FROM THE USAPA
The Kitchen Sink 1-0-1
BY GREGORY N. KROLCZYK
So … football or baseball? Which do you prefer? Now right off the bat, you’ d expect those drawn to slambam action to lean toward the football side of things, and those whose tastes lean to the genteel side to be drawn to baseball, right?
What’ s interesting here is that your average baseball game actually contains more action than your average football game. Think I’ m crazy? Well, probably, but it’ s still a fact. The difference is that most of the action in baseball isn’ t so much the 11-on-11, wham-bam-thank-you-ma’ am variety but is instead more the comparatively mundane 1-on-1 variety. However, where baseball excels is in the interstitial, with the cat-and-mouse interplay between the pitcher and the batter, something this one-time Baltimore boy noticed back in’ 79 when the Orioles were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series.
That same interstitial suspense happens in pickleball, too, thanks to that much maligned move, the dink. Yeah, the poor little dink; the bangers despise it, and the beginners( and many intermediates) don’ t even use it. But all things considered, it has to be the most beautiful, most useful, and the most exciting shot in all of pickleball. After all, a well-executed dink can be used defensively to prevent that banger from banging, and if you really know what you’ re doing( and especially if your opponent has limited skills and / or patience), it’ s the perfectly demoralizing offensive weapon. But perhaps the most sublime of all is when that little dink is used to tame a slam-bang rally and reset the point. Ooooooooohhhhhh, what bliss, what perfection. Now, we’ ve turned that game of checkers into a chess match.
Speaking of rallies, what would you consider a good rally in a banger’ s game? 5 hits? 6? 8? Let’ s stretch it to 10 – how’ s that? I( a 4.0 player on my best days) was just involved in a rally where an onlooker counted 20 dinks in a row, all made waiting for that perfect chance to pounce! And that was just the dinks. That doesn’ t count those hopeful hits aiming for the win but deflected and ultimately brought back under control with( yup) a dink. And, that was but one rally, for one point, in an 11-9 game.
So, the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’ am of football, or the intense suspense of baseball? Why choose? Bring the dink to your game and get the best of both worlds. •
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