Tuesday, August 24, 2021 (Court Day #404)

We’re now two months past the longest day of the year and between that and the trace smoke in the air from the massive West Coast fires north of us, it was starting to get dark earlier than I expected. I arrived at Skypark at 6:40 p.m. to longer shadows.

Kristin L. and Larry on the far court. Tim and Jeanne on the near one.

Tonight was fun. I had good games. I played “lights out” in a game with Jeanne as my partner against Tim (moved from SoCal) and Terry S. my dropshots were great, everything was “on” and I made very few mistakes.

One thing that Jeanne does which doesn’t help her game is for high balls, she backs up and takes them on the bounce. If she could just slam it out of the air, it would be far, far more difficult for her opponents to handle. There may be a valid reason she doesn’t—shoulder issue, depth perception problem—but otherwise, it’s a missed opportunity.

PT Connection

There was a tall man playing on a court who looked familiar—he reminded me of the physical therapist who has been working on my shoulder for all of this year, but I wasn’t sure. I overheard Tim—the good player who moved to our area to be near his son and family—telling someone that the tall player was his son. I was briefly sitting between games and I heard the name “Casey.” Ah. I turned to Tim standing next to me and asked, “Is your son a PT?” “Yes, he is.” A big grin crossed my face: “He’s my doctor!”

When Casey came off the court, I greeted him, “Casey!” and went onto explain that I didn’t recognize him with him looking so serious. “And you’ve never seen my full face!” True, since we’d only seen each other in a medical setting, masks were always required. His wife KD has been playing pickleball and bought him his own paddle for Father’s Day. I’m pretty sure the KD I’d met a couple of months ago at Skypark was Casey’s wife.

I was able to play a game against Casey. Jeanne was my partner and Terry was his. Casey is incredibly quick. And being 6’4″ (give or take), he has a long reach! I hit a couple of shots thinking they’d be winners, but Casey was able to sprint, reach out his long arm and return the ball. At least one of them lead to a pop up that I backhanded to his partner’s feet for a winner, but his other “good get” lead to another long rally. I explained to Jeanne and Terry that Casey is a former professional athlete. (He was drafted by the Kansas City Royals, though his MLB pitching career was cut short by a shoulder injury.) It was a close game.

I told Casey, “Your dad is a better player than you, but you are very quick!” He chuckled and claimed, “Give me two weeks!”

Closing Time!

All the court lights abruptly snapped off at 9:00 p.m. though they are supposed to stay on until 9:30.

Ice

I probably should have iced my shoulder when I got home, but unlike my Black Ice velcro strap I used for my forearm, I don’t have a convenient means of icing my shoulder while lying in bed gearing down for sleep. As it was, I just iced my arm to keep tennis elbow at bay.

Wednesday, August 25, 2021 (No Play)

I had a PT appointment this morning at 10 a.m. with Casey. We did normal PT stuff about range of motion, exercises, etc. And we talked about pickleball! He said his dad moved up permanently (from near Edwards Airforce Base) to help Casey and his wife with their new daughter.

I had brought a small tape measure from work and asked Casey to put his foot against the wall like mine and stretch out to see how much difference there was in the reach between us. The assistant Dan laughed, “I know how this is going to go!” He measured and announced, “13 1/2 inches.” (Dan later said Casey was leaning a bit more, but Casey still probably has about a foot longer reach.) That helps in getting to balls angling off the court!

I told Dan, the PT assistant, that he should play pickleball too . . . then they shared that Dan had his first outing in the last few days with Casey! Dan directed my exercises and then as I left, after he expressed interest, I gave him my business card and told him to email me about playing tomorrow night.

Fame and Pickleball

Julian Edelman is 35-year-old retired professional American football player. He was a very successful wide receiver with the New England Patriots. (Yes, the team that was fined by the NFL for secretly recording their future opponents practices. That cloud lingers.) He shared some photos and a video on Instagram of him playing singles pickleball. Good for him! Amusingly, one video he shared was of himself running up and slamming a winner . . . but ending up in the kitchen in clear violation of the non-volley zone rule. Oops!

Nonetheless, it’s fun to see famous people playing pickleball!

Thoughts

I may have mentioned it before, but one of my fears is losing the skill I have developed playing left-handed for a couple of years. There were a couple of shots yesterday night where afterward, I wondered if I should have switched to lefty. Am I missing opportunities to take a shot lefty and missed having a better result?


Number of days on a court: 404
Number of total hours: 2,049.5

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