comment at some point.

PS - in case you didn't catch me the first time around, I will be off today and tomorrow, and watching Davis Cup over the weekend up at the farm in game-rich Andes.