Review of "Tennis Tensions" - A Deep Dive Into Tennis’s Class and Culture

This book by Gabriel Allen examines the forces — cultural, racial, and structural — that have shaped tennis from its earliest days. It’s a perspective that challenges the sport’s familiar narratives.

Title/Author:

“Tennis Tensions: Class, Race and Gender in the Evolution of the Sport” by Gabriel Allen

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:  Tennis has long been considered a game of the “country club crowd” (my words, not a quote from the book). From the descriptions of its history to its unusual method of scoring to the extremely slow pace of racial integration, the sport has done much to reinforce that stereotype. This book by tennis professional and journalist Gabriel Allen digs deeper into these aspects and a few more to show a different interpretation of tennis history.

Each of the items described above — the origins of the sport, integration, scoring — are covered, as are other aspects such as amateur status and the Wimbledon “tradition” of requiring players to wear all-white attire. Allen illustrates how these reflect classism, racism, sexism, and homophobia. He refers to these forces as the “white tennis unconscious” (WTU — my abbreviation used here) throughout the book.

As a fairly casual fan of the game who usually only watches the Grand Slam events, I was surprised to see just how deeply these characteristics were embedded in tennis and how the WTU shaped several aspects of the sport. The most surprising to me was how the WTU can be expressed by a player, fan, or anyone describing the type of play they prefer. Whether one prefers a serve‑and‑volley style, a baseline game with groundstrokes, or a combination of the two, these preferences can reflect the WTU rather than simply enjoying all types of play.

I was also surprised at first — though less so after reading the chapter on it — that the scoring system used in tennis is part of the WTU and maintained for its exclusivity. Several people in Allen’s sources note that tennis scoring is very difficult to explain and that it is unfair that a player can score more points than their opponent but still lose the match. Here is where I thought the best part of the entire book appeared: Allen’s proposal for scoring is simply to count points, with suggestions such as the first player to reach 60 being the winner, or possibly 100 in major events. Players alternate sides after five points and then every ten points thereafter. The serve would alternate after the first point and then every two points thereafter, the same as the current tiebreaker rules. So whoever serves the first point of the match would serve only one point, and then the serve would alternate every two points until someone reached the target score by a minimum margin of two points (1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2…). This ensures the principles of holding and breaking serve and prevents a player from winning without breaking serve at all. If the serve alternated every two points, whoever served first in the match would be able to reach the target score by a margin of two without having broken serve once. 

In other topics illustrating the WTU, what struck me most was the chapter on GOATs (greatest of all time). I especially liked the brief biographies of two players who are often overlooked in these discussions — Ora Washington for women (a Black woman) and Ricardo González for men (a Latino man). The latter was better known as “Pancho Gonzales” (an Americanization of his true name), and the former is mostly ignored in history despite her many victories. Allen does a very good job of bringing these two players to life for readers.

As is the case with many books on class, race, and gender, there are passages that may be uncomfortable for readers who fall into classifications considered privileged. However, instead of feeling lectured or shamed into guilt, those readers should take this as an excellent history lesson and reflect on what it is about tennis that they enjoy — and if those aspects fall into the WTU, what they can do to help change this, whether the reader is a player, coach, fan, or someone who simply loves the sport.

I wish to thank Mr. Allen for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Link:   Tennis Tensions: Class, Race and Gender in the Evolution of the Sport: Allen, Gabriel: 9798316681723: Amazon.com: Books

 

Review of "Make Me Commissioner"

When I saw this book available for review prior to its release in September, I was intrigued.  While I can't say I enjoyed all of Jane Leavy's books I previously read, I knew that she was very knowledgeable about the game, so this had to be good.  It was - glad I picked it up.  Here is my review of "Make Me Commissioner."

Title/Author: “Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It” by Jane Leavy

Rating: 4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:  “Baseball is too slow.”  “Analytics are ruining the game.”  “Kids don’t want to play the game.”  “Television ratings for baseball are terrible.”  These and other complaints about the current state of Major League Baseball have been spoken, printed, shouted and communicated in nearly every manner for several years now. Jane Leavy, an accomplished baseball writer and fan, decided to use her experience and interview many people to come up with ways to fix the game. She tells readers about this experience and her ideas in this very good book.

Something that makes the book very interesting is that Leavy talks with many people with various viewpoints on many different issues. Leaving out names because 1) there are so many in the book that it would make this review longer than an 18-inning marathon game and 2) it would not be right to put labels on people such as “traditionalist” or “stat geek” so this review will not do so.  It is just worth noting that the conclusions Leavy makes come after weighing all opinions.

Just about every aspect of the current game is covered and either addressed or left alone by Leavy in her final suggestions (which will not be revealed in this review). I thought her best work was on the lack of Black players from the United States as her interviews were very interesting. I will note that there is a triggering sentence in that section that she at least acknowledges that was very unprofessional on a possible solution to this problem.  But the overall topic is covered well.

As is the other example I will note her, her writing on the current state of traveling baseball and how it not only will exclude kids from playing the game but also limits the opportunities for players to advance to either college baseball or possibly being drafted by MLB teams.  I also enjoyed her stories of the Cape Cod league that are interspersed in the book between writing about these issues.  They tie in nicely with the topics being discussed.  One excellent example is near the end when kids can interact with the actual play on the field using some of the advanced analytical statistics.  If that sounds improbable, it did happen and the story is great.

Improbable is the most likely outcome for either Leavy to become the actual commissioner or for many of her ideas to become reality.  But even if they don’t, this book is a very good look at the current state of the game and some possible ways of addressing them without altering the beauty of the game itself.

I wish to thank Grand Central Publishing for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley.  The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Link:  Amazon.com: Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It: 9780306834660: Leavy, Jane: Books

Review of "Sir Lewis"

While I consider myself to be more of a NASCAR fan than F1, I am finding that books about the latter are much more interesting for reading than the former and as a result, more of my books on auto racing are falling into the F1 category.  Here is my latest F1 read on Sir Lewis Hamilton.

Title/Author:

“Sir Lewis” by Michael Sawyer

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:

Lewis Hamilton has won seven F1 driving titles and yet, some don’t consider that to be his greatest accomplishment.  Being the only Black driver on the F1 circuit, he had to overcome many barriers and challenges that many minority people face whenever they are striving to succeed, in sports or otherwise.  He has done gracefully, with great success and has become a strong activist for equality. How he came to this point, in both his racing and his activism, is portrayed in this excellent book by Micheal Sawyer.

 If there is any downfall to this book, it would be that for readers who follow F1 or Hamilton closely, there won’t be much new material in the book. As one who would be best considered a casual fan of F1 and only knew about Hamilton’s success with his championships, I found the book to be full of new information that I did not know about him and came away with even more respect for the man than I did before I picked up the book. The many post-race interview transcripts helped formulate this impression, but I can understand where this may be redundant for those who follow Lewis closely.

Because the book deals mostly with Hamilton’s racing and his activism, I did find it to not quite be a “biography” as it is marketed, despite covering most of Hamilton’s life.  It is clear how not only the book will read, but also how Hamilton’s life will be shaped when Sawyer writes about the sacrifices and hardships his father makes so that Lewis can race, starting in go-karts and extending until the McLaren team decided to take a chance on the young but talented driver.  Even in the go-kart level, it takes a lot of money to dedicate the proper resources to the sport, something the Hamilton family did not always have.  Add in the elitism and the racism endured by the family and it makes Lewis’ accomplishments even more astounding.

There is also a great deal of racing material in the book, especially when Lewis’ rivals such as Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso.  The latter was his teammate when Lewis was with McLaren racing and the tension between them is covered quite well.  The same can be said for the rivalry between Hamilton and Verstappen and what is most impressive is the class and humility for which Hamilton handles himself when faced with questions about his rivals.  This is true even in the case of the controversial finish of the 2021 F1 season when some questionable ruling on the final lap gave Verstappen the title over Hamilton. 

Lastly, the sections that describes Hamilton’s activism, his quotes about events such as the police shooting of Breanna Taylor and his calm demeanor that makes his statements even more powerful.  He handles this topic as skillfully and masterfully as he does a race car.  In the same manner, Sawyer handles this topic well. While his text when interjecting his own thoughts with Hamilton’s can come across as much stronger, it is written even-handedly and fairly.  For all of these reasons, this reader who wanted to learn more about Hamilton believes this is an excellent book for that endeavor.

I wish to thank Grand Central Publishing for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Link: Sir Lewis: Sawyer, Michael: 9781538769744: Amazon.com: Books

 

Review of "The Real Hoosiers"

Hoosiers is certainly considered to be one of the best basketball movies ever made.  This book is not about the movie, nor about Milan High, the school on which the fictional Hickory High is based.  Instead, it is about the team that lost the game - and then won the next two Indiana state championships. 

Title/Author:

“The Real Hoosiers: Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops” by Jack McCallum

Rating: 

3 ½ of 5 stars (okay)

Review:

In the mid-1950’s, an all-Black school, Crispus Attucks, won the Indiana state high school championship in back-to-back seasons.  The previous season, it lost to Milan, a much smaller school and the game on which the film Hoosiers was based. Three championship game appearances and back-to-back titles was a major accomplishment in the time of school segregation, even though it had just been declared unconstitutional. The story of Crispus Attucks and its most famous player, Oscar Robertson, is told in this book by Jack McCallum.

The story of Crispus Attucks cannot be told without background information on the social and racial climate of Indiana and its capital, Indianapolis, at that time. While the book does have enough basketball text to be considered a book on the sport, it does spend a lot of time on the subject of racism in Indiana – mostly off the court, but it does make its way into the game as well, such as several references to white players and teams getting favorable calls from referees.  At times, the text feels a bit heavy-handed and repetitive – but that doesn’t take away the need to tell those stories, nor does it make the message any less meaningful.

Having not previously read any memoir or book on Oscar Robertson aside from his involvement in the early days of the NBA players’ union, I found some of the stories on him to be the best parts of the book.  Here, McCallum did some of his best work and research since Robertson declined to be interviewed for the book.  Nonetheless, a reader will be able to capture not only the greatness he was already showing on the court, but also the complicated personality of the young man. Having learned a lot about Robertson in this book when McCallum could not speak to him says a lot about the research done to portray “The Big O”. 

Some parts of the book were a slog to get through and other parts were page-turning exercises because I couldn’t get enough. That averages out to a book that was a good one to pick but will not be one I will be reading again.

I wish to thank Grand Central Publishing for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Link: The Real Hoosiers: Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops: McCallum, Jack: 9780306830754: Amazon.com: Books