Wonder Women

I’m sick in bed today -- my punishment for socializing over the weekend? -- but this sure made me smile. I knew Lynda Carter was tight with Chris Evert (are they anymore?) but the Czech connection was news to me. ❤️

Martina Navratilova-Chris Evert Sports Illustrated Cover Was Scrapped for NBA Players' Arms

I normally hate these spammy websites that write "stories" based on the most innocuous things online, often a one-line tweet or less. But when I looked a little closer at this one, I realized they'd written up an exchange I'd had with Martina Navratilova! Ohmygod, I love Sportskeeda!

I had tagged her along with several other legends on a post I'd just updated about Sports Illustrated covers featuring tennis, which you can read HERE.

She hasn't forgotten the way she and other women have been treated by the magazine, which is probably why she was unmoved by my pointing out that neither Rafael Nadal nor Novak Djokovic -- who have 44 majors between them -- has ever gotten their own SI cover. And now that the print edition is a monthly instead of weekly, it's doubtful they ever will. (Roger and Serena managed a few.) Martina got three plus a special kids' edition, while Chrissie shared two with Jimmy Connors and two solo, one of which was when she retired. 

Sadly, Chrissie still didn't unblock me during all the back and forth. If anyone wants to launch a charm offensive on my behalf, I'd love you forever. (Still have NO IDEA why she'd have blocked her biggest fanboy.) 

Makes me wonder if this was from the shoot. Would have asked Martina, but I was afraid one question too many might get me blocked by another great! 

Martina Navratilova Battling Two Cancers

Further proof that cancer can happen to anyone at any time. Here’s wishing the canceled Czech a quick and full recovery. 🙏

WTF Finals

 

Oh, women's tennis. Even your year-end championships feel like a random event that anyone could win. I don't even have the heart to root for someone. 

No surprise that I'm more interested in Martina and Chris taking a pottery class in Guadalajara ...

and this recently uploaded match between Martina and Tracy Austin, with Chris and Bud Collins in the booth!

Page 1 Roundup (03/22)

 

The Daily News: Man in critical condition after unprovoked punch on Manhattan subway, latest victim of anti-Asian hate: witness

Times of Israel: Kamala Harris’s husband to speak at LGBT Seder

NewNowNext: New documentary uncovers the World Trade Center’s secret cruising culture

BBC: North Korea’s ‘only openly gay defector’ finds love

Radar: Gay escort tells all about his wild night with Andrew Gillum, the married-with-children politick who was this close to being Florida governor

YouTube: Watch when David Hartman interviewed Tracy Austin, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova on 'Good Morning America' ahead of the 1979 Avon Championships HERE. (Notice how David tries to cream the ball when they hit! Tracy would go on to crush Chris in the round robin, 6-3, 6-1, before losing in the final to Martina, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.)

Dear Prudence: I’m a straight woman who married a gay man

The Repository: Walsh University denies claim that Daniel Franzese was fired from job because he is gay

Savannah Now: Teaching LGBTQ history: As 'systemic silence' lifts, new challenges for educators, students

Reuters: A transgender Islamic school in Pakistan breaks barriers

New York Post: Teen Vogue staffer Christine Davitt -- who opposed the hiring of Alexi McCammond over decade-old tweets -- under fire for racist tweets of her own

The Randy Report: Biden’s approval rating continues to rise as vaccinations increase

Gr8er Days: Iconic child actor Margaret O'Brien recalls the time a maid vanished with her juvenile Oscar, and how she got it back 50 years later

Boy Culture: Gay men from different worlds (not entirely work safe)

Hot Slut of the Day: The gold-hearted squirrel savior!

The New York Times: Think Covid’s messed up your travel plans? Try getting into China.

Evidence in Capitol attack most likely supports sedition charges, prosecutor says

The Washington Post: Letters found in an attic reveal eerie similarities between Adolf Hitler and his father

D.C. statehood moves from political fringe to the center of the national Democratic agenda

Anchorage Press: The radical anti-LGBT views of mayoral candidate Dave Bronson

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing in U.S. races ahead

CBS looks for growth abroad -- with David Hasselhoff’s help

 Movie fans returning to Los Angeles theaters find thrill in just showing up

Billions of cicadas can’t wait to crash your outdoor party

Hot Cat of the Day: "Where my rouge????"

The Martina Slam

Came across this ad Martina Navratilova's racket company took out to congratulate her after winning the 1984 French Open, thus capturing the four major singles titles in a row. I remember at the time Martina exulted -- as does this ad -- that she'd won "the Grand Slam," which of course means winning all for Grand Slam events in the same calendar year. (Despite the enormous achievement, her declaration was met with widespread skepticism at the time.) In Martina's (and Yonex's) defense, their sloppy nomenclature was actually the fault of the International Tennis Federation, which in an attempt to stir up excitement in the game had changed the definition two years earlier to simply be the title holder of all four majors at once. This was paired with a cool $1 million bonus to anyone who completed the feat. (Martina was more than happy to courtesy-laugh at those "Czech deposit" jokes!) 

Winning the 1984 French Open -- defeating clay-court legend Chris Evert 6-3, 6-1 -- gave Martina four slams in a row. 

Although push back from purists quickly led to the money being withdrawn -- Steffi Graf got no bonus when she won the actual Grand Slam in 1988(!), and she, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams (twice) got nothing for their non-calendar-year Slams -- the ITF didn't bother to officially change the definition of a Grand Slam until 2011.

The reaction to Martina's fake Slam in '84 is probably why Serena didn't bother claiming one in 2003 -- it was dubbed the more accurate "Serena Slam" -- even though under ITF rules she had technically "completed" it. And when Rafael Nadal arrived at the 2011 Australian Open with three consecutive majors under his belt, one writer observed: "Most traditionalists insist that the 'Grand Slam' should refer only to winning all four titles in a calendar year, although the constitution of the International Tennis Federation, the sports governing body, spells out that 'players who hold all four of these titles at the same time achieve the Grand Slam.'"

Undeterred, Martina would follow her crown in Paris with victories at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1984 and wind up being just two wins from the calendar Slam, only to be upset by a teenage Helena Sukova in the Melbourne semifinals, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5. (I couldn't help but think of this match when Serena Williams -- also just two matches from the calendar Slam -- lost to Roberta Vinci in the 2015 U.S. Open semifinals by a similar score, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.) As a result, Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court and Steffi Graf remain the only women to win the true Grand Slam, although Martina showed there were no hard feelings when she teamed up with Helena to win the 2009 Wimbledon Invitational women's doubles event, over Ilana Kloss (aka Billie Jean King's longtime love) and fellow South African Rosalyn (Fairbank) Nideffer.

P.S. Sukova was deservingly inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2018, having won nine major doubles titles and five mixed. Poor thing also reached four major singles finals but came up short against Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf, twice. You might say Andy Roddick had it easy by comparison!

Page 1 Roundup (05/01)

The Daily News: NYC subways to close four hours nightly in coronavirus fight so workers and cops can clean system, remove homeless

FDA plans to approve emergency use of the drug remdesivir on coronavirus patients

An unhinged Illinois woman who made threatening statements about Joe Biden on Facebook was busted in Manhattan with a car full of knives.

Instagram: Chris Mazdzer's emo hair is adorable

The Randy Report: More at-home workouts with the Chippendales

HuffPost: Better with age: The Holland Taylor story

Greg in Hollywood: Anderson Cooper is an actual dad(dy)

Bustle: Phyllis Schlafly's gay son still supports his mom's conservative views

KCUR: Openly gay former K-State football star had hoped to make NFL history this year, but the coronavirus got in the way

Queerty: Beloved gay DJ Warren Gluck has died

WTA: Navratilova, Evert reminisce in expansive Instagram Live chat

BosGuy: It's your favorite (furry) day of the week

Towleroad: Trump of the Tropics says he won’t follow WHO’s coronavirus advice because agency wants to turn kids gay

CNBC: Trump says he would ‘certainly consider’ bringing convicted felon Michael Flynn back into administration

Gr8er Days: Perry King, one of the sexiest men ever, turns 72

New York Post: Transit groups fear subway service cuts could become permanent

The Washington Post: Chinese lab conducted extensive research on deadly bat viruses, but there is no evidence of accidental release

Pence staff threatens action against reporter who tweeted about visit to clinic without surgical mask

Nearly seven weeks into the shutdown, here’s why so many are still getting sick

The Atlantic: Nearly a third of the people polled believe that the coronavirus was manufactured on purpose. Why?

The New York Times: How long will a vaccine really take?

Amid a rising death toll, Trump leaves the grieving to others

Stymied in seeking benefits, millions of unemployed go uncounted

Tennis coming back slowly with exhibition matches

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. jobless claims surpass 30 million as distress mounts 

Forget the sourdough. Everybody’s baking banana bread.

With students at home, Mom and Dad become unfortunate classmates

NBC News: A handful of rightwing nuts embarrass the state of Michigan, again

Hot Cats of the Day: These bikers even follow social-distancing guidelines, which is more than I can say for our so-called leaders. 

WT&A

I miss the salad days of tennis, when we were treated to fun stuff like this! @Martina @chrissieevert pic.twitter.com/iPKakVlkuV

— Kenneth M. Walsh (@kenneth212) April 16, 2020

A Long Time Ago, Baby!

Love this Throwback Thursday photo from the former Mrs. Larry King. I know the answer -- because I went to the stop in RICHMOND!

Weekend Tennis Roundup

As I suspected slash feared, Rafael Nadal finally found his game in the final tune-up to the French Open, essentially demolishing Novak Djokovic 6-0, 6-1 -- if you don't count a momentary hiccup where Nole was able to get in his head long enough to eek out the second set, 6-4. 

Nadal is older now and coming back from yet another injury. But unlike 2015, his belief is still there. So even after losses to Tsitsipas, Thiemi and Fognini, it felt like it was just a matter of time before he returned to top form -- and did he ever. Comme d'habitude, he's the clear favorite going into Roland Garros. 

The women's side saw more instability. Terminally injured Karolina Pliskova won her second title of the season beating terminally injured Johanna Konta 6-3, 6-4. They're both power players, so neither is known for her claycourt game -- yet here we are. 

Doubt either will be much a a threat in Paris. 

But with Osaka, Halep, Serena, Muguruza, Sabalenka, Keys and so on all either injured or flaking out, it's anyone's guess who will rise to the occasion. (Kiki Bertens, god forbid?) 

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah rallied to defend their doubles crown in Rome. 

The Colombians were down 2/7 in the match tiebreak during their quarter-final against Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan, but saved four match points to reach the semifinals. On Saturday evening, the longtime pairing lost the first set 6-2 after only 29 minutes against top seeds Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo, yet recovered to prevail in another Match Tie-break. On Sunday, however, Cabal/Farah skipped the heroics, beating Raven Klaasen/Michael Venus 6-1, 6-3 in only 59 minutes.

I'm sure it wasn't the outcome the HOT DADDY was hoping for. But a nice start to his comeback.

As as you probably heard, Wimbledon royalty -- past and present -- turned out for he unveiling of the new Court 1, complete with retractable roof. 

View this post on Instagram

39 shots and a classic @martinanavratilova dive? No wonder this rally took play of the day honours at The No.1 Court Celebration 👏 . #wimbledon #tennis #sport #instasport @jamie__murray @clijsterskim

A post shared by Wimbledon (@wimbledon) on May 19, 2019 at 10:32am PDT

One need only watch this point to remember why Martina Navratilova is the undisputed Queen of Grass.

View this post on Instagram

How many Grand Slam titles? 🤔 (singles and doubles...) . #wimbledon #tennis #sport #instasport @martinanavratilova @venuswilliams @jamie__murray @lleytonhewitt89 @therealpatcash @goranivanisevicofficial

A post shared by Wimbledon (@wimbledon) on May 19, 2019 at 11:57am PDT

What a great turnout: In addition to Martina, five-time champ Venus Williams, Pat Cash, Jamie Murray, Kim Clijsters, Goran Ivanisevic, Lleyton Hewitt and Jamie Murray helped celebrate the rollout. Would have loved to have attended!

View this post on Instagram

That time @venuswilliams posted a straight sets win over John McEnroe 😉 . #Wimbledon #RoofForAll #VenusWilliams #tennis

A post shared by Wimbledon (@wimbledon) on May 20, 2019 at 4:30am PDT

Watch Venus give it to Johnny Mac!

P.S.

Did anyone else noticed this going on inside Novak's box?

View this post on Instagram

Another great week behind me This is my 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 challenger title Thanks to my team @kontickontara25 @miroslav_cuckic @sale_jankovic74 #lacoste🐊 #wilson#nikeshoes#fitline Next stop 🔜 RG 2k19 💪🏽

A post shared by Filip Krajinović (@krajinovic_filip) on May 20, 2019 at 12:06am PDT

And congrats to Filip Krajinovic, who picked up his 10th Challenger title in Heilbronn, Germany.

(With wire services)

Martina Navratilova Clarifies Comments on Transgender Athletes

In a new essay on her personal website, Martina Navratilova finally gets her foot out of her mouth and clearly voices what many people who are not transphobic are saying about transgender athletes:

What I really wanted to do was try to open up the debate about equality and fairness in relation to transgender participation in women’s sport. There were too many voices that were silenced and shamed into submission and that is not right. My aim was to encourage a more scientific, rather than emotional, conversation and to search for a solution that would work better than current arrangements.

I was motivated by concern about the future of women’s sport and my worry that by trying to be fair and inclusive for one group, others can be adversely affected, that eliminating one kind of discrimination can inadvertently give rise to another. 

So how do we go forward? First, we all need to realize that there is no perfect solution in which nobody will ever be wronged or disadvantaged. There is no blanket rule that will solve all issues. The objective must be to find policies that make women’s sport as inclusive and fair as practically possible. After all, if everyone were included, women’s sports as we know them would cease to exist. Therefore, any sensible policy must have some exclusions. But which ones? Where do you start and where do you end? Should different sports have different rules governing participation? Should recreational sport be subject to the same rules and standards as professional or Olympic competition? Should there be different rules for high-school sports, different rules for colleges etc? 

Here's hoping this can reset the dialogue and be the beginning of a fruitful discussion on the topic. Read her full piece HERE.

Transgender Sprinters Finish First, Second at Girls Indoor Track Championships in Connecticut

The Associated Press reports that transgender sprinters Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood finished first and second in the 55-meter dash at the state open indoor track championships in Connecticut -- one of 17 states that allows transgender high school athletes to compete with zero restrictions.

One of their competitors, Selina Soule, says the issue is about fairness on the track with wider implications. The Glastonbury High School junior finished eighth in the 55, missing out on qualifying for the New England regionals by two spots. Soule believes that had Miller and Yearwood not run, she would be on her way to race in Boston in front of more college coaches.

“We all know the outcome of the race before it even starts; it’s demoralizing,” she said. “I fully support and am happy for these athletes for being true to themselves. They should have the right to express themselves in school, but athletics have always had extra rules to keep the competition fair.”

Martina Navratilova was called transpohobic after she inarticulately raised these issues -- so then the whole thing became about what she wrote rather than what she was writing about. So tell me, does Ms. Soule sound transphobic? I too raised the issue of fairness but never in a disrespectful way -- and I was also blasted by trans activists. (Based on what we know now, I support trans females on HRT competing -- as does the IOC and NCAA -- but not trans females who do nothing or trans boys on testosterone competing versus cisgender girls.) It seems to me that Martina's poor choice of words are the best thing that could have happened to people in favor of across-the-board trans access to sports because they can hide behind her words without ever actually having to address situations like this.

Keep reading HERE.

Remains of the Day (02/22)

Out: Sports are sports no matter who is playing. Therefore, in order to write about transgender sports you still have to have an understanding of athletics in general. So why are so many media outlets allowing people who clearly know nothing about the topic to spew misinformation and make flawed arguments? 

The Hill: Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been charged with solicitation of a prostitute; I wonder if he got his friend Trump’s “shrewd businessman” discount where you pay $150,000 for a woman whose going rate is $300?

Paste: I had no idea my literary agent slash friend was married to a witch

Dlisted: Jussie Smollett apologizes (without admitting anything) to crew of "Empire," but he's still being written off of the rest of the season

Deep Dish: Sexiest selfie of the year?

David Noh: Karl Lagerfeld was difficult, elitist, entitled ... and talented

Baseline: Andy Roddick, Brooklyn Decker to appear on "Celebrity Family Feud"

Adam Schiff: An open letter to my Republican colleagues

Boy Culture: Old gays read their YouTube comments

The Washington Post: House Democrats set Tuesday vote on overturning Trump "emergency" declaration 

BosGuy: Furry Walter will bring out the savage in you

JoeMyGod: White House "looking into" Labor Secretary Alex Acosta after bombshell report on deal with pedophile

OMG Blog: I might need to become a bigger Queen fan -- had no idea Freddie Mercury was the queen king of adopting cats

Page Six: R. Kelly charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse

The Randy Report: White House still silent on "domestic terrorist" Paul Hasson

Greg in Hollywood: Cher says Nancy Pelosi "gives me hope and courage ... when I grow up I want to be just like her"

The Daily News: Manhattan prosecutor poised to step up if Trump provides presidential pardon for former campaign chairman Paul Manafort

Washington Blade: Judge again rules against State Department in intersex passport applicant case

Hot Cat of the Day: Little cutie! Reminds me of our time in Dubrovnik ...