Sunday, May 11, 2025 (Court Day #801)

When I left my house at 8:29 a.m., it was sunny and already in the low 60s. I knew it was going to be a warm day. For Mother’s Day, my mom asked for her boys to spend some time doing yard work behind my parents’ house, so I couldn’t stay indefinitely playing pickleball.

Brommer

I pulled into the half-full parking lot at Brommer Park at 8:42 a.m. It wasn’t too long before I got into my first game with Kim against Larry and Ying. We lost 8-11.

We had a rematch. This time, Kim had had enough and complained to our opponents, “It feels like I’m playing singles!” She told them, “Andrew is here too!” Yeah, Kim was getting targeted. We lost 6-11.

I played with Oscar vs. Kyle and bearded young guy with black hair. I asked the young guy his name and it was unusual and, unfortunately, somewhat easy enough to forget! It was a name that rhymed with Ariel. Oscar and I did win that game, but it was barely.

Thumb Damage

I played with Kyle as my partner. I don’t remember anything about the game against Marco and Kim other than me reaching in and hitting forehand on a high shot in the middle and Kyle arrived a split second later and hit me with his paddle square on my right thumb knuckle and creating a 1/2” flap of skin. Ouch. It stung like the dickens. I ripped off the skin flap, threw it on the ground—I know, gross—and continued the game, hoping the game would end quickly and I wouldn’t bleed too much. A few rallies later, the game ended and I used a bandage out of my wallet to seal up the blood. That’ll take some time to heal. Probably at least a week.

Art and I played a game against René and Rick. I’d take René or Rick over Art in terms of skill, but it was their first game and they lost 11-6.

Sean Lynch and I teamed up against Marco and Kim. They won the first then we won second one 13-11. I didn’t think those game should have been that close, but we didn’t target Kim.

Jordan and I lost 7-11 versus Sean and tall, bald lefty Dave. That was a great game. It was a challenging game and balls just kept coming back. It was awesome!

I played a game with Mike Berger against Jackie and Owen, the UCSC student. They won 11-9. Jackie is a strong player, it was a case of whose partner was weaker in that game.

I played with a tennis player, Aaron, against tall, lefty Dave and a young woman named Taylor. Aaron and I got clobbered.

Shawnté and I lost a close game against Dave and Taylor. Shawnté later admitted that he had been taking it easy. And I was getting tired. Not the best combination.

But we got more focused in the second game and won the rematch 11-4.

I should’ve brought a second water bottle today. I completely drained the only one that I brought. It was 79°F when I left for the day.

I had to change the bandages on my thumb several times in the afternoon as the blood soaked them. Yep. It’ll take some time to heal.

Eye Protection

Why I wear eyewear while playing:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG8jSJDALye/

Rallie Ball Machine

As I’d previously mentioned, I emailed Eric Benson, the founder of Rallie Pickleball, about the need for some corrections in his ball machine manual. He got back to me this morning accepting my offer to rework his manual in exchange for undetermined compensation at a later date. Now, we’ll just have to work out logistics…

Number of days on a court: 801
Number of total hours: 3,149
Number of paid coaching hours: 135.5

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