Pete Sampras: They Can Steal Your Stuff But Not The Memories

Pete Sampras used to live among us here in Tampa.

Those were great days for him. He was well-liked, regular guy who liked hanging out at a club called Avila and had a house next to my neighborhood in Tampa Palms.

He wasn't a flashy guy. He was every bit a superstar, but never acted the part.

So it was a bit disturbing to see that some particularly cruel thieves made off with a lot of his trophies and memorabilia from a career that made him one of the elite sportsmen of our time.

But then you have to ask:

"Hey Pete, what the heck were you doing with all of those items stashed away in a public storage facility in West L.A. for goodness sakes?"

In the name of Pancho Gonzales, why did you put them there?

Is your house in L.A. just too darn small?

You might get a "come on man" from the ESPN gang on this one.

"Losing this stuff is like having the history of my tennis life stolen away," is how Pete explained it.

If Pete were back in Tampa today, the guys at the club would be really needling him about this one.

You put the history of your tennis life in a public storage unit?

What makes things even worse is that he had a guitar signed by Carlos Santa and a piano bench signed by Elton John in there with the other stuff and now those are gone too.

Come on Pete.

You should have had the guitar on your wall and the piano bench in your study where the kids could crawl all over it.

Oh, the boys at Avila would NEVER let you live this one down.

Maybe, just maybe, some street-wise tennis lover will know what went down with this caper and give the cops a hot tip.

This could no doubt become a whole new episode for:

Law and Order: L.A.

No doubt the writers are working on it as we talk about this.

In the end, yes, they are significant trophies. He still has 13 of his 14 Grand Slam trophies and those are the only ones worth bragging about, aren't they?

But geez, the Carlos Santana guitar.  Hey Carlos, send Pete another, we know you will. And Elton, ship him another piano bench and don't forget to sign it. See, those are easy to replace.

As for the other stuff, it's only stuff.

They can't steal the memories Pete, and we thank you for those.