Sunday, November 24, 2019 (Court Day #325)

Though I was early, I was not the first one to Derby Park. Eric S. had beat me to the court and had already opened the bins and had just started setting up. It was a beautiful day and would be great for pickleball. There was a small breeze later in the morning and early afternoon, but it only played a small role in games.

44 players today at the time of my count. Tom S. is under the umbrella in his chair.

I played the first hour of mixed play using only my left hand. I wasn’t playing the best. Just ok, but not what I’d consider to be strong.

When it got busy, I blew my whistle and announced “play to 9, win by 1”.

Advanced Game

Once 10 a.m. rolled around it got to be time for skill level court signups, I saw a box with Cal and Chris signed up in red. That was an opportunity to get into a good game. I’d be using my right hand. (There’s no way I’d sign up in an advanced box playing left-handed!) I added my name to the box. Charles rode up on his bike. “Perfect timing! Charles, we need you to finish our box!” He agreed and I added his name.

When we got to the court, Cal produced four playing cards. Charles and Chris each picked a card. I picked one of the last two and Cal was left with one. We flipped over the cards. Four kings. Chris and my card were both red. Charles and Cal’s cards were both black. The teams were set. Given the choice, I would have split Charles and Cal, so instead Chris and I would have our hands full. Chris played very well—by far the best I’ve seen him play. I have to say that I was impressed. Chris and I gave them a run of the money, losing 9-8 after surprisingly holding the lead in the game.

Unfortunately, midway through that game, my right arm started to hurt. Damn. It’d be my first and last right-handed game of the day.

Good Games

The last four games of the day were Sue and me against Rick and his 23-year-old son Ricky. Young Ricky was amazingly quick covering a lot of the court. You’d expect a shot to end the point but he’d manage to get to it and return the ball. We had some great points, like some 10 to 15 shot rallies.

Sue and I won the first two games. It was by a fairly slim margin.

After one of those games, Sue said, “It blows my mind that you can play left-handed.” She went on to say something along the lines that she couldn’t do it—other than the rare odd ball that she could only try to reach by switching the paddle to her left hand.

I told Sue, “Now remember. I told you that someday I’m going to come ask you to be my tournament partner.”
“Yeah, I’m totally into it. The more the better!”

What’s amazing is Rick was also playing left-handed though he is a righty. He said he also plays racquetball regularly, but uses his right hand for that and left for pickleball so he doesn’t “overdo it”. If he didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t know he’s a natural righty. But then again, I was playing very well lefty and you wouldn’t know I was a righty either!

Sue and I lost the third game by a 12-10. The teams were fairly evenly matched. I wasn’t particularly dragging (for having played over four hours), but I was looking forward to getting home to watch the recording of the Raiders game with my son Nicholas. As I went to make the first serve of the fourth game, I said, “Zero, zero, two. My body is through!” Sue and I lost the last game handily.

I was the last one out at 1:30. I had been on the courts for over 4 1/2 hours.

Somedays, when walking out of the park, I’m depressed and wondering why I’m doing this. Today was not one of those days. I played well left-handed. My sole righty game was rusty, but respectable enough. It felt good.

Training Sessions

John P. approached me midmorning and asked if I was interested in leading monthly training sessions for groups of pickleball newbies. I’ll have to give this some thought. I enjoy it and if I were retired, it’d be a no brainer. But sometimes work unexpectedly makes serious demands on my time—like four people call in sick—and I have to change my personal plans.

Mini Round Robin Tournament

I talked to Tom this morning about his 6-game round robin. I did a search and found a 7-game round robin that actually has all the players play each other and is fair—unlike the 6-game version presented by the Bend pickleball organization.

https://www.printyourbrackets.com/images/8-round-robin.pdf

I also found a name/list randomizer online:
https://www.random.org/lists/
You type in the player names and it spits out the names in a numbered list in a new random order—perfect for assignment to the round robin form!

Tuesday, November 26, 2019 (No Play)

A very pleasant surprise today, a friend of mine, Isela, a co-worker for a number of years as department manager who worked for me, stopped by my work to visit. She lives in Southern California these days and it had been about four years since I’d seen her and it’s been around 15 years since she’s worked for us.

We were talking for about 10 minutes when she asked what I’d been up to. Of course, I mentioned pickleball. Now, unlike yesterday when I mentioned it to the man who works in a warehouse down the street next to our warehouse, when he quizzically responded, “Pickleball?” Isela and her partner Jana broke into big smiles and, this time, I got “Pickleball!” as a response! It turns out that the two of them visit Mexico a few times each year and there’s a pickleball club down there that they hang out with. Isela said she doesn’t play seriously, but does enjoy it.

Isela is on the right in the white shirt with black shorts. Her partner Jana is on the left with in the same colors.

Thursday, November 28, 2019 (No Play)

A friend of mine had been arranging a flag football game via Messenger on Facebook. It was hard to hammer down a day for a bunch of different schedules, so eventually it as settled for the morning of Thanksgiving. My son Nicholas joined me.

I was a bit worried if I might end up playing quarterback due to my right arm issues. As it as, Bob, a man who was been the QB for our side, stepped out to make room for some who had shown up. Someone else initially stepped up as our QB, but I took over. It’d been 35 years since I was the 3rd string QB in high school. I have to tell you, it looks infinitely easier on TV than when you are under center and there are 21 other guys—including at least 10 right in front of you—blocking your view! (Calling plays for a football team as a coach in a timely fashion is also far harder than one would think—I’ve done some of that too!) Today was easy. Everyone on offense but the QB were receivers and ran routes. Visibility was awesome. I did just fine. It’s a great feeling to throw a deep “bomb” pass to a receiver and be right on the money. Satisfaction! Someone else took over as QB—he just kept the ball when it was our next series—I guess scoring TDs on every one of my series wasn’t successful enough! (Ha, ha!) More likely I hadn’t been throwing it to him and he wanted to touch the ball.

I ended up with a slightly-pulled right quadriceps, a sore hip, and a sore foot . . . but it was well worth it!

Friday, November 29, 2019 (No Play)

It’s been raining a bunch the last few days. Between being sore from yesterday and work, I opted to give Brommer a miss. As it was, play there was delayed until 10 a.m. anyway. Plus it was cold. It was 45 degrees when I left for work at about 9:15.

Heavy rain is expected tomorrow and Sunday plus on and off next week. Our mini-tournament on Thursday next week may need to be rescheduled.

Sunday, December 1, 2019 (No Play)

I went to buy some everyday shoes at Big Five Sporting Goods—my mother-in-law wanted something too. While there, I noticed something familiar. Pickleball paddles! Pickleball is continuing to move into the mainstream!

Number of days on a court: 325
Number of total hours: 914.5

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