Author: Scott Adamson

WTT still holding serve

 

As you know I have an obsession with alternative football leagues, and I’ll gladly own up to it. If I hear about a fledgling gridiron circuit, my Spidey senses start to tingle and I want to learn all I can about it.

Scott Adamson writes about alternative sports leagues because it makes him happy. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl and Instagram @adamsons60

But really, my love for outside the box sports goes beyond football; I laud most all attempts to present common events in uncommon ways.

That being said, World Team Tennis is one of my all-time favorite alternative to the ordinary. The league was a great idea when it was formed on March 14, 1973, and it’s still a great idea today.

“The concept is solid for a number of reasons,” Philadelphia franchise owner Dick Butera told Associated Press during a 1973 interview. “Tennis is the only sport where people of all age groups can really identify with the game because everyone can play it.

“In 1965, there were five million people playing tennis. In 1972, there were 12 million.”

First, some background.

As a tweenager in the early 1970s I played quite a bit of tennis. I was never great at it, but I was adequate – and being adequate was enough to convince me to play as often as I could and get a bit more serious when I hit my teens.

By 1974 I was already a big fan of Jimmy Connors and Billie Jean King, but if there was any tennis match on TV I was down for watching it.

Enter World Team Tennis (co-founded by King and her husband at the time, Larry) which began play in the summer of 1974 with 16 franchises.

The original WTT logo from 1974.

The Baltimore Banners, Boston Lobsters, New York Sets and Philadelphia Freedoms comprised the Atlantic Section; the Cleveland Nets, Detroit Loves, Pittsburgh Triangles and Toronto-Buffalo Royals were in the Central Section; the Minnesota Buckskins, Chicago Aces, Florida Flamingos and Houston EZ Riders populated the Gulf Plains Section; and the Denver Racquets, Golden Gaters, Hawaii Leis and Los Angeles Strings made up the Pacific Section.

Connors played for Baltimore and King starred for Philadelphia, but there were plenty of other big names who signed up for the league like Evonne Goolagong, Ken Rosewall, Rosemary Casals and John Newcomb.

The format of the competition – whose regular season extended over a three month period – was quite simple but revolutionary in that men and women were equal partners on a team. At the start of the inaugural season a game featured two sets of men’s singles, two sets of women’s singles, and two sets of mixed doubles. Scoring was cumulative and each set had to be won by a two-game margin but there was no advantage point.

(Since matches were running too long the format was soon changed to one set each of men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles).

Individual stars had a chance to shine in a mixed-gender team setting, which I really enjoyed. Throw in some cool, multi-colored courts and I thought World Team Tennis was a can’t-miss proposition. I was even hoping it would become so elaborate that in coming years it would expand internationally, possibly featuring a French team with a clay home court and a British squad that played on grass.

However, by 1978 it had undergone several franchise shifts, had trouble hiring and keeping top players, and interest among fans was waning, so it closed up shop.

But …

It returned in 1981 as Team Tennis and reverted back to the original World Team Tennis brand in 1992.

The color-coded courts and novelty of the league are both gone, but I’m glad to see the league play on. Over the years participants have included Andre Agassi, Lindsay Davenport, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras, Maria Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams.

Although a WTT “season” is now basically a three-week tournament each year, it’s something I always look forward to watching.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the 2020 home of all nine WTT franchises will be The Greenbrier at White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia. Play begins on July 12 and runs through August 2, and state health guidelines dictate that up to 500 fans can attend each match.

This year’s lineup features the Chicago Smash, New York Empire, Orange County Breakers, Orlando Storm, Philadelphia Freedoms, San Diego Aviators, Springfield Lasers, Vegas Rollers and Washington Kastles.

“Our player rosters are the strongest we’ve ever fielded for a WTT season and include players with multiple Grand Slam titles,” WTT CEO Carlos Silva said in a statement. “We have a sampling of current stars like Sloane Stephens, Sofia Kenin, Vegas Rollers teammates Sam Querrey and Mike and Bob Bryan, as well as a look at tennis’ future impact players with Brandon Nakashima and Caty McNally as well as tennis greats like Kim Clijsters and Mardy Fish.

“Tennis fans are starving to see some great action on the courts and that’s what we plan to deliver all season.”

Kenin is the defending Australian Open champion, while the Bryans are the sport’s all-time winningest doubles team. Although the one-site format will make for a different experience, I welcome the return of World Team Tennis.

It’s nice to know that after all these years a terrific alternative sports league is still giving me a summer viewing alternative.

The original MLF

Once a week I like check out the stats on my website, merely to get an idea of what stories hit and which ones miss. It doesn’t really matter; since I’m my own editor/publisher and have no advertisers to impress (or offend), I’ll continue to write about what interests me in the hopes that it might interest you, too.

Scott Adamson writes about alternative football leagues because it makes him happy. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl and Instagram @adamsons60

Just for kicks, though, I decided to look at my all-time clicks and noticed that a story I did in August, 2019, (Will Major League Football ever get off the ground?) is ranked 12th overall – and usually gets two or three views every day.

I find this odd.

Major League Football was set to debut in the spring of 2016 but still hasn’t played a down. There are no franchises, coaches or players – the “newest” news came in October, 2019, when it bought equipment and medical supplies from the short-lived Alliance of American Football.

But in combing through some news archives in search of the latest Major League Football intel, I discovered that the current MLF isn’t even the original version.

Turns out another Major League Football was kinda/sorta formed in 2000 with plans to begin play in 2001. When it kicked off there were supposed to be 24 teams spread across two conferences and six four-team divisions.

“We have had numerous meetings and the numbers have been crunched,” MLF media relations director Ryan Stephens told the Quad-City Times in a story published in February, 2000. “We feel very certain we can succeed. We’ve learned from all the other leagues that have gone before us. We’d like to take it very slow, one step at a time and not be overly ambitious. We want to try to establish this long-term.”

Honestly, I had never heard of the “old” MLF before doing research 20 years later, and that cuts me deeply. I’ve always prided myself on being near the front of the line when it comes to learning about obscure football leagues, but this one was news to me. Making it even more of an embarrassment is that Birmingham – where I lived at the time – was supposed to be one of the 24 original clubs.

New York was also set to have a franchise but most of the other locales would be cities without big-time pro football. Las Vegas, Lincoln (Nebraska), Sacramento, San Antonio, Albuquerque and Portland were a few of the towns poised to join MLF.

“There is a huge demand for professional football around the country where it is unlikely the NFL would offer a franchise,” league founder Adam J. McLean said.

The MLF was to play on Sundays in the fall but as for rule innovations and the standard gimmicks associated with non-NFL leagues, I found no information. What I did learn was that player wages would be in the $25,000-$50,000 range, franchises cost $2 million and each team would play 14 regular season games.

And this would not be a minor league – no siree.

“We feel we will have players the same caliber as the NFL,” Stephens said. “Who knows? Maybe our champion will play theirs in a championship game in years to come.”

Yeah, maybe not.

I’m not sure if everyone associated with the first MLF joined the federal witness protection program or what, but I can’t find anything on it past newspaper clippings from 2000. It’s almost as though it never existed which, when you think about it, it didn’t in any real sense.

So anyone hoping for a fond look back at another football league that never got off the ground doesn’t have a lot of see when it comes to the first iteration of Major League Football.

As for the second, they have all that AAF equipment locked away in storage as well as a functioning website.

And to those of you who keep reading that old story I wrote about the league on my website, your patronage is appreciated.

My smoke-free milestone

Ten years ago today, I smoked my last cigarette.

Scott Adamson’s humor column appears whenever he has a funny feeling. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl and Instagram @adamsons60

I realize you probably don’t care, but I’m going to write about it anyway because going an entire decade without sucking on a lung dart is a pretty big deal to me. Keep in mind, I was not a “casual” smoker or “social” smoker – I was addicted to the point of being obsessed. My entire day was built around filtered menthol cigarettes.

Smoking was my first official act of any given morning.

The alarm would go off, I’d cough profusely, reach for my glasses, then reach for my lighter, then reach for a cigarette, then light it and take a drag, then cough profusely again, then take another drag.

After I finished my first one I’d have another with my starter cup of coffee, then a third one with my second cup of Joe.

My fourth was smoked when I took the dog out, and what’s interesting here is that for years I didn’t even have a dog. Still, I took him out anyway because I needed to get some fresh air while I burned one.

I’d even smoke in the shower – I kid you not. I mean, how sad is that?

Basically when I shower I wash my hair, rinse, lather my body, rinse, then use a wash rag to give my bits and pieces the ol’ dust and shine. This is not a long process and I think most people could’ve made it through without a cancer stick.

Still, there was a period in my life when – after the hair wash and rinse – I’d peek my head out from behind the shower curtain, dry my hand, and fire up a smoke that I would furiously puff on before the hot water started to run out.

It sounds ridiculous, but it’s no less true.

And going to movies was a real chore. The whole time I was watching “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” I was hoping he’d just go ahead and kill everybody so I could leave the theater and light up.

Damn, that was a long 88 minutes.

By the time I reached the end of a day I’d gone through at least two packs of cigarettes and would’ve smoked more except doing so proved to be difficult while I slept.

When you build your world around gaspers the coughing gets worse and you develop yellow teeth and yellow fingers. But as glamorous as all that sounds, at some point (hopefully) you realize smoking is not a good decision.

I reached this point in June of 2010.

Mary had begged and pleaded with me to quit and I kept saying I’d try, but I wasn’t trying nearly hard enough. Despite the fact that I would get out of breath walking from the couch to the kitchen and wheezed like Muttley the cartoon dog, I kept smoking like I was getting paid for it.

Then – on June 10 – it came to a screeching halt.

While reading about the adverse effects of smoking I came upon a photo of dogs and monkeys being forced to inhale cigarette smoke during laboratory tests.

I had tried a nicotine patch before (it gave me vivid nightmares), nicotine gum (it was merely a shot to my cigarette chaser), and stop-smoking pills (a side effect was cranking up my depression level to 11), but the desire to smoke never truly ceased.

I even considered hypnosis, but was afraid I’d wind up like those sleeper agents from the movie “Telefon” who are activated by a code phrase and then start blowing up shit.

When I saw that photo of animals being abused, though, I decided to never put a cigarette in my mouth again.

Anyone who knows me knows that overall I prefer critters to humans (not you, though – you’re terrific), and seeing this kind of cruelty was a real “scared straight” moment for me. I couldn’t and wouldn’t support an industry that supported this.

I called Mary and said, “If I ever smoke another cigarette, hit me over the head with a 9-iron.”

Turns out, she never had to whack me, because I have yet to fall off the wagon – and I see no scenario where it might happen.

I find the smell of wafting cigarette smoke extremely unpleasant, and when it’s on people’s clothes it gives off the scent of a wet goat that stuck its butt in an ashtray.

To know that I once smelled like this is embarrassing.

Now, this is not intended to shame anyone; I tried to quit many times before I was finally shocked into going cold turkey.  Depending on who you are there are varying degrees of difficulty, and you have to make a commitment and find a quitting plan that works for you.

But 10 years later I don’t cough unless I’m sick, I don’t wheeze at all, I have real dogs to walk, and I can walk for miles because my lungs don’t hate me anymore.

If I can quit, anyone can do it.

And be honest – you don’t want to smell like a wet goat that stuck its butt in an ashtray, do you?