August 15, 2021
A list of tennis players
- Bjorn Borg
- John McEnroe
- Boris Becker
- Jennifer Capriati
- Andre Agassi
- Martina Hingis
- Kim Clijsters
- Justine Henin
- Mardy Fish
- Jelena Dokic
- Mirjana Lucic
- Serena Williams*
- Ashleigh Barty
- Bernard Tomic
- Nick Kyrgios
If you are a reasonable tennis fan, or even just a casual observer, you can probably guess the commonality amongst this grouping. They all walked away from tennis, to varying degrees, when they were at or withing shouting distance of the top of the sport. That is, they left, or started minimizing their participation in the sport at a point in time in which they were or should have been peaking.
*The inclusion of Serena Williams (and probably Venus too) is debatable. But Serena has essentially played only 10 tournaments a year for more than a decade, taking ample time away from the sport to pursue her other interests, like making music videos with her friend Beyoncé. Remember when she won the 2007 Australian Open while starting the year ranked 88? She's always had her ups and downs. And ups.
The biographies of these players contravenes the narrative of the invincible young athlete in their early to mid twenties. The ones who are supposed to be carefree because their entire life is ahead of them. The ones who are supposed to be able to play a grinding three hours one only to wake up the next and be able to do it again. The ones who get to travel the globe and see and experience and taste and smell things that us mere mortals will never get to experience. The ones who shake off a loss because they've got plenty of money and can always find a good party in Monte Carlo to lift their spirits.
Only it doesn't always (usually doesn't) work that way. That drive they possessed to become the best, when not moderated, can burn them out mentally, if not physically. That pressure to the best can make it feel like you are drowning when you stumble and are not living up to the expectations that you or others (sometimes abusive others) have placed on you. Sometimes you are coronated as a teenage before you've developed the emotional skills to handle these sorts of things, before you've had to time to figure out who you are as a person, if you really like to do this thing that you're really good at. Sometimes the body really is breaking down, but you hide it well and from the outside people cannot understand the physical anguish that turns into mental anguish.
Each player has their own story. Many of those who step away do try and comeback to varying degrees of success. Some found the sport passed them by. While some enjoyed high levels of success, their results for downgraded for not living up to their previously established ridiculously high standards. Some came back to moderate success, but at least with the peace of mind that they were playing for themselves and their own well being. Some surpassed their previous successes, perhaps because they had gained a new perspective or perhaps only because they were always preternaturally talented.
Even the ones that do manage to live up to the weight of old expectations can be dogged by the imagined "what might have been".
How many more titles would they have won if they hadn't stepped away?
The answer is pretty much always zero, because it's hard to win if you don't want it.
But what if they could have held it together?
If only they could just be robots...
Be happy with what they gave, not disappointed with what they weren't able to.
In case it's not abundantly clear, this is a preamble for a few words on Naomi Osaka. I've had a few people who are casually aware of the sport (and know I am a huge tennis fan) ask me, "What's the deal with Naomi Osaka?" The pernicious subtext to the question is the stigmatization of mental health concerns. Naomi Osaka committed the mortal sin of confessing that she's gone through periods of being very sad, which causes a certain group of people (and I'm sure there is a subtext of race and or gender here) to label her a crybaby or snowflake because she also happens to be the highest paid female athlete on the planet. Let it be known to all, what she is going through has happened before and it will happen again. The way in which she is dealing with it is certainly more healthy than substance abuse or other kinds of self harm. When/if she chooses to come back, don't call it a comeback. It's history repeating itself.
(I actually have multiple takes, so I could go on, but it wraps up pretty nicely there.)
The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS
The much delayed August 15 rankings. I finally have time to throw something together and one of the segments ties into the Naomi Osaka/mental health angle, so it seemed appropriate to circle back a few weeks as opposed to just skipping it because of the time I lost due to travel/watching US Open tennis.
Pogue's segment on the Young@Heart Chorus is not up for consideration since it originally aired last December. Although there is a nice epilogue added on about the group's first live performance as we reemerge from the COVID pandemic/ignore the delta variant. Also unrankable, the "New York State of Mind" music video. If a bunch of luminaries of the NYC stage want to come together to cover a song in homage to their city, there are only two options that would warrant a ranking. Depending on the execution, it could even land at #1.
Anyway, since this is several weeks late now, we're going to blow through these pretty fast.
Connor covers headed over to America's Left out in mountains of California and Oregon, taking over Luke Burbank for a week, to speak with a few people who live a solitary life atop a mountains to work as fire lookouts. You know I'm a sucker for a breathtaking vista:
I say this every week, but man, do I need to go experience some of these things myself.
I wonder if I had the lookout job, could I use the solitude to catch up on reading and writing. I bet that you actually don't get that much down time though. You can't be a lookout with your eyes on a page or a screen.
I'm by no means a Luddite, but I do appreciate an anachronism so it's kind of quaint and reassuring that the lookouts rely on one hundred year old technology to locate the position of a fire once they see smoke and call it in.
2) Lee Cowan
The Naomi Osaka mental health angle definitely ties into Lee's segment about high performing high school students for whom the pandemic has actually provided a respite form stress and anxiety. I definitely have felt the need to perform well academically to point of making myself sick once or twice in college. I can't say I ever felt that way in high school. I'll sound like a prick saying it, but I can't recall there being a subject/material/test in high school where I would have been nervous because it all came very easily to me. Most of college did too, but there were definitely times and the degree of difficulty went up where I definitely got a little worked up trying to study and prepare for an exam.
My coping mechanism was to sleep. While others would proudly boast of pulling an all-nighter to cram, I usually decided around 9 or 10 PM that I wasn't going to be any more prepared than I was and further preparation would only cause more anxiety. However, I was bad at finding ways to relax. No matter what I would do, I would still be thinking about the upcoming exam, so I figured the best way to short circuit the problem was simply to be unconscious. I didn't use sleeping pills or anything like that. Sometimes it worked.
Anyway, I never relished my scholastic aptitude all that much. For one, I always knew that there's a lot of people smarted than out there doing the same things as I can do, only better. Big fish in a small pond and all that. Second, I think I understood that I could have all the smarts in the world, but without something to drive me, I'm probably not going to be someone all that noteworthy. Third, I just don't think that I, or maybe anyone, takes joy in the things that come easily to them. The things that you have to work hard for, the things you have to fight for, end up being most fulfilling. I was probably most proud of making the varsity baseball team in high school, because it was something I had to work hard to earn. And because from a cursory glance no one expected it from me. I enjoyed proving people wrong. I didn't feel that way about my grades.
Baseball ended up going a little bit sideways for reasons not worth getting into at this juncture.
Lee also hosted, so you could say that the 2 spot undervalues Lee's work this week.
I think the first thing I would have seen Marlee Matlin on was Sesame Street. It's just that for some reason, I feel like I always knew who she was, even when I was kid, even though I can't actually name very many things she's been in. When she would appear in things (I think there were a lot of TV guest spots and maybe a movie here and there) I'd always think, "Hey, I know her." I probably remember her best from The West Wing, because, as previous noted, I'm a sucker for an Aaron Sorkin monologue. I feel like it's a testament to something that the deaf Marlee Matlin fit in perfectly into a verbose, fast paced show built around witty banter. I feel like its trite to say, underestimate someone with an impairment at your own risk, which sound like it comes from a grade school "Everybody Counts" program.
Here is the obligatory Seinfeld clip:
I think this is a reused anecdote, but in high school, I wrote a satirical op-ed entitled "Radioctive Geese are Ruining Our Outfield" to complain the poor state of our baseball field. As a converted outfielder, defense was my shortcoming and the random ruts and divots that covered the field did not help. And yes, Canadian geese were known to take a nap in the outfield from time to time. If I can go back and find it, I'll repost it some day for posterity to see if it holds up.
Geese mate for life. Steve extracts some wonderful schmaltz from it. Don't we all love to anthropomorphize animals?
Baby animals always cute. Even bison. Especially bison.
Kelefa talks to old school music producer Clive Davis about the NYC "Homecoming Concert".
Clive has been around for a long time and the interview is chock full of nostalgia. The concert happened weeks ago now, the segment is still worth it for the inclusion of an old clip of Clive reciting lyrics to Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded By the Light".
Until maybe five years ago, I was actually only familiar Manfred Mann version. That version is... different from Springsteen's. The Manfred Mann version became the more famous version, somewhat like Jimi Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower" eclipsing Bob Dylan's. But Mann's take seems to change the meaning of the song, which has become an overused stand in to quickly represent late 70's decadence in various period movies and TV shows. Don't get me wrong, I fall for it and actually like Manfred Mann's version. But, you know, I don't think Clive Davis had that in mind when he was reciting the lyrics to get Springsteen's first album made.
Anyway, I also very much misunderstood the lyrics until Clive recited them. Manfred Mann pronounces "deuce" a bit too much like "douche" and I think it's intentional.
7) Chip Reid
Chip did a story about a new museum in Washington D.C. called Planet Word. It's all about words. The building itself, which is pretty cool, is a historical school building rehabbed by Ann Friedman, wife of thrice Pulitzer Prize winner and golf enthusiast, Tom Friedman. The museum is aimed at school aged kids. I am a couple years from 40. The thought makes me shudder. I am not the target demo for the museum.
I'm all Afghanistaned out.
I'll modify Mr. Hammond's aphorism: I don't blame people for their mistakes, but I do ask that they learn from them.
An older story got reused, but no one got Teichnerized. Well maybe that music video did. I actually like a lot of the people who were in it, but shouldn't this have really ended the celebrity sing along.
I can't decide what's the best parody of the genre. The contestants are:
1. "Kidney Now", 30 Rock
2. "We're Sending Our Love Down the Well", The Simpsons
3. "In the End", Sundry ESPN talking heads
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