Biosophilia

Here We Go Again . . .

Well . . . We're back.

First things first. We owe a huge apology to Shannon. Nearly three weeks ago we told her we were going to start blogging again, and we said, "This week." Yeah, right. So please forgive us Shannon.

Second things second. I owe a huge apology to Mike Aman. Back in October, I pretended that we were going to begin bloggin again and posted an entry. Mike Aman—an old friend of mine—was paying attention and left a comment. Since I didn't look at the blog again until four months later, however, Mike never received recognition or an answer. So please forgive me Mike.

Third things third. Do any of you watch tennis? I haven't watched the rankings closely this year, but I checked it out the other day, and I saw that Andre Agassi is ranked number 8. Not bad for a 33 year old, huh? Last year he was the oldest #1 ranked male tennis player in the open era (since 1963 or something like that). But here's the question: Can he hope to come close to Pete Sampras in the category of Grand Slam wins? Pete currently has 14. Andre currently has 8. Hmmm. 6 is a lot of Grand Slams for a 33+ year old to win.

Here's another question: If Agassi succeeds in matching Sampras in Grand Slam wins, will Agassi receive the same accolades Sampras does? Will Aggasi then receive praise as the greatest male tennis player of all time? He has won more Tennis Masters Series tournaments than any other male player ever. Those tournaments often have as many of the top players in the world as the Grand Slams. The current tournament, for example, is the Pacific Life Open, in Indian Wells. The main draw is 96 players, compared to 128 to a Grand Slam tournament. PCO will last 2 weeks, like a Slam. And this year, 19 of the top 20 male players are in the tournament!

In head to head action, Sampras has the upper hand 20-14. Ironically, out of their 9 meetings in Grand Slam events, Sampras won 6—the exact difference between their head-to-head totals and their Grand Slam totals. Agassi has the lead, however, in Tennis Masters Series meetings.

Those are just a few of the facts. Tell me what you think.