CHAPTER TWENTY

 

            1978: D-J Lee Looks to His and He-Ja’s Past and Future Experience in the German Leagues. 1978: U.S. Junior Team Plays in Swedish Junior Open.

           

            We learn from D-J (TTT, Nov.-Dec., 1978, 8; 16) that after the ‘77 World’s, he and He-ja went to Hungary, where, helped by Tibor Hammori, “a former world-class player and now a member of the sports press…they were able to practice with Klampar, Gergely, and Magos. We trained 4-6 hours a day against super top-spinners, and I got a good tip for a backhand loop….Coach Ferenc Sido (1953 World Champion) also made the players—men and women—play soccer to strengthen the legs.”

             After practicing at Sido’s Spartacus Club and also the B.V.S.C Club, D-J and He-ja left Budapest by train for Germany. He-ja, having a Korean passport, “needed a visa to get through Austria before we reached Germany—though strangely she didn’t need a visa to get into Germany.” They got into a red-tape argument with officials on the train, but while “they were still trying to look things up in their Rulebook we’d reached the German border. So then it was all O.K.!”

            The Lees were supposed to have been met at Frankfurt, but there were four train stations in the city and it hadn’t been established at which one they’d come into, so an American soldier directed them to a hotel and that’s where ($50 for the night) they stayed.

            Next day, they took another train ride—to Landau—to visit the Joola Company. “Originally the company was called ‘Joo’-something, then it was decided to combine “Joo with the first two letters from Landau—hence ‘Joola.’” D-J says, “Their factory here can make 200 tables a day.”

            Could Joola make any training arrangements for us here in Germany? D-J asked. And could we meet with Christer Johansson (Kjell’s brother who, since 1975, had been hired at a good salary as the German National Coach)? The reply was “Yes” and “Yes.” Christer was very helpful in answering D-J’s many questions. After their 3-hour session, D-J said, “I respect him. I think he’s the best coach in Europe.”

            Off, then, they went to Dusseldorf, whose Bundesliga Team (Jochen Leiss; Ebby Scholer, World runner-up to Itoh in 1969; Hanno Deutz; Ralf Wosik; and Hajo Nolten) was the best in Germany. When He-ja first went to practice with Leiss (the ’77 U.S. Open Champion), he asked her, “How many points does D-J give you?” She said, “Five.” So that’s what he started her with. “After all that practice against the Hungarian loop, she was blocking and smashing Leiss’s loops” and Leiss was saying, ‘Good!...Good!’” until, as his teammates continued to laugh, she beat him.

            When Joola heard Leiss’s recommendation, “She’s good enough to play in the First Division,” they asked them both to play in the German League. The offer was attractive, said D-J. “Three times a week I’d be training 12-14-year-olds, and repeatedly He-ja and I could train with the German Team. I knew that D-J Lee’s mail order business and D-J Lee’s Table Tennis Center would be badly hurt….But I knew that later my [European] experience would help me to teach American players better.” So they decided to come to Germany for the ’77-78 season. 
            Joola got He-ja on a Kiel Team with one other non-German, Karen Senior from Ireland. The players were young—13, 14, 14, 21—compared to He-ja’s 25. But the Team “soon rose from the Second Division League to the First.” As for D-J, he had “a problem in that there were no 1^st Division League teams for men near He-ja’s team.” Luckily, however, he was able to sign with Selk, “a scrappy 2^nd Division Team that had been trying to advance for two years….Only later, after I’d signed, did I find out that one of the teams opposing us, “Berlin,” was paying three of its players a total of $75,000 to play for them. (One of these players was Bernt Jansen whom Jack Howard had beaten in a Geza Gazdag Vanderbilt Invitational in N.Y. in the 1960’s.)

            D-J now gives Topics readers much info about table tennis in Germany and the league play there. “At over 5,000 clubs they have 700,000 players who play regularly and of these 700,000 at least 5,000 would be rated over 2,000 in our ratings….But only Leiss, Stellwag, Huging, Lieck, and Scholer command good money—say, $27,000-$47,000 a year. (An outsider, like the Yugoslav Surbek, one of the world’s great players, agreed, so someone said, to a club signing for $66,000 for two years. England’s Douglas also signed, though perhaps for something appreciably less.) Germany’s National players “are sports-students who can study when they want to and who have no job other than playing table tennis.”

            Here’s the way the Leagues work:

 

            “At present there are 10 Teams in the 1^st Division or ‘Bundesliga’…The 1^st round of the season is roughly from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1. The 2^nd from Jan. 1 to Apr. 1. The two Teams that finish last go down to the 2^nd Division League called the ‘Oberliga,” and two Teams from there, via a play-off, come up to the 1^st Division League. In the 2^nd Division, the winners of each of the four sections of the country—North, South, West, and Southeast—play off and then the top two Teams advance to the ‘Bundesliga.’”

 

            D-J says there are also “seven different Lower Division Leagues.” Players prefer playing in Leagues to tournaments. The German Association is very well organized, and very rich—which no doubt accounts for the importance, the success of the Leagues. “Each official of each League match wears an official suit.” The court conditions are always exemplary. “If a player doesn’t wear his club clothing or doesn’t wear his number on his back indicating what number on the Team he is, he gets an initial fine of $16.”

            The composition of a Team and the format of a League match is as follows:

 

            The Men’s League has 6 players to a Team. In any tie, the object is to win 9 matches. First the Teams play two doubles matches (the #1 A Team plays the opponent’s #2 B Team, and the opponent’s #1 B Team plays the #2 A Team), then a succession of Singles matches follow: #5A plays #6B, 6A-5B, 1A-2B, 2A-1B, 3A-4B, 4A-3B, 1A-1B, 2A-2B, 3A-3B, 4A-4B, 5A-5B, 6A-6B. If, after two doubles matches and 12 singles matches, no Team has made 9 points, they play two more doubles matches (the symmetrical 15^th and 16^th match): 1A-1B, 2A-2B. The tie of course could result in an 8-8 tie. Since all players play only two singles matches, the 5^th and 6^th players on a Team are almost as important as the 1^st and 2^nd players.”

 

            Women don’t draw the audience that men do. Also, their format is different—the four players on each Team play a round robin system. Whoever wins 9 points is the winner, but again there could be an 8-8 tie.

            Each club has sponsors for “tables, nets, balls, and uniforms.” Sometimes sponsorship is in the form of cash. Transactions are often in cash here—there’s “a 1,000- Deutschmark (over $500) bill and a 500-Deutschmark (over $250) bill. Things are expensive here—“a rain coat, for example, goes for $200-$300.”

            In the fall-winter of ’77-78, D-J and He-ja “lived in a summer house about 15 miles outside of Kiel.” This presented problems for them:

 

            “Since at first we had only an electric heater, we soon had to burn coal. It was my first time burning coal and sometimes we were really cold. We also had a car for a while but it was too expensive to repair so we had to give it up. We decided then to buy a bus pass for $40 per month. It had been 13 years since I’d ridden a bus in the cold of winter and I’d forgotten what it was like. Every time we were cold waiting for the bus we thought about our warm house in Columbus. He-ja didn’t like being out in the cold, so she kept reminding me not to come back here to Germany anymore.”

 

            D-J also speaks of language difficulties, lack of goods or products from other countries (little or no fast food services), too expensive items, and the trepidation one first feels as a passenger when, since there no speed limits in Germany, your driver is racing down the road at 135 miles an hour. D-J says, “Once I asked a driver why he liked to drive so fast and he said, ‘Well, I like to drive fast when I’m sleepy—because then I know I won’t go to sleep.’”

 

            When He-ja first started to play for her club, she was “nervous and lost 7 matches in the first 4 weeks. But from then on, starting in Oct., ’77, she had a 38-match winning streak,” and finished 4^th in the final League standings.

            D-J was even more successful:

 

            “In ’77 I was the ‘Selk’ Team’s #1 player. And we were undefeated until we played against ‘Berlin’ in Berlin. In the fall part of the season I lost to Jansen and our Team lost the tie 9 matches to 6. But we didn’t give up and the second time around we beat the Berlin Team 9-5. So we won the North section of the Oberliga and went to play off against the winners of the South, West, and Southeast. We made it by 1 point to the 1^st Division League, the Bundesliga. This was great because if I wanted to come back for the ’78-’79 session, I could now play against world-class stars. At the Koln tournament I had a very good 3-2 win over Lieck. But then I lost to Lammers who in a European tournament a couple of years before had beaten Danny Seemiller.”

 

            And would He-ja and D-J come back to Germany for the ’78-79 season?

 

            “Well,” says D-J, “I still want to play with good players—I mean, table tennis has always been my life, and I can’t do without it. Then, too, He-ja could join the ‘North Harrislee’ club in the north of Germany, next to Denmark. And now we could have an apartment with heat and a car that didn’t constantly need repairs. Also we wanted to play well in Las Vegas and be on the U.S. Team that would go into North Korea, and what better competition could we get than that here in the Leagues. So we decided to stay in Germany another season.” How the two did there this fall we’ll be sure to pick up later.

Swedish Junior Open

            “Why are you here?”

            It was my younger son Eric talking—I can still hear him—and he was telling me, in his typically honest, very nasty-at-the-moment way, that he couldn’t see the point of me being there in Sweden with him and the rest of the Team. Certainly I know nothing about the game, was not helpful, was merely embarrassing to him with my scruffy, bearded appearance, my occasional public outbursts of anger at him, my occasional irritation at Rutledge, and my bumbling, slow-to-adapt mistakes (once I saw to my horror I’d filled out the A-B team positions wrong; another time I’d pushed a button to start a shower and then, almost out the door, was ready to go for help because I couldn’t shut the damn thing off when—a big relief to me—it shut itself off).

            Why was I here?

            It wasn’t hard for me to see, was it? I wanted the best for my sons, wanted to help them if I could, wanted to share in their glory as I always have, wanted again to be proud of them, wanted them and Rutledge and Jimmy to have an emotionally memorable time.

            “Why am I here?”

            It was my 14-year-old Eric talking again. He was very tired after the long flight over—has always been a person who does not bear discomfort patiently. Now he was talking to himself after Nisse Sandberg, the indefatigable Director of the tournament (helped more than a little by Tommy Andersson, just out of the hospital) had met us at the airport and dropped us all off at our appointed houses.

            We would learn much more about the country and the people in it, I thought, if we could stay in private homes, and, besides, I wasn’t sure yet how successful my fund-raising campaign would be and Sweden we knew was very expensive. So I’d long ago asked my friend Nisse to make the arrangements if he possibly could and he had—though not to all our liking.

            Scott was pleased to stay with Jens Fellke, Sweden’s #6 Junior, who also had—surprise—Mike Lardon as a 3-month house guest. Naturally Rutledge wanted to be with them and not alone at some far away stranger’s house, so, yes, that was o.k. Jimmy and Eric, I hoped, would stay at somebody’s home together, but after Jimmy was dropped off, that left Eric and me to share a place—which I knew was not good, and not at all what I had in mind in bringing him to Sweden.

            So of course I was there, as I still will be for a while, to help him get away from me. Quickly it was all managed. For the duration of our stay in Stockholm, Rutledge, taking the initiative, could live in the Fellke apartment, Eric and Jimmy could stay together at the Larssons (provided they played long points on the basement table with the Magna Mater of the household), and I would stay with the Gierloffs.

            I mention these families by name because for the rest of our forgetful lives I want the record to show—as if I were again writing my thank yous and expressions of love in Mama Larsson’s guest book—that we mean to, that we will, remember their understanding and kindness in treating the U.S. boys as they would their own table tennis-playing sons.

            Blessed then with the best of transient surroundings to come back to and in Nisse Sandberg an organizer (hustler, “fixer”) par excellence, whom I was more and more feeling the warmest cigar-glow camaraderie for, we rented a car and (except for stalling through Stockholm while I relearned how to jerk a stick shift this way and that) wasted no time in driving off to Hallstahammar a couple of hours away. There we would play the first of our U.S.-Swedish challenge matches, as well as the warm-up weekend tournament preceding the Swedish Junior Open. This action in Hallstahammar, I kept telling myself, could only be good for us.

             Why, after all, was I here? And Eric, Scott, Jimmy and Rutledge? The question ought to be even easier to answer now. To take the little journey. Win…Lose…Make mistakes. Feel something—and its arch-enemy nothing. To get angry enough to try to be reasonable. Care about people—love them if you could. And of course to learn more about table tennis…learn through table tennis…our strength in the world.

            But in our first challenge match we were beaten 8-2.

            Scott, who couldn’t find the table with his flat hit, lost an opening match to Sweden’s #3 junior, 14-year-old Erik Lindh—the frail-looking wunderkind who’s being touted as the new “mini-Bengtsson.” Said one proud Swede, “He’s the best 14-year-old in Europe—maybe in the world.”

            Eric then lost a tough one to Fellke in 3, after blowing a 14-7 lead in the 1^st game.

            Jimmy lost to Sweden’s #7 junior, Jonas Berner—whom he later beat in the tournament over the weekend.

            Barry, down 19-16 in the 3^rd, closed with 5 in a row to just get by Niklas Persson, the eventual U-14 winner in the upcoming Swedish Junior Open. Then lost to Lindh, 19, 20.

            Eric beat Berner, 14, 14. Lane lost to Fellke, 16, 11. And in the last of the singles matches, Scott was beaten by Persson, 8, 23, who handled his slow loop well.

            Eric and Rutledge then dropped their doubles to Persson/Lindh—as they were to lose to them in the tournament over the weekend in a 19-in-the-3^rd match they should have won. And Scott and Jimmy could not come close to beating Fellke/Berner.

            The doubles play of our two teams was never very good—and not always taken seriously enough by Eric and Rutledge. I think now that Scott and Eric, if for a while one or both of them could completely forget their temperamental differences, would make the best aggressive team. Both had containing table games, and point-winning strength in Scott’s flat forehand control and Eric’s angled-off backhands.

            As for the singles, well, if Eric had won the 1^st game from Fellke, or if Scott had won the 2^nd against Persson, or if Rutledge had won either of his games against Lindh, the whole tie might have been dramatically different, and our table tennis course in Sweden changed.

            Eric, particularly, I felt, was still tired, still worried about the two weeks of school he was missing (would he fail?). He was also put out by the disorientation involved in first-day moving into Stockholm, in third-day moving out, and now somewhat upset at the prospect of all 5 of us staying at different homes in Hallstahammar. He shared his 14-year-old discontent in his own inimitable way with his Captain and his older teammates who did not want to take on his burden too.* Jimmy, for instance, had preoccupations of his own—when, he wanted to know, was he going to get a good piece of, like, Kansas City meat? Tonight he would have to eat at McDonald’s.

            Fortunately, thanks to Nisse’s good friend Stig Eklof, a former Swedish National, we were all again put into the hands of very special sensitive and intelligent people, all of whom had table tennis-playing children of their own.

            Throughout the 3-day tournament at Hallstahammar, Stig, who was often behind the Control Desk, and Nisse, who was rooting for a number of his own Angby Club juniors, some of whom he’s looked after since they were 8-9 years old, continued to show the greatest patience and kindness. Here, by the way, is a photo of a youth Swedish coaches are especially looking after—yep, that’s the future two-time World and Olympic Champion Jan-Ove Waldner.

            None of the boys had anything to write home about in their Open and Men’s Singles matches (no, they didn’t play against any of the best players in Sweden—but neither did they play like any of the best players in America). However, there were other matches yet to come. Only now Eric was being Eric at his most perverse. He had such a bad back, he said, he would have to default, couldn’t get up from the booth in the refreshment area where he was lying to play another match. But after an hour or so of this, just as I was seriously suggesting a doctor and an ambulance, Nisse became psychiatrist, chiropractor, and wizard, and scientifically, magically, got Eric out to the table again. And, lo and behold, he eventually won the Cadets and joined Rutledge in reaching the unplayed final of a 170 entry (160 of them, it seemed, juniors) Class A event that offered money and merchandise prizes.

            Of course we were impressed by the great number of juniors just in this section of Sweden who could play at a 2100-2200 level. Almost all the players, though, played the same. Had good technique, but played the same—looped and counter-looped. There were no choppers—and few, if any, “material” players.

            On our return to Stockholm we played two more warm-up challenge matches against local club teams, and tied them both. We also did a little sightseeing in the old, historic part of the city. I particularly liked the famous 15^th-century wood carving of St. George and the Dragon in the Great Church, and Carl Milles’ equally famous sculpture of a gigantic, brooding Strindberg (the Swedish dramatist remembered for his The Father and other well-known plays) which late one dark night Nisse took me out to see.

            At the Jury Meeting the night before the Team event was to begin, the U.S. got a break. Russia, seeded #2 behind South Korea, at the last minute wired they couldn’t come—pleaded illness—and so our #1 team of Eric and Rutledge took their place in the draw and were given such weak teams to play against as to practically constitute a bye to the semi’s.

            Our unseeded #2 team of Scott and Jimmy, however, would have to win two preliminary matches just to get to the quarter’s (and the #1 seeded Korean team). The first of these pre-lims they won, 3-1. But against Stockholm (Mikael Appelgren, the eventual U-17 Singles winner, and Mikael Johansson) they lost out on a great opportunity. Jimmy opened the Corbillon Cup play (2 singles, 1 doubles, 2 more singles if necessary) by downing the favored Appelgren, 2-0—a great win. “The Apple,” it seemed, got just that—at least he couldn’t get any attack started—and Jimmy (who in earlier warm-up matches had sometimes been too soft and had had some difficulty handling serves) was fearlessly aggressive.

            When, in the 2^nd match, Scott had Johansson down 17-8 in the 3^rd, it looked very good for the U.S. But then, unaccountably (Scott says he can’t remember being careless on a single point) he blew this big lead and finally lost the match at deuce.

            Although this naturally took quite a bit of heart out of him, he and Jimmy managed to win the first game of their doubles at 19, but lost the next two badly. After which, against Appelgren, a lefty, who like the late Hans Alser plays back from the table, Scott was never in the match. The Swedish boy, changing the spin beautifully, has an all-around defense/offense. “How natural is ‘The Apple,” someone said. “Unbelievable talent. Terrific control.” No surprise to many he’ll grow up to be one of the world’s best players.

            The loss to Johansson was a bad one for Scott because, instead of getting to play in the round robin quarter’s (out of which would come the four semifinalists), instead of getting to play a half-dozen more team matches, which, like any hitter so dependent on touch and timing, he greatly needed to play to bring his game into shape, he was through. Of course I’m supposing that had the U.S. taken a 2-0 lead, Jimmy would have beaten Johansson. This of course was by no means certain, but I’m sure that the U.S. boys in their disappointment felt it more than likely.**

            In the semi’s, Eric and Rutledge were up against the by now familiar Angby faces of Fellke and Peter Ljungqvist. This Club team had earlier delighted Nisse, who’s something of a maverick, by coming from 2-0 down to knock off the “official “Sweden” team. He was delighted the more with his boys’ win because, though the Swedish Association wasn’t being obstructionist, they weren’t supporting the tournament either.

            Eric had been complaining daily about the thickness of his anti-spin—no, he didn’t want 2.mm or 3.mm, he wanted (what nobody had, what nobody made?) 1.5.mm. He opened against Ljungqvist (with 100-200 Swedish crowns bet on the match by those interested in doing so), and in the 1^st he killed Peter, then hung on to win the 2^nd at 19.

            But Rutledge who’d broken 1…2…3? rackets in Sweden and who had sent me into something of a panic—he’d had to hurry to a sport shop just before the match to get still another racket to play with—couldn’t down Fellke. Jens was very motivated—he’d been trying hard to make the last remaining spot on the Swedish Junior Team that would soon be playing in the European Youth Championships at Barcelona.

            With the tie 1-1, the doubles became even more important. This time (as opposed to unnamed others) Rutledge and Eric were very serious in their play, but they couldn’t quite rise to the occasion—perhaps because they hadn’t prepared enough for it? At 5-all in the 3^rd, I yelled some encouragement—and, next thing I knew,  Eric and Rutledge were down 10-5 and Eric, making the turn, was angrily yelling, “Thanks a lot, Pop.” (“Pop”?—he’d never called me that in his life, was even now ironically referring to my white-haired appearance.) Back they fought, though, to tie it up at 18-all—while I shut up. But my silence wasn’t any better than my speech—any more than, before, my speech had been better than my silence.

            So the pressure now was on Rutledge—and his new racket. He wins the 1^st at 15. Loses the 2^nd at 19. And more and more now, in the 3^rd, looking at his racket and talking to himself with every missed shot, he just can’t, no matter how hard he tries, pull out the game. As the last ball slides off his racket we have let slip away our chance to beat Korea in the final and win the Championship we have come for.

            Korea, as it turns out, is the 3-2 winner over Angby—but Fellke has beaten the #2 Singles seed, Kim Wan, and his partner Yoo Si Hoong. So Jens with this fine showing has won his trip to Barcelona? No, he has not. For the Swedish Association has picked Berner (an eventual semifinalist in the Singles here) even before he plays the Koreans. So it’s not only the Americans who are disappointed.

            Perhaps we can recover in the U-17’s?

            But Rutledge can’t. He’s sick this morning, and has withdrawn—perhaps, if he can, to finish off the Ken Kesey novel he’s been reading, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

            Jimmy can’t. He tries as hard as ever, talks to himself, but he loses badly in the 1^st round to one of those myriad 2200 players.

            Scott can’t. He wins the 1^st, loses the 2^nd at deuce, but perseveres to take the 3^rd—a good result, 1^st round or not. But in the 2^nd round he meets the #1 Austrian junior, Harald Koller, seeded #6, who’s had the benefit of some demanding competitive play, particularly against the English players in the quarter’s of the Team’s. He’s also had international experience in European tournaments because he’s been put on the Austrian’s Men’s Team (though more as an observer ready to learn than as a seasoned player).

            Koller is solid as a tree trunk and a big looper from both sides. In the 1^st, Scott contains him well with his backhand block, has ball after ball to hit but can’t get swing-point after swing-point to land on the table. In the 2^nd, he leads 19-17 but the Austrian has the serve and runs out the match. Again Scott is very disappointed. He feels he just never got going the whole trip.

            So that leaves our most temperamental player, Eric. On he goes through Austria, Sweden, and Finland players until he comes to Niklas Persson, the #2 14-year-old in Sweden. Eric has given his Captain orders that he does not want me to watch the match. And as it’s played in a side room where I can’t watch without being conspicuous I agree to observe…his wishes. I wait anxiously outside for a report….He’s lost the 1^st. Scott goes in to offer come coaching advice….Soon it’s 1-1….Then, yes, the first friendly face I see is smiling. Eric has rallied to win, has moved into the quarter’s. Perhaps I was right not to watch him. I know only that I am not the kind of father, the kind of Captain, that most people think of when they think of fathers and Captains.

            And in the easier U-14’s Eric, the #1 seed, is going strong there too—has moved without incident into the quarter’s. Here again he meets Persson who must rank just behind Erik Lindh. And this mini-Bengtsson, Lindh, what’s happened to him? Unbelievable. He’s lost in the 1^st round—to some unknown 14-year-old! Which shows you what I mean about depth. Someone says, “These foolish officials talking to him about money, about contracts, telling him he has a good chance to win both the Juniors and Cadets here—they’ve turned the boy’s head.” Someone else says, “You can bet that when he goes to the European Youth Championships they’ll only let him play in one event—have him concentrate just on that. Here he loses a junior match, is affected consciously and unconsciously, is disappointed and angry, and now he goes right out and loses his big Cadet match.”***
            So, o.k. with the #2 seed gone, if Eric can get by Persson again, he should be the Champion. But this time the always earnest-looking, no-nonsense Swede, his backhand ready to Frisbee away any loose ball, beats Eric 14 and 11! And goes on, without dropping a game, to win the tournament.

            Now, coming off that loss (“Don’t talk to me! Just stay away from me!”), Eric goes back out to face Appelgren, immediately gets way behind, gives up, is beaten the 1^st game 21-2! Then, fighting hard, but being much too impatient, he loses the 2^nd at 19.

            Eric is Eric. He has some issues, as they say. He didn’t win here, but being mercurial on and off the table, might he win elsewhere? What does, or will, this Swedish experience mean to him?****

             Appelgren, repeatedly dusting off the table with his hand after missing a shot (the better of course to concentrate), goes on to beat, first, Kenneth Jackson of England (who, down 1-0 and at deuce in the 2^nd, just escaped losing to Koller), and then Kim Wan in the final two straight.

            So not Eric but Appelgren is the Champion. A couple of years ago, when Appelgren was 14, he was, I heard, a totally undisciplined player. To look at him now you wouldn’t believe it. But he had, as someone said, “very bad manners”—that is, he would kick the table, blame the umpire for a shot he’d missed, spit at his opponent’s coach, whatever. No, the Association never took disciplinary action against him. He eventually cured himself. Went to play at a club with some very high-strung players—even top players, like Thorsell, for instance. Bad as Appelgren was, they were worse. They set an example for him.

 

SELECTED NOTES.

            *The following undated Letter to the Editor sent to me for publication in Topics was written by the Boggan’s family friend Mike Lardon. Why it didn’t get published I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem to me I would have held it back for any reason. Jack Carr, for one, had suggested that Danny Seemiller, Insook Bhushan, Eric Boggan, and Kasia Dawidowicz automatically be put on the U.S. Team to the ’79 Pyongyang World’s. Perhaps after that suggestion did not find favor with the E.C., and/or after Mike read my Report on the tournament, he decided, especially since he had ambivalent feelings about Eric and about his own thoughts of making the Team, not to publish the letter. Anyway, here it is:

 

            “…I write this letter with no thought of diminishing the one’s efforts and accomplishments I speak of; but I honestly feel the situation I talk about has much importance and should be brought into the open.

            There has been much talk about Eric Boggan of Long Island being automatically placed on the next U.S. Team to the World’s because of his undeniable exceptional play. Everyone should understand that my relationship with Eric and his family is one of great closeness, but still I must speak honestly if I think a wrong is being done. I feel Eric deserves a chance to try out for the Team just as everyone else does who is in contention, but I will list the following reasons why I think to just place Eric on the Team would be unfair and a grave mistake.

(1)   First of all and maybe most importantly, Eric had an extremely anti-Team (almost hostile) attitude during the Swedish Junior Championships. His attitude was felt by the entire Team to have a great negative effect on their spirit and morale. His behavior was atrocious and offensive to the Swedes and embarrassing to the U.S. But I don’t think Eric should be condemned for his behavior. He was very uncomfortable being in a foreign country, and with age his maturity will increase and he will understand what is proper and what is not.

(2)   Secondly, in the last World Tryouts, the U.S. was pushing to have some youths/juniors on the Team, for we hadn’t had many. But now there has been a tremendous influx of good young players, so I don’t think it would be fair to secure a position for Eric [#1-rated junior, 2396] while there are still so many other young players who might make the Team—Scott Boggan [#2-rated, 2311] and Rutledge Barry [#3-rated, 2217], for example.

(3)   The 3^rd reason is that Eric is only 14 and will be on more than his share of U.S. teams if he continues along his present rate of improvement.

            So let’s be fair and give Eric the same chance as everyone else. Who knows, he might make the next Team anyway.

            P.S. I must honestly say that my feelings about the situation would remain the same no matter what my position is in table tennis [Mike’s underrated at 2103]. But I must admit my position [as one in contention to make the Team] gives me the motivation and courage to have this letter printed.”

 

            **In a May 15 letter to Millie Shahian, Leah “Miss Ping” Neuberger says, “The U.S. Juniors came in 4^th in Sweden after Sweden, South Korea, and Austria.” [The U.S. came fourth alright, but in the final, South Korea beat Angby (who’d earlier downed the “official” Sweden team).] Miss Ping cites Scott Boggan’s line, “We’re just as good as they are” (“they” meaning the players he saw there). Her comment on that is, “I think he believes his father’s write-ups.”

            ***Two months later, in the European Youth Championships in Barcelona, Erik Lindh took the Cadet Boys Singles title, and with Niklas Persson the Cadet Team’s. In Sweden, Rutledge, as we’ve seen, had beaten Persson and lost to Lindh, 19 and 20, and Eric had split with Persson who’d lose 24-22 in the 3^rd in the semi’s of the European Cadets, and so just missed having the chance to beat Lindh in the final. Considering, too, that Jimmy Lane beat Appelgren, “we” just might be (given the disorientation we had and the Swedes didn’t) almost as good as “they” are. And, later, at the 12-country 1981 Scandinavian Junior Open….  

            ****Speaking of what the Swedish experience might do for one, I was very surprised to receive a penciled note from a youth I’d never seen before. I opened it to read:

 

            “Good Morning, Tim!

            It’s the crazy Canadian Brian Zembik! I’m sorry I could not get up to Stockholm to see you guys play! I’ve been in Sweden for 10 months training in Falkenberg with Stellan Bengtsson and 2 other top players! But it’s been horrible training really, cas Stellan’s been sick all year, or something else came up, so I couldn’t train! I’ve been making money by doing magic here. But anyhow if I get up to the States can I get together with another top player and train for a month or less? All day training—any month is good enough for me! If you got any ideas give your address to the boy who’ll give this to you and he’ll give it back to me! I need the training. I’m playing shit now. But take it easy, eh! And say Hi to Rutledge and Eric.

            PS. Last year I came to Europe cas I was suspended in Canada!! Bye now.

                                                                                    Brian Zembik”