Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Ladies, here with the senior Pickleball report powered by IT&C Network. Let's get it going.
Hey, really quick, I wanted to talk to you about this brand new fastest growing rating system in the pickleball landscape. Var visually assessed international rating. They consider age, gender, mixed, adaptive, wheelchair, a lot of variables. So if you're tired of having a rating system that's really not holding up its end, check out var verified.com also, you know, get your free account scan the QR code. All right, folks, you know what to do. Get verified. Today in our People at Pickleball episode, we have friend of the show Michael To. He is an actor. He is a professional pickleball player. He is a team owner. The new U.S. legends pickleball league, Boston Dragons. So, but before we get to that, if you like this content, consider subscribing to the channel. And hey, check out all the discounts and all the stuff in our description links, things like our newsletter, our website, our merch page. All right, let's get to that interview with Michael to one of my favorites. All right.
All right. Welcome back, friend of the show Michael to. To the Senior Pickleball Report. Welcome back, Mike.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: Hey, sleeves. Nice to see you again. How you been? I've been.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Well, it's been about a year and a half since we spoke and obviously things change in pickleball and in the acting world.
And folks that want to know kind of about our first interview and, you know, Michael's introduction to the game and his acting career, you can, you know, check out the link below and check out our first interview, which was about a year and a half ago. But let's start off.
Were you at the Emmys?
[00:01:44] Speaker B: I was not at the Emmys, but my, my friend Chase. We wonders who I played her, her father in the series, Apple TV series City on Fire.
She won an Emmy for the, for the studio with Seth Rogen.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Great show.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: And that's great show. She's hilarious in it. She couldn't happen to a nicer person.
You know, we had a very, we've talked about it a little bit that she, we had a very strong connection as she played my daughter. So, you know, yes, it's, it's great. I'm, I'm so happy for it. Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Absolutely huge, huge, huge win. I mean, winning an Emmy is obviously one of the pinnacles of, you know, the, the business that you're in. So fill us in what you've been doing, what shows you've been on. You've Been on some big ones.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think the last time we were on, I think I was filming Landman in Texas. It might have been.
Or maybe I, I had was slated to show. So, so I shot, you know, I was on Taylor Sheridan's Lioness, Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman, and, you know, he does Yellowstone, and he wrote this part for me and Landman, and I didn't know what it really was and connected and, you know, I, I, When I found out about the book project, I found out those could just be in one episode. And the last episode, I'm like, okay, we'll see. I'll see. And it. And I got a chance to, to connect with Billy Bob Thornton and, you know, he was, he was fantastic. And Demi Moore, I mean, talk about a, talk about an icon of my years. I mean, she. I could you can't get bigger for me than Demi Moore. I, I, I would agree. I mean, yeah, yeah. Especially our age group. Right. It's like, sure. This I right away, I mean, that, that to work with her. And, you know, she's obviously, you know, older since, since the, you know, Few Good Men Days and GI Jane and, and Breakfast Club. I mean, not a buff, you know, a ghost fire.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Right. Yeah.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Santa's fire. Yes. But when she we were, we got a chance to, to really connect on the, on one of the Our van rides are really always really long, and she was in the seat in front of me and we were talking. She has actually, she's holding, she always holds her dog and, and I have mine here, but he won't. I put him down and he'll come right back, so I'd rather just.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: But she, when she was talking to me, we were, she was facing, you know, in front and I could hear her voice, and I'm like, I cannot believe that I'm in.
You know, I get the chance to act and, and get to know Demi Moore and the Voice brought me back, you know, 30 years ago, 35 years ago. It was unbelievable.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, to be on a show like that with obviously one of the hottest writers in the game at the moment in Tyler's.
So pretty cool. You know, my favorite Timmy Moore movie is A Way Throwback is about Last Night with Rob Lowe.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: I love that film.
And that's the that then she became the crush for me. You know, it's one of those things. It's like, there she is. And so, so I got to go to the bar that they do that in Mother's in Chicago. One time. I'm like, I'm in this bar. Finally, I'm in Mothers.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Oh, my God. It brings back that. That movie brings back memories, too. Right? I remember I. I could. I could see scenes, you know, so vividly.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Right. So what's going on now? What. What are you working on at the moment? Anything?
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Well, I just. I filmed FBI out in Budapest earlier this. Earlier this year, I did. I went back to the. I did a play for the first time and maybe six, seven years.
To me, theater is where it starts. I mean, that's where to me, I really can, you know, can embody a character and really live with it for a while. Film and tv, it's very quick.
You know, a lot of times I'm a guest star in a show, and so you kind of come in for a few weeks and then you leave it. But with a. With a. With theater, you can really live in this character for. For months, and that's so much fun.
And I have a project in Toronto. I was in the.
I was in Tribeca film in Tribeca this year called Cherry Colored Funk that I'm a lead in.
Yes. Lots of. Lots of. Lots of fun things.
Yeah, it's always. It's always a. It's always an adventure.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Obviously. A character actor playing a lead, doing theater. I taught theater. That is no joke.
Yeah. For two years of high school. And it was drama.
I mean, the kids were great, but they were very, very, very needy. And they were always like, was this good enough? Was that great enough? How about this and that? Listen to monologue after monologue. I was like, okay, this is consuming most of my life now, especially.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Especially the theater kids.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. And just the sweetest, sweetest kids you could ever imagine. And unbelievably talented to take that kind of text and store it and then do night after night after night after night and do that in high school, let alone with all that goes on in high school. Look at you.
What's the dog's name?
[00:06:57] Speaker B: This is Tarot.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Oh, hi, Tarot. Look at you. You are gorgeous.
Wow.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: So sweet.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So obviously, theater is a. A whole other animal. And. And I got a little taste of film. I've done some short films. My buddy of mine in the late 90s, early 2000s, and then I was in Dream Breaker, so I got to experience them coming out to the yurt and shot eight hours for two days for basically 10 minutes of footage.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: So still, hey, better than the camera.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: I got to really see the process up close of like, you know, A bunch of takes, bunch of different locations, wondering what's going to make it, what's not going to make it. You know, the thing I learned most, Michael, was the hardest part of film is selling the movie.
I had no idea. You know, Ashley Underwood is, she's married to Larry David, she directed the film and still it took an incredibly long, like a year to get that thing sold and put up for distribution. I was blown away by the, the process that it takes and now that I have that in my universe and I'm paying attention to more people talking about film, that's really common, isn't it?
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's tough. I mean it's not especially these days, right, where, where you can put together, you can put together film. You know, a lot of times now the shorter content and so anything that's longer, especially, you know, how expensive it is to make a, to make a movie. You know, it's tough to make back your money. So it really had, they had to be very. It's not like the days of where, you know, any kind of project is greenlit. It's, it's really tough to make a project even with, even with stars, even with the topic that's, that's, that's relevant, even with the topic that a lot of people can connect to, it's tough to make. And that's where you see sometimes when you see big movies that you think, oh, this is no. A lock for a sequel.
Right. But the, but the finances need to make sense and, and even when the finances make sense and even when things come together, you still need some luck.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And what it brings to mind is how much stuff is sitting on a shelf somewhere like that you'll never see.
It's probably vast.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And there's probably some great projects there. Actually, one of the, you asked what, what I was doing. One of the things that we're doing now is I'm doing a documentary chronically my, my working with the USLPL and Making of the Boston Dragons. So it's where we have, you know, I've been working with my friend Taya Arvaletta, who's an Emmy award winning, talking about Emmy award winning editor. He used to do the Frontline series.
And so we've worked on a bunch of projects together and so we've been documenting this whole process. The last super fun, the last four or five months.
You know, we have a, you know, camera crew following me around and it's been, it's been exciting.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Absolutely. So let's Talk about this. Obviously us Legends, brand new senior pro league and I've always said senior pros, at least domestically have the most options to play high level tournaments in leagues than in the open pros do. I mean there's the ppa, the App, the Humana cup, the NPL and now the Legends League and the pro, the Senior Pro league, I mean, or Tour. There's a ton of stuff. So talk to me about the Legends League and obviously your team, your franchise. You're the owner of the Dragons in Boston, hometown boy. So.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: How did that happen?
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Well, I was, we, I love the team concept.
That to me it's, yeah, it's, it's always, I've always leaned that, that, that way. To me, the, the ability to have a team to, to, it's not just about me, it's about others. And I love that concept. I really wanted to be on a, on a, a team that, that, that we could really play together. And I, Michael Cowell and Ron Cortez at the US Open this year and they were talking, they said they were, they were, they were, they had this great, you know, great concept. They think there's a lot of demand for it. You know, obviously there's some other, you know, great leagues out there and, but they felt that there was a niche here and they said, would you consider, you know, being an owner? And I really looked at the scenario probably 10 minutes and I'm like, yeah, this, I'm good. I, I don't, I don't need the, you know, I, I'll look at the details details later. But this is, you know, this is, this is perfect and to get a, you know, to, to bring the first pro pickleball team to Boston and to be able to run a team the way I think a team should be run but also do it in a, you know, do it in a, a business way, you know, doing a way where, you know, it's not just a hobby. This is a pro league, a pro team. I need to, I need to bring in sponsors, I need to run a tight ship. I need to be able to provide for my players but at the same time make it a financially viable model. And yeah, it's been, I, I, it's been so exciting. I've had when I, when I did this, when they got, when I approached it and I was thinking about, I had probably with the acting and you know, family and my daughters and you know, wife and all this things I'm trying to do and all the different projects I had and We, I travel a lot for, you know, for film stuff. I had probably 5% capacity and I'm like, all right, well, all right, I'll do it now.
So I, so I jumped in with that 5% capacity and now it's, it's now taking 95% of my time. And I, But I'm telling you, I am loving every minute I get up. I got up at 3:15 this morning because I had a bunch of things to do and I was, I was so excited to get up to. Because I had to do some videos to put out. I had to. Sure.
We're doing a big exhibition at Patriots Place, you know, before the Pats game. This.
Yeah, we have a, a partnership. Our practice facility is at 11 0, which is a new pickleball facility right next to Gillette Stadium. So we have this big exhibition right before 60,000 fans come to come to the paths. And so I'm like thinking about how, all right, we need to set the, you know, set this exhibition. What we're gonna do for the, for, for show, you know, how, what kind of games we're gonna play, how many players we have. Get the, you know, get the balloons and I'll get all the setups for this court. Get the camera.
It's. And it's like, this is, I'm like, this is, this is exactly me. Some people, this would be terrifying or I, or no way they would ever do it to me. This is like, perfect.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: You're built for this.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: I am. I really am.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: I mean, what is going on with your life? Holy cow, man. I mean. Oh, now I'm a Hollywood actor and not only play pro pickleball, I, I had the opportunity to have my own franchise and by the way, arguably the most sports insane city in the world.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Boston.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: I mean, they are. I mean, you're right, you have to represent because you are not in just, you know, some little, little berg. You're in Boston, man. And you know, you know who we're playing next.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: See, you know, we're playing next. We're the next, our next event, our next showdown. We play the New York City Ballers.
And you know, as a lifelong Celtics fan, right, you know, you know, Red Sox fan, you know, the, the, the Times with, you know, the, the Pats Giants.
You know, there's going to be a little extra, a little extra heat when we played New York the Ballers this in October in Philly. So it's, it's going to be some focus.
Yeah, well, this is, you know, it's going to the only thing about a rivalry, though, is you need some, you know, you need some. Some teams, you know, get back and forth. But unfortunately, I. Unfortunately, I think we're going to. It's not going to, you know, we're going to kind of whip them. So, you know. Well, I don't know how much of a rivalry that is.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: You heard it here, folks, and it begins.
Exactly where does that rivalry begin? Well, let me show you this podcast episode. I mean, that's fantastic. And I think what's really cool about it is you can tell you have a true love for the sport, like, you do acting as well, and that's contagious. And I think the league that you're in, the Legends League, that's a. They made a good move going after somebody like you to be an owner, because it is. It's contagious. And I think you have people like that that are in positions where they can get things done, and obviously an ownership position that will only bode well for the league and its future. So talk about the first event. Like, how did it go? What was going on? Like, you know, obviously there's a lot of things going on, and sometimes, you know, the playing is, like the last thing you're thinking about because you got a million other things about logistically. So how did it go? Run me through the atmosphere and everything else.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Yeah, well, the thing. This was our, you know, we. This is a. This is like a startup. We're really running. This is a startup. And you. You don't know if it's going to work. You can. You can do all the prep as you, you know, all. All you can. You can try to think of every scenario to cover and all the problems that could happen to, you know, make sure this is all set, and it could still go, you know, completely haywire. And one other thing that we were worried about, too, is, like, what's the competition going to be like? There are a lot of great options for. For senior pros. And this was, you know, this was one of those things. We're like, well, we had our combine in Richmond, Virginia, and it was like, well, I wasn't sure, like, are there enough good players?
And right away, coming into. To.
To. To the. To the venue, it was like, oh, my God, there's. I don't know. I don't know who that is, but that forehand is that wicked word. Where was she? You know, that. Let's get that kind of play. And. And it's. And I was so shocked at the amount of top quality Players that are, that are out there that want to, to join a league.
And, and so I, so coming into, coming into indie, you know, I was like, okay, there's going to be some good teams and we weren't disappointed. I mean there's some fantastic players, some of the top players, you know, in the sport. Some, some huge names.
You know, the, the Dave and Spearman's of the world. Right. You know, people who, people who have, you know, won multiple, multiple medals. You know, we're looking at some of the new players coming out. This guy, Petra Menar. Oh my God, five. He's a five, eight or something. And he was, I mean he's. You can see five, maybe six, three, six. He felt like six, eight. But he was, he hit so hard and he covered so much court he line and it was, you know, it was really some fantastic. We have, we have a, you know, my, my top, top draft pick of the US lpl, actually top pick for the Dragons, but also for the league is Christine Newman. She was a number one player at Duke for tennis and boy, watching her and her strokes and her calmness, it. I'm like, there's so much I could learn. Like, this is endless.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: I know.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: And it's not because it's not just about. And she's. I, I don't know how tall, but, but, but not, you know, she's playing against the six, four guys.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Yeah, right, right.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: It's got to be, you know, maybe five, five, maybe something like that. Five, six. But, but I'm telling you, she, it's the calmness, that next level of sports of, you know, knowing what needs to get done, not getting too high, not getting too low. I'm like. And I, for me, when I play, I'm up here or I'm down and, and like, I'm like, this is, I, this is what, this is what takes it to be the next to the next level and to be able to have someone on my team like that where I can learn from. It's awesome.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And that is huge. I think you hit right on the head. There is a, I would argue the deepest talent pool in all of pickleball are, is the seniors because they're, you know, they're kind of the foundation of the game and there's just so much talent out there. It's incredible. And just when you think you've seen it all, somebody walks on the court, you're like, who is this? And then, you know, wait till this thing even explodes further internationally.
My goodness, the stuff we're going to see and to have another league that I think, I just think the more opportunities people have to really showcase what they can do, the better. And it makes all of the, the leagues and the tours better because as we know, competition, you know, kind of pushes people to do things better. And why not? It's, I think it's great to have choices out there in the senior pros, have a ton of great choices run by fantastic people at every level. I can't think of a single one of these entities that isn't run by a class app.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Oh, 100%. And there's, there's so many players out there. It's not like, yeah, it's not like, it's like, you know, one going against the other with the same cool. It's not. There's so many great quality players that want this, you know, a great experience out there. And there's, I, I, I think there's, it, it, the, the talent out there who want to play. It's, there's, there's way more than the, than options are way more players out there that, and it's, I think it's only helping the sport. It's only, you know, allowing some players who, who are like, oh, my God, this, I could actually do this. This is something that I can, I can train for. It's, it's, you know, as we've talked about and you've talked about a lot on, on your show, you know, it's a sport that that has, has, has brought a whole new meaning to life for a lot of, a lot of people. And, you know, having a, you know, senior pro league, having a lot of options for that, for, for, for people, I think it's, it's, it's really fantastic.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Absolutely. If you just look at, you know, the various combines that these, these tours and leagues have, the turnout there and the people that don't make the league, there's still a ton of talent that's not even, they're not even playing on teams yet. And those people are getting better because they play tournaments all the time. You just don't show up to a combine for the heck of it. These are competitive folks who've had pretty highly athletic past careers in something that are, you know, pushing themselves for, you know, kind of a second shot at it. So, you know, I hear all the time that, like, you know, it was hard to choose because there was so much talent there. And like, you see so many people and so many names and you're like, and then draft day comes and you go, okay, yeah, who do I take?
[00:21:41] Speaker B: And you know, the, the competition was so good.
And as, as a player as well, you know, I played, I pro, I played. We ended up having 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 8 matches this, this past weekend in Indy, right. And I think I probably went to five or six, three game matches and down to the wire. And that kind of, that kind of pressure and focus that's needed to get into those games. Some, some turned out. My direction, trump turned the other way. But the experience that I'm getting as, as a player and my player growth, I mean, I, you can't, I can't get that. I can't get that locally because a lot of times it's, you know, local tournament, you might do, you know, gauge 11 or maybe a game for 15 or, you know, you're playing a different kind of style of play with these, you know, 25 year olds. And, you know, there's, there's opportunities, you know, the, you know, you know, I love the app. That's the app tournaments too. But those are, you know, it's, you know, it's a tournament series. You could easily go, you know, 1 and 2, 2 and 2 and then done. Right. But with, you know, with the league piece, you're like, all right, it doesn't matter. You're out here. You got to pick it up for the next one because you still have, you still have three more matches to play regardless. And you got to, you got to pick it up. And it's not just for you. You have to pick it up for your team.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Right. And that's the key to this. I think you're not only playing for yourself and when you're playing for somebody else, when you step on that court, I don't know how to describe it, that you feel it, you feel that extra sort of, you know, you can call it whatever you want, whatever way you tend to digest that. But for me, it gives me a little bit more focus because it's not just for me and it's for, it's for the team as well and for the franchise and for the city and for the sponsors. If you throw all that stuff on there, there's a lot of people that make this possible for not only the league, but a particular franchise. And you're finding this out, you know, you can't do this by yourself. So talk to me a little bit about that, like who's helping you out? Because this isn't, this is no joke.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of different A lot of different things. Well, actually, sorry, let me just show. The one thing is that the great thing about this league is that we have this. It's a little bit different. It's a.
Each team has two players who are on the male and female side, so four total that are 55 to 59. And then there's also two players that are 60 plus. So the dynamics are a little bit different here with. You kind of have to now match some different styles of play sometimes, you know, you know, we're, We're. It's not just all, you know, we're, we're. We're kind of. We have to kind of work with lineups and kind of good matching and pairings and chemistry and, you know, we, you know, we. Our thing is we have to make sure that, you know, every player who. On our team, we have.
You have to play three. If you're at the, at the event, you have to play three out of the four.
Three out of the four events. So now. So it's not like you're gonna, you know, bench. You know, the.
Everyone's kind of in. We had to try different pairings and it's kind of rotating. So it's not like the pairings kind of stay all the way through. There's. There's different combinations and it becomes a chess match.
But also from a player perspective, you're playing with different people you're kind of working with. Sometimes you play with the stronger player, so then you sometimes play it the other way. And it's. And it's a different mindset. It's. It's. Oh, my God. So much fun.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're right, it's. It's. It's sort of a chess match within a chess match. Because the chess match that you're playing currently on the court was set up by the chess match of getting the matchups that you want based on the team you're playing. And right now, I mean, you're playing people, obviously, in a lot of cases that, you know, you've never played against in some cases. And so as the years go by, you sort of, you know, you think, oh, you find out sort of a scouting report and then it becomes a chess match within a chess match of a chess match. So it's. It's endless. And I think to have a mind for that is a talent. Because it's one thing to just step on the court and think about what I'm going to do out here. It's another thing to sort of manage a group of People and then. And put them in positions to succeed.
And you're finding that out, obviously, right now.
And. And you will. How many. Yeah, three or four. Yeah, like three or four events left, obviously, the season, to kind of figure this game out, this chess game out. That's correct.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And. And I mean, on top of this, we're, you know, I'm doing the documentary at the same time. So it's.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: So it's one of those things where it's like, all right, not also. Is it working on. On making sure that the lineup is set to. Making sure that the. The camera crew is. Is. Is at the right place, the right time, and, you know, there's no privacy. And it's, you know, it's on me, you know, and the team the whole time. And so there's always, you know, something on. But hey, that. That. That's. That to me, is fun. I mean, and. And also, as a. As pro players, you know, these are. It's not just about playing. It's also the. It's also the appearances, the speaking engagements. It's the being. On being a.
You know, being watched and, you know, sometimes a little bit crossing the line sometimes of. Of privacy stuff because, you know, les pro. That's part of the scenarios.
And that's. So I've kind of talked to my team a little bit as we. We're, you know, because we're in a unique scenario, getting a documentary film. I'm like, all right, just, you know, like you said, sleeve. There's so much filming. Don't worry about, you know.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Every piece of it.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Fix it in post, is what I always say.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Fix it. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. You pay off the editor, you're okay. You're good.
You know, but one out of the, you know, 100 hours that we might get. It's, you know, you might take 45 minutes of it. It's. It's, you know, but. But. But so much. But so much fun. We. Well, we. And we had a. Which was kind of cool. This is. This is from the. The filming side, too. Is. We is. We were at the Pickler in Indianapolis and we had had a Skinny Breaker. So the way the US LPL works is that when you have a tide scenario, in this case, it was six. Six. We played against the Buffalo Blizzards and the good New York team.
And it was. So we do a skinny singles tie.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: Yeah. See, at first I didn't like it, to be honest.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: I thought, skinny singles, I'm okay with it.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: But the Skinny singles piece was really great because in, you know, in the normal team scenario, you're always with two people. So it's kind of like. It's not. It's always like, all right, well, maybe this, you know, my partner here can come over. I have to. And so that. Which is great. I love that. But this was different. The now it's this two whole teams with all the fans. The cameras are focused on you versus the other person.
And in three points of skinny, and then you rotate through games of 25, rally scoring, freeze at 24, and we end up going 24. 24. We had the. And we had the pickler at this court, the center court, that they had camera crews from the. From the hop down with our. It was fantastic and it was amazing. Final few points. It was between my. My Boston dragon, Laura Charles, and the owner of the Buffalo Blizzards, Chris Kessler. Two fantastic players, back and forth. Match point for us. Chris blocked. Chris had a match point. Laura. And we. And. And we had a final last point and we won a 25, 24. But it could have gotten either way. But it really took us who won. The excitement and the. You hear, seeing the teams every time someone came off the support there, it was so much fun. And I got a Ron Cortez, who is one of the founders of the uslpl. He's the one who came up with it. And I'm like a skinny breaker.
I don't see it. And I fully admit we had an owner's meeting last night. I'm like, I fully admit you were right, Ron. And I was completely off base. It's. It was a fantastic idea.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: I. I love that. I think that's really cool because it fits. It fits the mode of, you know, we're older players.
We. Some of us never play singles, but skippy singles, you have to have doubles skill set to pull that off because of the smaller court and.
And because of the footwork and stuff like that. So I think that's a great, great fit. And yeah, that. That moment had to be because it takes a lot just to get to that moment to get the league from all the way to the idea of having a league. You know, somebody wrote something down on a napkin or something, and then getting to the point where you're there and there's cameras and there's a center court, and it's coming down to this battle between two people.
It's one of those sort of surreal moments that you're like, hey, we made it. We got here. And that is a Huge, huge step in this process.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it's rare to, it's. I'm trying to think of who, what scenarios would other people have had that kind of, that kind of scenario. I think I would guess maybe higher end singles players for pickleball who've maybe got to the gold medal match. Otherwise you're not going to get that many people watching like this kind of thing. So unless you're maybe near the, like the gold medal match or something. But this was 100 people with all the, you know, you know, all gathered around, all the other teams started to pull it into. So it's probably more than that.
200 but, but you know, who coming now coming in to, to watch and I'm thinking maybe the, maybe some of the pro tennis players who are in the league who have had that kind of one on one kind of pressure, you know, pressure with fans and stuff like that to that. Right. You know, focus on you. But it was cool. It's be really cool. I love it. I mean, you know, that to me is, you know, as an actor that, that I love that kind of stuff. I, I play a lot better when I know people are watching and then when people don't, I, I, you could, I do the opposite.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. And you could script it any better. I mean, you know, if something like that happen and it happens and you know there's some cameras on it and it's, it's the opening weekend of the league, man. I mean that's, that's just good writing, I think.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we had probably, I think we had three skinny breakers throughout over the weekend and I think each one of them was close and you know, exciting and I think people said the same thing. It didn't really. You want to lost. Just the, just the, just the energy. The vibe was, was so good.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Right. All right, so before we get you out of here, let's talk about what's coming up for the rest of the season for the league and what you're looking forward to.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: Yeah, so we have, we're in Hasbro, Pennsylvania, 10-18-19th I believe.
You know, I'm dealing with an injury to, to my number one male player. So we're now, you know, so, you know, kind of dealing with that and how to get, get a suitable team because there's gonna be some, we're some tough teams that I'm playing this, this, this next event and including that, you know, the New York City Ballers. And so I'm gonna have to kind of work to find out if I You know, cut the kind of sub I can get to replacement. Yeah, great stuff for the, for the documentary, but not that good for my stress level.
So and, and so and what we're doing is we are focusing. My team is really getting.
We have, we have Swing Vision all our matches, which now allows me to, to watch, tape and analyze matches. So we have our. We have coaches that are watching through the Swing Vision who are going to give tips to my players to work on for the, the three, four weeks that we have until the next meeting. So, so we really need to kind of, kind of. You know, there's a lot of things that people do really well, but a bunch of things that, you know, we say, all right, we could work on this. I need to work on my backhand flick here. You know, things that I'm like, all right, I it great in practice, not that great under pressure. I need to work on that. And so that's exciting. And then we have then December in in Baltimore and January in New Jersey. So it's for championship weekend. So it's, it's exciting. Can't wait.
[00:33:48] Speaker A: Absolutely. Very cool and appreciate you coming on folks. Check out links in the description. There's us legends Pickleball League, Boston Dragons. That should be your team because this is the man for it and team owner, actor, professional player. Michael to thanks again and let's catch up in a year again and see what the franchise is doing and what movie you're in.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Hey, maybe, maybe we'll be. Maybe, uh. Well, you and I will be at the, the Emmy awards for, for the making of the Boss and Dragons documentary.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: There we go. Now we're talking, man. Appreciate your time, Michael.
[00:34:22] Speaker B: Thank you. Sleep.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: Hope you enjoyed our interview with Michael to Hey folks, you know what to do at the end of the day. Hey, let's pick home.
