Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious
True Crime Sports Biography Travelogue Underdog Story Billiards & Pool Mental Health Memoir
Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious is the compulsively readable 2007 biography that follows Danny “Kid Delicious” Basavich, a morbidly-obese, fast-talking New Jersey kid who flees a dead-end job, hits the interstate in a battered Cadillac, and becomes the most feared money player in American pool. In crisp, cinematic scenes, Sports Illustrated writer L. Jon Wertheim charts Kid Delicious’s transformation from railbird to road warrior, racking up $100,000-plus in back-room hustles and high-stakes nine-ball before crashing into depression, bankruptcy, and one last make-or-break match in Reno. The result is a sports book that reads like a novel—part travelogue, part character study, and part underdog thriller that will keep even non-pool fans turning pages long past midnight.
What sets this hardcover apart is the depth of Wertheim’s access: he spent two years riding shotgun on the road, recording every juke-joint hustle, every 3 a.m. diner conversation, and every psychological twist that separates a champ from a chump. Readers get the click of clay balls, the smell of stale smoke, and the electric hush before a $5,000 break, but they also get an unflinching look at addiction, friendship, and the cost of living on felt and fumes. The book has since become a cult classic among players; copies in very-good, unmarked, jacket-protected condition like this one are snapped up quickly by collectors who know that first-edition printings are already scarce in the wild.
For the buyer, this is a chance to own the definitive story of modern American pool without the shelf-wear, smells, or inscriptions that plague most used copies. Whether you’re a league shooter looking for inspiration, a true-crime buff who loves road sagas, or simply hunting a gripping gift for the young-adult or adult reader who thinks they’ve read every sports underdog tale, Running the Table delivers the perfect break.
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