In this episode, Tennis Abstract Podcast veteran Carl Bialik joins me to talk about 1970s women’s tennis. The occasion for the discussion is the 115th player on my Tennis 128 list, Rosie Casals, and we also (sort of) bring back the book club to talk about Grace Lichtenstein’s 1974 book, A Long Way, Baby: Behind the Scenes in Women’s Pro Tennis.
Carl and I talk about whether the 2020s game would allow for such an insider’s account of a year on tour, why players seem less unique than Rosie and her peers did, and whether Casals’s reputation does her justice. We consider whether today’s game would be better off with top players who are more committed to competing week-in, week-out, whether 1970s-style barnstorming would open up new markets for tennis, and why Margaret Court got massacred on Mother’s Day when Billie Jean King straight-setted the same opponent a few months later. Also, Carl asks me a few questions about The Tennis 128 so far.
A Long Way, Baby–which I highly recommend–is long out of print, but used copies are readily available. You can also read it on the web at the Internet Archive.
Thanks for listening!
(Note: this episode is about 72 minutes long; in some browsers the audio player may display a different length. Sorry about that!)
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Music: Everyone Has Gone Home by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2020. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. Ft: spinningmerkaba
