Becker Isn’t First German Tennis Star

First, there was Bernhard Langer. When he won the Masters, he said he hoped it would trigger a golf boom in Germany. Now, we have Boris Becker, who said after his Wimbledon win: “I think this will change tennis in Germany. We have never had a idol there before.”

Actually, Germany did have an idol. The only problem was he didn’t like Hitler, and in those days that could lead to problems.

His name was Baron Gottfried von Cramm. He was a three-time finalist at Wimbledon and he won the French Open in 1934 and 1936, beating Britain’s Fred Perry the second time.

In the 1937 Davis Cup against the United States, he lost a five-setter to Don Budge that Bill Tilden called “the most beautiful match of tennis ever played.”

In 1939, because he was critical of Hitler, the Nazis blocked his entry at Wimbledon. The winner was Bobby Riggs, who three weeks earlier at Queen’s Club had been beaten by Von Cramm, 6-1, 6-0.

Writes Joe Gergen of Newsday: “Ironically, Sunday would have been Von Cramm’s 76th birthday if he had lived. For more than half of this century, he was regarded as the finest tennis player never to have won Wimbledon. Yet nine years after his death in an auto accident near Cairo, Egypt, he is largely forgotten outside his native Germany.”

Trivia Time: What did Baron Gottfried von Cramm and Cary Grant have in common? (Answer below.)

Billy Martin, watching Wimbledon on TV before the Yankees-Twins doubleheader, told Milton Richman of UPI: “If you picked up a tennis racket in the neighborhood where I grew up, you’d get your butt kicked. Besides, where would you get money for a racket?”

Twins Manager Ray Miller recalled going to a tennis club in Bluefield, W. Va., during his minor league coaching days and playing against a woman he estimated to be in her early 60s.

Miller: “She was one of these little old ladies in a bonnet and ruffle pants and she asked me, ‘Would you like to volley?’ I thought I’d humor this poor lady and take it easy with her. You know what she did? She ran me all the way from one end of the court to the other. I was diving, sweating and sliding. She didn’t even break a sweat and I looked like I was in a marathon.

“When we finished, she thanked me for the exercise. That was more than 10 years ago. I haven’t played tennis since.”

From Pete Rose, saying he hopes to be playing again next year at age 45: “I can’t think of anything better in the summer than playing baseball. I’ve spent most of my life within 90 miles of the Indy 500 and the Kentucky Derby, but I’ve never seen either one, because I’ve always had games on those days.”

Add Rose: The subject was bunting, and when someone ventured that it was suicide to lay one down when the infielders are playing in close, he said: “Actually, it’s an advantage. It’s best to bunt when a guy is playing close. That guy is thinking, ‘I’m in close. He won’t bunt.’ So the guy is ready to move back with the pitch. When the infielders play back, they are more ready to charge.”

Trivia Answer: Both were married to Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton.

Quotebook

Jim Winn of the Pittsburgh Pirates, on why he hopes there isn’t a strike: “If there’s a strike, I’ll have to go home and bale hay. I’d rather play baseball.”