Sphairistikè, Anyone?

Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in three straight sets. He challenged her to a match while boasting of his superior male attributes. Billie Jean King won six Wimbledon singles championships and four U.S. Open titles. She was ranked No. 1 in the world for five years. She defeated Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Margaret Court, but is probably best remembered for the match with Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes".
 

 

Sorry... not for showing up drugged but for not having brought enough to share.

Funny that I cannot picture the way from where we lived in Millard, Nebraska, to the courts in Omaha where I often played. Just gone but it is easy to remember the smooth and powerful groundstrokes of the skinny blond kid whose father was our orthopedic man and the respect that he had for the game and for other players.

If he had court time and had worn out an opponent, he would often look around and ask: "Wanna hit a few?"

There was a league there of old guys, poster boys for Ace bandages and elastic joint supports. They looked better than they were by playing the percentages... heading immediately for where they figured your shot would go. They were often right and ready.

I was better than my wife but her beauty, doggedness and good humor evened things up and we had great fun playing.

Where's MissIve?

Billie Jean King, was simply the Better Man .......

janej78 ~

I like how you left out the bad behavior trio of Nastase, Connors and McEnroe.
Nice story about mom.

bebe~ Your question yesterday about the "cat woman"- No, it's not safe for her to go out alone in public. The cat was fine after 15 hours of being trapped in a wheelie bin. Which begs the question: Why didn't the person who observed & filmed the incident rescue the cat?
Tennis? OMG, wev'e done Wimbledon. Yawn. I know some people love it & a good time to nip down to the supermarket is when there's a big match on TV. Hooray, parking spaces, no queues at the checkout. Table tennis, or ping-pong, I've played for hours out of desperation to get kids in institutions off their backsides. Last time I got roped into a game of babminton, I'll swear there was a hole in my racquet. Playing hand-eye co-ordination games in varifocal specs ain't easy.
Oooohhhh- I'm so bored with Sport. Over here, the football season & the cricket season overlap, so what with coverage of the US Open as well, the sports reports go on for ever. The best sport thing I saw was coverage of the Welsh Bog-Snorkelling Championships.
There's a big scandal on about alleged fixing of an England v Pakistan match. It seems even cricket is not cricket these days!
 

Favorite  mano  a  mano  sport  would  chess.   You   get  wiser  with  age.

Favourite competitive sport? Making home-made catapults from Y-shaped sticks & tyre inner tubes with my brothers & shooting 10 empty tin cans off the garden wall contests. O, you had to have a leather bit to put the stone in - the toe of an outgrown shoe is ideal.

hazel ~ I'm with you one the sport thing. Major yawn factor there. I fail to understand the utter obsession with a bunch of people playing a game. We throw millions of dollars at these folks and idolize them and fete them and everything else because they can play a game better than we can. Funny that we don't do the same thing for people who are really smart. You rarely ever read major headlines for smart people - the Nobel awards being one of the few excepions. Smart people don't get ten million dollar contracts to do smart things - well, unless they run major corporations and then they get ten million dollar contracts to bankrupt their companies. *sigh*

Bert~ Chess & dyslexia don't mix. The Saint who taught me to drive would bring a felt-tip pen & write a big L & R on the back of my hands. My think never thunk that way.

I can just hear Jon McEnroe's screed "Tennis. YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!!!" Card games could surely be a competitive entrant for today's contest.

Checker? Chess? I think of both as intensely boring to anyone more highly evolved than a Komodo drago.

JANE......... wonderful memories about your mother! She sounded like a fun lady. I used to play tennis a lot when I was younger. I loved it & saw Evon Goolagong play in Cincinnati. I grew up w/ Chrissie Everett ( yes, she will always be Chrissie to me & many others) and Martina Navratilova & I have a soft spot for Jimmy Connors.
 
I smiled when you said she kept her racquet in the car to hit on backboards.......... I could hit against backboards forever & preferred doing that to playing people.
 
Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh......... if I was rich I would be batting a ball aginst some wood today......., now I must shower..........
 
KSS........... don't make me sanguinate (sp?)...........

Regarding the trapped cat, when they found it, they checked the recording in a security camera and found the filmed scene.  It was post hoc.

I don't play Tennis - never learned altho I do carry  tennis raquet in my car, so when I have the Puppy I can hit the ball way out for him tto chase it. it seems that I have a powerful arm and should take up the sport. 
 
My cousin who plays all the time, has offered to teach me it seems that we never have time to actually do so.
 
tennis doesn't annoy me like a few other sports do, I tend to find a bit more civilized than many other sports and am amazed by most of the players eye hand cordination that is used by the players.  

Tennis, like golf, has rank amateurs like me, hit that one shot each outing that amazes us and keeps us coming back. That selective memory blocks out the other 90+%. Nostalgia aside, the overall play is better, because of the equipment and advances in training but our heroes like ourselves are legends "in our own minds". That's okay.  

I was in Glasgow this last June and watched the Nicolas Mahut and John Isner match on the BBC, the one that set the record for longest match.  Tennis certainly is much more interesting to watch than golf which sort of ambles along.  Timewise, in golf most of the time is spent watching people walk or drive in golf carts.  Tennis is a lot more lively.
I've lost my taste for boxing, especially since we now know that brain damage is much more common than was previously believed.  There were all sorts of theories why Muhammed Ali was deteriorating; in the end it was simply brain damage from boxing.  As far as I am concerned, it could go the way of goose pulling and bear baiting.
Track and field can be fun to watch, but the Olympics only occur eveery four years and there's not much to see in between.  Events don't seem to be televised, at least in the States.  And I don;t think I've ever seen a televised arm wrestling bout.

BeenJammin'~ When my son was 7-8 years old, he bought home a scool report saying he was rubbish at sport. I knew this was not true & asked him what was going on. Well, said this old head on young shoulders, I'm good at maths & language & science & reading so I give the other kids a chance to be good at something that doesn't matter. After giving him a big hug, I fled down the garden to laugh my socks off. If a 7-8 year old can work it out, what's wrong with most of us?

Does anybody still have that iconic poster of a scantily-clad female tennis player scratching her bum?

Lynn830~ Glasgow? Why? P.S. The cat story spun out of control.

Hazel - On vacation.  My son and I went over 4 days before the rest of the family and wandered around Glasgow.  Then three vehicles of people took off for Oban, about 110 miles NW of Glasgow and on the coast.  My wife's great-grandmother was born there, and my wife wanted to see the place.  We rented two huge "cottages" at Armdmaddy Castle about 8 miles outside Oban.  We did a family reunion -- 19 people -- with people coming in from all over (us from Arlington, DC, others from Munich, Germany, Santa Barbara, Albuquerque, and Seattle.  Interesting time.  Beautiful country.

The English takes their pets seriously.  That lady is lucky she wasn't lynched.

We thought it would be a good idea to take tennis lessons once long ago.  You know how those good ideas sometimes should remain just that:  an idea?  Well, first of course, we and our friends would have dinner and some wine and then take our lesson, made it a lot of fun.  My teacher about gave up.  My backhand was wonderful; that's it -- backhand.  Nothing else worked.  I figured it out though -- I think I'm supposed to be left-handed since the same thing happened when I tried to take golf lessons....I think that if I had tried left-handed it might of worked..........maybe.....I did ask my mother about it and she said that she would always put something in my right hand when I picked it up with my left.  If you all remember in the long ago dark ages, it was considered so awful to be left-handed.  I remember a poor boy, Michael, standing at the blackboard and struggling to write with his right hand as if he was offending society and all that lived by being left-handed. 
 
I was good at baskeball (especially when I was pregnant -- something about that center of gravity shifting); shooting pool, bowling -- but put a racket or a club in my hand and.....duh!  I think as well, that you have to think about what you're doing when you play tennis and golf where with the others, it's a little more instinctual......maybe.  Whatever the reason -- I really did stink at tennis.....and oh, yeah, golf too.
 
Hazel -- that's a delightful story.  Is your son grown now?  Does he have a son of his own and is he as tolerant?

I dunno. I kind of feel sorry for those that don't appreciate sports. Always searching for real significance in life.   I think most of the anti-sports people are those that didn't play, or were picked last when choosing up teams. I can understand the resentment.
 As for the US Open, I'm into it. Can't wait for the NFL to start either. And as for who's better, it's clear the modern athletes have the edge. They're all over 6 feet, muscular, and hit the ball a hundred miles an hour. And those are the gals.

Hazel, great story on your boy!!  Do you mean this poster? http://www.the-tennis-girl.co.uk/

Australia is a sports crazy nation. My then 8 year old's project was on "An extraordinary Australian"...he was the only one who chose someone of real worth (Dr. David Warren, inventor of the Black Box used in airplanes; the blackbox by the way is always orange); almost all his classmates chose sports celebrities though a couple chose movie stars. Its a real shame that these are the "role models" chosen by kids.

I was a reasonably good racquet sports person when young. I didnt like contact games, being always afraid of being knocked into. And the fears were not unfounded, having had such accidents and fracturing parts of my body. I've also moved both my pinkys because on different occassions someone crashed into me and my pinkies kinda moved off angle. Shocked at the angle my finger was at, I pushed them back reactively, so both pinkys are alittle bulgy in the middle knuckle now. In high school I discovered Tennis and would cut class quite abit as I loved the game so much; I landed up playing for both the badminton and the Tennis school teams; which was confusing as one uses wrist work and the other, the arm. Then, in university, someone introduced me to squash and I absolutely loved it. I would take on the boys and it wasn't uncommon for me to win. At work, I played in some inter company games, some were pretty major, for instance one of the banks I worked for, and where I was running its Recreation Club, had 2000 members. My sister was a junior national player in badminton in Singapore (and a gymnast) and my ex- played for Malaysia's youth team. I havent played anything for a long time and sometimes i feel there is another person inside just waiting to get out! I should probably take up something more befitting of my age now...hmmm...maybe golf...or tai chi...tai chi would be good...or belly dancing...oh I know! Pole dancing ! What? It is a sports! They're thinking of having it at the Olympics! Look what she does with the laundry pole ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3QztXH7cfQ

I guess I'm more of a Paddle Ball, Badminton and Ping Pong sort of gal.

Tennis balls do make great dog toys, and when placed in the clothes dryer with a down comforter, do a lovely job of fluffing.

Thanks, Stoney, for calling me over. And thanks, Rings, for coming to 'find me' and inform me that he had, in fact, called out. Love this gang.

But I think I've told every single one of my life-changing tennis anecdotes here already. I probably even made some up. Except the one where I administered a rapt pat on Monica Seles' back during a nervous photo op. That one's true. It was only a short time after she'd returned to professional play, post-stabbing. In the photo, her look of shock next to my nervous grin is definitely an image burned on my brain.

I just love it. "Mano a mano." Exactly. Some things I do with my body to free my mind—running, riding, driving too fast . . . But in tennis everything is engaged. Mind and body. And unlike other sports, you live or die by your own hand and have no teammates to blame. I think I crave that responsibility, as it fulfills both a need for control and masochism. Frankly.

I remember watching Federer and Nadal battle a few years back, and I can honestly say with all my time on the court, watching them was my most exhilarating experience in tennis. They were both at their best. I hate watching a match where only one of the players is really there. It's like watching a film run amuck with agenda and you already know where it's headed.

They battled every . . . single . . . point. Back and forth between ads and deuce. And at the end, when they shook hands, you could feel the frission as their hands met and they looked at each other. A profound moment for me.

I may have cried. Or, I may be making that up, too.

Have a lovely Labor Day, all.

Rings, I love that you keep a racquet in your trunk to push your pup further. I can picture it.

And Janej78, I agree with Stoney, nice story about your mother. When I see sassy white-haired ladies in their tennis skirts at the fruit stand on Saturday mornings, I smile, and look forward to that.

I love sports, not.
My favorite sport is shopping.

MissIve ~
Yay!  Love to hear from you.   

jmr's...
Point is a good one. A well rounded life should probably include games calling for fitness, endurance, competence and sportsmanship.
It isn't important to excel but to know and abide by the rules and be able to play well enough to enjoy it.
Maybe because the pros make it look effortless, there seem to be people who believe that by spending a silly amount on gear that they will somehow look good playing a game that they have not taken the time or put in the work to learn.
My money is on that kid in the corner court in cut-off jeans drilling serve after serve into an overturned ball bucket.

 ♫ break point ♫

Korthal -- amen to that!  Especially shopping for things I don't have to try on <purses, food, art supplies, stuff for my grandchildre and so on and so so on>

Korthal -- haven't been to OC in a year! !  What with one thing and another -- but my family has been -- we're really trying for the fall my favorite time to go actually -- I miss the beach, looking at the ocean and.................. along with today's topic:  my favorite sport being shopping -- those outlets that just beckon not too far away :)

SpringFragrance~ Well done! That's exactly the poster I had in mind! I think it should have been top of page pic. for the day.
Andy~ Yep, my little boy is all grown-up now. That attitude has earned him a lot of friends - his birthday parties are a riot. No sons - one daughter gained my marrying a lady with a 4-5year old. "Bargain" he said"I get a child without the hassle of the baby bit!" He's 42 now & daughter is doing a nursing degree in London. She was an utter brat as a teenager
Lynn830~ Glad you enjoyed Scotland. My wedding ring was purchased in Oban! (But that's another story)
MissIve~ You have been conspicuous by your absence.
It's 5.30 here & I have to get the garden from under my nails & look tidy enough to go out & get the catfood I forgot to buy yestersday.

Hazel -- isn't Oban a wonderful Scotch or am I confusing is with something else?  Also, it sounds like you know how to raise'em -- congrats.

cnfusing "it" "it" with something else -- even when I read it over, my eye sees what I want to say --grrr

LOL - een "confusing" came out wrong -- oh well, you all know what I mean -- a mind, a terrible thing

My favorite sport?  If that is the question, then, no doubt, my
favorite sport takes place under or over the sheets, on the floor, standing up, sitting down, vertical or horizontal not mano a mano, but body
to body.  Full contact sport. No time constraints, no need to keep score. Play
nice and rough or play slow and easy. The best make it look easy.

Whew Paolos -- I'm fanning myself ;-)

paolos!!!!!!! That was the first thought that popped into my head when I saw today's poll. Then I thought, On second thoughts .... leave that for later!
Andy~ Yes Oban is a wonderful Scotch, it is also the name of the town where it is produced. And near to where I married Ex number 1.

ANDY:
Right now we're getting ready for EARL.
So far doesn't look like much for us and I can only hope.
I've taken in some of the small plants and turned over the table on my deck.

Very Good To See You, Miss Ive .......

paolos ~
Wouldn't you know it? In the entire length and breadth of the world wide interweb, there seem to be no images to illustrate your point.
Just as well I suppose. Can you imagine what would happen if there were?

paolos:  is yours also a spectator sport? ;)  Otherwise, it wouldn't qualify or would it?

Stoney, there is this, a warm up if you will,  but I
will keep looking
 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkQKDfYOkYo&feature=related
 
PARK4 I can't speak for everyone, but I like to
keep my eyes open.
 
DancingKatz, wherever you are, is ballroom
dancing a sport?

And you, Jalopkin.

Mano a mano to me means a little fisticuffs and I participated in my share in my quasi Hemingway period and my extended college years of yore before entering the business world which is even more of a contact sport in my mind and not for the faint of heart. Men must have the thrill of battle in order to thrive. Scars are the real medals of a life well lived. Retirement is a death sentence and needs to be expunged from the dictionary and the psyche. The Peterman Model is one of endless new adventures, hence the appeal to me.   For moi, Amor is more in line with an artful dance in my book, but to each his own and with 7 billion there are endless mathematical possibilities I suppose.  

Tommy T. Before I retired at 58,  ,  I always said that someone that said after retirement they would get another job to keep from being bored was some one with no imagination.After many yeasrs of retirement I now know that is true. There is so much to do,  places to explore books to read, new talents in your self to discover its easier to be busy than when working.
I have ,for a long time been fasinated by totem poles. However they a large and heavy and there is a lot of good totem pole carvers around so I decided to do something a little different. Out of cedar boards I carved the figures seperately then with a small chain hung them from top to bottom and now have a hanging totem.Lots of compliments so I decided to make 3 more. One for each of my children with each reflecting their hobbies, tastes etc.
The present totem is about 5 feet tall as will be the others.
 
Enjoying bbq and grilling I have developed my own bbq gourmet sauce without molasses,sugar  honey . I exchange with some of the local winemakers for wine. 3 of them want me to go into production and they will put it in their gift shop with their other gourmet foods. I keep turning them down because thar would be too much like going back to work.
My Oriental inspired garden is a work in progress and a litte bit needs to be done every once in a while.
In addition we do a fair amount of traveling, usually to small out of the way places that turn out to be very interesting.
Also I do not play golf.
So retirement is hardly a death sentence, but an exciting new oppourtunity.

rwh1- Touché. My sincere apologies. To me, you successfully reinvented yourself and are still growing. That's what I was trying to say. Let me clarify the point I was trying to make but perhaps did so poorly. I was referring to what the word itself has often come to mean in a youth oriented culture, a cessation from productivity, as opposed to someone like you who has taken the opportunity to create new and wonderful memories and discoveries about themselves and therefore continue to grow. I am passionate about living life and not just being alive and in my effort to convey that missed the mark. My mom, a spry 85, would spank me, if she heard of my indiscretion in this matter.     

Korthal, since we don't live there, we usually prepare for everything, or everything we can when whoever it is is the last one to leave -- so the table is either upside down already, or tucked way in a corner next to a high fence, the chiars are lying down; hopefully Earl won't visit and you'll have a great weekend.

rw1 h1 -- can you take a picture of your totem poles and post it -- love to see one.  I too have always been fascinated with them, though my sculpting stays with clay.

KORTHAL.......... batten down the hatches, grab a glass of wine and take care of yourself! Be well & be safe.......

Boxing in fact has a "drain bamage" incidence of 100%. If you look hard enough for evidence of CNS injury, you will find it in all boxers. Boxing is a ghoulish, intrinsically violent activity that our culture should move beyond as an activity.

When I was on the medical school admissions committee at Duke, there was a young man who completely trashed his chances of being admitted because the only thing he talked about in is his interview was boxing, his love of boxing, and all the way cool injuries he'd gotten boxing. I found this boorish and coarse and told him that his attitude toward boxing, a sport elementally about damaging what may be the most precious organ in our bodies, and the one most easily damaged, was completely inconsistent with attitudes one would expect to find in a doctor.

Andy , not being very good with computers and not having any of the grandchildren nearby ,the live 2 -2 .5 hours away I will do my best. with any luck can post tomorrow.

rwh1 -- good luck -- looking forward to your efforts :)

Tommy T, having grown up in the same part of the country where you live I can relate to your mother through aunts and mothers of friends. These women are about as independant and as stubborn and as loveable as any one you can find. I sincerely hope she hangs around for a long,long time.
By the the way I am fairly close to your mother in age
Remember: Illigitlmai non carborundum.

Korthal, this is for you and anyone else that needs be hoping for
it
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX5_GxGv24I&feature=related

And now they are finding that American football is almost as bad as boxing.  The incidence of CNS damage is appallingly high and the incidence of early death frightening.  Big thing in the newspapers here last year.  To be a professional football player means someone who weighs over 200 pounds, and probably in the 250 - 300 range.  And the play means men crashing into each other, either blocking or tackling.  High school football players also die at an appalling rate, usually from brain injury, or occasionally from a blow to the chest that stops the heart.  And it is still "the" sport in much of this country.

My son would be making his grandmother proud. He plays tennis regularly and even at 6'6" he's very graceful and fluid in his movements. I wish she could see him....perhaps she does.
 
Paolo, loved the Zucchero youtube.

 
I Love hearing there are some tennis players among us.
 
Spring Fragrance, let yourself go! Don't hold back...you know you're just itching to play.
 
MissIve, don't know how I could have forgotten Monica Seles! My mom had silver hair and wore shorts, but I have a photo of her in the 50s wearing a short tennis skirt. She had really good legs...I always marveled at them and hope mine will look as good if I'm lucky enough to live as long.
 
Bebe, we were in Mississippi when my mom tried to convert me into a tennis player with no luck. Now I feel the urge to go hit some balls against a backboard. I could do that! Wish we could hit some together.