Tuesday, May 17, 2022 (Court Day #496)
It’s always fun when a celebrity says they like pickleball. On Sunday, Drew Brees, future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback chimed in as a fan of pickleball via Twitter.
I looked online and this was not his first connection with pickleball. I did a Google search and found this:
https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/from-the-nfl-to-pickleball/
Skypark
I left work a little early and was able to get to Skypark by 6:30. The lot was full, so I parked off the pavement under a tree. The courts were very busy.
When I asked, Matt and Paul told me they won a gold medal in 3.0 this past weekend in the Monterey tournament. I’m very happy for them. Paul talked down the win, saying there were only six teams and all the age groups were mixed, meaning they were mostly playing against older men with only one 19+ team. Still, a win is a win. Congrats, guys!
Eric (Ann’s husband) and I played Matt and Paul and beat them twice, though the games were close.
Eric and I then played against Matt S. and Tim. It was a back and forth game with some long rallies. Paul—who was waiting to get into a game with some of our players—said that the game took 30 minutes. Eric and I lost 11-13. Drat. I really wanted to win that one.
Wendy and New Guys
Since Matt S. and Tim won, they earned the right to stay and play. Eric and I shuffled off. I sat for a bit on the bench then saw a game break up. It was Wendy with two you new guys, Stohrs and Evan. (Pronounced “Stairs”.) Stohrs said he was named after a doctor. Wendy asked to play with me as her partner. We won 11-3. I believe I missed 2-3 shots the entire game and it was mostly due to being lazy.
Wendy wanted to play one more game, a rematch, so we switched sides and played again. I told them that I’d play left-handed. When they balked a bit—how to feel bad, right? get beaten by someone playing lefty?—I told them that I had gotten tennis elbow super bad and played lefty for two years. I made a few more mistakes than normal, but Wendy was in awe. ”I can’t even hit the ball at all left-handed!” It’s good for me to play lefty now and then to keep that skill. Wendy and I still won, but this game was closer by a few points.
Harder Games
Tim and I played against Eric and Scott. It was getting dark. After playing lefty against weak players and the change in light, I was making a ton of mistakes . . . I’d hit a ball too high and Eric would slam it off the court. This happened at least 3-4 times. I’ll admit I was starting to get frustrated with my crummy play. We did come partially back but still lost by a few points.
I played with Ann against Eric and Scott and Ann played well. We won by a wide margin. Things simply went our way. I haven’t played with Ann for a while. She’s gotten much better. A far cry from how she complained some early on that she was only coming to pickleball because Eric was making her.
Next, I played with Janet against Scott and Eric. She was playing really well, we were far ahead! A shocker. But then Janet started making more mistakes and they came back and won. Ah, well. So close.
Number of days on a court: 496
Number of total hours: 2,320.5
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