us open

My good, old friend Jared invited me along to see the men’s final at the US Open Tennis match yesterday, Agassi vs Federer.

I realized around the beginning of the third set that I was quite tense, and when I assessed the situation realized that it wasn’t the riveting tennis. Live tennis matches are supposed to be quiet events with cheering confined to breaks and immediately following the end of a point. However, 23,999 other fans around you creates a level of one-upmanship that invariably ends in raucous cheering during non-appropriate times, in my opinion. The result is I sit there mentally shushing the entire crowd and feeling personal shame for outbursts.

Yes, I realize this is irrational and I tried to mantra something to the effect of “Corey, you can’t do anything about someone yelling ‘go Agassi’ when the other guy was about to serve, just relax and enjoy the game.”

Reminds me of the Medieval Times restaurant in South Boston. It is one of those dinner theater deals where the whole place is themed. Beer is mead, dinner is meat and potatoes (no giant turkey leg sadly), and waitresses are wenches. The whole time the act going on on stage and all around you is funny and interactive. Except for about 2/3 of the way through the show the female leads start in with Scarboro Fair with full sincerity. The trouble is the audience is still a) drunk b) not transitioned from the sword fighting on stage with a French roll between their legs and starts yelling “nice song wench”, etc. to the point where they have to stop the whole show and remind everyone over the P/A that these are professional entertainers and they are trying to get through their song, and I sit there feeling the combined anxiety for a hundred people.