Play or die

If there were ten stars, I would lob them all into the court of Play or Die. This book on an old guy, Lester, with bad knees going back to tennis after an absence of some eons is vivid and funny. The deadpan humor had me chuckling all the way through. The technical tennis matters are fascinating to this reader, whose first (and last) tennis lesson occurred sixty-five years ago. The back stories, the old loves and old competitions and old life-conundrums, told with wit and humor, make Play or Die a great read.

In 1988, I hosted a televised program called “People Worth Meeting” in which I introduced the audience to the person famed author Ray Bradbury believed to be the best writing teacher he knew: Sid Stebel. Viewers were treated to his Writing Workshop, affiliated with the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. In the same television studio, half our lifetimes ago, I met Robert Ray who 35 years later would write “Play Or Die:  Senior Tennis And The Art Of Spin.”  2:05 into the program, Robert commented, “The reason I’m here is because I’ve discovered that Sid Stebel is a genius and I want to borrow whatever he’s got to give.”  (www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cCBEwV9Vtk)

Sid Stebel starred in his workshop but Robert Ray stood out as his co-star.  Following our meeting in Santa Barbara, Robert and I would not communicate more often than once per decade.  Then, weeks ago, around the time of Sid Stebel’s death, just days before he would have turned a century old, Robert offered me an opportunity to review his latest book.

I knew the Robert who was a writer, not a tennis teaching pro, and he had no idea that I came from a tennis family, having ‘coached’ my father, Fran Manis, to the 1979 USTA Men’s 70 Super Senior Indoor National Championship at San Francisco, where Bobby Riggs ‘won’ the Men’s 60 Championship due to the gracious sportsmanship shown by his opponent overturning an “out” called by the umpire against Riggs on match point, proving it still can be a “gentleman’s game”!

Tennis is a game of bounces and hits as Tim Gallwey, the author of “The Inner Game of Tennis,” would have us believe with his “Bounce—Hit” approach.  My review will bounce around a lot, but Robert Ray has HIT it out of the proverbial park with his must-read chapter, “Bounce—Hit With Timothy Gallwey.”  I emphasize this as one who has taught some tennis himself and recognizes how often people “over-think” on the court and off it in life.  As an example, weeks before my father won his 70s Indoor US National Championship he had a chance to win the US national hardcourt in his hometown of Santa Barbara.  I had asked his finals opponent if he had any objections to me videotaping the match and, when he agreed, that prospect apparently played on my father’s mind, causing him to not sleep a wink that night and resulting in him defaulting the match the following day without hitting a single stroke!

At different times, my father and Robert met with Tim Gallwey.   His ‘Inner Game’ approach mirrored the writing advice shared by Sid Stebel in his workshop:  “I would be remiss if I didn’t also give you my way of tapping into your subconscious”—(a practical procedure).

“Play Or Die” is a plea, by example, for the reader to live life fully, rather than being a bystander.  It is a memoir which features Robert Ray’s ‘bouncing’ back from divorce.  In other words, it’s a LOVE story, fittingly played out upon the only court where ‘love’ is not just a factor of ‘scoring,’ but also the perfection to which each ‘player’ aspires:  a ‘love game,’ resulting in quite a courtship!

Five stars!  This memoir of an aging Senior Tennis player, Lester Elder, is as heart-warming as it is instructive for tennis players of any age. For those of us that started playing tennis with wooden racquets, this book is especially meaningful, since we are the Senior tennis players, like Lester, that continue to play the game we love, despite the physical limitations of our advancing age and our stubborn desire to try and improve our game when we get on that court. 

I recently had my annual physical and my long-time doctor told me that regular tennis exercise not only has a very positive impact on longevity but, as this author clearly describes in this “Play Or Die” book, Lester’s healthy life is even more about the super power of his life-long competitive and recreational tennis social connections.   Strongly recommend taking the journey with Lester and read this account of tennis intrigue that unlocks the social mysteries of a life well lived.   

When Bob circulated an advance reader copy of his new book, “Play or Die,” I thought to myself, that title’s a bit drastic, isn’t it? Of course he was contrarily implying his vivid, rollicking theme: tennis IS life for some of us as we reach 60, 70, 80, 90, and maybe higher. My gosh, he’s loudly bolstering the latest science: people who play tennis enjoy longer, healthier lives! Represent! Exemplify! And the subtitle winks with part of the secret: “Senior Tennis and the Art of Spin.” The mind and body harmoniously work together to fool physics, in each shot, and in a lifetime of clever maneuvers.

That’s the kind of energetic enjoyment that shines through the pages onto those of us lucky enough to read this book. It begins at the beginning: “I hit my first tennis ball … in Texas. … I was sixteen,” and it concludes, before a list of recommended books, with the ancient hero playing, not dying: “still swinging, feeling the ball on his strings one more time.”

In between, we take two major journeys. First we accompany Bob (in the here and now in 2023 and in the past few years) to Seattle’s Tennis Center Sand Point (the history, the founders, the building materials, the high ceilings). There are struggles in old age tennis; there are injuries; there are friendships; there are emotions; and always there are smart shots guided by coaches. I assumed that was going to be the entire book: vivid details of us oldsters, including tip after tip for adjusting our styles. I ignored all my other reading and devoured page after page. Spoiler alert: the second half of the book switches gears and zips us back through Bob’s energetic careers in improving his tennis, writing, teaching writing, and teaching tennis. I was delighted with the name dropping, first of many TCSP mere mortals and then of the eternals. “Dennis Van Der Meer entered the room.” What??  I know that name! Of course the chapter is called “Tennis with Dennis.” And the hits keep coming. Enter Vic Braden. Enter “Bounce-Hit with Timothy Gallwey” (him of meditative Inner Tennis fame). Our buddy Bob has rubbed shoulders with those greats, and he describes and distills for us their wisdom. A superstar in another dimension is what Bob calls the “Swoosh Forehand,” a holy grail of attainment.

Along the way, Bob regales us with not only details of shots on court, but also some key events and key people in his life, including his illustrator Paul Haley and the dedicatee at both start and finish, Margot his wife.

I must say I really enjoyed this sentence from the disclaimer: “Readers are advised to consult with qualified professionals before implementing any techniques or advice mentioned.” Hey, we could all do worse than to take Bob’s sage advice!

For my taste, this is overwhelmingly your Best Book Ever.  Even better than the best parts of Heart of the Game.

Congratulations, both on the trademark taut, compact, rhythmic prose, and the total, Melville-like mastery of the tennis lingo, which you deliver with the rhythm of a very hot tennis match.  And even more, congratulations on the innovative approach of making the struggles of old age into a drama of great intensity even though its trademark private-eye irony resembles nothing so much as the tricky spins and lobs of the senior tennis game.

You have proven my theory that you can be a great sports writer, using much of the technique of that other great sportswriter, Hunter S. Thompson, who was sent to report on a marathon off-road motorcycle race, and instead turned the assignment into Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Another thing I like is that while all the characters are given abstract first + last-initial names, and thus abstracted and somewhat depersonalized, the character development is ever so crisp, and I like too that the personalities of these players are depicted primarily by describing their playing styles–a most fitting way of personalizing the game itself. 

You have poured everything you learned as player, student, professor of English literature, writing instructor and writer of detective fiction into one harmonious bundle in which every effect resonates with every other one to create not merely chords, but symphonic effects.

Well done, esteemed mentor!

Anyone that has a lifelong passion is lucky. It helps the mind and body (if a physical activity) have a sense of moments of greatness and can see you through when life throws a screwball at you. 

The wins and the losses add up and in the long run you realize its been one big win.

This book captures all of a life (well almost all) and is a must read. Not just for those in our tennis world but also for those that are searching for something else or need to be convinced that something else is necessary in life.

Play or Die… yep… so be it.