Lindsay leads the money game

Over her 15-year career, Lindsay Davenport has more than $22 million in earnings. Ken McKimm/Icon SMI Jon Wertheim's Mailbag Jon Wertheim will answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag every Wednesday. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Jon Wertheim on Twitter

It's Spring Break here in these parts, so a small Mailbag....

I recently read that Lindsay Davenport passed Steffi Graf in total earnings. I was wondering how Lindsay's earnings would compare if the earnings of Steffi, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were adjusted for inflation. Would Chris and Martina come out ahead?
-- Jersey Schmidt, San Francisco

I can confirm that first part of your question. Davenport is the leader on the money board, as they say in golf. If an accountant type can answer the second question -- In "today's dollars," how do Davenport, Graf and Navratilova compare? -- I will happily reward with a prize.

On a related note: I wonder how much international currency affects a player's earnings. If I'm an American-based pro, I'd be spending my spring in Europe! Last week, Houston was a $436,000 tournament and Valencia offered 370,000 euros. A few years back, Houston is the better buy. Today, 370,000 euros is worth nearly $600,000.

Not having access to the Tennis Channel, I "watched" the end of the James Blake-Paul-Henri Mathieu match via the Davis Cup Web site's live scores on my laptop. It may not provide much visually, but, hey, at least they never cut away to other programming. I regularly have Live Scores up (well, OK, hidden behind some other screens) while at work.
-- Name withheld, Seattle

I find that so depressing. Quick story: In 2000 I visited with Andy Roddick, and his parents and grandmother explained how they had to follow the "online live scoring" when he played the juniors draw in Australia. Here we are eight years later and there's been no technological advancement? Major League Baseball -- a sport seldom accused of being cutting-edge -- makes every game available at mlb.com. Tennis is playing Pong in the age of Mortal Kombat.

I saw the U.S. team for the upcoming Fed Cup and can't believe that we have to get an amateur ranked 258th to play. I know the Williams sisters and Ashley Harkleroad have medical problems, but Davenport can't recover from a fever in 10 days? Did Lisa Raymond, Meghann Shaughnessy, Jill Craybas, Meilen Tu and even Bethanie Mattek all say no to Zina Garrison? Were they asked? I feel for Leizel Huber. She finally gets on the team and won't even have a decent partner against the Russian juggernaut. It's like taking lambs to the slaughterhouse. Was Zina really not able to getting any better players?
-- Mary, Los Angeles

For the record, our junior tennis sorceress, Collette Lewis, informs us that -- contrary to wire reports -- Madison Brengle is not an amateur. But your question is a good one. The U.S. Fed Cup situation is, frankly, embarrassing. Take it away, Justin Gimelstob.

I say back off Venus and Serena (and Lindsay). There are a finite number of events that they can play and it's hard to justify interrupted Grand Slam prep work for Fed Cup. This is a classic "corkscrew" problem. The events suffer from low prestige, so the top players are reluctant to commit. With the top players reluctant to commit, the event suffers from low prestige.

While the sarcasm in your "answer" to the Davis Cup question was indeed funny, you didn't actually answer the question [last week's Mailbag]. You do know the answer, right? In Davis Cup ties, home-court advantage is alternated between the teams involved. So the last time Spain and the U.S. played, the U.S. had home court; this time it's Spain, and the next time they happen upon each other, it will be the U,S. Not as difficult to understand as people make it out to be!
-- Eric Gaymon, Philadelphia

Fair enough. But I still think the Davis Cup chieftains need to realize that even devoted tennis fans are confused. Incidentally, while -- you're right -- not terribly confusing, this alternating really hampers the scheduling. If Country X wins, it's a home tie for the following round. If Country Y wins, it's an away tie. Awfully hard to market the following round (or secure a big-time venue) when you don't know in advance if the forthcoming round will be here or abroad.

Poor Johnny Mac -- the "showbiz spy" article lists him as being 58. Ouch!!
-- Helen, Seattle

And that's with the bran diet! For the record, JM was born in February 1959.