He was a member of the United States national team which won the silver medal in Baseball at the 1987 Pan American Games and was inducted into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.

He attended La Salle College High School in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, then pitched for the Georgia Tech baseball team from 1985 to 1988.

[1] Playing for Georgia Tech, he was part of the team which won four consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament championships.

[4] Poole was traded from the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Texas Rangers for minor-league pitchers Steve Allen and David Lynch and cash on December 29.

[6][7] He was the final Orioles winning pitcher at Memorial Stadium in a 7–3 victory over the Detroit Tigers in the penultimate MLB game ever at that ballpark on October 5, 1991.

The next batter Poole faced to start the bottom of the sixth was David Justice who, with a 1–1 count,[11] hit a high-and inside fastball for a home run over the right-field fence.

Prior to the homer in the top of the sixth, he had his first MLB at bat in which he fouled out to McGriff in an unsuccessful attempt to bunt over to second Tony Peña who had led off the inning with the Indians' only hit of the game.

[2] Following retirement at the end of the 2000 season, Poole was a fundraiser and supporter of the Alexander Tharpe Fund for the Georgia Teach baseball program.