| Behind the scenes with Bob and Mike... |
| April 22nd, 2009 Hey Everybody. I wrote most of this on the way to Indian Wells. Sorry for taking so long to get this blog in. Mike and I have been busy doing tons of recording and are trying to put together an album by the US Open. We have a lot of songs finished but will go into the studio during the LA Open to polish them up. This blog gives you a little insight to what goes on during a typical Davis Cup week: We just boarded our flight from Birmingham back to LA and I thought this would be a great time to fire up another blog. Mike and I are still buzzing from an epic Davis Cup tie against the Swiss last weekend. The crowd was absolutely amazing from the first point until the last which carried our team and definitely made this tie one of our most memorable of our careers. It was another fun week with the guys. Mike and I always look forward to seeing our buddies Andy, James, and PMac but also the rest of the team as well. During Davis Cup weeks , everyone starts arriving on the Sunday before the tie. Andy and James usually roll in on their private jets while everyone else flies in on normal planes. Luckily, we are usually coming from or going to the same tournaments and we can often hitch rides with these high rollers and fly in style. Our team gets 6 hours of practice on the stadium court each day leading up to the matches. On Tuesday afternoon we all have to do a press conference and local appearance...usually a clinic for kids in the community. Wednesday night is the official dinner with the sponsors and the tennis federations from both countries and Thursday morning is the draw ceremony, another press conference, and the T.V. interviews. Other than these events, we are free to roam the city...but we usually stay camped out at the hotel, hang out, and play cards in the team lounge. PMac's only real rule is no girls allowed before Wednesday. He likes to get a few days of male bonding in before the females crash the party. Some time has passed now and I hope he doesn't hear about this, but in 2004 in Delray Beach, I hid my girlfriend in my room for 3 days! Sorry Pat....sue me! We're definitely spoiled rotten during these weeks. There is a huge staff that takes care of us. We have our own body guard, Tom Pistone, who is a former NYPD policeman and has been with the team forever. He usually travels ahead of time to the city that we go to and dials in everything with the police departments, etc. and makes sure things go smoothly once we arrive. A lot of the time, we'll have police motorcades that escort us to different events during the week which is really cool. The only downside to Tommy is he drives like a madman and we're always fearing for our lives while in that team bus. Because Tommy was a cop, he feels like the laws of the land don't apply to him. To shave one minute off an ETA, he'll run red lights, drive on sidewalks, and go the wrong way down one way streets. The Davis Cup also provides the team with our own personal stringer, Roman, that sets up shop at the stadium and always makes sure we have fresh sticks for practice and matches. Roman doesn't say much but he is an absolute pro. Mike and I always string up a light load but Andy kills him and has 8-10 prepared on match days. We also have a team trainer, Doug Spreen, who most of you have seen before. He's been Andy's full time trainer for many years and was the head trainer at the ATP before that. Dougie tapes us up, stretches us out, and will occasionally jump into our nightly card games. BTW- he's the tightest poker player on the planet. If he's raising, you know he's got the nuts! I'll give him this though, the one thing this guy does have is a sweet stroke from beyond the arc. He's a 3-point sharp-shooter. We have two team doctors, Doc Dines and his son Josh. Doc and Josh are highly respected shoulder specialists in NYC and helped me repair my left wing at the end of last year. We have 3 USTA staff with us as well. Jeff Ryan, Anne Marie Martin, and Michelle Sheehan that take care of a million details from getting us our flights to making sure we're looking sharp in our Hugo Boss suits at the official dinner. Then there's the massage therapist, Rick Knophler, from Cincy, who is fairly new to the team but has magic hands and gladly "chops" everyone up on a nightly basis. Tim Curry, our media guy, also joins us during Davis Cup weeks. He coordinates and organizes the media appearances and runs the press conferences at the draw ceremony after the matches. Timmmayy replaced Randy "Sky" Walker who was with the team for many years. And then there's our assistant coach, Jay Berger. Jay was a player at the first Davis Cup match Mike and I ever attended way back in 1990 and is one of the reasons we look forward to these weeks every year. There isn't a harder worker on the team. Jay gets out there on the court early in the morning and comes home late in the evening. Like Patrick McEnroe, Jay still hits the ball well and can jump in drills and even join one of the guys for a set of doubles against us. He is now the head of men's tennis for the USTA and is doing all he can to breed the next generation of Grand Slam champs. And to top things off, there are the practice partners. Each tie, Coach Mac selects a couple up and coming new talents to join the team. These are valuable opportunities for these youngsters to practice and soak up some of the atmosphere. I think at every tie, each one of these guys are amazed at how hard we all practice and it gives them an idea of what they need to do to get to the next level. There are a couple downsides to being a practice partner. Besides getting your ass whooped every day in practice and the constant hazing, one practice partner at each tie is selected by PMac to give a speech at the official dinner...ssshhhhhh...it's supposed to be a team secret but from how nervous these guys look beforehand, I think the news has spread. But it's not just a normal speech. We hand pick four or five ridiculous words that they have to incorporate. These words can either be something simple like "poop" or can be a little more tricky to hide....like "dingleberry". Anyways, we always get a good laugh out of these performances. Actually, Andy almost dies during every one. He's usually on the ground suffocating from his own laughter. Some practice partners freeze up and choke but for the most part we've had some legendary deliveries by these guys. I would have to say Mike Russell's speech in Ostrava, Czech or Ryan Sweeting's Moscow speech top the list. These two guys really relished the moment and brought the house down. Honorable mention must go out to David Martin who rapped "Ice Ice Baby" and did the "worm" onstage in Winston Salem. We don't have tapes of many of these deals but a brief clip of that one made YouTube. Classic stuff! Alright guys, all for now...I hope you're all doing well. Talk to you soon, Bob |
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| Previous Blogs June 13th, 2008 July 24th, 2008 October 5th, 2008 October 7th, 2008 December 12th, 2008 December 22nd, 2008 April 22nd, 2009 May 18th, 2009 |
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