Thursday, April 6, 2023. (No Play)

This past Sunday was The Pickleball Slam featuring retired tennis greats playing pickleball. It did pretty well in the TV ratings.

Here’s a link to a supporting article:
Pickleball Slam on ESPN Beats Out MLB, NHL, NBA in TV Ratings Race
https://sports.yahoo.com/pickleball-slam-espn-beats-mlb-204453860.html

“Clocking in at just under two hours and 30 minutes, the event averaged 669,000 viewers, peaking at 796,000 during the concluding doubles match. By way of comparison, the audience for ESPN’s lead-out coverage of the XFL’s Battlehawks-Roughnecks game (502,000) was 25% smaller than the pickleball crowd.”


Sunday, April 23, 2023. (Court Day #589)

I met with my orthopedic surgeon earlier this week and was debating whether to go ahead with surgery on my knee or not. I’ve had a pretty consistent mild pain in my knee when walking, and a bit more intense pain when twisting or turning on my knee in a certain manner. It’s not crippling and it’s also not agonizing. Regardless, my wife and my daughter, Charlotte—who is in medical school—are both recommending me going ahead with the surgery. The doctor thinks that it’s a partially torn meniscus.

Derby

I was very late to Derby Park this morning—for a site coordinator—and was walking in from my car at 9 a.m. sharp. I’ve never been this late to open. And it was not much of a surprise that parking was more difficult since I wasn’t early.

When I neared the courts a couple of minutes later, I saw that the club storage bins were open and all the nets are set up. Little Barb was there. I had told her a month or so ago, “if you beat me to the courts to feel free to open up the bins and set up.” When I asked her today what time she got to the courts, she paused slightly and shared with a sheepish smile that it was around 8 o’clock. (Very early!) There were a couple of games going when I got there.

Today was very slim on good players. I was unquestionably the best player there until Charles and Binh showed up around 11 o’clock to help make make the games more interesting. I never got into a game with all truly advanced level players. The best I got was Binh on one side and me on the other with each of us paired with a weaker level player.

I stopped playing about at 1 p.m., made sure everything was stored, and headed out about 1:20.

By the time I left, my body was sore from exercise fatigue. I wasn’t expecting that. It’s been nearly a month—3 1/2 weeks—since I last played since I’ve been giving both my knee and the back of my right hand time to heal . . . it helped some, but neither are all that great, honestly.

When I got home, I iced my hand, then my knee. I sat down to read a book in my backyard with my legs stretched out with my feet up on another chair. After about 15 minutes, my right knee hurt too much and I had to set my right foot down on the ground. Yep, surgery will likely be the way to go.

Number of days on a court: 589
Number of total hours: 2,603
Number of paid coaching hours: 2

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