Longreads Best of 2013 Postscript: New Questions About a Legendary Tennis Match
## The Match Maker
## 媒人
Don Van Natta Jr. | ESPN | August 2013 | 34 minutes (8,461 words)
小唐·范纳塔 | ESPN | 2013 年 8 月 | 34 分钟（8,461 字）
Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine.
Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) 是 ESPN.com 和 ESPN 杂志的资深撰稿人。
My story, The Match Maker, was online at ESPN.com only a few hours on Aug.
我的故事《红娘子》于 8 月 17 日仅几个小时就在 ESPN.com 上上线。
25 when I heard from a California man who shrugged at the possibility that tennis champ and American hustler Bobby Riggs had thrown the famous September 1973 Battle of the Sexes match.
25 日，一位加州男子对网球冠军、美国骗子鲍比·里格斯 (Bobby Riggs) 输掉了 1973 年 9 月著名的性别之战的可能性表示耸耸肩。
The man’s name is Russell Boyd, and he claimed Bobby Riggs had talked openly and repeatedly with him, back in June 1973, about his intention to lose his upcoming match against Billie Jean King at the Houston Astrodome.
该男子名叫拉塞尔·博伊德 (Russell Boyd)，他声称鲍比·里格斯 (Bobby Riggs) 早在 1973 年 6 月就曾多次公开与他交谈，谈论他打算输掉即将在休斯敦阿斯特罗多姆体育场对阵比利·简·金 (Billie Jean King) 的比赛。
“I didn’t realize at the time that it was such a serious matter of him playing Billie Jean King,” Boyd, 56, told me, “and that he was actually expected to make an effort to win.”
56 岁的博伊德告诉我，“当时我并没有意识到他扮演比利·简·金是一件非常严肃的事情，而且人们实际上希望他为获胜而努力。”
This reaction was typical of more than a dozen people who claimed to have first-hand information—or second-hand knowledge—that Riggs had purposely lost the “Battle of the Sexes” for a big payday and/or the possibility of an even more lucrative rematch against King.
这种反应是十几个人的典型反应，他们声称拥有第一手信息或二手知识，即里格斯故意输掉“性别之战”，以获得大笔奖金和/或与金进行更有利可图的重赛的可能性。
My colleagues and I heard from several dozen tennis world veterans, who said that after reading The Match Maker they were even more convinced that the match, one of the most iconic events in American sports history, ranked as Bobby Riggs’ greatest con.
我和我的同事们收到了几十位网球界老将的来信，他们说在读完《媒人》后，他们更加确信这场比赛是美国体育史上最具标志性的赛事之一，是鲍比·里格斯最大的骗局。
“It was a definite thing that crossed my mind,” said Nancy Richey, a tennis Hall of Famer who had a courtside seat for the Riggs-King match and who said The Match Maker had convinced her of a fix.
“这确实是我脑海中闪过的一件事，”网球名人堂成员南希·里奇 (Nancy Richey) 说道，她在里格斯与金的比赛中坐在场边，她说媒人说服了她解决这个问题。
“He was a compulsive gambler, he had a problem.
“他是一个赌徒，他有问题。
It was a pretty good bet that he put the flippers on and went in the tank.”
可以肯定的是，他戴上脚蹼并进入了水箱。”
There were only a handful of denials, but these came from the people closest to the match.
虽然只有少数人否认，但这些否认都来自最接近比赛的人。
And they were just as adamant.
他们同样坚定。
King, as well as Riggs’ best friend and confidant, Lornie Kuhle, continued to deny the match was fixed after my story was published.
在我的故事发表后，金以及里格斯最好的朋友和知己洛尼·库勒继续否认这场比赛是被操纵的。
“I happened to be there—I actually kicked his butt,” King said on the FoxSports1 show, “Crowd Goes Wild,” on Sept.
“我碰巧在那儿——我实际上踢了他的屁股，”金在福克斯体育频道 9 月 17 日的节目“人群疯狂”中说道。
9.
9.
“He had every reason to try to win this match.
“他有充分的理由去赢得这场比赛。
So I think to wait 40 years is pretty below the belt, I think, I don’t know.
所以我认为等待 40 年是相当不值得的，我想，我不知道。
Maybe they’re still upset a girl beat a guy, I don’t know.” The match promoter, Jerry Perenchio, 82, called my story “absolutely preposterous and merely an attempt to rewrite history.”
我不知道，也许他们仍然对女孩殴打男孩感到不安。”比赛发起人、82 岁的杰里·佩伦奇奥 (Jerry Perenchio) 称我的故事“绝对荒谬，只是试图改写历史”。
But Riggs’ own son, Larry, had told me it was possible that mob leaders had set up a fix with his father.
但里格斯的儿子拉里告诉我，黑帮头目有可能与他的父亲达成了协议。
After The Match Maker was published, Larry Riggs texted me, saying, “Lots of calls.
《红娘子》出版后，拉里·里格斯给我发短信说：“很多电话。
People think Billie and Lornie [are the] only people in America in denial of [a fix] being possible.”
人们认为比莉和洛尼是美国唯一否认[修复]可能性的人。”
I have covered many high-profile stories in my career—Hurricane Andrew, the crash of TWA Flight 800, an American President’s impeachment and the September 11th terror attacks and their aftermath.
在我的职业生涯中，我报道过许多引人注目的故事——安德鲁飓风、环球航空 800 航班坠毁、美国总统的弹劾以及 9 月 11 日的恐怖袭击及其后果。
But The Match Maker was something different.
但《媒人》却有所不同。
It’s an irresistible whodunit that began with a tip, from a 79-year-old Tampa, Florida, man named Hal Shaw, who said he had overheard four mob leaders discuss Riggs’ alleged proposal of a fix late one night in December 1972 or January 1973 in the pro shop at the Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club in Tampa.
这是一部令人难以抗拒的侦探小说，故事开头来自佛罗里达州坦帕市一位名叫哈尔·肖 (Hal Shaw) 的 79 岁男子的举报。他说，1972 年 12 月或 1973 年 1 月的一个深夜，他在坦帕帕尔马塞亚高尔夫乡村俱乐部的专卖店里无意中听到四名黑帮头目讨论里格斯所谓的解决方案。
The story’s appeal is that the truth will likely never be known—Riggs died in 1995 of lung cancer, and the mob leaders Shaw had overheard at Palma Ceia are all gone, too.
这个故事的吸引力在于，真相可能永远不会为人所知——里格斯于 1995 年因肺癌去世，肖在帕尔马塞亚无意中听到的黑帮头目也都消失了。
But in the end, The Match Maker’s details build a strong enough case that most readers conclude a fix was possible and even plausible.
但最终，《媒人》的细节构建了一个足够有力的案例，大多数读者认为修复是可能的，甚至是合理的。