John McEnroe is an old TV guy, but he still can play tennis

I participated in a conference call Wednesday with John McEnroe, who announced his new tennis academy, scheduled to open in September on Randall's Island.

His mission is to develop New York-area players by giving them the kind of balanced approach to tennis and life that he had growing up, in contrast to the tennis-is-everything strategy often followed by elite young players of recent decades.

I had to drop off the call early because Ron Darling was on the other line to talk to me about Bobby Ojeda (more on that later). But the public relations people later took the question I was going to ask McEnroe and relayed it to him.

Question: Do young players have a sense of who you were as a player, or to them are you just the old guy who analyzes tennis on TV?

Answer: "Young people know it hasn't been that long and they see me on TV . . . and I still play so if they think I'm some old guy I can certainly show them a little."