
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990                   TAG: 9003232705
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAXTON DAVIS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MCENROE FINALLY FALLS FROM GRACE

AMERICAN tennis superstar John McEnroe's forced removal recently from the Australian Open was a long overdue consummation devoutly to be wished, and it was not only deserved but probably milder than it should have been. But it also cast a tardy light on what we have let sports figures become in the age of wall-to-wall television.

McEnroe, no stranger to public trouble and for years one of the most appallingly behaved players in any sport, finally got his comeuppance - of sorts - when in late January he was expelled from the Australian Open after a fourth-round display of temper that he managed to project not only onto the thousands of spectators watching in the Melbourne stadium but onto the television screens of the millions more watching at home.

It was the first time any player had ever been thrown out of a so-called "Grand Slam" tennis event - the "Grand Slam" being not an official series of tournaments but a notion first created half a century ago by American star Donald Budge, who was the original player to win it, and one of the few in the decades afterward; and being bumped in Australia was not so much a precedent for the "Grand Slam" as a reminder to the world that not even international tennis, its big bucks for everybody concerned notwithstanding, is going to tolerate every form of bad sportsmanship forever.

The fact that the special penalty meted McEnroe came as McEnroe's remarkable career was on the downslide - he had not won a "Grand Slam" event since 1984 - and the mildness of the $6,500 fine suggest that tennis officialdom took action against him reluctantly and almost too late in McEnroe's personal history to make much of a difference to him.

But he needed punishing for the game's sake if not his own, and it may be that in the end younger players inclined to ape his truculent court behavior will think twice about pulling a McEnroe.

The McEnroe incident came after a series of tantrums during his fourth-round match against Swedish-born two-time NCAA champion Mikael Pernfors. Throughout the match, despite being ahead, McEnroe did his all-too-frequently rehearsed temper bit, bashing his racket against the court surface, complaining loudly of what he regarded as bad calls, shouting at the parents of a baby crying in the stands, glaring threateningly at a lineswoman and finally cursing umpire Gerry Armstrong - who, after tolerating McEnroe's nastiness far longer than he should have, called a code violation, imposed a default and tossed McEnroe from the match and the tournament.

It was high time too. For years McEnroe's temper tantrums have left a taint on top international tennis, and though he has taken minor penalties from time to time, officials have been slow to punish him with anything that really hurt.

Armstrong's decision to expel him from the Australian Open cost him a modest hunk of the $14,000 he had already won by making the fourth round; but the symbolism of expulsion from one of tennis's major tournaments, which was and is both highly visible and highly prestigious even to play in, has to have some significance. McEnroe may not hurt much directly - he is already rich for life from his earnings down the years - but the expulsion leaves a permanent stain on his career. His defenders' complaint - that he had done a lot worse earlier than he did in Melbourne - is hollow.

Yet it tells us all something, if we'd listen, about what we have let big-time televised athletics do to our standards of public behavior. McEnroe is hardly alone. All too many major football, basketball and baseball players, their egos and pocketbooks swollen from the adulation and wealth an admiring public has bestowed on them, have seen fit in the last decade or so to behave like outlaws. McEnroe's tantrums, in fact, seem, by comparison, minor. Drug and booze problems, involvement in crime, arrests and imprisonments: these have become the coin of televised sports.

Why did we replace our respect for good athletic conduct with an avidity for violence, cruelty and barbarism? Why do we tolerate, even cheer on, the obnoxious behavior we see on every side? When did we stop making heroes of gentlemen like the late Tommy Harmon and take up with foul-mouthed slobs like John McEnroe?

by CNB