Good pickup. I forgot how close that match was. My memory had it as an easy win for Andre but now I remember it was a close win for Andre.  I must be getting a little senile.

Andre's disclosure has to be a marketing tactic because he's had 12 years to confess if he wanted to and it can't be a coincidence that the confession was saved for a book. Andre was a fitness fanatic and it's hard to see him putting this poison into his body. I wonder if he ever really did it. Somebody would likely have sold the story to a tabloid if he did it. Keeping this a secret for 12 years is hard to accomplish. This whole story sounds more and more like Balloon Boy Part II. 

I played a match as a junior 30 years ago, on amphetamines.  One of the best matches of my life.  I admitted it to my opponent who I have been food friends with since, about a year ago.  His HS coach used to tell him that it was the best match he'd ever seen a HSchooler ever play.  Andre mentioned a tidal wave of euphoria, what I had was a tidal wave of focus and confidence.  I have also come clean on using amphetamines in a couple of college matches, over 25 years later.  I find his story believable and don't find the coverup surprising.  But I would for sure agree with your premise that he wants to use it to sell books- but I don't take umbrage with that either.

There is a school of thought put out in education etc that suggests, "do what works."  I think Agassi knows how to do that, in many facets of his life.  He may actually desire the attention now more than the money.

I used to be fairly neutral on Andre, now I guess I kind of like him, that's my present bias.

First off, Agassi was only a fitness fanatic later in his career. When Spadea first hung out with him in Scottsdale '94, he said Andre was smoking clove cigarettes one right after the other and he didn't lose a set or go to a breaker throughout the entire tournament.

Secondly, you can't sell 5 million copies of a book if it's about tennis, not even if you're AA. That's why a non-tennis writer was hired to write the book; he's an exceptional journalist, but more a memoirist than anything to do with tennis. The parts that have gained notoriety in the media already have very little to do with tennis. 

They're all about how crazy Agassi's father was, how abusive, and how much Agassi actually "hated" tennis. I haven't seen a copy of the book yet, but I can tell you now there won't be an emphasis on tennis, as there will be on the way Agassi was raised, his eccentricities and Brooke Shields and Barbara Streisand. 

That's the path for a tennis star to sell books, write about your life outside of the game, your struggles and comeback. That was James Blake's emphasis and it'll be Agassi's in a more wild and destructive fashion.

Spadea said it's a shame AA has admitted this crystal meth use b/c it tells young kids you can do junk and still be great. It's like all the drug-user muscians in Hollywood who think by taking drugs they can become the next Jim Morrisson. But Agassi and the publishers are banking on the fact that he can change lives by telling a sensational life story and I think tennis will be downplayed. No one really cared about Pete Sampras' book and that was written by a tennis writer, and in Spadea's book, besides the Blake bombshell about being a bad sport, we got more attention for Vince's pick up moves.

Red, I agree with you 100% about Pete Sampras's book. It was a complete bore. It was clearly written by a tennis writer and in the style of a tennis writer. I doubt that Pete had much to do with the book. I would be surprised if Pete even read it. Vinnie's book, in contrast, was a great read. It had it's nice rifts on the other players and you really get the feel that you are a lower ranked player flying around the world to stay in the show as you read the book. It was a little like Ball Four, although Ball Four was a masterpiece that sets the gold standard.

One of my other favorite tennis bios is "The Game" by Jack Kramer. The beauty of the book was that it was 200 pages of getting even with guys who annoyed Jack, especially Fred Perry and Kramer pulled no punches when it came to evaluating other players and discussing what Jack considered to be the splendors of his own tennis game. 

Andre has had a much more interesting life outside of tennis than Pete. Pete had two parents who were college grads and had full lives outside of tennis. Pete's whole family is quite normal, everyone but Pete a college grad and Pete living a good life as a player, now a parent, etc.

Andre is contrast comes from a strange family with a nutty father, a sis who marries Pancho Gonzalez, a strange affair with Brooke Shields and tremendous ups and downs as a player. So it should make for a great read.    

I am a bit bemused by the idea he shouldn't have admitted he did illegal drugs - would it be better to write a book that perpetuates the lie?  It's well known by now that McEnroe, Borg, WIlander - all those guys did coke. 

I think he probably doesn't want to go on with that lie for whatever reason or probably several reasons - some people do know obviously ie I['m not sure how big the circle was of people who knew he had had a positive test but some people did know and anyone of them might tell at any time - far better for him to control the telling; rumors circulate of him running for office (which I noticed he didn't deny being interested in in the future in a recent interview) and that's not the kind of thing you want to come out in a campaign; he seems grown up enough and thoughtful enough these days to have decided on his own he wanted to own his actions.  And I'll take a guess at why he didn't say much earlier - the statute of limitations for drug offences is eight years (as has been frequently noted this week). 

Spadea on it being a shame becaue kids think you can do it and be great - that's ridiculous.  Even in the excepts, it's clear he associates drug use with his life (and tennis) being a catastrophe, and all the headway he's made since coming form leaving that behind. The message is the opposite - with the caveat that nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes (and some of us very serious and potentially life threatening ones) - and you can get a grip of your mistakes and find a better place.  I think that's a message that works well with every kid.

Gerry Koppe - do you still read this board?  Join in... 

 

 

The whole confession is about selling books. It's like when Pete Rose said yeah I really did bet on baseball when he was peddling a book. If Andre wanted to confess he had twelve years to do it. I still question whether he ever actually did drugs or if this isn't a balloon boy stunt. If you look at the circumstantial evidence the only logical conclusion is that he did not do drugs. I have never seen a drug user who could even win a recreational league match. It's also unlikely that Andre could keep his drug use quiet. Some low life would have taken pictures or videos and sold them to a tabloid. Where would someone as famous as Andre go to buy drugs? He can't walk into a bar and say does anybody have a stash. My best estimate is that this is a stunt by the publisher to sell books. It isn't far fetched. The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, and New Republic all got caught having writers who made things up. 

 

Dobey, thanks for the compliments on "Break Point." I modeled it after "Ball Four," but of course it's a much lesser book b/c as you say Bouton's book was a classic. But I do feel "Break Point" was a book that captured a lot of what it's like to be a pro tennis player, one who's had a long and varied career. And it was funny and absurd at times, and it talked about tennis and some of the other players and it captured the extreme odds these pros take on when they seek to make a living out of this game.

Sampras's book just never captured my attention in a real human way. And that's partly Sampras's fault and Peter Bodo's, who was the co-writer. I've always said about being a co-writer, if you're not willing to ask the hard questions, and encourage the athlete to come clean on many of the controversial and interesting aspects of his career, turn the book down. Don't write it. No one wants to read a sacarine (spelling?) sports book.

As for Agassi, I don't think he cooked this up, but it's true that he lied or played possum during his career about a lot of his untoward actions. 

And, btw, Texastennis, Spadea isn't the only one upset with Agassi.

On Wednesday, WADA president John Fahey says he is disappointed by the revelations in Agassi's upcoming autobiography. He says Agassi is a role model who should alert youth to the dangers of doping.

Agassi admits in the book that he used crystal meth in 1997. He says he lied to ATP Tour officials to explain his positive test, claiming he accidentally drank from a soda spiked with meth.

Agassi writes that the ATP accepted his explanation and dropped the case.

Fahey says WADA expects the ATP "to shed light on this allegation."

I don't know what your background is in tennis, but guys like Spadea spend their whole lives living cleanly so that they can become elite athletes. I don't think it's "ridiculous" that Spadea, or Martina Navratilova, who thinks Agassi should have titles taken away from him that he won when he should've been suspended, think that Agassi hurt his image as a role model and the game, itself. Maybe Agassi was able to clean up his life, but most people who go down the drug route don't make it back.

 

He didn't win any titles when he should have been suspended.  He hardly won a match that year. Of course he should havetaken the suspension (which was three months at that time), but what I meant is ridiculous is to criticize him both for getting out of it then and for admitting it in. No consistency. I don't think he's suggesting in any way what he did is a good idea, obviously the opposite.  For sure for kids or adults, it's a

cautionary tale about just saying no.

Red, I just finished reading the two classic baseball diaries by Jim Brosnan the first being "The Long Season" and the second being "The Pennat Race". These baseball diaries were written in 1960 and 1961 and they still stand the test of time. They take you back to a much simpler era, where pro athletes weren't that much different finanically than most other Americans. And the books. tame as they were, got Brosnan effectively blackballed from baseball. He had the temerity to write about how his GM gave him a take it or leave it offer when it was salary time and that was apparently enough for the owners to give him the boot. It was never announced. The teams simply stopped signing Brosnan.

Pete Sampras's book doesn't give you any sense of what Pete actually thought of the guys he was playing. It might have been interesting if Pete's author had told us what Pete thought about Rafter during the stretch when Rafter had the temerity to actually defeat Pete in the 1997-1998 era. As I recall, Pete didn't like it much but we learn nothing about that in Pete's book.

The nice thing about Break Point is that we know exactly what Vince thinks about the other guys, especially Marty Fish and James Blake. According to rumor, Blake let Vince know what he thought about Vince's descriptions of James. Was there really a locker room lecture from James after publication or was that just rumor?   

Year	Tournament & City	Surface	Round	Winner & Score
2001	US Open NY, U.S.A.	Hard	R16	Sampras, Pete 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4 Stats
2001	ATP Masters Series Indian Wells California, USA	Hard	Q	Sampras, Pete 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 Stats
2000	Wimbledon England	Grass	F	Sampras, Pete 6-7(10), 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-2 Stats
1999	ATP Masters Series Cincinnati OH, U.S.A.	Hard	F	Sampras, Pete 7-6(7), 6-3 Stats
1999	World Team Cup Germany	Clay	RR	Rafter, Patrick 6-3, 6-4 Stats
1998	US Open NY, U.S.A.	Hard	S	Rafter, Patrick 6-7(8), 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 Stats
1998	ATP Masters Series Cincinnati OH, U.S.A.	Hard	F	Rafter, Patrick 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 Stats
1997	ATP Tour World Championship Germany	Hard	RR	Sampras, Pete 6-4, 6-1 Stats
1997	Grand Slam Cup Germany	Carpet	F	Sampras, Pete 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 Stats
1997	AUS V USA SF Washington, DC, USA	Hard	RR	Sampras, Pete 6-7, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4
1997	ATP Masters Series Cincinnati OH, U.S.A.	Hard	R16	Sampras, Pete 7-6(4), 6-4 Stats
1997	Philadelphia PA, U.S.A.	Hard	F	Sampras, Pete 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3 Stats
1996	Hong Kong Hong Kong	Hard	R16	Sampras, Pete 6-3, 7-6(1) Stats
1995	ATP Masters Series Indian Wells CA, U.S.A.	Hard	R16	Sampras, Pete 6-4, 6-7(8), 6-1 Stats
1994	Tokyo Outdoor Japan	Hard	Q	Sampras, Pete 6-1, 5-7, 6-1 Stats
1993	Indianapolis IN, U.S.A.	Hard	Q	Rafter, Patrick 7-6(6), 6-7(3), 7-6(5) Stats

I thought meth made you an instant addict but honestly I felt worse about his abusive father and thought Andre could have gone down a road of total self destruction simply by saying the heck with it. Nothing I do pleases the old man. His sister suffered horribly as well and who knows what else went in a house with a driven and violent father on the loose. Steffi had to contend with an equally unstable father. Once I saw something that bothered me very much. It was the year Vitas got into the finals. His father was a short muscular little man and as far as I know never abusive.Vitas lost and while I was crossing the parking lot I saw him crying while his father was shouting at him.It shocked me because they always seemed a close family but I guess these people live their lives through their children. Anyway what's done is done and he was clear about lying and clear that he was given a pass.A doctor I know who was a champion player in college once gave me the names of several players he said would have been much higher ranked but did drugs in college and beyond on the tour so the more rigourous testing today should be welcomed if indeed it is on the level.

Regarding Jim Brosnan he was one of the only players who stuck up for Curt Flood when Flood challenged the reserve clause in baseball. The players have become rich  beyond imagination thanks to Flood but they were gutless wonders when he took on the reserve clause. When Flood's case came to trial only three players Jackie Robinson, Hank Greenberg, and Jim Brosnan testified for Flood. The rest, retired and active, headed for the tall grass. Even though Brosnan's books did nothing to undermine baseball and brought new fans to baseball the owners  only wanted the players to write gee whiz I am happy to be here books.

LMAO, IT WAS A WEAVE, by 1990 it was a weave, what was he 20?...Meth for a year? How did he only fail one test? The ATP is a joke..I'm sure he was chasing it with something to calm him down..Gil Reyes might not be as clean in all this as well, or else he's the greatest physio of all time, getting a methhead in top shape..If he was doing meth, do you thinkt that maybe he was doing roids to get back in shape? I'm sure after he Bull****** his way out of a failed test he realized the ATP wouldnt suspend him, so why not do roids to get in shape..

Agassi takes a hit on this but the ATP has some splaining to do

 

Andre was an enormous star in the mid 1990s and his ego went along for the ride. That ego was on full display in the letter he sent to Nick Bolitieri when Andre fired Nick. Nick published the letter in the book that the late *** Schap ghostwrote for him. In the letter, which Andre intended as a private letter, Andre treats Nick the way a rock star treats a roadie. Andre was filled with contempt for Nick in the letter and made a point of telling Nick that Nick was merely a tennis teacher while he (Andre) was a big tennis star with a worldwide following. I have no idea of the financial issues between the two of them and maybe Nick was trying to take a bigger share of the Andre pie than Nick deserved. But whatever the case, nobody should treat another person so contemptuously. I prefer the Aussie style. The guys like Rafter and Laver and Stolle and Newcombe would play their guts out on the court but they would leave it on the court. None of the Aussies ever develops one of those "I am richer and better" attitudes. Maybe that is why Aussies are such friendly blokes.