Jimbo Drops Bombshell On “Chris America”

Who are these Evert loyalists? I mean Chris has certainly distinguished herself in the field of dating, marrying and divorcing notable athletes and celebrities. I could see where Chirs would be upset about Jimmy making this public, but really, is it so shocking that a young woman gets pregnant and has an abortion? Is that more untoward than divorcing your longtime husband and taking up with Greg Norman only to have that marriage fall apart in nine months because neith of them wanted to live in the other’s home? It was Jimmy’s past, too, he lived through that unsettling experience as well so I think you’d have to see how he tells about it in the context of the book before you make judgment over whether Jimbo overstepped a boundary, Chris Evert has already written her book. Connors isn’t writing here about a situation he was not involved in and I think it might’ve been equally painful for him, too.

Local players in NJ are “up in arms” about Connors intimating that Chrissie got an abortion. Geez, tell those good folks to work on their drop shots and overheads more. What’s Steve Flink writing about all this? And where’s Chrissie talking about Jimbo and Vitas’s private parts? I want to see that passage. Did Chrissie also get down with the Lithuanian Long Islander?

Give us the passage. Does Feinstein quote Flink. Neil Amdur’s review of Jumbo’s book in NYTimes does not paint it as a must read, it’s pretty much Jimbo being Jimbo.

Uh, adb, Connors wasn’t an innocent bystander in all this. He was the man who impregnated Evert, and he’s writing about his life, and this relationship, this abortion, was central in his life. I’ve always said to an athlete I’m writing a book with, whether it was John Starks writing about being involved in frequenting a strip club in Atlanta or Walt Frazier and how he felt about his teammate and then coach, Willis Reed, shipping him to Cleveland, that you have to write/speak truthfully about your experience.

I am supportive of respecting a woman’s right to make decisions about her body and future in regards to having children or not, but when you are Connors, and this is your life, not just something you heard about, I believe you have every right to write about this occurrence. And again with Chris Evert’s woman around the town past, it’s not so shocking that she had an abortion when she was a young woman. You’re not writing about Evert when she’s vulnerable and 18. She’s now a grown woman who has been in the public eye for a long time and again, this is just as much Connors’s story as well.

Ooh, yeah that wouldn’t sit too well I’d think with Jimbo. So Evt talked about having sex with both Connors and Vitas and she gets upset over the admission she aborted a baby 40 years ago?

I’d say you’re wrong, too, Scoop, especially in this case where Connors played his last match more than two decades ago that readers only want to hear about the tennis. And again, you can’t expect publishers to give a good advance for a book unless you have some bombshells to unearth.

Personally, I don’t think Connors’s admission that Evert had an abortion is that big a bombshell. What’s more interesting here and what Evert might’ve objected more is that Connors implies that Evert was the heartless one, more centered on her career than their impending nuptials and a baby, and Jimbo really felt jolted by Chrissie’s cold decision. Connors apparently also talks about how an affair of his almost ruined his marriage so it seems like he is not just dropping bombshells on other people, but also comes clean about his own indiscretions.

Look, there’s a good chance Connors still feels antipathy for Evert about this entire proceeding and often the only way or chance he has now to air it out is tow write about it in a book, Every writer knows that good writing is therapy. As Arthur Miller said, “If what you write doesn’t embarass you it’s probably not good writing.”

Here’s Amdur’s review on Connors’s book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/sports/tennis/jimmy-connors-memoir-from-lone-wolf-to-open-book.html

Now to add a little oomph to the intrigue, we both know Neil Amdur, Scoop, from his days at Tennis Week in Rye, NY, but he was also the author of Evert’s auto-biography, “Chrissie: My Own Story” (Now, btw, whenever a book about a pro athlete–or any book for that matter–is called, “My Own Story” it’s going to really rot.

Amdur basically puts the book down when he writes:

Connors thrilled fans during his Hall of Fame career, which included 8 Grand Slam singles crowns, 109 tournament titles, 160 consecutive weeks as the No. 1 men’s player in the world and countless comebacks against players like Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, and Mikael Pernfors and Aaron Krickstein. Those fans will feel rewarded with his I-did-it-my-way theme. The unconditional love for his two children and six dogs (whom he calls “in-house shrinks”), and the ability to rebound from assorted injuries and family travails, may even surprise and touch readers.

Cynics who tired of his vocal and physical confrontations, crotch grabs, antiestablishment rationale (“I guess I can’t do things like everyone else,” he writes) and profane indifference will simply say, “I told you so.”

Because a great book or a very good one, like Agassi’s “Open,” and not like Sampras’s book, for example, finds interested and captivated readers among people who both liked and disliked a player’s act and persona.

Look, Connors was and is definitely one of the worst broadcast announcers of all time. He makes Gimelstob look like Curt Gowdy. I liked Connors’s bravado–look here’s a story I wrote about Jimmy for the Times from way back in 1996 (it contains one of the great JMac quotes– ”That’s not intense for me,” said McEnroe, after defeating Roscoe Tanner in his first match. ”That’s nothing. I felt like I was actually enjoying myself.” and a great ornery Connors’ quote–‘You’re one of the guys who used to gripe that I won every time,” Connors said to the reporter. ”Just make up your mind whether you want me to win or not, and I’ll do it. It doesn’t bother me. I’ll be more than happy to win every time.”):

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/25/nyregion/again-connors-defeats-time.html?n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fC%2fConnors%2c%20Jimmy

Two of my first articles for the Times were on Connors, one on his say-nothing announcing style and the other on facing off against Jimbo once on the court, where I hit a ball right through his legs when we were both at the net and he vowed to get me which he did by hitting a whizzing shot by me and down the alley on one of the next points.

Look, some people will always hate Connors and JMac and they put them together in equal horrible tones. Here’s a letter to the Times’ editor regarding an article I’d written on Connors and Mac:

Destroyers of Dignity
Published: August 18, 1996

To the Sports Editor:

It is hard to understand why The Times continues to feature and extol the likes of Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe (”McEnroe and Connors Agree: There Is No One Around Quite Like Them,” Aug. 4).

These two vulgar, obscene little snots almost single-handedly destroyed the dignity and the decorum of the sport of tennis, which used to be considered a gentleman’s game played with good sportsmanship and gentility on the level of the golf tour, which has maintained its traditional dignity to this day.

JACK M. THORP

Norwalk, Conn.

Personally, I miss both Connors and Mac and their games, their open hostility to one another and most of their opponents and how they made tennis seem like a staging of “West Side Story.”