Sport: How King Rained on Riggs' Parade

Midway through the third and final set, Bobby Riggs shuffled to the sidelines complaining of cramps in his playing hand. As Rheo Blair, nutrition adviser of the Bobby Riggs Traveling Chauvinist Pig & Nostrum Show, massaged his falling prince's hand, some anonymous TV director captioned the scene—and the entire evening—with commendable brevity. Floating across the screen came the words BOBBY RIGGS 55 YEARS OLD.

That was the main message following all the hoopla at the Houston Astrodome last week. The putative Battle of the Sexes turned out to be one more sorry chapter...