SquashTalk > Letters to the Editor > Avrin Slatkin on Gary Waite

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March 1, 2002. On Rob Dinerman's Coverage of the US Hardball

Dear Editor,

Thanks for the forum you provide to spread the news about squash. I enjoy it immensely.

I have enjoyed Rob Dinerman's articles, but his characterization of Gary Waite in today's article about the hard ball nationals is simply absurd.

He calls Gary "arguably ( in view of the top-15 PSA world softball ranking he also attained in the late 1980's) the greatest all-around squash player of all time." The fact that Gary has chosen to compete in three different versions of the game may make him a very versatile player, but not the greatest.

I am not aware any superlative success Gary has enjoyed at either hard ball when there was a truly competitive arena in which he could demonstrate his skills, or in softball, where top 15 ranking at a certain time certainly doesn't qualify for "arguably the greatest."

I do not mean to denigrate Gary, who of course is a wonderful guy and has achieved greatness at doubles, but how can we put him over players who filled the world number one slot at softball and hardball for so many years? I bet Gary himself would be embarrassed by Rob's characterization. Gary's single hardball success today does not qualify him for greatness as there are no tournaments and no players. Gary has attained superlative achievement in doubles, but that does not make him arguably one of the greatest all around player, at least in this observer's view. Avrin Slatkin

- Avrin Slatkin

Rob Dinerman replies:

Hello Avrin--Thanks for your letter.

Gary waite was No. 1 in WPSA hardball when Talbott, Edwards, Nimick, Sanchez, Wahlstedt, Marcos Mendez, Dulmage, Stanley, Zaff, Crombie, Binns and everyone else was still playing, and playing well, in the early 90's.

For you to say that there are no players and no tournaments now is just not true; in Denver and NY these past few years, there were pro hardball events (as there will also be this weekend in Baltimore) with Mudge, Kay, Pirnak, Berg, Leach, Horler, Binns, Butcher, Hosey--all the top players, and Waite has won all those events. Other than Marcos in '94, Gary has been the top hardball player for nine years and undefeated in his last 10 events, of which only last month's Nationals lacked a truly competitive field. No one admires Mark Talbott more than I do (indeed, I have written at least a half-dozen articles over the years chronicling his greatness) but, at least in my view, Waite's game is at least as good now as Talbott's ever was.

He was the top Canadian in softball and one of the top 15 in the world for a decade until Power displaced him in '96, was ranked as high as No. 11 and has won approximately 100 softball events.

He and Mudge have won 221 of their 23 doubles events together for the last several years; when Mudge was hurt last season, he won all four ranking ISDA events with Berg; before the Mudge connection he won about 40 events over several years with Mark Talbott; before THAT, he and Jamie Bentley were undefeated for three straight years; and before that, he and Scott Dulmage were No. 2 for two years--no doubt he is the greatest left-wall player ever and almost a certainly the best doubles player ever, period. What he and Mudge have done in going undefeated this whole season with the strength and depth of the current ISDA field is unbelievable.

Neither Jahangir(who only played hardball for three seasons, about a dozen events overall, of which he lost several) nor Jansher (who never played hardball) nor Hunt (who played even less hardball than Jahangir and never won any ranking WPSA event) ever did anything in doubles, nor did Sharif, who also never had a great run in softball, and Hashim and the others were playing in an era when through no fault of theirs, the game had much less depth than it does now. I said "arguably" rather than "definitively" and I still feel that way, for reasons I have tried to make explain in the foregoing. Thanks for your comments.

Best, Rob Dinerman