Archive for September, 2008
Another Olympics has sped by, stirring warm memories of a golden 10.3 seconds I shared with a man called “Bones” six decades ago. He did the running, I did the rooting from the cheap seats among a throng of 83,000 in London’s Wembley Stadium.
The world had waited 12 years for restoration of the Games in 1948, and no one dreamed of this day more than the skinny “Bones,” a guy built like a coat rack whose straight name was William Harrison Dillard.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t supposed to be his day. Standing atop the victory podium, a gold medal dangling from his neck – immediate successor to Jesse Owens as the world’s fastest human – Dillard couldn’t help but think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yes, he was an Olympic champion, inspired
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September 29 2008 | Misc. Articles | 1 Comment »
Many thank-you’s to all of you who wrote about my U.S. Open columns. It’s not easy to find a chef who can deal with crow. But my roommate, Anita, came through with a dish that would have made Julia Child proud. It was good to see Roger in such ripping form again, but we can’t underestimate the favor Murray did for him in removing Nadal. That was the final everybody wanted to see: Roger and Rafa at the Meadow. Maybe next year? Meanwhile, my original pick, Djokovic, is just going to get better. And so is Murray, along with Sam Querrey.
It was good also to see Serena back in form. She’d been having a dreary, sub-standard year like Roger, flops in the first three majors. Her quarter-final victory over Venus (which should have been the final if the USTA had been alert in seeding) was a competitive masterpiece, saving a total of 10 set points over two sets. The surprise was that Jelly Jankovic nearly took Serena to a third set. It’s amazing that Jelly has been No. 1 (for a week) this year with a nothing serve. I offered to fix it for her, but she just smiled. But she does need help.
September 16 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
We had an opportunity to see Choquequirao in the late afternoon light. It is a mystical place. A place we had to ourselves. Due to the challenges of getting there, tourists are few and far between, maybe a hundred to a hundred and fifty a year.
We’ve just added even more photos of Anita’s trek, including the final stop at Machu Picchu. Take a look in the Photos section.
At the end of May 2008 I participated in a marvelous 16 day adventure in Peru, joining seven other trekkers on a Geographic Expeditions journey to little known Inca ruins at Choquequirao and on to Machu Picchu. We went over spectacular mountain passes, camped for eight nights, trekked up and down, and up and down repeatedly, passing only Quechua villagers (no tourists on this route) and one dazzling vista after another.
Our guides, Clark Kotula and Efrain Valles Morales and assistant Osvaldo Velasco, were excellent. Our arrieros (mule drivers/porters) and cooks, Pedro One and Pedro Two, and 24 animals were invaluable in the success of the trek. We had perfect weather, blue skys, white clouds, lupine in flower tumbling down the mountain sides along with countless other flowers.
Seeing Machu Picchu had been a longtime dream of mine, even better in tandem with Choquequirao. The challenge and difficulty of the trek made the accomplishment all the more rewarding. An absolutely stellar trip!
Check out the Photos section to see all the pictures from the trip!
September 08 2008 | Messages | 2 Comments »
Roger Federer fans awaiting his semifinal, hoping that it will get played in spite of hurricane threats....
NEW YORK – So I’m sitting here, munching my crow burger, washing it down with stale coffee.
A guy from Switzerland, who owns a cow named Juliette, and also, for years, was used to cowing foes, is back at that business, silencing the doubters like me. We are delighted – at least I am – to eat crow (I’m told either sautéed or roasted is preferable), and bear witness that Roger Federer is yet capable of divine acts with a tennis racket.
Saving the best for last during a painful season in which he lost dozen times to lesser beings, won only two so-so tournaments, certainly appeared to have lost a step and strict control of his serve and forehand, Federer wowed a full-house at Ashe Stadium yesterday. And, yes, he had again cowed seven troublesome guys along the major route to continue as the U.S. Open champion. Five straight, leaving Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Novak Djokjovic and now Andy Murray tattoed with his tire tracks.
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September 08 2008 | US Open | 8 Comments »
At the entrance to Flushing Meadows Park and the USTA Tennis Center, the David Dinkins Circle was dedicated on 2 September with hundreds of friends in attendance to honor his work with the parks and with the building of the Tennis Center. Shown here are David Dinkins, his wife and son, Billie Jean King and Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe.
NEW YORK – A patch of blue asphalt flooring Ashe Stadium became Scotland Yard Sunday. It belonged to a sharpshooting Scottish sleuth in short pants, who apprehended a strongarmed trouble-maker from Spain after a two day chase.
Although Arthur Murray may have taught your parents dancing, the up-to-date Scotsman, Andy Murray, danced a highland fling to perfection in collaring Rafa Nadal, who has been pushing everybody in the tennis business around all year. Rafa had flattened Murray five straight over the last two seasons, but Andy was on his trail.
Murray, a 21-year-old out of Dunblaine, almost nabbed his man Saturday. However, a windy, wet harridan called Tropical Storm Hannah washed out some clues, and interrupted his semifinal pursuit at the U.S. Open with Nadal still on the loose. Andy was getting close, leading, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 2-3.
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September 07 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Rafa Nadal in a press conference
NEW YORK – It’s still Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.
Or should I say Herr Roger, as he is addressed in the hometown, Basel. He does better in this sector, the Flushing section of the New York borough of Queens, than he ever did in Switzerland, and Roger says he feels “A little bit New Yorker.” Who wouldn’t?
Four U.S. Open titles are attached to his name – oh, yes, its Federer — and a 44-4 match record since he first appeared at the tennis Meadow eight years ago. That’s batting .916, pretty fair anywhere, and he says people recognize him on the street. It doesn’t happen to many tennis players. Maybe Venus, Serena, Billie Jean, Chrissie.
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September 06 2008 | US Open | 1 Comment »
Bud filming a piece for ESPN
NEW YORK – Jelena “Jelly” Jankovic didn’t throw in the towel when she fell behind. But she knew how to use it to rattle her foe.
Jelly, the tennis player from Belgrade – a superb Serb – is no dummy. She had begun university, and was despairingly planning to go back for a degree in dramatic arts when her mom talked her out of that scenario and back onto the court — also out of a slump. After all there’s usually more money in tennis, if you’re a winner, than acting (aka waiting on tables), although the dark-haired zesty 23-year-old ain’t a bad thespian.
A few million dollars later, Jelly is on the largest stage in tennis, sharing the lead in her first major final, the U.S. Open, with Sister Serena, and one win away from queen bee status (temporarily anyway). That skinny but beloved figure, No. 1, is at stake today.
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September 05 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Empire State Building from 34th Street. The architect, William Lamb, was inspired by the sleek shape of a pencil in designing the Empire State
Building. Construction began March 17, 1930 and was pretty well finished by November 13, 1930. Including excavation, the ESB took one year and 45 days to build. Including the 103 floors and the 204' antenna, the height of the building is 1,454.'
NEW YORK – The Busher went home with $ 160,000, a surge in his world ranking and a newfound reputation as the De-luxembourger.
Everybody at the U.S. Open was glad for the big man from the little country. Six-foot-6 Gilles Muller, on a left-winged serve and a prayer, had bombed his way through a string of upsets, including No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko, and as a kind of serf – a qualifier ranked No. 130 – arrived among the nobility, the last eight.
Roger Federer was there Thursday to greet him with, “The luck stops here!” But, pumping his ranking up to No. 65, Muller won’t have to creep back down to the bush leagues for a while.
The folks were also glad for Federer’s 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), decision, his 32nd straight at Flushing Meadow, because he is one of the most popular tennis players ever to work this town, regardless of his alien status.
There are Swiss watches, bank accounts, chocolates, Alps and cheeses – but there is only one Roger Federer. Quality all the way. A modest but straightforward champion who has made the game look so smooth and effortless.
But his countless devotees are worried about him, too. He isn’t the same player who walked way from the Billie Jean King Center a year ago hugging his fourth trophy. A step slower, not as sure on his strokes and his serve that used to hit the corners and lines with greater regularity. Not finished as a great by any means at 27, but it will be very hard for him to win more majors.
Is he bothered by traces of the mononucleosis? If so he wouldn’t tell you. But he has made difficult work of No. 28 Radek Stepanek, No. 23 Igor Andreev and Muller.
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September 04 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Times Square
NEW YORK – Waiting for Fred (or a reasonable facsimile). That’s been the turgid status of the British sporting crowd for — let’s see? – 72 years. Yearning for another Fred Perry. Such are in very short supply.
Although the Brits invented tennis as we know it, they haven’t been able to play the game for decades. The guys anyway. I mustn’t slight the gracious and graceful Virginia Wade, winner of the inaugural U.S. Open in 1968, and Wimbledon in 1977.
However, the most recent male Brit to win a major was the English-born Hall of Famer Fred Perry, taking both Wimbledon and the U.S. in 1936. Those were Great Depression days, and the tennis-minded Limeys have been depressed ever since.
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September 03 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
Reunion with Barry Lorge's family in front of Lusardi's in New York City, Katie, Bud, Claudia and Joseph.
NEW YORK – People say, “Thank you!”
Elena Dementieva doesn’t know them. They are strangers, but they know her: Olympic gold medalist in tennis. She encountered them during the one day she had at home, Moscow, on the way to Flushing Meadow from Beijing.
“You know, when you win a tournament, or a big match, people will say, congratulations, or well done,” says the tall, charming Russian blonde who has bashed her way into the U.S. Open semifinals for a third time. “But the Olympics is different. They are thanking you for doing something for our country. It feels very nice.
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September 02 2008 | US Open | No Comments »
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