What have I done with MY life?
You ever listen to the list of people you share a birthday with? Do you feel some kind of odd bond with them? What about the ones that not only share the date, but the year… the ones you are exactly the same age as? Well, two famous people were born on the same day as me; Uma Thurman and Andre Agassi. Now, other than sharing a birthday, I have zero connection with these two people. But if I see an Uma Thurman movie, I’m a little more likely to watch it. If I see Andre playing tennis… I pull for him to win. That’s about it.
So… here it is a Wednesday evening, I’m flipping through my channels and relaxing. I worked on a script today, did some household choirs and I need to rest. I’m 35 years old and I get tired. So my 35-year-old ass is plopped down on the couch flipping channels and I see that Andre Agassi is playing at the US Open and he’s facing a guy who is 10 years younger than him. I watched a few minutes… Andre wasn’t doing well. He dropped the first set 3-6 to James Blake and it was like watching the old guy at the gym playing b-ball versus the college protégé. I wished my birthday buddy luck and flipped over to watch Keanu Reeves in the Replacements.
A while later, it was a commercial so I flipped back over and Blake was now up two sets, 3-6 each and the third set was going his way. The announcer said: “Agassi is desperately trying to stay in this match.” Silently I thought, 35 man… time to hang it up and sit on the couch. I went back to watch the Fabulous Falco lead the Sentinels to the playoffs.
The Replacements finished, I flipped back to the tennis match and expected to find Law & Order… it’s always on TNT… but the tennis match was still going. Agassi found a second wind from someplace and the match was tied: 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. A fifth match started. Blake never plays a fifth match. He’d only gotten taken that far twice in his career, but there he was being caught by a man 10 years his senior. The announcer said it was Blake who was now desperate to stay in the match.
From this point I watched without changing the channel again. Blake and Agassi were pushing each other to their limits. Neither one of them was going to give up. Two men exhausted but determined to play it out. Serve after serve each man digging into a place that only champions can find. And as only a match like this could have it… the fifth set ended in a tie.
The US Open is one of the few tournaments to use a tiebreaker. Each man would get two serves back and forth until one of them gets to 7 points (I believe). This round also went back and forth until it was 6-6… At this time it was 1:30 AM in New York where the match was being played and not one person had left the stadium. Blake is a native New Yorker so the crowd was behind him… but by then the crowd was behind both men. This was a match for the ages.
I’m not a huge tennis fan. I played it when I was younger and I know the game, but I don’t normally watch it. But I sat on the edge of my seat as Blake leaned back and fired off a vicious serve… just outside the line. His second serve was softer, to make sure it was in… and it was a good serve; but Andre sent a shot back down the line so clean that Blake couldn't even move. Game, Set and Match. Andre Agassi had come back from the brink of elimination to fight off an opponent 10-years younger than him. The crowd cheered… not just for the victory but for both of the men who battled with everything they had. When interviewed after wards, the two quotes that stood out to me were these: James Blake said, “This was the most fun I’ve ever had losing a match.” Agassi said. “The real winners were the tennis fans.” Sports stars who play for the fun of the game and for the fans… what a novel idea.
Tonight I saw a man my exact age show me I’m not too old. And I now have a second tennis player I’ll watch and pull for… unless he’s playing Andre again.
You ever listen to the list of people you share a birthday with? Do you feel some kind of odd bond with them? What about the ones that not only share the date, but the year… the ones you are exactly the same age as? Well, two famous people were born on the same day as me; Uma Thurman and Andre Agassi. Now, other than sharing a birthday, I have zero connection with these two people. But if I see an Uma Thurman movie, I’m a little more likely to watch it. If I see Andre playing tennis… I pull for him to win. That’s about it.
So… here it is a Wednesday evening, I’m flipping through my channels and relaxing. I worked on a script today, did some household choirs and I need to rest. I’m 35 years old and I get tired. So my 35-year-old ass is plopped down on the couch flipping channels and I see that Andre Agassi is playing at the US Open and he’s facing a guy who is 10 years younger than him. I watched a few minutes… Andre wasn’t doing well. He dropped the first set 3-6 to James Blake and it was like watching the old guy at the gym playing b-ball versus the college protégé. I wished my birthday buddy luck and flipped over to watch Keanu Reeves in the Replacements.
A while later, it was a commercial so I flipped back over and Blake was now up two sets, 3-6 each and the third set was going his way. The announcer said: “Agassi is desperately trying to stay in this match.” Silently I thought, 35 man… time to hang it up and sit on the couch. I went back to watch the Fabulous Falco lead the Sentinels to the playoffs.
The Replacements finished, I flipped back to the tennis match and expected to find Law & Order… it’s always on TNT… but the tennis match was still going. Agassi found a second wind from someplace and the match was tied: 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. A fifth match started. Blake never plays a fifth match. He’d only gotten taken that far twice in his career, but there he was being caught by a man 10 years his senior. The announcer said it was Blake who was now desperate to stay in the match.
From this point I watched without changing the channel again. Blake and Agassi were pushing each other to their limits. Neither one of them was going to give up. Two men exhausted but determined to play it out. Serve after serve each man digging into a place that only champions can find. And as only a match like this could have it… the fifth set ended in a tie.
The US Open is one of the few tournaments to use a tiebreaker. Each man would get two serves back and forth until one of them gets to 7 points (I believe). This round also went back and forth until it was 6-6… At this time it was 1:30 AM in New York where the match was being played and not one person had left the stadium. Blake is a native New Yorker so the crowd was behind him… but by then the crowd was behind both men. This was a match for the ages.
I’m not a huge tennis fan. I played it when I was younger and I know the game, but I don’t normally watch it. But I sat on the edge of my seat as Blake leaned back and fired off a vicious serve… just outside the line. His second serve was softer, to make sure it was in… and it was a good serve; but Andre sent a shot back down the line so clean that Blake couldn't even move. Game, Set and Match. Andre Agassi had come back from the brink of elimination to fight off an opponent 10-years younger than him. The crowd cheered… not just for the victory but for both of the men who battled with everything they had. When interviewed after wards, the two quotes that stood out to me were these: James Blake said, “This was the most fun I’ve ever had losing a match.” Agassi said. “The real winners were the tennis fans.” Sports stars who play for the fun of the game and for the fans… what a novel idea.
Tonight I saw a man my exact age show me I’m not too old. And I now have a second tennis player I’ll watch and pull for… unless he’s playing Andre again.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home