sustaining word » sports http://sustainingword.com inside andrew mercer's head Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:40:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 sharpie http://sustainingword.com/sharpie/ http://sustainingword.com/sharpie/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:36:32 +0000 jazzmetalman http://sustainingword.com/?p=421 My sport of choice to watch, now that I’m too old to play, is rugby union – the game they play in heaven! The mighty Western Force is my team in the Super 14, a provincial competition pitting sides across the three great rugby nations of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

It’s tribal, but [...]]]> My sport of choice to watch, now that I’m too old to play, is rugby union – the game they play in heaven! The mighty Western Force is my team in the Super 14, a provincial competition pitting sides across the three great rugby nations of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

It’s tribal, but also nationalistic – in other words competitive to the hilt for players and fans alike.Last night saw the kick-off of the 2010 season, and unfortunately the Awesome Force lost, but it’s still going to a good year.

But what was really good was that last year at a charity auction, I got to bid for a signed shirt by the captain, Nathan Sharpe. Sharpie is an awesome player and a great guy, so I was thrilled to find out that I won it. Add a few photos, stick it in a frame, and here it is – a nice piece of sporting memorabilia.

Who knows, Sharpie may be the captain of the champion Super 14 team for 2010.

]]> http://sustainingword.com/sharpie/feed/ 0 an open view of things – part 1 http://sustainingword.com/an-open-view-of-things-part-1/ http://sustainingword.com/an-open-view-of-things-part-1/#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:36:00 +0000 jazzmetalman http://sustainingword.com/?p=15 A couple of days ago I started reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open. It’s really well written and so far I am about half way through the book – he has been dating Brooke Shields and just won the 1995 Australian Open, so I haven’t read the confessions of his drug taking yet, but I have [...]]]> A couple of days ago I started reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open. It’s really well written and so far I am about half way through the book – he has been dating Brooke Shields and just won the 1995 Australian Open, so I haven’t read the confessions of his drug taking yet, but I have read about his infamous wig.

A number of things have stood out to me in the first half of the book, including:

  1. How well it is written (a pleasant surprise)
  2. Agassi had a difficult, dysfunctional childhood
  3. His candidness as he writes.

But all of that pales into his explanation of how he hates tennis, and hates it with a passion. What is telling is that he still manages to play the sport at such an elite level. How often do we say how we hate our jobs, and that we’d really love to do our hobby, sport or lifestyle pursuit as a profession, whilst looking at musicians and sportspeople through envious eyes. Clearly Agassi didn’t enjoy the where he was in his life.

He had a fair share of the world watching him “work” and he hated being there, yet he still persisted. Agassi certainly did not have the ideal childhood, it was clearly far from normal and his adolescent years took place in the public eye, yet he has grown into a fine human being.

It’s refreshing to see now, the man that he has become, and to read his confessions of how he tried to hide from himself, as well as the public.

When I finish the book in the next couple of days I’ll share Part 2 with you, but until then, consider reading it yourself – you will learn a lot about Andre Agassi, and I dare say that you will learn a little about yourself.

In the meantime, here is a video of Agassi sharing some of the reasons he wrote Open.
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