Firstballtolast

The shocking news of 30-year-old PGA Tour star Grayson Murray's suicide last week has the sports world abuzz with talk of mental health once again. If I may add a few words to the discussion. I never met Grayson Murray, but I know him well. He suffered from alcoholism, anxiety, and depression, the soundtrack of my own troubled youth. Managing any one of these chronic afflictions can be life-altering. Having all 3 active concurrently in your life is being dealt one of life's cruelest and most insurmountable of hands. The script goes something like this. A hypersensitivity to everyday-life stimuli, oft resulting in overreactions and questionable behavior. The pattern starts early in one's youth, with anxiety and mood swings swirling and percolating privately within until the great self-medicating discovery occurs. Alcohol!! The solution to all things life. Until the solution becomes the bigger problem itself, with displays of powerlessness and unmanageability soon impossible ...

The shocking news of 30-year-old PGA Tour star Grayson Murray's suicide last week has the sports world abuzz with talk of mental health once again. If I may add a few words to the discussion. I never met Grayson Murray, but I know him well. He suffered from alcoholism, anxiety, and depression, the soundtrack of my own troubled youth. Managing any one of these chronic afflictions can be life-altering. Having all 3 active concurrently in your life is being dealt one of life's cruelest and most insurmountable of hands. The script goes something like this. A hypersensitivity to everyday-life stimuli, oft resulting in overreactions and questionable behavior. The pattern starts early in one's youth, with anxiety and mood swings swirling and percolating privately within until the great self-medicating discovery occurs. Alcohol!! The solution to all things life. Until the solution becomes the bigger problem itself, with displays of powerlessness and unmanageability soon impossible ...

The Southern California tennis community lost one of its most iconic members last week, John "JD" Davis. I'd like to pen a few words about my former teammate, tennis peer, partner on court and in crime, and most of all, friend. As with many of us, I first encountered JD on the indigenous hard courts of Southern California. SoCal junior tourneys were mass mobilization events. Entire cities taken over for weeks at a time, with every playable court available used in furtherance of our dreams, to some day compete on tennis' grandest stages But there was one event where all of Southern California came together, that one being the historic Ojai Championships held annually the last weekend of April. I first saw John as a wide-eyed junior player peering through the fences of Ojai's Libby Park.  A couple years my senior, JD channeled strong Spicoli Fast Times at Ridgemont High vibes. Long stringy shocked white hair from too much sun, his skin tanned to a burnt crisp. All t...