On Monday I celebrated my 58th birthday. I passed my eye test at the DMV without needing glasses, a miracle in itself, and went to Staples where they finally found a self-inking rubber stamp I\u2019d ordered in January. That was good news because I was beginning to wonder if I was growing old and losing my mind. No I\u2019m not, I really did order a rubber stamp with my address on it.<\/p>\n
All day long I couldn\u2019t help thinking about Bud Collins. This year\u2019s Wimbledon was Bud\u2019s last appearance on NBC\u2019s coverage of the event, he\u2019s been let go after 35 years of interviews and features on tennis broadcasts. Evidently he received the news in a voice message from his boss at NBC, Ken Schanzer.<\/p>\n
Bud is 78 years old. That means I have 20 years more to dig my way into the world of tennis before I\u2019m sent out to pasture and shipped off to the professional version of a rest home.<\/p>\n
I worked next to Bud at Indian Wells and Davis Cup. He was a friendly, helpful guy and he probably doesn\u2019t remember me that well because he was friendly and helpful to everyone. I remember him, though, because most tennis journalists are too busy figuring out how they can possibly extract anything other than platitudes and clich\u00e9s from today\u2019s players to worry about a new person in the media center. Not Bud, though, that\u2019s just the way he is.<\/p>\n
Bud not only helped new journalists, he also helped tennis players. In 1988, he interviewed eighteen-year-old Natasha Zvereva after she lost the 1988 French Open final to Steffi Graf. Zvereva held her prize money and said that she wished the Russian Tennis Federation would change something, “you know what I mean,” she said. Collins knew what she meant and helped her out by filling in the blanks: \u201cYou would like them to pay you the money you’ve just won.” At the time, players had to turn all of their prize money over to the Russian Tennis Federation.<\/p>\n
Zvereva held the check up and said: \u201cThis $24,000, it\u2019s not money, just the paper.\u201d One of her handlers squirmed uncomfortably in the stands and shook his finger in protest. He wasn\u2019t quite as brave as Zvereva. Shortly after her comments, the Russian Tennis Federation changed its policy to allow players to keep their prize money.<\/p>\n
I have no idea how far I\u2019ll go before I\u2019m finished with tennis, but if I manage to make it into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, write a few tennis books including an encyclopedia of tennis, win a Red Smith award for outstanding sports journalism, and become so popular that I can\u2019t walk across Wimbledon without fans stopping me constantly to ask for my autograph and have their pictures taken with me, all of which applies to Bud Collins, I hope my employer will at least show me the respect of delivering my retirement papers in person.<\/p>\n
In return for my years of exemplary service, I also hope my boss will give me enough notice of my dismissal that I can make one more round of my favorite haunts and collect some of the praise and admiration I\u2019ve earned. I\u2019ll still be out to pasture but the appreciation might ease the pain and separation of becoming obsolete.<\/p>\n