The Last Sure Thing: The Life & Times of Bobby Riggs Review

The Last Sure Thing: The Life and Times of Bobby Riggs

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(More customer reviews)Tom LeCompte has writtten a thoroughly entertaining account of a tennis great who defies categorization. The Last Sure Thing is the story of a world champion who never quite acted like one; a man who was intent on winning in any arena, as long as there were clearly defined stakes involved. Not so good when the returns were unclear or long range, Bobby's family life was filled with gaping holes and serious blunders. LeCompte paints a fascinating portrait of a man who appears to have been sailing above concern for intimacy, loyalty, maturity and fidelity in his relentless and quite possibly compulsive search for the endless game, the bet around the next corner.
Is this type of blind drive necessary to the making of a champion competitor or was Bobby Riggs simply a talented but hapless loser who missed his chance for lasting glory and respect due to immaturity and shortsightedness? LeCompte covers all bases and leaves the reader to wonder - what if... A thoroughly engaging account of a man, a game, and an era - highly recommended.

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He lived by his own rules, and more often than not he broke them. Bobby Riggs was the original bad boy of tennis. Forever remembered as the motormouthed antagonist of Billie Jean King in the famous "Battle of the Sexes," he had a nose for action and an insatiable appetite for competition.The Last Sure Thing is the story of a hardscrabble kid in a highbrow, "sissy" game; the son of a fundamentalist minister who was a compulsive gambler; a self-proclaimed male chauvinist whose only mentors in the game were women; a short, wispy-haired fellow with a squeaky voice, a bad haircut, and horned-rimmed glasses who became, somehow, a sex symbol. Riggs' life reads like a history of the modern game. He played and beat legends such as Bill Tilden and Don Budge; rose up the amateur ranks to Wimbledon and world champion; barnstormed on the early pro tours; and then, by sheer force of his personality, became the center of the biggest spectacle in tennis history, a match that transcended sports to become one of the iconic events of its generation.