Happy Trails Andre...

Once again Father Time has captured another of my sports heroes this weekend. Father Time made Andre Agassi ride off into the sunset like the end of a cowboy movie. No Jimmy Connors, circa 1991, run for Andre either, he was out of gas. He was taking cortisone shots just to get out on the court, and he was 10-15 years older than pretty much everyone in the tournament. Wily veterans don't survive in tennis the way left handed relief pitchers do in baseball. Once you hit 30 it's lights out. Andre Agassi was the only reason I watch tennis anymore, similar to Tiger Woods being the only reason I watch golf. He had it. You had to like the guy, had to root for him, he made shit interesting.

I had been watching this guy for like 15 years play tennis. I watched him date Barbara Streisand, marry Brooke Shields, and live the rock star life. I stayed up until 4:00 in the morning watching his matches in the Australian Open. I taped matches of his. My buddy Junior even bought all of the shoes Agassi had, the fluorescent outfits, the rackets, probably would have even worn his hairstyle too, but was busy having the Vanilla Ice lines shaved into his head. I played tennis because of Andre Agassi. So the fifteen years of following this guy were now down to 7 matches. Just step it up for seven matches Andre.

Agassi got a shitty draw, got through the first round, knocked out the 8 seed in the second round, and then the tank went dry and the back wouldn't cooperate and it was all he could do just to get a serve in. But it was magic. The whole stadium was rocking, begging for him to get back in the match. They were hoping the 36 year old back would hold up, and the guy could shock the world one more time. It didn't happen, he got ousted by some young punk who 5 years ago wouldn't even have been on the same court with Agassi.

Even in defeat the guy could hold a crowd. Before match point you could see Agassi crying on the court knowing his career was over. After the match, he gave a speech where nobody left the stadium and cried the whole way through it. Incidentally he is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is married to the best female tennis player ever (who is still smoking hot too) so it's not like the guy is going to be bagging groceries tomorrow or something. But I wanted the run to go on a little more. I was reminded of when Zach and Kelly broke up in "Saved By the Bell" when that song "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" was playing and Kelly said, "It wasn't supposed to be this way, not for us". I felt the same way for me and Andre. Maybe that's why I shouldn't care about sports as much as I do, because everyone's career ends. I just wanted the run to go on a little longer. Valla con Dios Andre, it was a hell of a ride.