Solomon: Watching Roger Federer left indelible imprint on the memory bank

I saw Roger Federer play tennis.

Life is good.

The sport’s standard for two decades announced his retirement Thursday, and it hurt because, selfishly, I won’t get to see him play again.

Never let ’em see you sweat? This dude didn’t sweat.

Sure, it was genetics, but so was Michael Jordan’s ability to fly.

The artistry, style, rhythm with which Federer played was mesmerizing.

The numbers — 20 grand slam titles — aren’t as important as the feeling I got watching Federer perform.

Say, “He won 20 grand slams,” and I’m not moved. Show a clip of him gliding across the court to deliver a winner, my head nods, and my heart pumps faster.

Unfortunately, his body has been sending him a clear message that it is time. We could still watch him play for hours. His body can’t take it.

“I am 41 years old,” Federer said. “I’ve played more than 1,500 matches over 24 years. Tennis has treated me more generously than I would have dreamt, and now I must recognize when it is time to end my competitive career.”

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Within a month, two tennis greats have shut it down. Serena Williams, who will be 41 later this month, is almost certainly done.

Federer, who turned 41 a few weeks ago, has drawn a hard line. Sadly, he is putting tennis behind him.

For a good stretch of time, I watched tennis for Venus Williams, Serena and Roger.

I didn’t think I would care about men’s tennis if Americans were not at the top of the game. Federer changed that. He was an old-school player with a new-school flair when necessary.

That he was born in Switzerland meant nothing.

So when the opportunity was there to see him play at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, aka Wimbledon, during the 2012 Olympics, how could I pass it up?

I am still awed by the skill he displayed.

Of the many times my best friend Joe Herbert said something that enriched my life, one point stands out, not for its ultimate importance but its simplicity.

It was 1994, and I told him I was going to an Astros game.

“Because you want to see (Jeff) Bagwell in person?” he asked.

Huh?

I was just going to a baseball game. I’d not even considered the privilege of seeing an all-time great baseball player in the middle of an all-time great season.

Herbert already knew Bagwell was a Hall of Fame talent. More importantly, he impressed upon me the blessing it was to be a diehard sports fan who could see the best of the best doing what they do best.

From that day forward — from then, when I was a freelance high school writer for the Chronicle, to now as a columnist — it became my mission to see as much sports greatness as possible.

I didn’t grow up going to games. My father was a janitor. We couldn’t afford it.

I was fortunate to have a handful of stadium experiences, and I remember almost every game I attended.

From the Baylor football game I went to as a Royal Ambassador to my stint as a Junior Rocket, I can still picture pretty much every time I was in a big-time stadium as a youngster.

My grandmother took me, my little brother and cousin to an Astros game once a year or so. Often it was bat day or ball day or against the Dodgers, because they were Black America’s team. Mary Helen Perry, who was 30 years old when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, passed away two years ago.

If the Internet existed in the 1970s, “cheap hats” and “soft warped ball” would have trended on those giveaway days. Don’t even get me started on the mini-bat weapons they gave out one time.

I went to one Oilers game as a kid. An area distributor of the Houston Chronicle loaded his paperboys into a van and took us. Billy “White Shoes” Johnson ran a kick back for a touchdown that day and did the Funky Chicken right in front of our end-zone seats. It was amazing.

My brother-in-law stood in line overnight at Lakewood Church — er, the Summit — to get tickets to a Rockets playoff game one year.

(Had Robert Reid dunked the ball, the Rockets would have won that game. I may have cried that day.)

The list of greats I have seen in person is astonishing. Pick almost any sport and an athlete who played it from the 1990s on, and I have probably seen them play.

Every NBA and WNBA superstar, every NFL quarterback, running back or player at any other position, every MLB star, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, and a host of other Olympic champions are all in my memory bank.

From the group, Federer’s wow factor ranks among the best.

He won a lot but lost plenty too, as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic proved worthy adversaries, making their era of tennis the best we have seen.

Without Federer, it would not have been.

And I can say I was a witness.