Andy Murray surving at the 2015 Australian Open. Photograph by Brendan Dennis.
News that tennis star Andy Murray plans to retire this summer after the Paris Olympics and that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to become a backbencher has brought me back to a very bad summer day two years ago and thoughts of what it really means to let go of a a career — and your ego.
Read MoreThe way you look tonight: Lower Manhattan, symbol of New York City’s resilience.
Start spreading the news,
He’s leaving today.
He’ll no more be a part of it,
New York, New York
His con-artist shoes
Are longing to stray,
Right from the very heart of it
New York, New York
He wants to wake up in a city that always sleeps
To find he’s king of the hill, top of the heap….
Well, it’s official: President Donald J. Trump, who knows a thing or two about divorce, and New York are splitsville. The grounds? Apparently, extreme mental cruelty. New York was mean to him, don’t you know, forcing him to pay huge, huge, city and state taxes, investigating him and his cronies. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Read MoreThe admission by tennis star Maria Sharapova that she has tested positive for the banned drug meldonium offers its share of ironies.
Sharapova – the world’s most financially successful female athlete – has always benefited both by her talent and her looks.
But what looks good on the outside is not necessarily healthy on the inside. Sharapova – a Russian who trains in the U.S. – has a history of irregular EKGs and a family history of diabetes. There are conflicting reports about whether the drug, also known as mildronate, can actually alleviate those conditions. Its reputation as a performance enhancer stems from its ability to increase blood flow. ...
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Pope Francis’ celebration of Mass at Madison Square Garden tonight prompted my friend, sports publicist and blogger John Cirillo, to email me a post on his favorite Garden moments, which got me thinking about my own.
But first, a little history. The Garden, named for President James Madison, really was once a garden – a rooftop garden that was part of an elaborate Moorish-style complex designed by architect Stanford White, who was shot there in 1906 by a crazed Harry Thaw over Thaw’s wife (and White’s former mistress) chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit. (She figures in both E.L. Doctorow’s novel “Ragtime” and the movie “The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.”) ...
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The United States may be the sole superpower but as far as tennis is concerned, we might as well still be Britain’s backwater colony.
We’re out of the Davis Cup, and let’s face it, we Yanks will always be knocked out in the first round as long as we have to play the Brits (by which I mean Andy Murray). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You can say what you want about Andy as a low-rent Hamlet always bemoaning his existential fate, usually in the middle of a match. (Remember the time he was playing Nole at the Aussie Open and got distracted by a feather?) But Andy’s been dandy in Davis Cup, especially against us.
While we do have the No. 1 doubles team in twins Bob and Mike Bryan, they’ll never be enough without marquee singles players. And we’re a long way from John McEnroe and Andre Agassi. ...
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