Dinking around: The rise of pickleball, from “Sportly”

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4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we’re sharing an episode from another podcast we think you’ll love. In this episode of “Sportly” from Immigrantly Media, host Kavitha Davidson dives into the quirky origins of pickleball, exploring how this simple backyard game has become America’s fastest-growing sport. Davidson uncovers the story behind the paddle — from its humble beginnings on Bainbridge Island, Washington, to celebrity-filled tournaments and public park controversies — and how a game meant to pass the time is now passing records.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody I'm Janelle Espinal, host of Financially inclined from Marketplace.
0:04.8	While our team gets to work on the next season, we wanted to share a fun episode that we all recently enjoyed.
0:10.8	In this episode of Sportly from Immigrantly Media, host Kavita Davidson dives into the quirky origins of pickleball.
0:18.0	She explores how this simple backyard game has become America's fastest growing sport. From its humble beginnings on Bainbridge Island in 1965 to celebrity filled tournaments and public park controversies, Kavita uncovers the story behind the paddle and how a game meant to pass the time is now passing records.
0:38.6	And I definitely have seen this growth.
0:40.8	I think Pickleball is having a viral moment for sure because my friends and I who live here in Miami
0:45.8	Which is very far from where it started in Washington State has we've definitely been playing and we have seen this growth and we really enjoy the game.
0:53.7	So I know it's having that viral moment for sure.
0:57.7	If you want to hear more from Sportly or Immigrantly Media, you can find them wherever you listen to podcasts. And now here's the episode.
1:06.0	It's the middle of the summer in 1965 on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. State
1:15.4	legislature Joel Pritchard and his friend Bill Bell have just returned to Joel
1:19.4	summer home after a round of golf only to find their families lounging around bored out of their minds.
1:26.1	Summer is supposed to be, you know, fun and relaxing, but today everyone's complaining that there's just nothing to do. Joel reminises about his own
1:35.2	childhood a time when kids would invent their own games to pass the time and
1:39.7	inspired by this memory he decides to create a new game on the spot.
1:45.0	The house has an old badminton court, so Bill and Joel start rummaging around for some equipment.
1:50.8	They can't find all the badminton rackets, so they improvise.
1:55.0	As the story goes, Joel grabs some ping pong paddles and a wiffle ball,
1:59.0	you know, one of those plastic balls with holes in it that we all play with in grade school gym.
2:04.0	He and Bill gather the kids and head to the old badminton court.
2:07.8	They start hitting the ball around, making the game up as they go.
2:11.4	Sometimes they play one-on-one, other times they play on teams of two. Either way, the game feels so far a lot like the other
	...

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