Tribute

Sometimes the greatest honor from son to father is so quiet as to be easily missed.

So it is in the recent interview of American tennis star (and current best selling "author") James Blake. While discussing with Tennis Week magazine's Richard Pagliaro a scene from his book, "Breaking Back" where Blake and friends had been caught throwing eggs and cars by the police there is mention of his father's display of a very controlled fury. Buried midway through the Blake-Pagliaro conversation, comes a nearly perfect one sentence eulogy from son to dad: "I hope that I will be able to do the same thing and express to my kids what they did was wrong or what they did was right and communicate both things as clearly as my dad did."

Three years ago this month Blake's father Thomas died. His own devastating physical injuries — a broken neck and Zoster (a paralyzing viral infection) — had forced him from the tour and home. But it was misfortune that gave him what he refers to as the "blessing" of being bedside for his father's last months; drawing even closer to his dad; gaining a better sense of who he wanted to be and how much he was willing to work at it.

Having mourned, having rehabbed from his ailments, Blake returned to the tour in 2005 to memorialize his dad with a run from a ranking in the 200s to ending 2006 among the Top 5 in the world. A very public tribute, but no more powerful than the quieter announcement that he hopes to be the dad his dad was.

** The golden dad rule: leave the legacy as a father that you wanted your father to leave. **