Pathological Losers: My Vic Braden Interview

[klacr]

I am a Kyle fan! Kyle for president! (I think a lot of the candidates could learn how to behave from Kyle...)

Thanks Phil. But I wouldn't have the time or patience to teach them. My name is not on the ballot this year because I'm not old enough (gotta be 35 to run)All I can do is wait for 2020...then the revolution begins.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[JeffMac]

I'm So Relieved...

to discover that someone still hates me. Thank you bottle. You've saved me from irrelvancy. I was hoping to go to war with Kyle because he is too nice. If everyone was like Kyle we would have fewer wars, less suffering, more global prosperity and more happiness. That is a satirists worst nightmare! Which is why Kyle, I must unfortunately consider you to be very dangerous and subversive. Nice, but troublesome, I'm afraid. You are a humanist. I am an involuntary misanthrope. Like the Nihilistic bottle, I believe.

But if I had to pick one person to rescue me from a burning building it would be you. Or Phil. Both of you.

I sense that you may be attempting to turn Phil against me. He may be even nicer than you. Another person threatening the satirist's world order.
No fun to provoke, because then I feel guilty. Which is why I fully appreciate bottle and budge--who like Watcher has gone into hiding and refuses too engage me.

So you Kyle are the good guy, and I play the villain. I used to be that good guy, but then I had several concussions and it changed my personality. Prior to 2010, I was a technically good, but rather boring writer. My TBI condition has caused me to become much edgier, greatly influencing my evolving literary style. I love gonzo journalism. But you knew that.

However Kyle, we'll always have Coto de Caza. Won't we? Which is to say that we may be very different, but we are brethren of the Cult of Braden, which surprisingly is not the case with everyone here.

But I know how to draw budge from out behind his Swedish mansion where he ponders the Nature of Suffering--much like the Budda himself who was also very, very wealthy. He is one of the world's most famous Recreational Existential Adventurers.

If I am ever to commune with budge I guess I must write about tennis. A topic that I have written troves about and now find very uninteresting. Now I feel a little bit like budge--complaining about the insignificant.

All I need to do to bring budge out like wack-a-mole himself is to bring up his favorite subject. Bill Scanlon. I have recently been thinking the following: I was not aware that Scanlon--who really was just about as classically efficient as it gets--has wins over all of those Grand Slam Champs. With three wins over McEnroe! Thanks you for supplying that info budge--our unoffocial historian.

I know there is no precedent for this, but nevertheless I'm going to put it out there. Since Scanlon has these wins, I think that he should be enshrined at Newport Rhode Island, in the World Tennis Hall of Fame. I'd like to solicit opinions on this matter.

I must admit that I am partial to Scanlon. I got to meet him in either 1977 or '78. He was a very nice guy. I was introduced to him at Indian Wells when the tournament was played at Mission Hills. I'm sure that budge will be able to pin point the year when I tell him that McEnroe lost to Teltscher that year, I believe in three sets. I'm not sure. Two really ugly tennis games there, though. It took me quite a while to recover from that. Who remembers how Teltscher thrust his ass out backward on his topspin backhand?

My good friend Peter Pearson was in the tournament that year. He was a fringe ATP player who never got above about 120 in the world. He is now serving a life sentence in California for bank robbery, and other stuff. That's a whole other story for some other time.

I watched them play a practice match on one of the back courts. I just loved Scanlons clean, no frills game. In that era I also loved the way that Gerulaitus, Gottfried, Ramirez and Sandy Mayer played. Also simple, efficient, beautiful.

This is another reason, I must admit, I did not like McEnroe. He was quirky and unorthodox. Yes, a genius. But an ugly one.

So now budge--come out, come out wherever you are. Tell us what year Teltscher beat McEnroe. And whether you agree that Scanlon should be in the Hall.

Or like a 1761-established restaurant at the lower end of the killer mountain road where my friend Sandy and I used to sled in Garrison, New York, The Bird & Bottle (http://www.thebirdandbottleinn.com/).

[tennis_chiro]

Mac was a senior in high school in the spring of '77. Still at Stanford the spring of '78. He lost to Teltscher 7-6 in the third in February '79 at Rancho Mirage. But he had also lost to Elliot shortly after enrolling at Stanford in September '77 in Los Angeles, 7-5 in the third.

don

[gzhpcu]

Thanks Phil. But I wouldn't have the time or patience to teach them. My name is not on the ballot this year because I'm not old enough (gotta be 35 to run)All I can do is wait for 2020...then the revolution begins.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

And it all started here....

[klacr]

to discover that someone still hates me. Thank you bottle. You've saved me from irrelvancy. I was hoping to go to war with Kyle because he is too nice. If everyone was like Kyle we would have fewer wars, less suffering, more global prosperity and more happiness. That is a satirists worst nightmare! Which is why Kyle, I must unfortunately consider you to be very dangerous and subversive. Nice, but troublesome, I'm afraid. You are a humanist. I am an involuntary misanthrope. Like the Nihilistic bottle, I believe.

But if I had to pick one person to rescue me from a burning building it would be you. Or Phil. Both of you.

I sense that you may be attempting to turn Phil against me. He may be even nicer than you. Another person threatening the satirist's world order.
No fun to provoke, because then I feel guilty. Which is why I fully appreciate bottle and budge--who like Watcher has gone into hiding and refuses too engage me.

So you Kyle are the good guy, and I play the villain. I used to be that good guy, but then I had several concussions and it changed my personality. Prior to 2010, I was a technically good, but rather boring writer. My TBI condition has caused me to become much edgier, greatly influencing my evolving literary style. I love gonzo journalism. But you knew that.

However Kyle, we'll always have Coto de Caza. Won't we? Which is to say that we may be very different, but we are brethren of the Cult of Braden, which surprisingly is not the case with everyone here.

But I know how to draw budge from out behind his Swedish mansion where he ponders the Nature of Suffering--much like the Budda himself who was also very, very wealthy. He is one of the world's most famous Recreational Existential Adventurers.

If I am ever to commune with budge I guess I must write about tennis. A topic that I have written troves about and now find very uninteresting. Now I feel a little bit like budge--complaining about the insignificant.

All I need to do to bring budge out like wack-a-mole himself is to bring up his favorite subject. Bill Scanlon. I have recently been thinking the following: I was not aware that Scanlon--who really was just about as classically efficient as it gets--has wins over all of those Grand Slam Champs. With three wins over McEnroe! Thanks you for supplying that info budge--our unoffocial historian.

I know there is no precedent for this, but nevertheless I'm going to put it out there. Since Scanlon has these wins, I think that he should be enshrined at Newport Rhode Island, in the World Tennis Hall of Fame. I'd like to solicit opinions on this matter.

I must admit that I am partial to Scanlon. I got to meet him in either 1977 or '78. He was a very nice guy. I was introduced to him at Indian Wells when the tournament was played at Mission Hills. I'm sure that budge will be able to pin point the year when I tell him that McEnroe lost to Teltscher that year, I believe in three sets. I'm not sure. Two really ugly tennis games there, though. It took me quite a while to recover from that. Who remembers how Teltscher thrust his ass out backward on his topspin backhand?

My good friend Peter Pearson was in the tournament that year. He was a fringe ATP player who never got above about 120 in the world. He is now serving a life sentence in California for bank robbery, and other stuff. That's a whole other story for some other time.

I watched them play a practice match on one of the back courts. I just loved Scanlons clean, no frills game. In that era I also loved the way that Gerulaitus, Gottfried, Ramirez and Sandy Mayer played. Also simple, efficient, beautiful.

This is another reason, I must admit, I did not like McEnroe. He was quirky and unorthodox. Yes, a genius. But an ugly one.

So now budge--come out, come out wherever you are. Tell us what year Teltscher beat McEnroe. And whether you agree that Scanlon should be in the Hall.

It's not about being nice, it's about being real.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

Here is a Scanlon interview... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvGNFwsZosM

[bottle]

French Open Coming Up

Winners, don't thank the ballboys and ballgirls. Eat them instead.

[JeffMac]

Thanks Chiro Guy!!

That is the exact match to which I was referring! My friend and I--a S.F. marijuana sales consultant nicknamed...well, I shouldn't say. He later went on to be quite prominent in the USTA hierarcy. We were down there so that he could take pictures for my 1984 classic instructional book--Two-Handed Tennis--How to Play a Winners Game.

Don't bother trying to ID this amamteur photographer. He got fired and was replaced by the great Chreryl Traendly--one of the half dozen or so best "still" tennis photographers in the history of the game

THT is the most important tennis book of the Open Era because it examines, in very close detail, the style of play that is now used by approximately 85% of all the players in the world. I was the one who launched the two-handed tennis revolution.

The book was a lot of things--but most notable, I believe--an analysis and comparison of the games of Connors, and Borg. They were chosen as models; templates for the "flat game," and the "topspin game," respectively, and therefore everything in between, as well. The book was endorsed by Bud Collins, Harold Solomon, Kathi Rinaldi, and Jeff Austin--as a representative of the Austin clan from Palos Verdes. You smarter aficionados know that he is Tracy's brother.

Someday I will tell you all the story of the day in '83 when my literary agent and I went out to lunch with Arthur Ashe at Smith an Wollensky's in NYC, and why he demurred in endorsing THT. It is prime fodder for a gonzo article. It is fucking hysterical! budge will hate this article as I "disrespect" another of his idols. Actually, he will be very jealous--again!

Be ready John Yandell. It's in the pipe line!

The most important book of the pre-Open era was, of course, Match Play and the Spin of the Ball, by Billl Tilden--published somewhere back in the twenties or thirties. Phil, or budge, or you chiro-guy, will certainly know this. I borrowed extensively from this book when I wrote THT. Both of these books should be required reading for any body wanting to teach tennis. Have you read them QWA? There could be a pop quiz any day now. And I'm not sure I like your chances. And "no," unfortunately I don't have a gonzo interview of "Big Bill."

And I also want to let you all know that I also won two U>S>P>T>A> tournaments. So what if they were golf tournaments! They still count; and prove my mettle to be of metal.

I say this so that the sancitmonious Le Qwa knows who his daddy his. Kyle must be the one that budge is referring to when he cites "Church Lady." I don't know, but would like to now that we are all one big family. At any rate, I'll deal directly with Le QWA in a separate missive.

So to get back to Indian Wells '79...I shall actually say no more because this too is prime material for another article. The sales consultant and I hung out with Peter Pearson every day that week. He introduced us to about a dozen ATP players, including Scanlon, McEnroe and...well here is a quiz question for you guys: What is the name of the famous Spanish clay court player from this era who went on to become an incredibly famous Tour Coach, and also worked for the USTA in player development? A clay court guru for inept American concrete mavens.

The winner gets an all expense paid vacation to Scottsdale to hang out at the dog park with me and Froggy. Tim Tebow also goes there too with his big brown hound "Bronco." We can conduct a joint "gonzo" expedition on him. He would be perfect for reasons that many of you are aware of.

Mac was a senior in high school in the spring of '77. Still at Stanford the spring of '78. He lost to Teltscher 7-6 in the third in February '79 at Rancho Mirage. But he had also lost to Elliot shortly after enrolling at Stanford in September '77 in Los Angeles, 7-5 in the third.

don

[johnyandell]

Careful Mac you are starting to sound like Oscar Wegner... Great book however as is your article here.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/tour_strokes/Jeffrey_F_McCullough/two_Handed%20_forehand_past,_present,_future/two_Handed%20_forehand_past_present,_future.html

[JeffMac]

Thanks J.Y.!!

You will be interested to know that Oscar and I are starting a tennis academy together. We're still negotiating over whose name is going to go first; kind of like the time you and I talked about starting that folk-rock group.

I thought Prose and Yandell sounded good. You had it reversed, as I recall. I'm going to solicit the opinion of Wegner; the second smartest man in tennis, behind only you, of course.

He told me to say, "Hi," and, "anytime you want to go to the Celebrity Center you are more than welcome to tag along" with he and his entourage of twenty-five. But, I would caution you against making the same mistake that I did. They will hunt you down to the end of time! They are still after me!

Looking at those old clips of Mayer and Seles are such a kick!!! Proving that at that time you could get into the top five--even be #1--using really wacky technique; what I called the "Solly Slop" in THT. Actually, I think it was Bud Collins who coined that term.

Thanks very much for the compliment!

Apparently, no one can identify the famous Spanierd to whom I refer. I guess no one wants to come for a visit to AZ. I hope that it has nothing to do with the fact that I did not win the Mr. Congeniality Award this year. Anyway, I would have thought that either chiro guy or budge would have weighed in by now. I have to assume that they are not quite as knowledgable as I had thought. The mean I.Q. has apparently suddenly fallen about 20 points today!

But budge has no doubt gone catatonic as he faces the dreaded reality that I ate lunch with Arthur Ashe--or as well called him after we dumped him off--the Ashe Hole. lol And budge didn't, and now is quite unlikely to do so. RIP. AA.

Cheers!!

Careful Mac you are starting to sound like Oscar Wegner... Great book however as is your article here.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...t,_future.html

[klacr]

JeffMac,

To answer your question, yes, I've not only read the books "Two-Handed Tennis" (with the forward from Kathy Rinaldi) but I have them in my library. I must give you credit for mentioning and being able to find a picture of Aussie Vivian McGrath. That took some digging. Probably by Ursula Garvey of the Australian Consulate.

As for Bill Tilden's Match Play and the Spin of the Ball, Your best friend don_budge touts the books greatness as well. It does have some real gems in it. You know a book is good when the opening line discusses the most incredible sensation of striking a tennis ball on the sweet spot and hitting it for a winner. John Yandell was nice enough to post many excerpts on this website as well from the book.
Both good books.

I'm more a Stephen Hawking "A Brief History of Time" (Astrophysics) and Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" and "Into The Wild" kind of guy. But I do have a soft spot for memoir's like Joe Bastianich's "Restaurant Man" and Marcus Samuelsson's "Yes Chef" and of course Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential"

Yes JeffMac, I'm well-read and nice as well. Deal with it.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[JeffMac]

Cheap Shot Artiste!

When did I ever say that you weren't well read? I know I didn't. That seems like a cheap shot that came right out of the wild blue yonder. Every time I feel like I reach some sort of state of rapproachment with one of you guys I get hit by a haymaker that I never saw coming. Is it possible that you are thinking of someone else on here?

Now it's 4:30 in the morning, I'm upset and I can't sleep. The problem is that I can dish it out but I can't take it because I'm a cancer. Now I'm in my shell and intend to stay there indefinetely. I hope you're satisfied young man. Picking on an old sick man like me. I can't even play golf anymore. Is that how you get your kicks? I am going to sit here in front of my computer until I get an apologetic email from you. I will not eat, or go to the bathroom until I receive my just do. It's an official hunger and potty strike. I am prepared to piss my pants if I have to. Even more than once if need be.

And I may have to report a violation to the editorial committee. They don't take me very seriously, but I can try to have your posting priveleges removed for one day. [/I].think that sounds quite fair.

I know that you will get what's called Posting Jones Syndrome.think that sounds quite fair.

I do have some good news for you though. Two items: I'm working on a half dozen articles right now. One concerns the trip I took to Florida in 1983 to try out to be the tour coach of two WTA players. I may have some questions for you.

And you've got a new job in California. Since the subject arose on a Yandel Post Check it and see what you think. Let us know if you get it.

JeffMac,

To answer your question, yes, I've not only read the books "Two-Handed Tennis" (with the forward from Kathy Rinaldi) but I have them in my library. I must give you credit for mentioning and being able to find a picture of Aussie Vivian McGrath. That took some digging. Probably by Ursula Garvey of the Australian Consulate.

As for Bill Tilden's Match Play and the Spin of the Ball, Your best friend don_budge touts the books greatness as well. It does have some real gems in it. You know a book is good when the opening line discusses the most incredible sensation of striking a tennis ball on the sweet spot and hitting it for a winner. John Yandell was nice enough to post many excerpts on this website as well from the book.
Both good books.

I'm more a Stephen Hawking "A Brief History of Time" (Astrophysics) and Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" and "Into The Wild" kind of guy. But I do have a soft spot for memoir's like Joe Bastianich's "Restaurant Man" and Marcus Samuelsson's "Yes Chef" and of course Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential"

Yes JeffMac, I'm well-read and nice as well. Deal with it.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

Hey Kyle, if you like astrophysics, I would suggest Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe". He goes into more detail than Hawking and writes very well for the layman. He is one of the guys working on string theory. His "The Fabric of the Cosmos" is also to be recommended. Try looking him up on YouTube...

[stotty]

Books....

I like the book Two-Handed Tennis. I am working my way through again as I haven't read it for many years. The book is well-written. It's also well structured and well laid out.

The beginning of the book in some respects is amazing when set against the background of tennis today. Back then the two-handed backhand was a rarity whereas these days the situation is reversed, the one-hander is the rarity. Back then Jeff was in a minority trying to sell the two-handed backhand as a credible stroke, these days only a minority advocate the one-hander. Weird, isn't it, how things can go full cycle? I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book again.

Match Play and Spin The Ball is a masterpiece. So many things are as relevant as ever in that book. Tilden even discovered the concept of the "heavy ball" decades before anyone.

It's a shame Frank Deford's book on Bill Tilden wasn't better written. Many tout it as a great book when actually it isn't. It's so poorly structured and hard to read. I read it to discover more about Tilden but the book was a drag and could have been done so much better. Deford had so much content to work with.

[bottle]

Careful Mac you are starting to sound like Oscar Wegner... Great book however as is your article here.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...t,_future.html

A very well done article but not gonzo at all. How disappointing. How interesting a comparison of the furnitures in which some two-handers stop or slow their shoulders like Marion Bartoli to let arms whip more and others don't.