Pickle Ball

The fastest growing sport in the United States, Pickle Ball, held its 1917 Open Championship in East Naples, Florida yesterday. Simone Jardin won mixed doubles with male partner, Oliver Strycker and pro doubles with female partner Corrine Sieberscher.

I watched the match on television, going back and forth between pro golf and PB. Got to say, Pickle Ball provided some spectacular fast moving minutes in comparison to golf, which moves, oh, soooo slowly..Luckily for golf, the cameras move swiftly between holes so you don't have to watch golfers walking the fairways; otherwise, the game would have little tv appeal.

Back to Pickle Ball: Simone Jardin and other Pickle Ball players can't make a living yet playing their sport, but their commitment, enthusiasm, and training is every bit as intense as our beloved Warrior players.

Here's a thought. Universities claim that the Big Bucks they receive support the school's minor sports. So let's get the major sport's athletes who're making obscene amounts of money to support the less well known but equally important pro sports in our country, like Pickle Ball or Curling for example. Kevin Durant could fund the Pickle Ball Championship, say, half a mill for the purse - a terrific tax write off..Who'd fund Curling? Handball is a terrific sport too, both the U.S. brand and the European form of the sport. LeBron has a few extra bucks, right?

Anybody interested in some wonderful poetry about sports, I suggest an out of print book, but still available: Sprints and Distances compiled by Lillian Morrison from Thoma Y. Crowell Co. NYC.

From Sprints and Distances, a poem about Squash. I think Shaq could fund Squash.

Civilities                by Thomas Whitebread

   The delicate corner shot,
Slicing the strings precise across the ball
at the right time, so that it lightly hits
         On one side wall,
    Kisses the front, then falls
Quick-dying down, most irretrievable,

    Is difficult to do
Unless a calm, an inner certainty
Comes to you softly in the midst of war,
         Setting you free
   From the slam-bang desire
To smash it hard no matter where. To be

   So deftly sure, so wise,
Wins points in squash. In another, harder game,
Word-play, a similar civility
     May equally tame
   Peaceless desires, and make
Your opponent yours by a nicety of name.