EK Rebuttal

The beauty of this era of information sharing is the ease of getting your story out there for the entire world to see. I’m not suggesting that more than a handful of people read our humble blog, but it’s still technically out there, you know what I mean?

Anyway, I mention this because our chief rival, Easy Killer’s Russell Chamberlin, recently posted a story about our last match from a couple of weeks ago. Before I begin, let me say this – finding Russell’s blog last year provided the inspiration to get this blog started. Actually, it inspired me to suggest to our team captain to start a blog. But he put the responsibility back on me, and frankly I’ve enjoyed it this year. And, after seeing a couple of his “posts”, I’m glad that it’s me doing most of the posting. But that’s another story…

So I just wanted to write an open letter to Russell to address a couple of the…interesting comments that he makes in his final entry for the 2009 season. A link to Russell’s blog is on the right-hand side of the page, under “Relevant Links”, if you’d like to read his post first…

Dear Russell,

Many thanks for your fantastic blog about all things tennis. It has been instrumental in encouraging me to provide a forum to our team, and actually helped me out when I was trying to pick out a new racquet before this season started! That said, I have a few issues with your most recent post titles “EK topples Great Valley 3-2”.

By the way, congrats on that win. You guys played great, and deserved the victory. Let me get right to my first issue with your write-up.

After your description of the first singles match, you write “Why Great Valley filed a grievance after the match against Cam is beyond me. He’s a three year computer rated player. “ Let’s look at the facts of this case:

FACT: It was the final week of the season, and Cameron O’Donnell had not played a single match for Easy Killer all season.
FACT: Cameron has been playing for a 4.5 team during the Spring season, in addition to his play with a 4.0 team in the EPD.
FACT: Cameron is a 19-year old varsity player on the Kutztown U. tennis team.
FACT: Cameron didn’t just beat, but toyed with Dave Umbach, who was undefeated in limited match play coming into the match.
FACT: You told our captain Mike Gionta before the match (with a hint of smugness) that Cameron handles Cahn Ho easily in practice.
FACT: The last guy to handle Cahn Ho easily (Jimmy Riggs of Kinetix) caused the USTA computers to convulse to the point that Jimmy was instantly bumped to the 4.5 level.
And most importantly, the final fact: WE DIDN’T FILE A GRIEVANCE!!! We didn’t know who the kid was, we saw him dismantle a pretty solid 4.0 player, so we (okay, Capt. Mike) sent an e-mail to Sally Baird asking her what the story was.

I mean, look – good for Cameron. The USTA ratings system is suspect at best, and college players who get computer rated while in high school are classic overachievers when it comes to the rating system. Kids are maturing physically while playing more high-level tennis than they’ve ever played – of course the system isn’t going to be able to keep up. But to suggest that we’re out of line to inquire about Cameron’s status? I don’t know – seems a little disingenuous to me. If we rolled out a guy for a critical match against you guys that you had never seen nor heard of, and Mike told you before the match that he smokes Brett Seigfried in practice, you wouldn’t be a little suspicious?

Moving on. In your backhanded compliment to our team, you say “They have a cohesive group of solid players and the requisite ringers to make waves in the post season. Go get ‘em.” Well, we appreciate your positive wishes. I know how hard it is to root for the Cowboys after the Eagles get elimnated from the playoffs. At the same time, I have a pretty serious problem with your use of the word “ringers” here. Maybe where you’re from, you call a guy a ringer and he winks at you, you raise a glass, and everything’s cool. But I’m not gonna lie – I hear “ringer” and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.

There are a bunch of definitions for the word ringer on dictionary.com. I’m assuming that you are not referring to some of us as “highly skilled sheep shearers”, so I’m going to guess that the appropriate definition here is “any person or thing that is fraudulent; fake or impostor”. Well, let me tell you something. The USTA rating system may be a little sketchy, but there is NOTHING about this team that is fraudulent. When you make it to Sectionals with your youngest player aged 34 year old, there ain’t no ringers here. Do we have guys who are at the top of this level? No doubt. Do we have some doubles partnerships that play better than the sum of their parts? You’d better believe it. In fact, you more than anyone should appreciate that, as you and Ron Rubenstein being out the best in each other, as do Tom Faith and Eric Markowitz. You can’t tell me that either of those partnerships would be better off playing singles, or matched with different partners.

That leads me to my final issue, which is your fascination with me. You know what you wrote, anyone else who is reading this can go to your blog and see what you said about Rich and myself knocking off Tom McAvoy and Hap in our #1 doubles match. Interestingly, you make the same points that I’m about to feature without knowing it in that paragraph, but I just want to make you aware…

First off, a little background on me. I’m not sure how much you know. I played high school tennis at Methacton, #2 singles as a senior behind a young man named Keith Anderton (currently a USTA 5.0 rated player), who was a perennial threat to go to states. Keith and I teamed up my senior year at district doubles, and came one game from states – we lost a 3rd set tiebreak in the quarters, when a win would have earned an invite to the state tournament. Anyway, I went to school at Boston U – I wasn’t nearly good enough to play tennis there. I took a year off and moved home – that’s when Gionta and Werkhiser got their claws into me. In ’95, we were all on a 4.5 team with some other talented individuals (including 2 that still play for this GV team, Jack Legorreta and and Guy Van Alstine) that made it to Sectionals. We went 0-5 at Sectionals, losing every match by the score of 3-2. What are the odds?

Went back to school – Penn State this time. Guess what? I didn’t play there either. Over the next 10 years, I played on and off, depending on where I was at the time. Won a 4.5 tourney in Connecticut in ’98, dropped off the grid, moved to NC, etc. Picked up many other sports like ice hockey, softball, golf, etc. Somehow, Kenny and Mike tracked me down when I moved back to the area 5 years ago, and here we all are.

What’s the point, you’re asking? Well, it’s taken me a while to round back into match shape. Go to the USTA website, and take a gander at my record in 2007, my first year back into competitive league tennis. Make sure you have a barf bag handy, because it’s ugly. Over the past couple of years, I’ve had the opportunity to play myself back into match condition, thanks to the Monday night league at Kinetix and the USTA league. Playing against guys like Simon Key, Jeremy Schroeder and Sean McElroy (among others) will get you sharper in a hurry. I still don’t play often enough, as I have other interests in addition to a 17-month old son, but my game has improved over the past two years.

Okay, we’re finally getting to the point. In propping up Tom McAvoy as a worthy opponent, you mention that he and Eric Markowitz took out Cooper/Ruhl of the Drunken Fools, your “gold standard” of 4.0 tennis in straight sets. Did you know that Rich Trach and I dropped a set to those guys before finally pulling out the match? You mention that Hap was 11-0 coming into the match. Were any of those wins with Tom McAvoy? No. You know better than anyone the value of playing with a consistent partner. This was Rich and my 6th match together. And you’re surprised that we had an advantage?

And finally, we get to your 30-minute convo with Sean McElroy. Now, this is the epitome of fact bending. Let’s start with Sean making the comment that I “regularly beat him in singles”. I talked with Sean tonight, and he doesn’t remember using those specific words to begin with. We’ve probably played ten times over the past 3 years. If it’s not 5-5, it’s no worse than 6-4 either way. Virtually every match goes 3 sets, and the 3rd set is almost always a tiebreak. It’s actually pretty remarkable. So there’s that.

And then there’s “For those of you who don’t know Sean, he won at the 2008 Men’s 5.0 National Championships.” True. Sean is 4.5 rated, and a fixture at the club. He is a tremendous player. But even he would admit that he is a far better doubles player than singles player. And his record at the 2008 Men’s 5.0 National Championships? 1 doubles win (in a 3rd set super-tiebreak) and 3 doubles losses. And his only singles match resulted in a 6-1, 6-1 defeat. So let’s move past the “Sean is a 5.0 player” thing, okay? Sean and I actually had a good laugh about the blog post at the club tonight, that he was being quoted as evidence that I am a lock to be bumped next year.

Look, Russell – I’m fully prepared to get moved up a level. But to say that it’s a certainty is just silly. I went 1-4 at sectionals last year. I’m a “benchmark” 4.0 rated player (I’m sure you know what that means far better than I do). But I do enjoy your fixation on me, and am glad to see that I have a fan club…

So there you have it. I’ve gone a little longer than planned, but that’s what a couple of beers will do. I just hope the grammar and spelling aren’t too egregious.

Yours truly,

Greg Heck
Great Valley HS Men’s 4.0 tennis team member