If I were tennis commissioner...

"Daddy, where are the Sampras jerseys?" My son asked me as I steered him past the All-Alcatraz lineup of Bengals jerseys. His question stopped me in my tracks. I couldn't believe that in my tenure as commissioner of tennis the idea had never occurred to me. My boy wanted to be outfitted in the same Swoosh that Pistol Pete took the court in; wouldn't others as well?

The next day at work I stopped by the office of our Manager of Operations, Jesse Lusk, to find out what he thought of the jerseys. A day didn't go by without him telling me about the death of serve-volley, Round Robin formats, or which doubles team took the tournament with a 10-8 win in the Match Tiebreaker last week in Hong Kong. "Hey, how come there aren't any jerseys for tennis players?" I asked him. He shrugged.

"It's not a big deal. The tours have bigger fish to fry. They've got player withdrawals, too short of an off-season, and tournament directors that are threatening to cut doubles off at the knees!"

"Yes, but... jerseys!" I could only exclaim. "Every sport has them! This is the proverbial low-hanging fruit. Not only is it a great way for fans to connect with players, but it provides another source of revenue. This is a win-win!" Jesse gave me a dismissive wave and headed back to his desk.

Unwilling to be deterred, I pitched my idea to a rep at Nike who I knew from college. Before I knew it, my idea made it to Phil Knight, who suggested it to the King of Swing himself. The idea caught fire in the locker rooms of the ATP and (Sony Ericsson) WTA Tour, fanned into flames by the agents that inhabited these locales. Most of the players were all too eager to see their name in lights or, at least, in bold print across their shoulder blades.

By the time the U.S. Open rolled around the jerseys were in full swing. I walked through the turnstiles with a young Sampras in tow, or at least one dressed like him. My son was happily eating an ice cream cone, decked out in a jersey hanging down to his knees. "Sweet shirt!" said an attendant as she gave him a tummy tickle. She passed out fliers that read: “The Tennis Channel: Write to Roland Garros." After the jersey revelation I wanted to see what other ideas people had about the game.

Back in the office the following week, I walked by Jesse's desk and noticed he had on a brand-new Safin jersey. I walked closer and could see him filling out the flier. "Commissioner for a day, huh?" I teased. "Why don't you tackle something meaningful, like curbing racket technology, or the Davis Cup schedule?"

"One thing at a time," he smiled. "One thing at a time."