Despite Federer’s loss, discussion continues over who is the best men’s tennis player of all time (Greatest Of All Time – GOAT). Many use the barometer of Grand Slam titles, since you truly have to have a complete game to win a Grand slam: hard courts in Australia in January; clay in Paris in May; grass at Wimbledon; and hard courts again in New York in late summer. But this is where many great players fall down in my opinion.
Many say Federer is the best due to his twelve Grand Slams, including five in a row at Wimbledon, and his (up-to-now) complete domination of the men’s game. However, Federer has never won the French Open. The same can be said of Pete Sampras who holds the record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles (for now – Federer is still in his prime), but he never could get through the clay in Paris. My personal favorite, Bjorn Borg (whose records are now only tied at Wimbledon with Federer’s loss) never won the U.S. Open. Ivan Lendl never won Wimbledon. JohnMcEnroe never won Australia or the U.S. Open.
Leaving you to ask: by this criteria, who is the men’s tennis GOAT? Simple – he is the only man to win all four Grand slams in the same year, and he did it twice. That man is Rod Laver. Yes, I know the sport has changed: Laver never faced 150 mile-per-hour serves, and there wasn’t as much money, attention and distractions, but for my money, Laver is the Gold Standard. Laver won 11 Grand Slam titles including the Grand Slam in 1962 as an amateur. In those days, the Grand Slams were open only to amateurs, so Laver turned pro after winning the Grand Slam in 1962 and battled future Hall of Famers John Newcombe and Ken Rosewall, but he couldn’t compete in the Slams.
The Open era began in 1968 allowing the pros and the amateurs to compete together, and Laver didn’t miss a step, winning Wimbledon after finishing second at the French. In 1969, Laver won the Grand Slam again at 30 years of age. All told, Laver was unable to compete in 20 Grand Slams from 1963-1967. Who knows how many single’s titles he might have won if the open era had begun earlier? (I think of it as a “what if” like Muhammad Ali’s exile for the boxing ring as a result of refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War.)
And, as I said, Laver was playing the likes of Rosewall and Newcombe. Only Borg, Connors and McEnroe faced that type of rivalry. Sampras had Agassi occasionally, but it wasn’t a real rivalry. Up to now, Federer had no one seriously challenge him.
So throw out the equipment, use old-style wooden rackets, put everyone in a time machine to bring them together in their prime, and I’d take Rod Laver over everyone

I must admit shame at my behavior over the weekend. I never take joy in illnesses or accidents by people, even if I have reason to despise or detest them, and I certainly never take joy in someone’s demise. But, to my personal shame, danced when I saw the newspaper on Saturday. Right there, on the front page of the Chicago Tribune was the announcement of the demise of former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. This racist held a position in the Senate for five terms, and did so fighting affirmative action, gay rights and AIDS funding, abortion, and government funded healthcare.
How could such a man keep getting elected, even from North Carolina? By appealing to race baiting Advertising, appealing to a core racist constituency and deliberately refusing to reach out to African-Americans and others (unlike another former segregationist Senator Strom Thurman).
So, I danced in my dining room Saturday like a fool, doing my own “fist pump” and generally acting a fool. And, to paraphrase Bill Maher, I don’t know if there’s an afterlife, but I hope there is a very warm place for Helms.

The world of the very rich and famous is far weirder than the normal world in which you, Gentle Reader, and I reside. Case in point: the apparently finished marriage of Alex Rodriguez and wife Cynthia. With long road trips, baseball players are notorious for their infidelities with groupies on the road, but it looks like A-Rod may have actually bagged a woman worth more money than him.
The one-quarter-of-a-billion dollar Yankee third baseman has been reported (admittedly by The New York Post, only one step from the journalistic bastion, The Star) making late night appearances at the New York home of aging diva, Madonna. Why the 32-year-old third baseman sees in a 50-year-old woman who has “serviced” more men than McDonald’s is open to question? Of course, there have been numerous rumors that Madonna has hired Paul McCartney’s divorse attorney to end her 7-year marriage to director Guy Ritchie.
All of this activity has reportedly put an end to Rodriguez’s shaky marriage to his 34-year-old wife. But she’s not pining away at home (or taking care of the couples two daughters who are in Miami); Cynthia has been shacked up with rocker Lenny Kravitz for the past four days in Paris. Now, I have always heard that Mrs. Rodriguez is the stereotypical “baseball wife:” getting a hold of the big money baseball player, so neither party in this situation is blameless.
However, it does beg the question: Lenny Kravitz??? This unoriginal, 60s hippie wannabe married former Cosby Show regular Lisa Bonet, and since that relationship ended, Kravitz has been linked with a number of beautiful and famous women. What is about this guy? He has money: son of the late Roxie Roker from “The Jeffersons,” he has had a decent career in the music business, but he isn’t in the same earning league as the Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen. It can’t be the music: he has ripped off every popular rock and soul musician since 1960, and besides, Sly and the Family Stone and Funkadelic have merged rock and soul music much more effectively than Kravitz. He has a really big one???? That must be it, along with a smooth line of 1967 bullshit that these beautiful but obviously mental midget women find appealing.

Once again, there are numerous reports swirling around that Brett Favre is reaching out to his former team, the Green Bay Packers to come out his mere 4-month long retirement. These stories have been floating around for weeks, and the success of Favre and the Packers in 2007 shows that he still has a lot left in the tank. But Favre is once again calling the stories “all rumor;” but is it?
Many of the Packer faithful are nervous about untested Aaron Rodgers: he has seen little action, and has suffered injuries when he did play. This has to play into Favre’s ego: he holds the record for the most consecutive starts at any position in NFL history, certainly an almost unattainable record for a quarterback; he is a certain, first ballot Hall of Famer; and he seems to have never lost his unabashed joy playing football. Despite cancer treatments, his father’s death, and the death of a brother-in-law, number 4 was under center.
Rodgers is the man who should be angriest. He is the starter and should be given the chance to play. He has sat on the sidelines behind Favre for three years, and played well against the Cowboys last year before a tough crowd in Texas Stadium and a nationwide television audience. Furthermore, it hurts the team. The front office can’t make plans at quarterback, concerning salary cap dollars, until it accounts for what Favre’s going to do. In addition, if the team gets off to a slow start, the players may be looking over its shoulder looking for Favre to come riding in like the cavalry on a white horse to come and “save” the season for them. (Of course, anything to create chaos in the Packer camp doesn’t hurt my feelings as a committed Bear fan.)
I have said that I don’t believe Favre’s done until training camp is over. Then I changed my mind: I didn’t believe in it until the season started. It looks now that we can’t believe he’s really done until the gun goes off at the end of the Packers’ December 28th game at home against the Detroit Lions. It looks like rumors of Favre’s return may not end even then.

It is rare for a sports franchise these days to be operating on all cylinders, making moves that help the team, moves that the fans agree with along with being considered smart moves by the press and sport insiders. This is particularly unusual here in Chicago, where my friends and I used to say that all of the team owners in town had a private contest as to who could be hated by the fans more. But, after years of mismanagement and neglect, the Chicago Blackhawks have every right to be considered the up-and-coming franchise in Chicago and the whole NHL.
The Hawks drafted Jonathon Toews in 2006, and another woeful season earned them the first draft choice in 2007, which they used on eventual rookie of the year Patrick Kane. The team made up with its history, reaching out to Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito as a link to the team’s history, and then brought back the popular, future Hockey Hall of Famer Pat Foley as play-by-play announcer on television.
The Hawks were expected to be big players as NHL free agents became available to negotiate with teams yesterday, but no one expected them to come away with the biggest fish in the pond: defenseman Brian Campbell. This was a big need for the Hawks, who, despite the young talent on the front line, have struggled on the power play. For once, everyone – fans, coaches, front office, press, and pundits agreed that the Hawks needed a blue liner who could move the puck effectively, play lots of minutes, and stabilize the young defensemen on the club. Campbell was the number one free agent available with forward Martin Hossa second. Campbell has been an All Star the past two seasons and posted 8 goals, 54 assists, and a +9 rating for the season with San Jose. Campbell told the press that the youthful talent and direction of the franchise made him want to play in Chicago. Of course, he had $56.8 million other reasons to come, but it has to be considered a coup.
The Campbell signing was the second signing of the day. The Hawks signed goalie Christobal Huet to replace Patrick Lalime who signed a two-year deal with Buffalo. This move increases the heat on current netminder Nikolai Khabibulin. Although he had his strongest season since signing a big contract with the Hawks after the lockout (23-20-6, .909 save percentage) Khabibulin (nicknamed “the Bulin Wall” but I called him the “Bulin sieve” many times last season) allowed far too many cheap goals, which was crucial for a team that missed the playoffs last season by three points. Still, the team will have difficulty moving the veteran goalie, who is scheduled to earn $6.75 million this season in the last year of his contract.
As a Blackhawk fan who has applauded all of the moves over the past year, I can only feel even more excitement for the upcoming season. It should be fun.

I met John Pont a couple of times while at Northwestern, and I thought he was a decent guy. I also thought that he was a terrible football coach. John Pont died yesterday at the age of 80.
Pont came from Miami of Ohio’s “Cradle of Coaches,” like Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes, Randy Walker, and many others as a player and head coach before he had his greatest success: taking Indiana University to its only Rose Bowl appearance in 1967, taking the Hoosiers from a 1-8-1 record in 1966 to 9-2 overall, 6-2 in the Big Ten before losing to the O.J. Simpson led USC Trojans in the 1968 Rose Bowl.
But I never saw the victories. Pont took a decent program under Alex Agasi and allowed it to deteriorate to the point of inconsequence. Pont took over the Wildcats in 1973 and his team posted a 4-7 overall record, 4-4 in the conference. From there it was all downhill: Pont’s teams from 1974 until he resigned in 1977 were a dismal 8-36 (.181). I remember the “Punt Pont” protests by the students my freshman year and I agreed completely with them. There was a rumor that Pont met annually with then NU President Robert Strotz, who asked just one question – were there any violations or instances of bad behavior by NU athletes? At which point Pont said no; and Strotz said “good, see you next year.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Pont wasn’t done at NU. In 1975, he was given the dual role of Athletic Director, a post he held until 1980. Unfortunately, his replacement as head coach, Rick Venturi led the Wildcats to the then-longest losing streak in Division I football history, 28 consecutive losses. (It should be noted that Venturi wasn’t replaced as a result of his dismal record however. It was only after there was a boycott by the black players who said that Venturi favored the white players and didn’t communicate with them. Our running joke at the time was that Venturi’s next job would be at Grambling, the historically black university.)
The football program was a disaster even though the university hired respectable coaches like Dennis Green after Venturi left (he remains a long-tenured NFL linebacker coach with the Indianapolis Colts). But it wasn’t until Gary Barnett came to Evanston and led the team to the 1996 Rose Bowl that the university powers-that-be realized that it wasn’t a detriment to the school to have a football team that didn’t suck.
Of course, that being said, I did meet Pont and as I said, he seemed like a decent man, and I send my condolences to his family, friends, ex-players and coaches. Still, it needs to be said that, while he certainly had the assistance of the university leadership, he did preside over the demolition of a university’s entire athletic department.

In every championship season, you can look back on a game or games that turned the tide of the season. We White Sox fans hope that we saw one last night.
After being stymied for 9 innings by Cleveland left-hander Cliff Lee and the bullpen, all looked bad for the Sox in the 10th inning. After battling to a 1-1 tie in regulation, Sox reliever Matt Thornton appeared poised to wear the goat’s horns for the day, giving up a home run to Indians’ catcher Casey Blake. The home team was down to its final out when rookie Alexei Ramirez homered off closer (and former Cub) Joe Borowski on a 2-0 pitch. Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen went with the averages, sending left handed Dewayne Wise to the plate for centerfielder Brian Anderson. Wise singled, stole second base, and scored on Orlando Cabrera’s single.
The win keeps the Sox 2½ games in front of second place Minnesota, and the drops division rival Indians into last place, 11½ games behind. Like I said, it may be wishful thinking, but with Sox-killer C.C. Cebathia (hope he gets traded to the NL as soon as possible) taking the mound for the Tribe in the final game of the series tonight, this may be just the kind of come-from-behind win that we are looking back on in October as a spark for this team.