Respect don't come easy

I figure every sports phenom should be a role model and give back to their community, but try as I might, I still get little recognition and respect. This week for example, I participated in a bike-a-thon to raise money for heart illness and stroke. Well not FOR heart illness and stroke, but rather their prevention, although one wonders how many heart attacks resulted from the gruelling challenge. I saw more than one ambulance out there. Either way, I thought an event like that would bring me closer to my fellow citizens and the exercise would help with my training. All in all, I rode about a 100km that day, raised some money, and I didn't even get a lousy t-shirt, nor was my entry fee waived. No one even asked me to autograph theirs. I blame it on tennis' lack of TV exposure in North America. Did you know tennis ranks as the 9th most popular sport on this continent!?! That's a travesty. There aren't even that many real sports. Soccer (futbol), basketball, tennis, hockey and sex...everything else is just some modified combination of those five, so how can tennis be ranked 9th? Maybe they meant it was the 9th commandment...thou shalt play tennis. Hmm, no wonder our society is crumbling.

OK, so the lack of wide-spread recognition is not that big a deal. I actually prefer to not be in the public spotlight, but respect is a different matter. This older gentleman who works with some colleagues of mine has been hounding me for months to play some tennis with him. He's heard of me, and being a tennis enthusiast himself, is anxious to see how well he could keep up on the court. I've tried every excuse in the book to avoid playing with him. It's inconvenient and a waste of time for both. Our skill levels differ immensely, so we could never have an enjoyable match. But, after he somehow got a hold of my telephone number, and remembering my pledge to do community work, I agreed to play him once. The match was all set for today, one day after my bike-a-thon. I figured I better stick to mild activity today after my bike-a-thon yestreday, so playing tennis with this guy seemed reasonable. Well, he ends up cancelling last minute, citing important work obligations...pfftt...amateurs! No respect.