Funny sportswriter tales, Araton meets McEnroe

Like to try to start a new thread, of funny anecdotes of sportswriters with athletes. This one is from the book "Facing McEnroe" By Scoop Malinowski and it entails Harvey Araton's interesting encounters with John McEnroe. Enjoy !!

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"I'll give ten dollars to any of you guys who could lay a racquet on my serve."

Harvey Araton: "The memory that comes to mind right away is the year of the women's World Cup 1999. The day of that final against China - I remember my wife was in Connecticut at her parents' house and I left - we were there with our two little boys and I'd left really early to go to John's induction to the Hall of Fame in Newport. The Times tennis writer Robin Finn - I think her mom had died - so they asked me to do it. So that year I covered Wimbledon and John had played mixed doubles with Steffi Graf and I think John was 40 and he was sort of having a mid-life crisis, so everything John does is like the most important thing in the world. He kept saying during that tournament, I told Steffi, just don't bale on me as we get deeper. Because he saw it as his last hurrah to win another Wimbledon title."

"So Steffi had a big wrap on her thigh and she was retiring (from the sport). It wasn't official but that was her last year I believe. And so she baled out of the mixed I believe at the quarterfinal. She said, I can't play. There was a lot of rain so the matches were stacking up and so John kind of went off... 'I told her, I put my heart and soul into this...' So I sit down and write a column, John, it's not about you. This woman's singles is what it's all about. He always loved doubles, put a lot of importance into it. But let's face it, the sport is about singles. And this is her last hurrah perhaps. So I couldn't get on her case about baling out. So I write that column."

"So now I hit a lot of traffic going up the coast (to Newport). And I get there and he's already at the podium doing his press interview. So I walk in. And my wife, who formerly worked at ESPN, knew this kid - she was his mentor - then he went on to become a sports journalist and he was working for the Newport paper. And he was sitting in the front row. And he sees me come in, he recognized me: Harvey, sit right over here. So I walk right in the front of John and I sit down. And John interrupts a long-winded answer about his Hall of Fame career and says, 'Oh, I see Harvey Araton took the time to come up here. You ought to learn something about our sport. When people make a commitment...'"

"He goes into this long diatribe about Wimbledon and the mixed doubles tournament. And this kid who saved me the seat is like, with his jaw-dropped. And I just look at him, I go, John, I don't think this is about me, this is about you and your Hall of Fame career. We could talk about this later. And he goes on and on for another five minutes about what an idiot I am and he read my column and it was dumb. It was just classic John. Missing the point completely."

"That's one thing. Another one is when he was in that process of being off and on the Tour. He's playing, takes a little leave, come back. Well, I covered, I think it was '86 and he came back from one of his hiatuses at Stratton Mountain (Vermont), the old Volvo tournament. And I believe it was in the second round. A teenage Andre Agassi upset Tim Mayotte in the first round. So John gets him in the second round. I don't think John had even heard of the kid. He'd been off the Tour. Who knew about Agassi anyway?"

"So he comes out to play against Andre and Andre's got like a three-tone ponytail, wearing black shorts, just looked like some hoodlum. And McEnroe misses his first serve of the match, first game, hits the second serve - and you know John would come in behind anything - John comes to the net, Andre steps into a forehand. Hits it like 900 miles an hour - goes about fifteen feet out, crashes into the back wall. John looks up, starts walking behind the baseline to serve, looks up at about four or five reporters who were all there covering his comeback and goes, 'Who the fuck is this?!'"

"That same tournament four of us are playing doubles late in the afternoon, after we're done with our work. It was me, Maury Allen, who was considerably older, from The New York Post, and I knew Maury because I worked at The Post when I was a kid, Richard Finn and somebody else. I don't remember who the fourth person was. John comes down after a hit, walking down the hill and sees us and starts laughing at us, ragging on us. And then says, 'I'll give ten dollars to any of you guys who could lay a racquet on my serve.' So he steps on the court. We all take the challenge. Maury steps up - doesn't get a racquet on it. He's hitting twisters and slices. Richard, who is the best player out of all of us, didn't get a hit on it. When it was my turn, I started all the way over in the ad court, figuring left-hander, right? And he served one out wide and I foul-tipped it. And I said, 'Ten bucks! Ten bucks!' And he said, 'No, you didn't hit it, you just tipped it. It doesn't count.'"

CLASSIC STUFF

 

Is it awful that I read that whole thing and what sticks with me most is "bale" (and "baled" and "baling")?

 

When Inser was a freshman at Georgia I did a story on trying to return his serve, which was great even then. I've played tennis my whole life and was a good junior, but never near good enough to play at a powerhouse like Georgia. And I was maybe 35 at the time. We hit for 10 minutes to warm up, he practices a few serves and then I line up in the deuce court to return, standing about four feet behind the baseline. He hits a bomb up the middle and I actually got a racquet on it and returned it (barely) over the net. John's draw dropped.

I actually returned about 10 percent of his serves up the middle in either court, but the ones out wide, especially in the deuce court, I didn't get within two feet of them.

 

Isn’t Scoop the guy who shows up at press conferences rocking the “fedora w/press pass” look?

 

Isner's serve is one of the best of all time. Well done mate Is there a link to that story?

 

About 1999 or so when I was at the Herald, the Pawtucket (Sox AAA team) manager challenged us scribes. who were there for somebody's rehab start, to step into the box and hit his BP pitching. Now, I was almost 50 and knew I'd stink, but some of the younger guys were game. Nobody got a ball to the outfield. I was one of the heroes able to pull the ball to the correct side of the infield. I doubt I've ever seen an adult human as full of joy as that guy was.

 

I'm interviewing Pete Rose in '92 on a dimly lit veranda of a private residence along with a radio reporter.

I was nervous. It was Pete Rose. I remember exactly where I was for 4,192.

He just got out of prison.

"So," I began nervously, "what was it like in the ... uh, facility?"

"Facility!?!" he responded. "Is that what you guys are calling it these days?"

 

Ask Jason Stark about his funny funny Dallas Green stories.

Got to the point where he walks into the lockerroom, and Green's wearing a T-shirt that says, "Fuck you, Jason".

 

I interviewed Jim Harbaugh once when he was at Stanford. I got a one-on-one after practice ahead of the spring game or something, but I was a stringer and had never covered him before, so I introduced myself and extended my hand.

The two takeaways were that he had the strongest handshake I’ve ever experienced, and that he never looked me in the eye through the whole interview. The second one was really strange, to have a one-on-one conversation with him barely acknowledging I was there.

 

You must be damn good. Our paper's columnist is a 4.5 player who saw eight Isner serves and didn't touch six. Of the two he got a racket on, one dribbled into the net, the other made it over the net but landed in the doubles alley.

 

Would've loved to hit BP in my 30s when still was covering sports. batted against a couple guys who made the majors before and after their careers. guy i used to work with once asked Torre if a particular hit should have been an error. forgot who it was but pitcher had a no-hitter and the hit was a ball that brosius maybe could've made a play on. Torre said to him "you want to get out there and have me hit you some grounders."

 

I faced an eventual major leaguer once in summer league. I was a shitty hitter anyway, but he was probably throwing low 90s at the time. I could barely see it.

I swung once (might as well have been with my eyes closed) and it jammed me up so bad, it stung for minutes after.

Then he hit me with a curveball. OBP against eventual MLB pitching: 1.000.