Our Big Brother

A really great friend of the Pickled Pecklers, Jeff Tiret, passed away yesterday. He was one of our tennis buddies, and among them, he was truly special. Many of the widespread Tiret family are tennis-playing members of the O Club, and the tennis fortunes of the Tiret and Peckler families became intertwined in a way that we really just became one big tennis-playing extended family.

I remember well the first time I played Jeff. We faced each other around 10 or 12 years ago in the first round of the club singles championships. I was just learning the game, and did not have any expectations of winning a championship, but I figured I could hold my own in singles against an out of shape old codger. He creamed me. Creamed me. He bageled me in the first set, and I was lucky to steal 4 games in the second. 6-0 in the first doesn’t come close to describing how badly he beat me. I felt like I was playing against Sampras. Back in the day before his shoulder surgery, Jeff had a huge serve, and he was just crushing it that day.

A few years ago I got to even the score. We played again in the first round of the club singles. I was playing really well that summer, and he was going though one of those out of shape periods. I mashed him up really good (I won’t mention that the score was 2 and 3). But here is where Jeff was really special. The Pecklers are famous for our frustrations when things aren’t going well on the court. Jeff, on the other hand, always had great fun every minute he played, whether he was playing well or not. That looseness often allowed him to play big matches at a level better than his ability.

His nephew Ryan and I faced him and our buddy Armon Cooper in the last round of the Calcutta a few years ago. Winner take all, a big pot on the line. Ryan and I were huge favorites, and we won the first set 6-2. But Jeff and Armon hung in there to win a 2nd set tie breaker, and then they just demolished us in the third set super tiebreaker. Frankly, we choked, and it cost our team a lot of money. I’m sure Jeff picked up those Calcutta winnings on his tax return that year.

I did get my revenge, in the all-time greatest Tiret-Peckler match. This was about 3 years ago, and Jeff’s son Eric and I were Calcutta teammates while Jeff and the Doc were teammates against us. Our teams reached the final round tied for last place. Since the overall match meant nothing, instead of strategically organizing our team orders, we organized a match of Eric and me against Jeff and the Doc. Eric’s game had really taken a jump that summer, so he and I were big favorites despite the fact that I was playing my 5th match in 2 days, which had caused my tennis elbow to flare up horribly. Hey baby, suck it up – this is Tirets and Pecklers! Eric and I won a tie breaker in the first set, and then lost the second 6-4, setting up a 3rd set super-tie breaker to decide it. It was life and death, but Eric and I pulled it out. Throughout the match, Jeff was spectacular despite his troublesome shoulder. Without a doubt, it was the most fun we had all weekend.

What I’ll remember most, though, was the last time we played, back in 2006, before he was diagnosed with leukemia. It was just one of Dale’s Friday stinko matches. In the first set Jeff was making a lot of mistakes, but he just kept laughing and having a great time, keeping everyone smiling. No matter how he played, he always enjoyed himself, just happy to be there. And as a result, his game came around, and started hitting winners. Bad shot, good shot, it was all the same. Jeff just kept smiling and laughing, and made us happy to be with him.

That’s the way he was. All of his friends have great stories, some of which have a lot of alcohol involved. That boy knew how to enjoy life, and he knew even better how to share that joy. The Tirets and the Pecklers will continue their intra-family tennis squabble, I guarantee. After all, Jeff can always use a good laugh. He sure gave us plenty of them.