Moving

I'm currently attempting to consolidate all of my blogs and websites (with an exception or two) over on my primary website: www.leewarren.info. I still plan to blog about sports over there and the website contains links to many of the articles I've written about Christian athletes, so stop on by when you get a chance.

2009 French Open

So, between the Tennis Channel and ESPN, I’ve been recording something like 13 hours of tennis each day during the French Open and sitting down to watch what I’ve recorded around 10:00 PM each night. Of course, the math doesn’t work, unless I want to avoid sleep and work altogether and I haven’t figured out how to pull that off. But it is fun to pick and choose what I watch—something the Tennis Channel has given me the opportunity to do.

Did you catch any of the Andy Roddick vs. Gael Monfils fourth round match the other day? Over the past couple of years, I’ve watched Monfils progress up the rankings (he’s seeded 11 at this tournament) and I could understand why he was headed toward the top. He’s loaded with talent and he really seems passionate about the sport. I wasn’t too impressed with his antics against Roddick though. As it got dark, Roddick began telling the umpire he couldn’t see. Monfils must have believed Roddick wanted play suspended solely because Monfils had a big lead. And there may have been an element of truth in that. But Monfils didn’t handle it well. He began making all sorts of incredulous faces, trying to stir up the fans (Monfils is from France, so he was playing in front of a home crowd). Roddick didn’t take the bait though. He got beat soundly, but somehow he kept his focus throughout the match and he didn’t respond to Monfils’ actions. I’m guessing that things might be a little different at the US Open if they happen to meet up in a night match in New York.

The tennis world was stunned to see Rafael Nadal lose in the fourth round to Robin Soderling. I was hoping for another Nadal vs. Federer final because the drama would have been so thick, but Federer is still in the tournament and therefore still in the hunt for his first French Open title. He breaks down in tears now every time he wins or loses a final in a major and I don’t expect anything different from him this time if he can get past Juan Martin Del Potro in the semi-finals.

On the women’s side, Dinara Safina looks to have things well in hand in the top half of the draw. At the bottom half, Samantha Stosur has been a huge surprise. She’s seeded 30th, but she’s in the semi-finals against Svetlana Kuznetsova. I’ll be rooting for the winner of that match to win the tournament, but I don’t see Safina losing unless her nerves get the best of her. She’s mentally tough and she seems like she is on the verge of securing her spot at the top of the women’s game for a while.

Brad Coleman Profile

A while back, I interviewed NASCAR driver Brad Coleman for Baptist Press Sports. He's just about to make his 2009 debut for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series. He's a guy who is extremely honest about where he is spiritually, which is nice to see.

After racing a part-time schedule in the Nationwide Series with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2007, he signed with Baker Curb Racing for 2008, and the deal didn’t work out as planned. So he was on the sidelines for the final stretch of the season. Here's what he had to say about though times:

“What you really have to learn is to keep your faith and not give up and not let the down times get you down,” Coleman said. “There will be years when it will be the best year of your life all the way until a month to go in the season, and something can happen that will make it the worst season you’ve ever had, and it would be really easy to say, ‘God, why are you doing this to me?’

“But you’ve really just got to stay strong because he’s testing your faith. You know he has it all planned out for you and you know it’s all for the better.”

If you'd like to read the complete article, here's a link: Young NASCAR driver already giving back

Tina Gaa-Pulley

Not long ago, I interviewed former NFL cheerleader Tina Gaa-Pulley. She cheered for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1993 and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2005. In between those years, she became a Christian and her transformation was noticeable. She went from being somebody who, in her own words, was about glorifying herself to a person who pointed others to Christ. Read the article I wrote about her for Baptist Press Sports if you get a chance.

A Sudden Realization

The decision making process has always fascinated me. It involves weighing all of your options, getting advice from trusted friends, prayer, and when it all clicks, a knowing sweeps through your gut. That’s what happened to me in 1986.

I quit college in 1985 without any real plans for the long term future. Sounds like a kid, doesn’t it? But in the short term, I wanted to see how far I could go in the game of tennis. I wasn’t the best player on my high school team and in college we played on the fastest surface known to man—which didn’t help me since I’ve never been a speedster—so I was never able to get my ranking high enough to amount to anything, but I still couldn’t quench my desire to see what I could do. And I always believed that I could out work most people.

So, in 1986 I got into the best shape of my life by playing tennis for three or four hours every day and then I signed up to compete in several tournaments in the Midwest. I played okay in most of them, but I don’t think I ever advanced past the second round.

I signed up to play a tournament in St. Louis, which worked out well since my dad lived there. It was indoors and my dad watched the match from up above, snapping photos (including the one below—check out those Bike shorts!). If felt both odd and exhilarating to be chasing a dream in front of my dad.

The guy I was playing against in the first round was striking the ball well. His shots were flat and hard and didn’t give me a lot of time to get into good position for my shots. I knew that my only chance was to step inside the court (as seen in the photo) against his serve and become the aggressor. I even started doing that on my own serve, trying to use the pace of his shots against him. The strategy worked pretty well and it slowed him down. The first set went into a tie breaker and I lost it. But I still felt like I could pull it out in three sets.

The second set progressed much like the first—lots of good rallies and lots of winners on both sides. We ended up in another tie breaker and he won. The match was over. I felt good about the way I’d played. In fact, I didn’t think I could have played any better. He was just better on a couple of the big points in each tie breaker, but when you are already playing your best tennis, it’s hard to imagine playing at an even higher level.

After the match, a knowing swept over me. I was a good tennis player who would never be great. I won a tournament in college, but the reality was, I wasn’t good enough to go deep enough in any tournament after that. Tennis was going to become something I loved to play, but nothing more.

My story is similar to what happens to most people who pursue something they love. Most of us aren’t good enough to take it to the next level. But that doesn’t mean we should walk away. I didn’t. I couldn’t. I played in a few more tournaments. I continued to play recreationally. I read books and magazines about the game. And I studied it on television.

Now I’m 42 and very little has changed, except my waistline. I still love the game. I love everything about it, from the cordial spirit of competition to the way I feel when I hit a good shot. But more than anything, the tennis court has always been an equalizer for me. I have instincts on the court that I don’t have anywhere else, which allows me to overcome my size and slow-footedness.

Even though my dream died on a tennis court in St. Louis some 24 years ago, a new dream was birthed when I stayed involved in the game anyway. The new dream was to play the game for the simple joy it gives me. And that dream will never die because even when my body will no longer allow me to play, I’ll watch others play and the joy will return.

The Super Bowl on the Big Screen

Ron Benson has a post up on his blog this morning about the quandaries that churches face when they show the Super Bowl on a big screen television. I love this idea:

Lobby the industry to put two versions of the SB on the air, using their cable franchises. This is not a bad idea. They could actually sell twice the commercial slots, and one version could be "family friendly." Why haven't they thought of this?

Check out his entire post when you get a chance.

365 Inspiring Moments from the Great Outdoors

Barbour Publishing just released a perpetual desk calendar I compiled called 365 Inspiring Moments from the Great Outdoors. I had a lot of fun putting this calendar together and I included all sorts of factoids about the outdoors, including a number of facts about bike riding, hiking trails, canoeing, fishing, hunting, etc.


Oh, and in case you notice, Amazon.com currently mistakenly identifies someone else as the compiler of this calendar. I'm told that a correction has been submitted. It just takes a while for the process to work.

Australian Open Finals

The women’s final between Serena Williams and Dinara Safina turned out to be a real clunker. It took less than an hour, with Serena winning the first set 6-0. She probably should have lost earlier in the tournament—especially against Victoria Azarenka, but was fortunate to get past her when Azarenka had to retire because she was not feeling well.

I’m not a fan of Serena, so this may sound like sour grapes, but what has happened to the women’s game? Ana Ivanovic is imploding. Jelena Jankovic, the number one player in the world, who oddly has no majors under her belt, was ousted in the fourth round. Safina is number three and she has no major titles. Elena Dementieva seemed poised to finally break through at a major but she crumbled when she faced Serena.

Serena will be ranked number one now, justifiably so—she just won her 10th major. But in the past, she hasn’t even taken the game seriously. She doesn’t play enough events and her ranking drops, and then she wins another major or two and it goes back up again.

I miss the days of Chris Evert, Steffi Graf (she won 22 majors), Monica Seles, Mary Pierce, Jennifer Capriati, Martina Hingis, and Kim Clijsters. With the exception of Evert and Graf, I’m not sure any of these women had the raw talent that Serena has, but they played hard and respected the game.

The men’s game, on the other hand, has sustained itself thanks to the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. People are still talking about the incredible Wimbledon final they played last summer—the five set duel that last into the dusk. Ever since Nadal won it, every commentator uses the phrase “changing of the guard” every time they talk about these two players.

Two things make this rivalry interesting to me.

1. Nadal has been crowned king, but Federer doesn’t like it one bit. He won the US Open and he has even objected to being introduced as the number two seed at the Australian Open. So, he has something to prove. That always makes for an interesting story line.

2. Both of these guys have the utmost amount of respect for each other and the game. So many rivalries in sports are fueled by hatred—not so with Federer and Nadal. Nadal still says that Federer is the best player ever, even though he has defeated Federer 12 of the 18 times they have played. Federer is a student of the game and is always aware of the historical context he is playing in—which tells you how he feels about the game.

You get the feeling that if these two weren’t competitors, they’d be pulling for the other guy to become and stay number one in the world. I don’t know if that can be said about any other rivalry in sports.

Christians in the Super Bowl

With the Super Bowl just around the corner, a couple of websites are publishing lots of articles about Christian players for the Steelers and Cardinals. Here are the links to the articles if you’re interested:

• Steelers Safety Troy Polamalu: Put Pride Aside
• Steelers’ Polamalu: ‘Faith is foundation’
• Steelers’ Defensive End: Aaron Smith
• Kurt Warner: Beyond the Field
• Warner poised for another miracle
• Cardinals chaplain ponders ‘destiny’
• Steelers embrace new chaplain
• Boldin, Warner stir Cardinals’ faith

I’ve been a Steelers fan since I was eight or nine years old, so you know who I’ll be cheering for.