Greetings, Dinkheads readers! Have you missed us? We’ve been on a hectic hiatus for the past six months taking care of business, family, and, of course, tournaments. Now that the summer season is winding down, we’re back to blogging here and wow, have things changed across the pickleball landscape. Mainstream pop culture has finally caught on to the craze — celebrities, morning TV shows, newspapers, magazines, and even Broadway theater:

The Purple Rose Theatre Company has announced its lineup of plays for its 32nd season, featuring three world premieres and a Michigan premiere play. PRTC Founder and Artistic Director, Jeff Daniels, kicks off the season with his twentieth world premiere play for The Purple Rose, “Pickleball”…In a wild comedy about America’s fastest growing sport, four below average players must overcome their own limitations in order to achieve greatness in a game that has nothing to do with pickles.

-Broadway World

When we launched Dinkheads.com in January 2021, the sport was still a strange and alien phenomenon to most of the public — and very strongly associated with retirement villages and Ben Gay. The rapid professionalization, commercialization, and youth-ification of the sport, which we dubbed “Pickleball Inc.” a year ago, has drastically transformed the game. Senior pros have largely been pushed out of the limelight (finding livestreams of senior pro tournament matches is tough). Play is faster and harder. The old paradigm of “red light and green light” balls has been smashed by athletes with wicked and wickeder roll shots. A “3.5” rating a year ago is simply not what it is today.

Not that we’re complaining. It’s sink or swim, dink or swing, in this baller-eat-baller world that we love. The influx of new players (and readers and viewers!) is something we fully embrace, just like we do with any and all competition. One other trend we’ve noted on social media is that many passionate and outspoken pickleballers have been censored, banned, and throttled because they questioned Pickleball Inc. elites or expressed political views (on things like the national championships’ ban on unvaccinated players/fans) deemed unacceptable. Our message to those players/athletes is to keep delivering your thoughts and opinions here in our kitchen. This is still America. Other Silicon Valley trash sites can stir up ideological hatred, but your dedicated Dinkheads.com editors are here to serve.

0-0-2, let’s go!