McEnroe Loves to Spread Word

If John McEnroe looked completely in his element, perhaps it was because of the planes roaring overhead.

“I feel like I’m at the U.S. Open here,” McEnroe said.

He was an entire continent away from Flushing Meadow, where he won the Open four times.

He was just down the street from the Great Western Forum, where he will spend the weekend in his new job as captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team.

He was in a park Tuesday, beneath the planes on their final approach to LAX, spending time with his other self-appointed duty: spreading his love for tennis.

He came to Darby Park in Inglewood, along with injured Davis Cup team member Todd Martin and up-and-coming 17-year-old Andy Roddick for a lecture and clinic.

They spent more time signing autographs than they did instructing, but the kids weren’t complaining. No kid ever complained about running around and hitting balls in the park on a sunny afternoon. That’s all McEnroe sought; to associate playing tennis with having fun.

“One thing that needs to be done more than anything else is make tennis a little more accessible,” McEnroe said. “I think there’s an eagerness. You see an eagerness in people to do it, but simply can’t afford to do it.”

The kids came from Inglewood schools and the Boys & Girls Club. From the National Junior Tennis League, from an offshoot of Arthur Ashe’s Safe Passage program, and from the United States Tennis Association’s junior development programs in Inglewood, Los Angeles and Carson.

They had plenty of questions for McEnroe, who patiently answered almost all of them.

Have you ever lost?

How old were you when you started playing tennis?

Do you know a lot of famous tennis players?

When did you win your first trophy?

The answer to that last one was 1971, which got McEnroe thinking.

“When were you born?” he asked the young questioner.

“1993.”

“1993?!” McEnroe said. “Oh my God.”

The kids weren’t even born during McEnroe’s prime in the 1980s, an audience composition that is “becoming more and more common,” he lamented.

One kid old enough to have caught at least a little McEnroe flavor was 13-year-old Pierre Botton, who was 3 when he first started playing and watching tennis.

“He always fought for the call,” Botton said. “Even though he knew he couldn’t change it, he fought for what was right.

“That’s inspired me on the tennis court. If I see a bad call, I’ll try to go argue with the ref and be just like John McEnroe.”

Before fretting that McEnroe has spawned a new generation of umpire-blasters, know that Botton also has patterned his serve after McEnroe’s and that he plans to study medicine (“I’m not sure if I want to be a pediatrician or a veterinarian”) and that this is his sports dream:

“My biggest goal in tennis is to win all four Grand Slams three years in a row--which is going to be difficult, but I can do it.”

That would make McEnroe proud, especially after he gave Botton some pointers on racket grip. But what Mac would find distressing is Botton’s report that none of his friends like to play tennis.

It isn’t just the same old competition from basketball, football and baseball either.

Kids would rather watch The Rock deliver “The People’s Elbow” on WWF Smackdown than risk tennis elbow themselves.

And if they are inspired to go outside, it’s because of the X Games.

“There’s sports that didn’t even exist when I started playing,” McEnroe said. “I didn’t realize that skateboarding or whatever, going on these tubes or whatever things you did as a kid fooling around have suddenly become sports. I give the people credit for sort of finding the niche. Tennis needs to work harder.”

As evidenced by the happy kids Tuesday, it doesn’t take much.

They swarmed the players for autographs, even if some had to ask, “Are you famous?” before obtaining the signature.

“If they know who you are, it’s got a good impact,” Todd Martin said. “If you’re having fun with them, it has a great impact. I think most kids are excited that people care.”

What many want to see is people caring about tennis.

Getting rackets into the hands of kids isn’t the only problem.

“The hard part is getting enough funding in order to increase our instructor base so we can add more kids to it,” said Tony Brock, program director for the Safe Passage Tennis Program. “We don’t want to have 50 kids on the court with two instructors.”

McEnroe just wants to ensure kids still have courts.

“I see too many places where I’ve played that have closed up in the last 20 years,” McEnroe said.

On Tuesday, he gave the young kids a little inspiration to keep playing. And the USTA pledged to give them rackets.

“If they don’t take care of it, I will,” McEnroe said. “Just don’t throw the racket like I did and break it.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.