CBS Sunday Morning Power Rankings

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'...

So this will probably be a short post. I don't know why I didn't get around to a recap last week. Here is a short list of possible reason: I am lazy. I needed a break. I was busy. The episode wasn't the most compelling. Sports. I.e. preoccupied with tennis (Wimbledon), baseball (All Star game), and basketball (NBA Finals). The power rankings committee was tardy in tabulating and submitting the results. Some combination of the above. Anyway, the finals are over, the Reds are losing again and nothing important happens in tennis until next week, and even then I'm more interested in the prospect of seeing some live tennis than I am in watching a spectatorless Olympic tourney where only about half the top players are attending. How far has American Men's tennis fallen when I have to Google one of the 4 entrants into the singles draw because I've never heard of them? (Apologies to Marcos Giron, who is apparently #64 in the world.) The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS...

Not that anyone is actively following the CBS Sunday Morning Power Rankings , but I know I'm behind. Look, it's officially summertime. This past Sunday was probably the nicest day of the summer, low 80's, sunshine. I spent most of my time outside. I rode a bike. I grilled out. I even cooled off in the pool while I could enjoy the outdoors without it being oppressively hot and muggy. Also, I had a home improvement project I needed to knock out. Not that I did that on my own. Shout out to my pops (I never previously referred to him as such.) for helping me out with said HI project. Anyway, I've been saying these things since May, right? I don't get paid to do this, so I could just stop and move on with my life, but my goal is to stick with it for at least a year. Hopefully, I'll continue on, but I also hope to have other another writing project off the ground by then and I don't know if I'll have time for both. There. I wrote it down on the internet, which...

It was an absurdly lovely day out, so I spent most of the day outside either on a bike ride: or sitting on my deck reading Joel Drucker's extremely deep dive into the 1972 Davis Cup Final between the US and Romania from Racquet Magazine Issue 15 , "Battles of Good & Evil." Calling Drucker's nonfiction an essay or article gives it short shrift both in terms of the quality of the writing and the sheer length of the piece. It was one of the best things I've read in recent memory. I'd link to it, but Racquet's business model means that only a select few pieces ever get posted online. All I can really link to Joel's remembrance of one of the piece's central figures, Dennis Ralston , shortly after he passed away. I'm guessing you don't have a subscription to Racquet (which, to be fair, is a bit steep). If you find a copy and have and hour or two, I highly recommend "Battles of Good & Evil." You don't have to be a tennis fan ...

This week was Easter Sunday and days surrounding a weekend were a bit of a mini spring break for the power rankings committee, so apologies ahead of time for this being somewhat of a tardy, yet perfunctory entry. Sadly, I don't have much to offer in the way of blathering or pontification this week, so if that's what you tune for, sorry to disappoint. If my meandering musings are not your cup of tea: Sorry, The Ballad of Weaves #53: Part 3 is bumped yet again. It has officially turned into the running Matt Damon gag of this blog . Next weekend, I promise I'll have time to finish the story (if anyone cares...) The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS! 1) Tracy Smith Did we jump the gun by putting Tracy at #2 last week ? Call it weakness if you want, but you try and resist when someone favorably compares your writing to F. Scott Fitzgerald, even jokingly. We'll give anyone a one week bump for flattery. But you've got to earn the top spot and there is no question that Tra...

Spring has sprung on CBS Sunday Morning. In the northern hemisphere, it's warming up and the amount of daylight now exceeds 12 hours per day. I can tell because after I get off work, I still have time to go for a bike ride or a run. As escapism, CBS Sunday Morning functions much better as a winter show. It can be relied upon to provide a window to wonders that are not accessible while we are mostly shut inside. For the same reason, it was also an excellent pandemic show. As winter thaws and I can see daylight and spring from my own window and not just the window that Sunday Morning provides, the allure of the show starts to be diminished. The quality of the show does not diminish and part of the spirit of Sunday Morning is to go and experience things for yourself. The show encourages you to get out there and experience things - ratings hit be damned. Sunday Morning is a sampler of hors d'oeuveres. Each person must decide upon a satisfying entrée of their own design. Now contin...