Wimbledon 1981. Classic. He won this match and in the final beat Bjorn Borg to become Wimbledon Champion. What a great time to be alive. We were coming out of the Rod Laver / Arthur Ashe (dignified) era, and coming into the Jimmy Connors / Bjorn Borg / John McEnroe (what the hell just happened?) era. As someone pointed out in the comments to this video, its ironic that “super brat” grew into one of (the) most well liked, thoughtful and entertaining tennis commentators. The dude could play too. In his peak year (1984 I think) he won 78 out of 80 matches.

In this clip from an early round match, McEnroe hits one up the ‘T’ with that lefty slice for an ace. Its clearly in and the umpire calls it out. All the hubbub at the time wasn’t supporting Mac for being right, it was that he had the audacity to call the line judge an incompetent fool. He was. McEnroe had a wild ride for another 11 years as a pro. I think he attempted one comeback around ’96 that didn’t work out. He then began playing in the doubles and senior circuit. I liked how one guy described him. “He had none of the country club breeding or training. He was a street thug.”

I suppose someone knows how much of his temper was an act and how much is just being a psychotic individual. I can sympathize with him, and always found him interesting. He and I are the same age, we lived through an interesting time. He was born in Germany, his dad it sounded like was a JAG officer (lawyer) for the Air Force, so you wouldn’t think it was some sort of twisted / dark childhood. Who knows though, something was clearly up. The guy was looney tunes sometimes. Look at who he married, Tatum O’Neal. What was that about?

But, for all his ranting and raving there was one very positive outcome to it all, it helped lead to the Hawk-Eye replay system that forever ended the eternal ‘in vs out’ battles in tennis. Thank God. Like I say, it was an interesting time. In basketball you had chair chucking Bobby Knight in his prime at that time. Billy Martin was a bit of a nut case with the Yankees. I was going to say not like today with those whiny ass pussies Colin Kaepernick and Lebron James. But, who knows, maybe they have a point about some stuff too.

[It just occurred to me, if his opponent had been honest, he would have said, “Judge that ball was in.” It also just occurred to me, his brother Patrick might be the only one that could provide insight into John’s twisted psyche, and how much of it is show.]