A Summer With Few Smiles

Meditations on an Olympic-less summer:

Former Crimson hurler Rob Alevizos (how quickly the adjective "former" attaches itself to a name after Commencement), ace of this year's Harvard pitching staff, was recently plucked by the Chicago Cubs. Alevizos was an instrumental part of the Eastern League championship squad this spring, compiling a gusty 7-0 slate with an earned run average below 2.00.

"Zos" started the season on the bench, suffering with a sore arm. When coach Alex Nahigian gave him his chance after a series of impressive relief appearances, the decision paid off--in spades. The Crimson wound up the season at 24-12, triumphing in a grueling showdown with Cornell and Yale to win the Eastern League, topping perennial power Brandeis to cop the Greater Boston League crown, and only succumbing to St. John's in the NCAA regionals in extra innings--a couple of wins short of the College World Series.

Of course, Zos was not the only ingredient in this spring's successful formula, but his clutch performances in crucial contests gave the Crimson a stopper. After the loss to graduation of 1979 staff ace Larry Brown (now with the Houston Astros organization), it looked like Harvard might have to suffer a season without a hurler who could provide consistently strong performances. Zos stepped into the role easily.

So, to Rob Alevizos, Crimson pitcher emeritus (much more impressive-sounding than "former"), best of luck. The Cubs need you.

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Wimbledon--strawberries and cream, crested blazers, green grass courts, and all that. And for the last four years, Bjorn Borg.

Borg has dominated the tournament with his rip-roaring topspin since Gerald Ford was president and James Callaghan was prime minister. His face has reflected a certain serenity as he has wrecked his opponents methodically, in turn. But the image of Borg collapsing to his knees following the last point of every final match stays sharply etched in the mind of every tennis devotee as the Swede's strongest show of emotion.

I have never been especially enthused by Borg's remarkably unimpassioned demeanor. Although big-time tennis has a pleasant rhythm, it often boils down to two people hitting a little ball back and forth over a net--and, recognizing the intricacies and talent involved, it can bore.

Where is the humanity behind Borg's implacable visage? At Wimbledon, it peaks through, but only fleetingly. Machine-like personality need not accompany machine-like precision. And while these observations in no way condone the brattishness that pervades tennis's upper echelons, it is possible to be both mannerly and flamboyant--witness the generation of great Aussies which, regrettably, has slipped from tourneys to tennis ranches.

My hunch is that Borg will fall this time around, probably to former-wunderkind now-daddy Jimmy Connors. In defeat, we might catch a welcome glimpse of emotion from Borg, who has too quickly surrendered his youth to a middle-aged staidness.

* * *

How quickly the Olympic hopefuls have disappeared from the public eye, relegated to the small type on scoreboard pages across the country. Relative merits of the boycott aside, who are we trying to punish this summer, the supreme athletes or the supreme Soviet? The recent award bestowed upon the U.S. Olympic hockey team by the American Institute for Public Service (Secretary of State emeritus Cyrus Vance also got one) was richly-deserved; the enormity of the upset and its subsequent effect on national spirit cannot be exaggerated. Who can forget captain Mike Eruzione saying, "Good luck to you, Mr. President?"

The summer athletes also merit at least a modicum of recognition for years of anonymous toil. Deprived--some would say robbed--of a chance to strut their stuff on the world's stage, tributes are even more in order. Since the athletes have become pawns among the players of international politics--particularly ironic when you consider the government's total failure to support amateur sport--this summer's events may mark the death of what grains of incentive remain for American amateur athletes. Now that we have faced the fact that the Olympics will not be with us this summer, we want to forget they ever were scheduled.

Unfortunately for the athletes, the Olympics were scheduled, and now that the amateurs's participation has been cancelled, their efforts have been blighted. Not that the pursuit of athletics is not an end in itself; but the pursuit of amateur athletics in the face of adversity carries high costs and offers meager returns. This summer we will focus on the pennant races and the tennis and golf tournaments while the amateurs fade into oblivion. They face a disgraceful fate, those who will not complete in Moscow: they are not news.