Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 The Stories This Moment podcast and the s d M blog are brought to you by S t M Daily News and T N C Network. Daily News offers news and articles that inspires, helps heal and educates. SS t m Daily News is the news you can use this moment. Now here's your host, rod Washington.
Speaker 2 00:00:26 Hello and welcome to the Daily News podcast. I'm your host, rod Washington, and on today's episode we will talk with Mike Sliva, who will give us an update on his show, senior Pickleball Report and some other things. We will also update you on things happening with this podcast, the website and the channel, all of that and more. So stay right here for the Daily News podcast. Okay. First up we have Mikey Sliva, better known as sleeves. He's with us today to talk to us about pickleball and to give us an update. So how's it going? Sleeves?
Speaker 3 00:01:09 Doing well, rod, uh, getting ready to a, another interview for the National Pickleball League. Um, so, uh, been interviewing players obviously and owners and GMs, um, for that league because their season is basically June through October, so kind of getting a bunch of those folks in 'cause it's a senior pro league and that's what we cover is senior pickleball. So
Speaker 2 00:01:35 You've been pretty busy lately with, with the interviews and other stuff. So tell us about the ones that you've had so far.
Speaker 3 00:01:42 Yeah, so, um, you know, I mentioned the N P L, which is, um, been a great deal of the interviews. Um, and again, there's six teams, so I've just kind of been going through players. Some players contact me, I contact some players, some people recommend that I contact some people. So it's kind of worked out. I've probably interviewed, I don't know, maybe 15 players so far. But then we're also interviewing people too outside of that. Um, some people that are into, uh, apparel. So we've, we've spoken to a couple people that make t-shirts and people that make, uh, outfits for women. Pri primarily for pickleball. Um, and then I just interviewed some guys that are creating an app or have created an app that keeps score of the game and it gives you the highlights of, um, your game. And, uh, they do it through your iPhone or your iPad and you attach it to a fence and you get this little clicker where you can click highlights and keep score and it shows the score on the fence so people can kind of know what the score is, who are playing and who are not playing.
Speaker 3 00:02:42 Um, I also interviewed, um, a travel, um, agent guy who's getting involved in pickleball vacations and he's going around the globe, um, to, you know, kind of promote not only pickleball, but wellness and health. He does, um, I think it's kind of a, a retreat style where you go to a particular part of the world, you do some yoga, you're in a nice resort, you play some pickleball. Um, so that's kind of the, the basis of the interviews that I've been doing over the last probably two months. Um, pretty much from, um, July till, uh, the end of this month. And, uh, so yeah, a lot of interviews coming out, some paddle reviews as well. Just this review just popped up, um, the dink master, um, by P b A sports. So I've got another one coming up. Um, and a few more paddles coming my way. And then a fit bill is sending me some more shoes. This is the latest shoe that I wore, but they've got a newer version of this coming out, which I'll be reviewing, uh, probably in the next month or so. So yeah, super busy. Um, and as you know, lot of editing involved,
Speaker 4 00:03:51 Lot of,
Speaker 3 00:03:53 I think they're starting to really gain some traction, um, by making, uh, these contacts with people who are, you know, highly involved in the game. So, um, I'm happy with the way the the channel's going and the progress we're making because really in any sort of business or influencing or whatever you want to call it, um, it's really all about connections and networking and that's kind of how you make traction in a particular, uh, marketplace. So I think we're doing a good job at that.
Speaker 4 00:04:24 Yeah. We're, um, talk about the N P L. Talk about the, your visit to Overland Park, Kansas. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:04:33 Or is, I call it Orville is I call it Overland <laugh>.
Speaker 4 00:04:35 Yeah. You kept calling it Overland that kept getting here. Mont, it's over park. We got the Park.
Speaker 3 00:04:39 Park. I didn't know Overland had a park.
Speaker 4 00:04:42 <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:04:44 Yeah, so on my way to visit my folks and my sister for a month in Wisconsin, which we spent, my wife and I and my cat spent, um, the month of July pretty much in, uh, Wisconsin, the southeast corner of the state. We planned our route to go through Kansas City because the n p l stop, I believe it was the, might have been the second stop of the season, um, was in Kansas City or near Kansas City, Oberland Park, obviously a suburb, very wealthy suburb by the way. Uh, huge houses, but got to visit, uh, chicken and Pickle and meet with some of the folks in the league that I had interviewed, and then kind of set up a couple other interviews that came to fruition, um, this past month. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, uh, I was impressed. I was impressed with the organization, I was impressed with the level of play and um, I think the word that kept, kept coming up, not only there, but in my interviews was people are super grateful, um, that are playing 50 plus professional pickleball.
Speaker 3 00:05:43 Yes, that's a thing. Um, and, uh, for the opportunity not only to compete against their peers, but to be treated as professionals because they play at a very high level and they're playing for money. I believe the purse for the season this season is a hundred K. Um, and again, um, I think they've hit it out of the park as far as, um, creating a community and a culture built around, uh, professional senior pickleball as they call it, champions pickleball, champions tour style pickleball. So yeah, really, really cool. Got to sit in the broadcast booth for a little bit. You know, it's one thing to interview people, but it's another thing to just kind of spur the moment as things happen and plays happen and to get it out and not to over, you know, speak over particular parts of the match or each other. And again, I got, I sat in the booth with a guy, his first name's Ari, not sure of his last name, but great guy, very good at his job. You know, he's kind, got that great voice for, uh, any sort of supporting and, uh, was, you know, did a little bit of, got a little background on me and then he just kind of fed me questions, so it was great. Uh,
Speaker 4 00:06:48 Yeah, you did a good job though. I, I, oh, so I thought you did a good job.
Speaker 3 00:06:52 Yeah, it was really fun. And again, you know, they were kind enough to kind of put me in that position because they were familiar with me and, uh, you know, but I think it's something that, like anything, if you do it more often, you get better at it. And, uh, hopefully when we go in October for the championship, which happens to be in Glendale and the Chicken and Pickle, they're just open. Yeah. And I've been looking at YouTube and my, one of my former students went and posted some pictures of videos. Looks incredible. So if you get a chance to get down there, it's near the football stadium and, uh, it's the latest chicken and pickle and they will be playing their championship N p l championship there October 13th to the 15th. And we, uh, at S P R will be there, hopefully get back in the booth. That'll be a little bit of fun.
Speaker 2 00:07:38 Mike, would you elaborate more on the senior side of pickleball?
Speaker 3 00:07:43 Yeah, you know, there's obviously, there's what we call, um, professional pickleball, which means open play, which means you can be any age. Um, and, you know, generally the people that succeeded that are, are younger folks, you know, folks that are in sometimes their teens and twenties and thirties. But then when you start to get into your forties and fifties, you're not really competing, um, at a, at that level anymore because obviously age takes over. So there has always been, since pickleball really became a pro, um, entity in, um, around 20 19, 20 20. So very recently there's always been a senior pro bracket for people who were 50 plus, and they played under the umbrella of the actual pro tours. And at that point there were two, the A P P and the P p A. But like anything else, you know, when something gets popular and gains popularity, um, the main focus becomes, you know, the athletes who are, uh, at the top of the game.
Speaker 3 00:08:43 And those are people who are obviously, like I mentioned, younger. So the, the senior folks kind of felt like they were getting a little bit of the push out and they, you know, they said rightfully so, you know, we're not the main draw here, but what they did is, um, because they're older and they have life experience and they have work experience and they had careers and they've made mistakes and they know what works and what doesn't work, they have a huge collective knowledge base where they know how to start businesses. They know how to run businesses. Some of them are lawyers, some of them have, uh, you know, are entrepreneurs and so on. So they didn't really have to go out and recruit people to start a league or a tour. And so there are two now separate senior, um, entities. One's a tour, like a normal tour where you play bracket play, like I would play you in the winter, play somebody else.
Speaker 3 00:09:33 And there's also a team event like, uh, major league pickleball for the regular pros, and this one's N P L, which we've just talked about. So now the senior pros can go and play on their own tours and they're running it. In other words, they're sort of, um, in charge of their own fate, their own destiny, which is an advantage because the regular tours are a bunch of people who are younger and who don't have that necessarily work or life experience who are sort of looking for an opportunity to play. And in this case, billionaires happen to be running those two leagues. So they're at some case, um, they're at the, the mercy of those people in charge, whereas the seniors are running their own show and they all know each other. They're a very tight knit community. When they play each other, they play very hard at a very high level, but at the end of the day, they all hang out for the most part. Whereas at their regular pro tour, that's not the case. It's a little more, um, cutthroat because again, those folks are trying to make a living and the seniors have already made their living. Everything at this point is, uh, frosting on the cake. So that's really the difference.
Speaker 2 00:10:43 Thanks Mike, for the update. On our next podcast episode, we will continue with Mike as he talks about his adventures into early Hollywood fame after appearing on an eighties variety show. Now for other news, our podcast will be going through a few changes for the better. Of course. First, there will be no more seasons for the Daily News podcast. The show will continue to be a showcase, an extension of our S t m Daily News blog, and instead of becoming just a 10 episode season, it will be continuous reflecting the stories that we cover on the site. And finally, we'll be working on a few projects like our upcoming urbanism series and our project about unexplained phenomena. Stay tuned as we give you the details. Well, that's it for this episode of the S t m Daily News. We would like to thank Mike for stopping by and giving us an update on a show. You can catch the latest episode of Sleeve Senior Pickleball report on YouTube. Please watch shares subscribe to his show, visit his website, and check out his merch page. We will have a link in the description. Thank you for stopping by and listening to us here at the Daily News Podcast. Until next time, bye for now.
Speaker 1 00:12:02 You've been listening to the Stories This Moment podcast with your host Rod Washington. The s t m podcast and the s t m Vlog are both brought to you by S t m Daily News and T N C Network. Daily News offers news and articles that inspires, helps heal and educates. S T M Daily News is the news. You can use this moment.
