Promoting The Game...

Irene writes...One Saturday afternoon late last summer, my husband Mike was sitting at the bar getting "primed" for the blind draw doubles soft-tip tournament that was about an hour from starting.

We were new to the Houston area, so Mike didn't know any better.

In walked a Mexican fellow that we (my husband and I) had never seen before. He was a quiet, shy kind of guy. He pulled out some darts and commenced playing a lone cricket game on an empty soft tip board.

While this was going on, Mike was watching something on TV and wasn't paying any attention to what was happening just behind his back. I was involved in a cricket game on another board, but I kept getting distracted by all the noise coming from the lone cricket game. I mean to tell you every dart was hitting in the triples and making that racket!

Anyway, after awhile, my husband decides to get with the program and warm up. I said, "Mike, you ought to play a warm up game with this guy." (I know I'm just awful, but I couldn't help it!)

Introductions were made, and Mike's thinking he's about to promote the game of darts and help this poor Mexican kid learn how to play (ha ha). Needless to say "Al the Shooter" creamed my poor unsuspecting husband. After the night was over and Al was pocketing his first place winnings, Mike congratulated him and then said to me, "My God! Did you see him shoot?" I said I knew from the very first game he threw that he was the best shooter I had ever seen.

Just then my husband realized how I had set him up with that practice game. We all three laughed until we cried. It turns out that Al is one of Houston's top darters! He carries his darts tucked under his ball cap behind his ear and has a little dart board on a gold chain hanging around his neck. He's a great darter and a great sportsman, too. I can safely say Al taught Mike and I a thing or two about darts that day!