Federico Staksrud Has One Job: Take Down the St. Louis Shock

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I think Zane's team hero, but Zane is more like,

he's hero side characters, so like, you're like,

Moushu in,

lawn,

or like, the Camurian in tangled,

like, you're not the main character,

but you're like the funny guy,

you're like, Donkey and Shrek,

like, that is you.

You're like, you're the wrong,

wrong,

he's the Donkey and Shrek is so good.

Donkey and Shrek is amazing.

Wow.

What are you, Nico?

What do you have any, what are you?

I'm, I'm, I'm team villain.

I'm, I want to be Shrek.

I'm Shrek.

Welcome everyone to another episode of The Pickle POD.

This week, we got a packed episode.

We got Zane, MLP Chicago.

Zane, take it one for the team,

sitting on the bench with his bucket hat.

He's here doing the exact same thing

for the next 90 minutes bucket hat,

ass on the bench.

It's going to be a great episode.

I got to play hybrid pickleball.

For those you don't know,

wheelchair pickleball,

which is probably what I need to be doing anyway.

But we got a ton of things to talk about.

We got Federico Staxtrude on The POD.

We're going to talk about his tray.

We're going to talk about whether or not

the fives or the shock are the team to beat,

or is there a dark horse?

Maybe it's Dallas.

I don't know.

There's a ton going on.

But guys, if you have already made it this far

and you plan on listening to the next 90 minutes,

do us a favor, hit all the buttons.

Whether you're on your phone or on the computer,

on YouTube, on Spotify, hit subscribe,

like, comment, thumbs up,

whatever it is, as long as it's not thumbs down,

we want to see it.

And if you want all the information

from the dink,

head over to subscribe.

The dinkpickleball.com,

subscribe to the newsletter.

You're going to like more of what you got there.

Zane, where do we start?

Yeah, well, the newsletter is where I get a ton

of my information as well.

Alex Weaver and I are partnering up to do a deeper dive

into the recent proton fraud allegations,

which are crazy,

and which we'll have to dive into a little bit

in the show as well.

But Alex goes in depth and the newsletter

really is legit.

Great way of staying up to date

with everything going on in Propagol.

So check that one out.

And I don't know,

where do you want to start, Nico?

Zane, before I do want to give the dink

a quick victory lap,

people might be throwing up in the back of their mouth.

But you mentioned the dink newsletter,

Alex Weaver.

There is, for those of you who don't know,

and those of you who are not on Pickleball Twitter,

there is like a media personality pick-um-league

for Major League Pickleball.

It is the most prestigious thing

and maybe all of Pickleball.

You have Alex Weaver, Thomas Shields,

myself, Eric Tyson,

all representing the dink.

You got Chris Calli, sorry,

not sorry.

You got Alex Lans from the kitchen.

You have the NML guys.

You have Hannah Johns.

There's a ton of different people

all vying for supremacy.

No, don't disrespect Hayshay like that.

Include Hayshay in their team.

Hayshay, Hayshay as well.

Johnny 5.0,

Maddie Pickles.

There's a ton.

You can disrespect those guys.

That's fine.

Just don't disrespect Hayshay.

So anyway,

we're almost at the end of the season.

Believe it or not,

speaking of no disrespect,

Jim Klaus,

the prior season champion,

smartest guy in Pickleball.

But this year,

the dink has the number one spot,

the tied for number one spot,

the number three spot.

And if Eric Tyson didn't have to abstain

from some things and always pick

the Chicago Black Bears,

he'd probably be number one overall.

So dink representing,

I'm not sure those other guys may be

in second to last.

I'm not sure who those other guys are,

but they may or may not get offended

if we talk about them or their podcasts,

but victory lap for the dink so far.

Victory lap for the dink.

Love it.

I don't get anything else to say.

Good stuff.

That's fine.

Don't disrespect Hayshay.

Never, never.

She is the person when,

like when she hits,

nobody else hits.

She is the pick with your hard type of person,

which is fantastic,

which has worked really well for her,

you know, a notorious Dallas Flash superfan.

And they've been doing great for the last two weeks.

Nobody else picked them like

to do as well as she has.

So maybe why don't we start?

We want to start with the Dallas Flash

in an MLP Chicago.

Sure.

Well, let's run it.

Dallas Flash overhyped.

I hate to say it.

They've beaten hardly anybody over the last two weeks.

Now Columbus, very good win.

So I'll take that statement back immediately.

They beat Columbus.

The Columbus is really like their,

that's their best,

that's their signature win.

They beat their Brooklyn team

without, without Rachel in women's doubles.

They don't beat that Brooklyn team

if Rachel is in women's doubles.

It is surprising to me that,

that they won that Dreambreaker still

and in extremely convincing fashion.

But they played the two weakest events

of the year by a country mile.

And they won them,

which I'm not like,

that's a good accomplishment to win these, right?

Beating Columbus is great.

Beating Brooklyn is great.

But like, the fact that it was Dallas versus Brooklyn

in a, in a week final,

like that's a, that's a week final.

I guess, you know,

to me, I still think they are one of three teams

that have won two or more MLP events this year.

They're one of, I think, four teams total

that have won an event.

I don't think the Brooklyn Pickleball team

or the Columbus Sliders have won one.

So you play who they put in front of you

and they're beaten them left and right

in convincing fashion.

As you mentioned,

JW Johnson going like seven and one against Chris Hayworth

insane, overhyped maybe.

But I still think now there's a top two

and there might actually just be a second tier of four.

I might put the Dallas Flash in there,

but they got to be in the conversation

with the Columbus Sliders and the LA Mad Drops

after beating them and back to back weeks, right?

Yeah, I'd put them in that like that second tier now.

They've gone from third tier to second tier, definitely.

So they're in that grouping of Brooklyn.

I probably would still put Columbus somewhere between.

Yeah, you got the shock in the fives.

I'd put Columbus kind of in between as a third team.

And then you got Brooklyn, LA, Dallas,

kind of in that next tier.

St. Louis, sorry, after that comes like Palm Beach and Texas.

And then there's kind of the rest of the teams

that are looking for playoffs spots after that.

So they're good.

They are good.

They're better than a lot of people expected.

I don't think they're winning a championship, that's for sure.

I don't think they are either,

but I think they're at least have odds for a championship child.

They could at least upset somebody.

And at minimum, can be one of the three or four or five

seeded teams, which I don't think anybody thought could happen.

I think everybody started the season of there's a top five

and everybody else, Dallas, left for dead,

Mark Moulton, owner, GM of the Dallas Flash.

Is there an argument for him to now actually be GM of the year?

No.

I mean, best trade all season.

Maybe the best pick up off of, I don't know, I guess it was a trade,

Alex Strong, you know, buddies with Danny Townsend,

those two moves fantastic.

If you would have told me, hey, this person,

you're going to lose your top two women and still win two events,

which is probably if they kept their exact team from last year,

I don't even think the odds would be that they would win two events this year.

So...

Interesting.

I don't, I mean, that team from last year crushes these two events,

the same two events.

So, I mean, you can kind of thank the schedule for some of that,

some of that win.

Now they made some, they've made good moves.

I like where, where Dallas is at for sure,

and they're, they're jelling pretty well.

But like, I don't know, I guess,

they might be somewhat slim picking for GM of the year.

So, I don't know, I don't even know how you would,

how you judge something like that.

Like, what do you put Harwood in there for going and getting all these pieces?

Like, you know, how do you, how do you even judge,

do you put Johnny Goldberg in there for probably making half a meal with his roster?

Like...

I was going to say Johnny Goldberg probably the person.

Honestly, Mark might be the guy because if you think about this,

we now can revision his history, his decision to drop Georgia.

Is that still the right decision?

Who should he have dropped?

Because after, if you've been watching MLP the last two weeks,

JW Johnson is the best player on planet Earth.

Like, no doubt.

He's moving.

He hasn't moved around so much in mixed doubles for a while.

Playing with Georgia, they kind of got that, you know, sort of their style down.

But he's playing big with Brooke now.

Playing great.

Yeah, so it was good for him.

Maybe it's his new pickle paddle.

Who's to say, honestly?

Could be pickle paddle slash paddle tech paddle.

I don't know.

And in that, in that finals with Dallas and Brooklyn,

I think the biggest shocker to me was the absolute beat down

that they put in the second spot in mixed doubles.

I saw...

Actually, the biggest surprise was Chris Hayward.

Let's talk about that in a second here.

But do you watch Augie and Danny play in that finals?

I thought they were unstoppable.

I didn't know what they could do.

Riley Newman looked completely lost,

so did Jackie Calimodo.

Like, I just...

I thought Jackie and Riley would be significantly favorite in that match.

And it just looked like they had nothing.

Anything fast came back even faster, relentless attacks.

Like, it looked like they could never beat that team.

Like, there was no chance.

Yeah, I'm not going to lie.

I was not able to watch much this weekend.

I was able to sneak some views of the slice.

Got to watch most of their matches.

But that is...

That's about it, unfortunately.

So, didn't see that.

Saw the end result.

Did watch the Dreambreaker beat down.

And that's the most surprising part for me.

Like, I figured Augie and Danny would mesh really well together

because Augie obviously plays the right side.

And Danny loves playing the left.

And there's not too many ladies that want to play the left in mixed doubles.

But I tuned in for that Dreambreaker.

And I couldn't believe that the Smackdown that Jada put on Chris.

And I think Augie is an underrated single-splayer,

particularly for four points at a time.

And he's clutching a Dreambreaker.

So, four-four with Alshon doesn't particularly surprise me.

But 7-1 for Jada does.

Yeah.

And it brought good.

Yeah, I mean, 12 to 5,

the men of the Flash beating the men of the Brooklyn Pickleball team.

And that is by far the best men's Dreambreaker line-ups.

So it makes me wonder, like, is Dreambreaker power overrated?

Like, as long as you don't have an absolute liability,

does it actually matter?

Like, did the shock actually do that much by getting Hunter Johnson?

Like, it's only eight points.

You know what I'm saying?

So, and JW had control of pretty much all of those points.

It was interesting to watch.

Like, you never saw Chris really get in.

JW great passing shots.

But I don't know.

I mean, to me, it just screams Brooklyn Pickleball team is in trouble.

Like, maybe they're not-

They are not we thought they were.

They aren't who they thought we were.

Oh god.

How do you still screw this up?

I just said it for you.

You had the other version done.

And I just said it again.

You messed it up.

I have the Yips.

It's like a Yips on the specific sentence.

Like, some you can, you know,

Connigger and Ed can't serve occasionally.

I can't say this specific meme.

But-

And I can't get Zoe Wiles last name done.

Yeah.

You did it this time.

But I-

My thought is one, maybe Riley and Jack here overrated as a mixed two team.

And two, if they don't have a stranglehold on Dreambreakers,

they're in huge trouble.

And I think my thought is, even with Rachel Roerbacher,

that team is not that much better at Dreambreakers.

Right?

Like, they rely so heavily on getting a huge lead with their men.

And the men's field is so tight that I don't actually

think it's that big of an issue.

I think-

I-

That-

That big of a-

Of a plus for them.

I think it's way better to have top tier women

in your Dreambreaker lineup than it is to have the men.

Even though the men obviously play more points.

Yeah.

No, I-

I would agree with that.

I just think that the-

That the difference between the top men and the bottom men in-

In Dreambreakers is a lot to-

Closer than the top women to the bottom women.

Right?

So, you know, you're-

You're maybe looking for a five-three advantage

out of each of your men's team.

But like, maybe the-

Maybe a six-two or something from-

From the women.

And so, yeah, I mean, like, I think Rachel coming back into singles

at some point for Hannah Blatt.

You know, maybe that goes from a three-five spread on average

to a five-three spread on average,

which is, you know, which is big.

But, uh, yeah, even having the best men's players

in the world, like, you know, that's-

That's maybe giving you one one extra point per rotation,

which is huge, but it's not everything, right?

So, yeah, I mean, I think they get a little bit better

when Rachel comes back to singles.

But, uh,

And there is some randomness, too.

Like, I just don't-

I do think that JW is a good matchup against Chris Hayworth,

but I don't see-

I don't see Dallas winning that super regularly.

Yeah, I don't think so either.

I still think Dallas has the vibes, you know,

the-

Yeah.

Brooklyn has, you know,

Riley Hittin, the paddle out of Christian Aushon's hand,

with probably like the clip of the tournament,

and just Aushon just like-

Just kind of shaking his head, looking-

Looking frustrated, confused, I'm not sure,

but, uh, I was ready for Aushon to then kick him in the head,

like that video from two years ago,

where they slapped paddles at the net.

Maybe that moment was the-

The turning point, uh, in their-

in their event, to which caused them to-

to lose, but, I don't know, Brooklyn, that-

I'm still, you know, proud of them for-

for making it to the finals.

The team is cursed, you know,

we've had conversations on the side,

through text and DMs, like,

is it Jay Gelvar, superfan?

Is he the curse?

I'm not sure what it is,

but they can't catch a break.

Scooter injuries,

sickness, injury-

regular injuries, uh,

scoreboard injuries.

Sporting on you, yeah.

So, I don't know, we'll see what happens,

but they-

they need maybe, like, a rain dance or something.

Yeah, no, it's weird.

I mean, they played-

they played a bunch of different lineups they had.

Rohrbacher was out of women's the entire time,

but in-

mixed the entire time,

Riley was in and out of mixed doubles.

Hayworth was in for him a couple times in mixed.

Aushon, I think, was out for one in mixed,

maybe-

or maybe I'm wrong.

Like-

You switched it up, like, a ton,

which is a little strange, but-

Oh well.

All right, so Zane,

so just a second ago,

we're talking about GM of the year,

and, you know,

we don't give you enough credit for being GM of the year.

Maybe you're not the GM,

maybe you're actually a player

that probably has the highest salary on your entire team.

I don't know, or highest draft number,

but Zane,

I want to get your thoughts on,

you know, I think you played just a couple of games.

You ended up with your role from the-

New Jersey Fives,

you were on the bench.

Your team did great.

Zoe Wild called you out,

said that your team might be better with you on the bench.

I want to hear a little bit about that decision,

a little bit about the Chicago experience.

I think you guys-

you guys were doing a ton.

Aushon throughout the first pitch.

You guys played against them.

Megan Desan is trying to blast people in the face.

Anyway,

give me a little bit more of the Chicago slice recap.

Yeah, no, it was a sweet week in Chicago.

So we all got there on Monday.

We went to Grant Park,

downtown Chicago,

which was iconic.

They're skyscrapers in the background.

Sunset, the sky was all pink.

We're there.

And I have actually a crazy story.

So we were debating-

The rest of the team was going undercover.

LC was pretending to be a little sister.

Lou'd never played before.

Like Jamie was pretending to not speak English.

Like they were all going undercover

and we were like-

the people were recording it.

But we had made the decision,

you know, not to inflate my ego any more than it already is,

that I was probably too recognizable

to show up to the pickleball court for this event.

And so I got there while they're still doing their thing.

I met up with another

Paddle Tech employee and we were kind of waiting

like on the outskirts and

we were debating it, right?

We're like, am I too noticeable to go over there?

Like what I blow their cover right now?

And I swear to God,

as we are having this debate,

a guy with his pickleball paddle,

bikes past us,

does a double take,

helmet falls off,

goes onto the ground,

he hits his helmet with the bike

and kind of like stumbles off.

Doesn't like acknowledge that,

but just turns around and goes,

you're a naver, so

literally on cue as we're having the conversation,

I turned to Maddie and I'm like,

that answers that.

So anyway, that was some cool social content after that.

You know, we did a bunch of random stuff,

like we played instead of playing with a beer in one hand

because we got a bunch of 13, 15, 18 year olds.

We played with a pizza in one hand.

Again, that was fun.

Well, you know, I served up some chain sauce too.

And yeah, it was just a good time after that.

So that was Monday.

On Tuesday, we had the event outside of Rigglyfield,

where we set up a pickleball court

and we had the Chicago slice playing against the paddle tech

and pickle all stars,

which is pretty sweet because obviously,

paddle tech just picked up J.D.

up, Georgia, and Tyra to their team.

So pretty frickin stacked team over there.

They had camshaven, Riley Newman,

who couldn't play because of that scooter injury.

They had Christian, Georgia, Tyra, J.D. up.

So it was a really solid squad

from their end played against us.

I want a little bit of credit.

I started out hot.

I hit Christian Elshon with a nasty Nelson on point one.

So successful Nelson was an exhibition,

but you know, nasty nonetheless.

Let's see, after that, he got to go in

and throw the first pitch.

And if you saw any of this stuff on social media,

like I was not thinking that he was about to go throw a strike,

they just did not have good odds on that.

But he threw a frickin good pitch,

like he actually threw a strike.

So shout out Christian.

Hard work pays off strike in the first pitch.

That's impressive.

You know, to me, one is the nerves

have got to be through the roof,

trying to throw a first pitch strike, right?

And if you saw Christian,

he's doing we sports,

he's practicing everything.

Like there was like a basically like a rocky montage

of Christian trying to train for this.

You know, he took an entire tournament off.

He was dialed.

My question, those ain't is,

how did he get chosen to be the first pitch guy?

Did you did the paddle tech,

like look at the roster and say,

who is the only athlete here?

But this guy, we're going to pick him to throw it

or if it's a, we've had enough of Zane

trying to do cross-port stuff.

Like how did that happen?

I actually, I don't know.

I think probably because,

because Christian resigned with paddle tech

and, you know, he's kind of the,

I would say the face of paddle tech

before all the J-Dab, Georgia, and whatnot stuff.

So, yeah, I mean, I think he's the,

he's the probably most well-known

pickleballer of the group.

Or, yeah, so,

that would be, that'd be my guess.

Zane, I have a quick,

a quick detour from what is happening.

And maybe we do this in more detail later.

But is paddle tech,

if paddle tech was an MLP team,

does that team beat every other MLP team?

You know what, that's so funny.

We were, I was debating that because

the paddle tech team would be Christian,

J-Dab, Georgia, and Tyra,

with maybe Cam Shafen coming in for the Dreambreaker.

Like, better question is,

does that team beat the shock?

Because you can't really compare them to the fives,

because Georgia's on the fives, right?

Does that team beat the shock?

That's tough.

That is tough.

Hey, I don't know.

I don't think so.

It's close.

I don't think so.

But like, fascinating, right?

That's a good team.

But now, now, Zane, does that team

beat every other paddle brand's team?

If each paddle brand had an MLP team,

does that team, is that the best team?

I mean, I'd imagine it's probably second to Yola,

because you got Fed, Ben, and Abright,

and I don't know who would be their second woman for Yola.

I mean, you could keep Fahey if you wanted.

But then also, you got Franklin,

you got Paris and...

And Ali.

And Anneli.

Or Anneli.

I mean, that'd be pretty fascinating.

Those are definitely the big three.

Imagine the rivalry match between PaddleTech and Franklin.

Pretty electric.

You got both J.D.

and your workmates switching over.

You got Anneli switching over.

Like, that'd be a pretty good grudge match.

I think so too.

And I actually think that all three of those teams

are relatively even to where, like,

if there was a tournament,

there's not necessarily a clear favorite.

I mean, that'd be pretty sweet.

Yeah, that'd be sick.

I've said for a while,

I think it'd be super cool to do a MLP of Paddle Brands.

Like, get all of this Paddle Brands that sponsor MLP

or our UPA approved or whatever you want to do

to submit their lineups.

Like, how electric would that be?

I think it'd be awesome.

And then maybe you do what they did

in at Beer City Open and you have like an Indie brand All Stars.

You know, you take the onesy twosy,

like, whoever's playing with like a Luz or an RPM

or whatever and you form that Ragtag team as well.

But I love it.

I love it.

All right.

Well, leave us a comment.

Which team do you think wins the Paddle Brand Ball?

And which team is Sneaky Good, right?

Is there like an engaged team or a facelose team

or an RPM team or something that's Sneaky Good

with a couple of athletes that could make it happen?

So I like that debate.

That's that's a pretty interesting one.

All right.

We'll see if that's possible.

Well, in the Pro Pickball Talk Discord as well.

Remember to do that, Shit Nico.

I will.

I'm glad that last week you woke up at 3 AM

to put in a poll where you got absolutely stumped

in our last draft.

So I think I'm along like a three or four game win streak.

I don't know.

But hold on, hold on.

Even people pointed out that you cheated.

Jonathan Trong is in the top 20.

I win by technicality.

And I will take that.

I am not above that.

All right.

So let me ask you this.

In an MLP team, you cannot have three players in the top 20.

Correct?

The top 20 of their gender.

So I'm just following MLP rules.

No, no, no, no.

These are my rules.

That we said for this poll last week.

You said no, that's 20.

I assumed you meant what MLP also means when they say no

three top 20.

So I was only looking at men's.

You can get an asterisk for this one.

Just like I got an asterisk for that one

where I won like two out of three polls.

And you still gave yourself credit.

We got a lot of asterisk in these.

We, you know, luckily we really needed impartial third party

for this.

Oh, yeah.

Just to keep me out when I try to say that

Israel's part of Africa.

It's true.

It's true.

But yeah, I think we're basically even coming into the home

stretch of the year.

We got a couple more of these going.

So I don't know what somebody if there's a historian can

let us know like where we're at on the season.

I'd love that.

Propicable discord.

Please do the math.

Somebody figure out where we're at season standings.

Yeah, I'm winning.

But so dude, what I didn't realize was how big of a deal

talking to you know to go back to talking about me again.

Of course.

How big of a deal that actually doing the seventh

inning stretch is like I actually for some reason didn't realize

that that was like a somewhat uniquely

regley field tradition.

There are a bunch of others that do it.

But it's not nearly as big anywhere other than

regley.

So me and LC got to do that and

she was freaking out the entire day.

I only started freaking out right when we went up there

and saw 40,000 Cubs fans down there.

And there was like no sign.

What's what we're just like waiting there chilling third out

happens in the top of the seven.

We're like, all right.

Now what?

I'm like, go, go, go, go, go.

Okay.

But we did it.

We got it done.

And uh,

yeah, that was pretty freaking cool.

Funny story too.

LC throughout a signed hat to

you know, you throw out a signed hat after you sing the seventh

inning stretch.

The person who caught it was a was a friend of a friend.

And they texted me that they have the they have the signed

thing.

It's a pick-up player.

It's just like so random.

So that was pretty cool.

Pretty cool.

Pretty cool experience.

So the Chicago group did a ton

around the city.

We did some clinics as well.

Really, really cool home events.

And the facility and everything was sick.

I think that I mean, I was only there for a day.

But I feel like this is an eight plus event.

Yeah, but you were only there for a day.

Yeah, I didn't.

Are you talking about it?

You're talking about an MLP.

Are you talking about it?

I really.

I was only at MLP for Thursday.

We played Thursday.

I didn't know this.

We beat the bouncers.

And then I had to go after Thursday.

I had to go to Tennessee.

So my Jenny's, my wife's sister,

who was getting married to my college roommate.

And so I was the best man.

And Jenny was the matron of honor.

So we had to go, had to go do that.

But actually funny story about those two.

They met at the very first MLP event over in Dreamland.

So Matt and Stephanie were both living,

they were living in San Antonio and Colleen at that point.

And they both came to come watch that event.

And they both watched with my parents over there.

And they met in the beer line over at Dreamland

and have been together ever since.

And then tied the knot on Saturday.

So yeah, I'll

congrats to them and a little MLP love story.

Wow.

That's impressive.

Where did the extra thing I married in Tennessee?

What part of Tennessee were they?

They get rid of the middle of nowhere.

Kind of the tourist.

Where that is.

No, I know like basically Pigeon Forge,

Gowlandberg and all the other big cities.

It was like half an hour from Gowlandberg.

Oh, love that place.

I love Gowlandberg and Pigeon Forge.

Okay.

Cool.

So this kind of like ruined,

to be quiet on this day,

I probably am not the only one here.

Guys, if you're listening,

you can let me know in the comment section.

When the Chicago Slice come on,

I just pull up the match day app

and I just see what's happening.

Like this is my chance to like,

I go do dishes,

you know, clean up the house.

And so I was like,

oh, it's on the lineup again.

And again, I didn't even know you left.

So this,

maybe this is AJ Kohler's moment,

like this Tom Brady moment.

You, you left,

you know, unfortunate circumstance.

You're out.

Now he's there.

They're coming up,

you know, just win after win.

I guess you said you beat the Atlanta Bouncer.

So I guess your spot might probably save.

But you guys look,

you look good and you guys are like,

this close to the playoffs.

Are you guys,

where are you like 13th in the rankings right now?

No, well, so first off,

AJ played great.

John played great.

The ladies played great.

Emma Nelson,

in her first event,

fit right in with us.

So I couldn't be more excited for the,

for the squad.

Jamie stepped up in a really big way.

It in terms of like leadership for the team.

So I don't know.

I was like a,

a proud,

a proud dad.

I think Zoe Wild tweeted that out to

among some other very mean things that she said.

Joking, obviously.

But no, everybody stepped up.

It was awesome.

And so we got 12 points,

which actually puts us currently sitting

in the playoffs picture.

But there are a few other teams

that we're competing with like Miami,

Las Vegas,

Orlando,

and California.

So it is definitely going to come down to Orlando

for who can,

who can secure

the,

the most points there.

But as of right now,

we're one point ahead of a couple teams

sitting in 12th.

They have a better group for Orlando

than we do.

And several of them are in the same group.

So we've got some work to do in,

in Orlando this week.

But the squad is playing good ball.

Yeah, they're looking, they're looking great.

I, I roast you guys off after you guys made the trade.

And this is probably my fault.

But you guys made the trade.

You know,

no more hunter, no more Mari.

Mari's doing great immediately

on the Atlanta Bouncer's.

They've been playing pretty well.

And, and then you guys basically just got smoked

immediately after that.

So I wrote you guys off for dead.

Looked great this week.

Got one more week.

I'm rooting for you guys.

Believe it or not,

even though it would be more fun on the pod.

If you guys don't make it,

but I have a hard time rooting against,

you know, 13, 14, 15 year olds,

playing pro sports.

So I think you guys got America's heart.

And maybe that's what you were doing as well.

By drafted all these people or, or trading for them.

I think we're a fun team to watch for.

I mean, like how can you,

how can you cheer against LC or, or Emma?

Like Jamie is an icon.

Looch is playing really good ball.

Like, and AJ, just the veteran out there crushing it this,

this week, the, the, the calm Uncle AJ vet.

Like I think we're a fun team to,

fun team to watch.

And it's definitely a fun team to be a part of.

These, I mean, the kids are getting better,

minute by minute.

Like they show up literally better the next day.

It's crazy how fast they're getting good.

So.

Oh, yeah.

I'm excited to see what happens next year

in the year after that.

So like how fast can they get good?

This happens in records everywhere where you like see this 13 year

role that has some kind of athletic ability and you play as, you know,

like, oh, you're like a three five.

And like you, you show up like four weeks later, he's a four five.

And then two weeks after that, he's a five oh, like that.

That it's incredible how fast they go.

So, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if your team is, you know,

in that second tier next year,

if everybody progresses the way they are.

I mean, I think Looch is, is actually.

Has gotten so much better.

It doesn't get as much credit as anybody else.

Of the, you know, the younger group because he's already one,

two golds and singles.

And people think about him in singles.

But I was at pickle con last week.

And I was talking to Ryan Moore know from pickle ball breakdowns.

And he was like, I'm going to do a piece right now on,

on John Lucian Williams because he's the most underrated guy in all pickle ball.

So shout out to him now.

Yeah, I mean, we didn't pick up John to be our,

our dream breaker, dude.

Now, like, I think John is is proving

immediately how good he is at doubles.

He's never really had that like shot.

Right?

And so he's also taking that opportunity

immediately.

And like, he's fired up to, to play.

Like, he's fired up to be in the lineup.

Like, we got a team of people that want the ball,

which is, which is good, especially for youngsters.

So.

Yeah, that's important.

So I think the one thing that youngsters sometimes have to look out for

is bullying.

And I want to ask you about what happened with the Megan Dishonblue card.

Was there a like, I only saw a highlight from this.

But I remember she, she got blasted kind of like,

upper shoulder face and then just took the ball and whacked it.

And I'm sure did it hit Emma Nelson?

Did it not hit her?

Like, was it an accident?

Is there any more to this story?

What, what happened?

Yeah, honestly, I wasn't there.

I don't know anything other than what we all saw online.

And to be like, first off,

like, I'm sure Megan would acknowledge this.

I think it was a huge and inappropriate overreaction from her.

Like Emma's speed up was, it wasn't even like a bag attempt.

Like, it was pretty slow.

And it looked like Megan kind of just dodged the wrong way and then got caught.

Like, it's possible that that ball was going in.

Like, yeah.

So huge overreaction.

Like, I'm sure she would acknowledge that too.

And you know, I think she made a comment like, yeah, it's not my finest moment.

Like, I'm sorry.

Good for her, right?

And I also feel like she got a little bit hosed because she

smacks the ball back.

She shouldn't have done that.

Like, I think the camera angle that we all saw the clip from

makes it look way worse than it is because you can't really see

how far away the ball is from Emma.

Like, she turns and she hits it.

Emma's general direction, but I don't think she hit it at Emma.

Like, I think she hit it.

I mean, it looks to me, if you really look at it, it looks to me like,

it's 10, 12, 15 feet away.

Like, I don't think it was hit at Emma.

General direction, but I don't think it was hit at Emma.

Interesting context, though.

Oh, Jamie and Emma were up 9-2.

Caitlin, I'm sorry, Caitlin and Megan brought it all the way back to 7-9.

I think that shot was at 9-7-2 for the slice.

So hitting her puts that at 10-7.

Blue card puts it at 11-7.

So pretty crucial part of the match, too.

But yeah, I mean, I don't know.

What are your thoughts on it?

To me, it was kind of a nothing burger.

The way I think about it is, it reminds me of when No Back Joke of Ishka

had defaulted from the US Open for smacking a ball out of frustration.

I think hitting the Lions judge or the ball due to whatever.

She got hit.

She was frustrated in the game, frustrated with herself.

Maybe frustrated, she got hit high.

I don't know.

It was like, she closed her eyes and just hit the ball.

Like, she's not.

There's no way she's aiming like nobody in all of Pickle Ball would take that ball on purpose

and aim it at somebody else.

Like, I don't think a single person would do that.

And so to me, it's just like similar to hating grabbing a ball and launching it

out of the facility.

She did the same thing, but it went literally straight, aimed like, head high

and looked like it was going to hit somebody.

So I don't know.

I honestly don't find any issue with it other than the fact that like,

you know, they lost the game because of it 100%.

Well, I mean, I think she's got to get a point penalty for it.

Yeah.

Like, it's not so the difference is,

Joe Kovic got matched forfeited.

Yeah.

Like, it wasn't match point.

If Joe Kovic, like, so I think it was a total overreaction for when Joe Kovic,

but I think a point penalty was accurate for there.

Yeah.

Happened to be a game penalty because it was on match point.

So I feel like the punishment was correct.

Like, that's got to be a,

honestly, that feels like that should just be a straight up orange card there.

Like, so they must have had a blue card to begin with or, or something.

Because, yeah, I mean, like, that's got to be a point penalty.

And it was and I think that's accurate.

Yeah.

I mean, I just, I just, I don't even remember which ones,

orange card, which ones, a blue card, they still like,

evade me.

But yeah,

that,

right, I think it's the same outcomes should have in whether or not she did what she

did or launched the ball out of the stadium.

So, all right, for Megan,

and then slightly awkward because, you know,

A.J. is on your team and all that stuff.

But yeah, so that was MLP Chicago.

We got one more event coming up.

We have MLP Orlando, Disney.

It's the same location that they had the bubble when they had the NBA playoffs.

So it's going to be fun.

I seem like all the good teams for the most part are there.

A ton of teams that are fighting for the 12 seed.

This is going to be probably the best regular season.

MLP event in MLP history.

Yeah, no, I think so.

So that's exciting.

You have the shock in the fives figuring out who's the number one seed.

It's probably going to come down to them playing each other in the finals.

You've got Brooklyn and L.A.

Potentially going for as high as the three seed over Columbus.

And a bunch teams looking to squeak in the playoffs.

There are five teams with shots to make it.

Or no, maybe four.

There are four teams with realistic shots.

I think that the hogs technically could get in if they win the entire thing,

which wouldn't that be a story.

But yeah, MLP Orlando is going to be pretty sick.

So I want to talk about a few other things.

Before we get fed on, I want to talk about the dink movie, because I fucking hated it.

I want to talk about, I want to talk about, what else do I want to talk about?

Probably you.

Yeah, I do want to figure out a way to talk about me some more.

Oh, we had something else.

Oh, I want to talk about your weekend, actually.

I want to pretend like I will care about your weekend.

So yeah, let's do that.

You want to talk about your weekend or you want to talk about the shitty movie?

Sure.

I'll give you a brief breakdown of my weekend.

It was quick.

So I was at Pickelcon, which is actually pretty cool.

There was a single con.

It was in Kansas City.

There's like 30 courts.

They had like five different pickleball tournaments happening at the same time,

all running by different organizations, which was super confusing.

So there's like a junior tournament from a junior league, and then there's a senior league,

and then there was an MLP style tournament, and then there was a,

like a nationals qualifier.

I couldn't actually understand and figure it out.

I was thinking about joining, but yeah, they lost me there.

But they invited me over there to do some like play with the influencer,

and also an exhibition on hybrid pickleball.

So for those of you who aren't familiar,

hybrid pickleball is one able body person, one person in a wheelchair,

playing together.

So the rules for players in wheelchairs is they get two bounces.

Their wheels are kind of like their feet, so that stops them from being in the kitchen.

For me, I have the same normal rules that apply for me.

And I made a video saying, there's no wrong time to hit a nasty Nelson,

but maybe, maybe, maybe there's an exception to that rule,

if I'm playing hybrid pickleball.

And so, of course, I'm crazy, but I don't necessarily have the guts,

but like two points in, the player, the opponent against me,

just sitting there, brought to serve in his wheelchair,

and all of a sudden the ball just comes like zooming like one inch from my face,

as I'm at the net.

And I was like, oh, this motherfucker will cry too nasty Nelson me.

Have you ever seen those clips of like the Paralympics ping pong,

where all they're doing is like drop shotting each other back and forth?

Yes.

Like, I feel like, I mean, like, like competitive sport is competitive sport.

I think, nasty Nelson is more fair game in adaptive pickleball,

or what did you call it?

Hybrid pickleball.

I like to volunteer with adaptive sports at Madison,

which was a cool program.

So I have that in my head, but what was it called?

It was hybrid pickleball, because it was like one of my pick-ball.

Pickleball is when it's both.

So yeah, in wheelchair pickleball or a hybrid pickleball,

I mean, game is game.

I think nasty Nelson's fair game.

Yeah.

One thing I learned is that they are absolutely ruthless,

and they know their limitations and weaknesses,

and they exploit it every single time.

So I've never seen more people hit slicing short serves to the corner,

trying to pull the other guy in the wheelchair off the court,

into the wall, like, and then, you know, it was funny.

I got advice, and it was like, all right.

He's like, when you go play, your partner who's in a wheelchair is going to tell you,

your number one strategy is blast the ball as hard as you can at the other guy in a wheelchair.

I was like, okay, I guess, you know, like, they're just like,

this is what you got to do.

Then we got to the point where we were just like, there's a point,

if you look on my socials of me literally throwing up a lob than a drop,

then a lob than a drop and a lob in a drop, like four times in a row.

You just see this guy like just making like a Mario Kart loop back and forth,

back and forth, and that worked.

But it was the best experience I've ever had, and also there had to be at least like

13 nasty Nelson attempts throughout two games.

The guy even had a shirt on.

He took his shirt off afterwards, and he had another shirt underneath that just said,

you don't have the balls to nasty Nelson me.

I was like,

we've got a game prepared, which was fantastic.

And the only nasty that actually happened was my partner

hitting the other guy in the wheelchair.

And what they had said is, when you play,

you know, traditional pickleball,

you want to hit, you know, center mass, relatively hard, right, and you get them.

He's like, but because the other opponent in the wheelchair doesn't have as much mobility,

he's like, the best thing to do is basically just lob a softball over to them.

And before they know what happened, the ball is just basically just plops and hits them.

So the guy basically got hit got nasty with like a lob surf was fantastic.

So I need to see I need to see that clip.

I'll send out I'll send a super clip of like the literally the 13 times a nasty was attempted.

Also, they're a little bit shorter closer to the net.

So I don't have this huge chest to hit to like I basically can aim their face.

And that's about it.

So that makes it tough.

But hey, a win's a win.

It was super fun.

I think picklecon might be going to Vegas next year or Arizona,

but it was bigger than I thought.

And I think it's only going to get bigger.

I hope at some point like they partner with like PPA in some way.

I don't think it'll ever happen, but it's it was cool.

Like I like the idea of pro sports plus like there's like fireside chats and talks and like

different vendors that you don't just see, you know, like whatever muscle milk or insure,

whatever it is at a PPA.

Like there's like the same five vendors.

Like so it was more of an experience that you could like sit around and like learn.

So it was cool.

10 out of 10 would recommend picklecon.

Yeah.

What'd you do?

Like read how long were you there for like other than, you know,

hitting nasty Nelson's people in wheelchair and lobbing and actually kind of reminds me of

a social post that we came up with with the slice.

Did you see that?

Oh, no.

So there's this trend where you go and interview people and you ask one question that they think

they're answering.

And then on on the on the post, you say that you have like a completely different question.

So I asked them like, what's the cheapest way to win a pickleball point?

And they're like, oh, nasty Nelson.

LC goes like, probably hitting somebody in the eye.

And then it cuts back to me.

And I'm like, I asked the Chicago slice, what's your favorite strategy when playing against

senior citizens?

I'm hitting them in the eye.

And then get the reaction of all like Jamie's laughing.

LC doesn't get it.

She's like, what?

John just no reaction whatsoever.

Emma's loving it.

AJ nowhere to be found per usual.

Yeah.

Pretty good.

Pretty good post over there.

But anyway, I forgot what you were talking about.

I just wanted to talk about myself some more.

No, no picklecon just wrapped up.

Hung out there, met people, and then got a ton of people that wanted to play me and assert

their dominance.

And I literally just beat the shit out of every single person.

Like I had no mercy.

Like we did like a play against the influencer.

And then one guy is like, I want to play you in singles.

Because we were playing like two versus two.

And he's like, I'm playing in singles.

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, not only I'm going to beat you real hard.

And then I'm going to switch it to my right hand and still beat you.

So that's what I did.

You know, these, whether or not they're fans or whatever, like,

you know, I feel like Zangier, the similar person that likes to cross dreams,

thrown with a chain saw serve.

And so, and especially it feels good.

Like when I get like the, you know, the Chicago slice,

sage people coming up to me, you know, 15 to 18 that want to,

want to beat me and can still hang.

So yeah, it was good to just beat a bunch of people's ass for like eight hours straight.

And then had a bunch of Kansas City barbecue,

which, yeah, I might get hate for this.

Texas barbecue is much better than Kansas City barbecue.

Like hands down Texas barbecue is better.

Wow.

Do you actually agree on something for once?

I think so.

I don't, I don't know who doesn't agree unless you like living Kansas City.

I think their barbecue is good.

Don't get me wrong.

And also, I'm not the biggest barbecue person.

Like I can either like once every two weeks, a maximum.

It's not like a burrito that I could eat every day.

But yeah, Texas barbecue undefeated Kansas City.

You got some work to do.

100%.

You just can't beat the brisket.

No, that's true.

That's way different.

Way different style of brisket.

Texas brisket is fantastic.

It's like, I don't know how to describe it.

Squishy and big.

And the other ones more like sliced, daily lunch meat.

I didn't get it.

So yeah, look, disgusting, disgusting.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

So you can have discussed the thing.

Should we talk about the dink movie?

You hated it.

What an intro.

Oh my god.

Okay, do we agree on that too?

One of the worst movies I've ever seen.

It's saying I don't actually think I agree with you.

So here's the thing.

I watched the movie today.

This morning for pod research.

And also because I was interested.

And here's my takeaway.

Is that if you like pickleball,

it might be really frustrating and hard to watch.

But if you're not a pickleball player,

I think it actually might be enjoyable.

And here's what I mean.

It's saying, do you get sent randomly,

like maybe like once a month?

Like there's like a viral video on TikTok or Instagram.

And your non-pickable friends send it to you

thinking it's hilarious.

Like for example,

like a guy hitting playing pickleball

with a frying pan in a farmer suit.

Right? Like when that happened,

old man non-pickable friends would send that.

Right?

Yeah.

But here's the thing.

I thought that was funny.

That's you in the farmer.

Like tune it up, old people with the frying pan.

Like, yeah, that's you was actually funny.

See, I find that stuff to be not super funny.

I'm like, all right, I enjoy other pickleball content.

And I was like, this stuff,

yeah, I've seen like a hundred times.

It's no longer exciting.

And like, so this happens like once every three months.

Right?

And I think the dink movie is similar to those videos

where it's like,

if you're in the pickleball world,

you can't appreciate some of the humor.

Some of the stuff doesn't make any sense.

And you're like, we don't actually say that on the court.

But it's, I think it's funny for tennis players

or non-pickable players or whatever.

I enjoyed it.

It actually got like 74% on Rotten Tomatoes,

which is insane.

Yeah, that's crazy to me.

I just like, I was, I put this in my review.

Like, I was absolutely ready to like,

have a laugh at pickleball players.

And I did not have, I didn't have high expectations,

whatever.

I watched the trailer.

I had eyes or have eyes.

So I, and unfortunately ears.

So I didn't have eye expectations.

And my just abysmal expectations were met.

Like, I just, I like comedy.

It just wasn't funny.

And it was just like a weird romance that like,

there were like five, there were like five funny parts

of the movie.

Like, there were a few good one liners,

a few good jokes.

But like, you know, go watch Kill Tony for 70 seconds

and you'll have better stuff, right?

Like, so maybe I think it under delivered

for the amount of time.

Five good lines, you know, an hour and 45 minute movie.

Boring love story.

Not like, I didn't have any expectations.

Good pickleball either.

So like, don't even, don't even use that as an argument against me.

So you don't let the movies were like a 70 year old,

or like a 30 year old trying to crack a 70 year old.

Like, I was like, I'm really confused in the middle of the movie.

I'm like, oh, no, what's happening here?

I got the answer.

Like, he's, he's coming over her house to watch the graduate,

which I thought was funny.

She's like, oh, March this movie to graduate.

He has no idea what the fuck is happening.

And, you know, it's definitely a movie about

an older woman trying to seduce a younger man.

Anyway, I thought that was pretty funny.

And then I was like, I really hope that they don't kiss.

I hope that there's like, you know, it was bizarre.

But, you know, it's not relatable.

I've never tried to crack, you know, my 65 plus mixed doubles partners,

you know, to the delight of my wife.

But, no, I mean, I thought it was, I thought Ben Stiller's part was,

was funny.

I thought those lines were good.

I like new girl.

Like, did you ever watch new girl?

That makes sense.

Yeah, you would.

So, new girl has Nick Miller.

Nick Miller is like one of the goaded characters of TV history.

And that's whatever name is Jake Johnson,

the main character of the movie.

And so I think probably it's also a little bit residual there.

But, I mean, I had to take a look because you're like,

this movie sucks for anybody that likes pickleball

or anybody that likes comedy or has eyes or ears or whatever.

I read your review or heard your review.

And so I went through and I looked here are some movies

that have lower reviews than the dink.

All right.

Jumanji.

Jumanji has a worse rating.

The original or the ones with the original.

The original has a worse rating on Ron tomatoes.

Wild.

Footloos.

Footloos.

Never seen it.

A goofy movie.

Hook.

Don't know it.

Top.

Top gun.

Good to see it.

Which top gun?

The first top gun.

Say, and are you?

Are you 18 or how old are you?

You're like 30.

I got him.

How have you not seen these movies?

Troy with Brad Pitt.

Haven't seen it.

My gosh.

This is insane.

I thought the Odyssey.

That was phenomenal.

I just think maybe Zane just doesn't know movies.

I don't know.

Say, what's what's like your top movie?

Like if you gave me like your top three,

like what what what movies are watching?

Honestly, I was just talking.

It might be the Odyssey.

Like the Odyssey was phenomenal.

Have you seen it yet?

I did.

I saw it.

Oh, yeah.

So the Odyssey has got to be up there.

I like some weird ones.

Like I like some ones.

Like we'll see the usual suspects with Kevin Spacey.

Not because of Kevin Spacey,

but because it's a good movie.

That's a great one.

The hangover.

Actual comedy.

Oh, there you go.

That's a good movie.

Let's see.

You know, there's plenty of good sports movies and what not.

Yeah, the usual suspects.

Matrix is a good movie.

I've got it all listed out in a spreadsheet.

What my ratings are for them.

Oh my gosh.

Let's see.

Touch me if you can.

That's a good one with the

theo de caprio and

Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks.

Yeah, there's a bunch of good ones.

That's good.

And the Odyssey, by the way, fantastic.

I am at the age where I literally had to take a 20-minute

pregame nap in the car in the parking lot of the movie theater

to prepare prepare myself for a three-hour movie.

Luckily for me, the movie is so fucking loud

that I should never fall asleep in that movie ever.

But it's fantastic.

Like that movie was like hit after every part of

like every second of that movie was great.

Yeah, I was wired the entire like I agree.

I normally fall asleep for any movie

that like goes past 9 p.m.

And that's not a joke.

I was wired until like 10 30.

Now it might have been the just absolutely

copious amounts of Diet Coke that I consumed in preparation.

But it was phenomenal.

Same.

I think probably my best movie.

Favorite movie.

So we always do rate my duper and we'll do rate my duper later

in this episode as well.

But I want to get your duper rating for the Dink movie.

2.5.

I gave it a two out of 10 in my movie rating skills.

The same as the new Super Mario movie from a couple

months ago, which I don't know why I went to.

You went to this movie in the theaters?

I did.

I was really bored.

Wow, you have like no ties.

And you were one of the busiest men in all of Pickleball.

And you choose to spend two hours go see Mario Galaxy.

I've seen the movie too.

But I have four kids.

So but the first Mario movie was actually really good too.

And the second one wasn't that.

That's right.

But I'm given this like a 3.4, 3.5 duper.

So I think it's actually better than you think.

I think more people will like it than you'll think as well.

Saying you're just too high brow for a movie like the Dink.

So you like the Odyssey.

Catch me if you can.

If you probably like, I don't know what other

high brow movies there are, but not a fan of Super Mario,

not a fan of the Dink, not a fan of fun.

Same now.

Yeah.

It was just as predictable.

It was not funny.

There were no like redeeming qualities about the movie.

So yeah.

Anyway, that's my that's my take.

Go watch literally like any stand up comedy routine for more than three minutes.

And they'll get more laughs than you did at the Dink.

But we did actually have a good time.

We were stacking.

I don't know if you saw this.

We were stacking as much popcorn as we possibly could on AJ's head

because he was sleeping.

And we were bored.

So that was that was pretty fun.

Yeah, we ended up with like 20 pieces of popcorn on AJ's head before he woke up.

Oh, where we woke up.

When you said when you said stacking, I thought you meant just like one on top of another.

I was like, that sounds pretty hard, but you basically just like poured a bucket of popcorn on his head.

One piece of popcorn at a time.

On the brim on the brim of his hat.

Yeah.

Okay.

And on top of the hat, it was entertaining.

All right.

All right.

Well, that's a good use of time.

So Zane, keep this in your shirt.

6-0 pickleball mesh black shirt.

I have never felt more athletic as a non-athlete.

Do I officially look like an athlete at this point?

I mean, Nico, as much as a shirt can make you look athletic, I think this one does.

So take that for whatever it's worth.

All right.

A win is a win here.

My guys at 6-0 pickleball are launching a new line of athletic wear.

And it's not just like we took a shirt from a random factory and did no research.

And then we just said, oh, this is a pickleball shirt.

We saw it there logo on it.

No, they actually like designed a shirt for pickleball players.

Because one, this one is like nice and tied around the arm.

So like if you can see these these bad boys right here, you haven't been working out.

But also when I sweat my ass off, it still like feels good.

I've been wearing these all week.

So anyway, shout out to them.

It took me forever to get a 6-0 paddle.

But I've enjoyed them.

And now I'm enjoying the shirts and the shorts as well.

So if you guys are in the market for a new set of pickleball attire, get the 6-0 performance line.

It's pickleball gear for people that know pickleball, built for pickleball players.

So if you want to look like an almost athlete like me in the words of Zane,

I don't know, I sure actually exactly sure what he said.

Just head over to 6-0 site.

That's 6-0 pickleball.com.

S-I-X-Z-E-R-O pickleball.com.

Check them out.

This is all the respect that we need for our podcast.

Is that when we say, hey Fed, we want you to join.

I can spend 20 minutes while supercharging my car.

You only do those on my house.

I can go to like this street.

No, this is perfect.

This is perfect.

Zane does half of his podcast in Panera Bread.

No, this is just a new market.

We love a good car interview.

You're in good company with James Ignata Witch.

Is he?

I feel like we had a car interview this year as well.

James was last year.

Oh, not yet.

We had Duke Wong in his car.

Ah, yeah.

You are, you're in James Ignata Witch,

Duke Wong, Fed Stocks, Rune Territory.

How does it feel?

They're just going to go in the podcast, right?

Oh, yeah.

What are we laughing at?

No, we're doing it today, Fred.

No, this is good company for sure.

This is good company for sure.

That's what I want.

All right.

Well, on a serious note, speaking of good company,

you got traded to the New Jersey Fives.

You now are on a team with Will Howells,

No A Clif, Annelie Waters,

your teammate, Millie Rain, and George Johnson,

which is just a powerhouse of a team.

There had been conversations about you being traded for,

I don't know, probably like a month leading up to this point.

Like, when did you figure out it was actually going to happen?

Like, when did you realize, like, all right,

this is probably going to happen.

I'm going to get traded.

Yeah, I mean, I tell you everything because it happened.

Like last week, I mean, who, you know,

worked with us at the Orlando Squeeze,

he was like, hey, what do you want to do?

Like, there's these possibilities.

There's these, you know, options.

So I actually thought about it.

I was like, you know, I mean, you know,

I love being on the squeeze.

I've been on the squeeze for like three years,

but it kind of like, go to the point,

this year that released to me,

it was going to be hard for us to compete.

So, I mean, honestly, he gave me kind of like a bunch

of different options that teams that were asking for me.

And I, you know, I gave him an answer,

you know, what I thought it was going to be.

And honestly, like two days after,

these was to say a Friday or something,

two days after, you know, I asked him, is anything going to happen?

And he was like, now, not really,

we're going to just roll with his crew

until the other season.

So it was okay.

Sounds good.

And then Monday, I think it was Monday, the deadline.

They started, you know, like, I started getting calls.

I was on a plane and I started getting calls.

I couldn't answer the phone.

I started getting texts from Ryan,

who is the owner of the team.

And then, yeah, kind of like last minute,

like 20 minutes into the deadline, everything happened.

And I didn't even know that it was going to be the five.

So I thought it was maybe going to be on the other team,

like the moddrops or something like that.

But he ended up in the five.

So, yeah, honestly, super excited.

You know, I went to, I got a train where I'm in a team

that is first place.

So it's pretty cool.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, there were a lot of questions around the circumstance of it.

Because obviously it got announced like four or five hours

after the the trade deadline.

For, I was honestly like, what the fuck is going on?

Like, how does this happen after the trade deadline?

After we've already moved the trade deadline, 17 times this year.

Yeah.

But I actually, I didn't even know that it was sorted.

That I trust that this did actually go get in before the deadline.

But like, for whatever reason.

And the GMs wanted to call the players.

So they didn't see it on social media.

So, I had a good reason for holding the announcement.

Yeah.

So, I mean, my question after that is the crazy part is,

how was this the best offer that the squeeze got?

Right?

I mean, Nico had heard some, Nico, you want to take

go through this?

Because I thought you had heard some other offers

that were being thrown around.

No, yeah.

I mean, there was a ton.

Like, so like from what I heard at least from like the five,

it's like, I heard that the five's were willing to give away

400,000 plus the choice of no way or will to a couple of teams.

I heard that they were willing to even package in a deal with Georgia Johnson.

Who had Georgia and No way and like 600,000 in cash to another team.

Possibly to try and get Ben Johns.

I don't know.

There was like a ton.

And so my thought was, I guess, how did I want,

I just don't know how the squeeze didn't get No way or will.

And if there was anything like like,

like, Pacific, like, were you trying to go to the fives or or or how did how did they only get

two bench players and 400K and they lost Millie.

Like, I don't know.

To me, it doesn't make sense.

I don't think anybody makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, I mean, honestly, like, I was not involved in the trade,

you know, negotiations.

Like, I just got traded.

I had nothing to do with it.

I didn't even know that Millie wasn't on the trade.

I was honestly really surprised that Millie got traded

of going from being a starter to probably on the bench of the fives right now.

But I mean, yeah, I don't know.

Honestly, I don't know how to ask that question because I was not the I was not the guy that

actually made the decision.

But yeah, I mean, you would think that maybe this squeeze was going to try to get a guy

that they could use on the roster where it could be well annoyed.

For me, I would say I'm happy that that didn't happen because now we have so many good options

that we can use on the mixed doubles lineup.

But also the next levels lineup, we have three really good men's doubles players that we can

rotate if someone gets injured, which injuries happen or sick whatever.

We have a really good lineup.

So now we're going to be tough.

We're going to be tough for sure on the on the end of the season.

Yeah, is it possible you have too many options, right?

Because I mean, I was trying to game plan when this first thing came out,

we actually we went live, Nico and I went live, you were watching the live from your plane.

You can use that five.

Any of our questions.

But Aiden did sort of like, man, the fives have a lot of options and with one regular season event

left, like, is it possible there's actually too many options? Would it have been a simpler break

to actually, would it have potentially been better to get rid of Will or Noa just for clarity,

sake?

Yeah, it's usually the same, but I think honestly for us, the players, it's good.

It gives us motivation of, I don't want to be in the bench, I want to play hard, I want to go out

and do my best, I want to compete. I think the problem is the coach and the GM.

They are going to have to decide and they're going to have to be the ones that you

will be like, what, you're going to sit out on this one.

And I think with the players, we have to agree and also support each other that whatever happens,

we are all pushing to the same direction, which is to win a championship.

If we all do that, we have the best chances. But I think for us, it's fine.

The coach is in their hands.

Is there any order?

Any order?

Is there any insight right now into who's playing with who? Any partnership insights?

Are you playing with Annelie or what are we looking at?

We practice yesterday, mixed doubles, which is rotate, Will, Georgia, and Annelie.

Noa is not here in Florida, so I guess tomorrow we're going to have a team practice.

I've been practicing around with Will and me on the right, him on the left.

We'll see when Noa gets here how we can match.

I think it's going to be interesting. I think it's going to be a lot of

also in Orlando itself against some teams. Maybe we'll switch it around. We see what happens.

It's going to be a tough decision for the coach for sure.

Yeah. Good decision though. You guys have as good of a shot as any of beating the shock.

That's going to be a dog fight. I said after this trade happened and I caught some

flack for it. But I would so love to see you end of the shock. The fives and the shock.

Go play a 4 out of 7 traveling series back and forth. Just give the people what they want.

Let's get this right. I think there's really good teams. I still think Brooklyn,

on their full force, they're really dangerous. Columbus have great warmest doubles team.

I mean, Andrew and CJ are both top four PPA team.

Missing one. Madros. Madros are so good at the Ben Johns. I still think it's going to be

getting into the final spot. It's going to be super tough. I think new for them. New

work is going to be super interesting. Yeah. So, you know, some people were saying that you sort of,

you see this in other sports, that players can sort of exert some influence on where they end

up going. However, in pickleball, there really isn't too much influence that you can really have.

Because we're not in charge of where we sign with.

Any team can go grab a player and you can't really say no, right? Or you're technically not allowed to.

Do you think in whatever version of pickleball comes down the road that we need to have a

real free agency, kind of like Will Howell suggested, where the teams pay the players and the players

actually get their choice rather than being told that they got drafted somewhere or another?

I think 100% especially because it adds more motivation to the players. For example, me,

I'm going to be in the New Jersey Fives for literally three events, you know, or the two,

whatever. I don't know how many how many we have left. But let's say three events. And then that's

it. It's not that I'm like, okay, I'm starting to build something with a new team and a new coach.

You know, I'm going to be with them for like three events and see you guys. We'll see next year,

you know, it's just like this spontaneous rotation is come make makes it a little bit like

where you can really build something. I think if you do that, then it's like, yeah, you have your own

salary with a team and then it's only working hard and you really like the whatever franches you

are on and you know, that keeps you motivated. I think and of course you can build a relationship with

like the fans, people follow you, which I honestly, I honestly had it in Orlando for a while. Like,

I was with them for three years. That's a long time. I honestly knew everything about the team.

You just learned so much with the whoever worked with you. They were amazing by the way.

And it was an also time and honestly, I would go to Orlando do events and people already knew me and

I really kind of like remember them from from my bands. And I think that's kind of cool and that's

what you know, pickable community we need. And people following you, you know, that kind of start

makes it interesting. Yeah. Yeah. For example, for example, when I when I thought about the Fives,

I would think about St. Navratio, you know, like you were really involved with that brand, with that

team. I think that you need like faces. Analy Waters is the Fives. Like I couldn't see Analy Waters

with anybody else, you know. Like that kind of stuff, I think is makes it easier to follow. Yeah,

that's the girl that plays for the Fives. That's you know, JW Dallas Flash. Like you can't think

about JW playing for Brooklyn, you know, like it's stuff for me to think that way. I don't know.

Yeah. So Fett, if you let's say you could not be on the squeeze, you could not be on the Fives

next year. What team does Federico Staxford want to go, you know, plant down and become the face of

when you think of New Jersey, you think of A.L. You think of Orlando, you think of Fett. Like

where would you want to end up next year if you had to say in the matter?

I mean, if you ask me like that, I would say Miami, like that's kind of like a team, you know,

like Lert Latino community, people will, you know, get involved with me, whatever. I was actually on

that team for a little bit, but I think that will be my preference, not because nothing, but I think

that kind of stuff like Tom B's Royals, whatever. I think something like that will be good feet,

I would say, but I want to win the best team. That's the matter.

They're not. So not the hugs.

Well, we actually have to play, we actually have to play the hugs on Thursdays.

I asked me that question after.

So when you think of the hugs, who's the face of the hugs, Brandon French?

Ben Johns, Ben Johns, 100% Ben Johns.

Forever. He's not out of the hugs anymore. Yeah, but Ben was in the hugs. When I think of the

hugs, I think Ben and Colin get it off.

By the way, how's the training going?

With the fives, just like the practice team practice?

No, no, no, Paris Todd's augment, learning how to count to five in English.

No, I was actually like, I was maybe getting Ryan doing it. That's going to be cool. That's

going to be cool. I've always been on the other side of listening. You guys count and now I get to

count. So this is going to be interesting. And I get to play around with the clowns. So that's

going to be good too. Yeah, you hated that shit. Now you get to join it. Yeah, now the clowns

are going to be on my side. I'm going to use it for my for my four. You guys have to count in

Spanish. Like you got, you got, you know, get the Latino crowd. Yeah, yeah, you're going to get

something going. You're going to get something going. You know what I mean? There we go.

I was doing, I was yelling that last year. We were going Vamo. So it's when you win three points

in a row. That's what it is or two points. What is it saying? Yeah, but we're kind of liberally

interpreting that now. It's not, it was originally you win three points in a row and you keep,

you do the count every time afterwards that you want to keep going. You just keep going. You got

to get it. Stop until you lose a point. But now Ryan kind of just does it whenever he wants.

So I feel like it's more fortunate. I like, I loved it when it had a meeting. But when it didn't

have a meeting, I didn't like it as much. Yeah, you're really structured saying that's what happens.

You're really structured and when they, they throw you off your structure, you know, you're lost.

I can't, luncheon. I can't, I can't, you know, you need your exo sheets.

You know me too well, dude. Yeah, I know you well. Just wait.

All right, I got more important questions for you. Where do you stand? I want to know,

is Federico Stocksrude on the right side of history when it comes to the great bucket hat

debate of this generation? Are you pro bucket hat or are you anti bucket hat? No, I love, I love

bucket hats outside of the court on the court. Please, man, I was talking, I was actually like,

joy, wow, I saw him playing and at least get a bucket hat that has like, I don't know,

you're the team logo on there, like something like he has like an old face like the one that you

buy to go hiking with your wife on Utah. So like, so one of these? Yeah, so yeah, that's

not, yeah, I mean, we're trying to ruin people over the world, like, what are the times, do you?

Wow, Fed, I feel like I've seen some pictures of you golfing in bucket hats. Yeah, 100%.

I'll say the people will go to this good. So do you, so you agree with,

don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, it's actually, don't, it's not that bad, but why, you know,

well, it's sold out, so you can't have one. They're back in stock, August 12th, but, yeah, you,

you can't have one right now. How many of you did five? They sold out. You hate to see it.

Wow. Anyway, Federico Stocksroot, bucket hat hater. Thank you for coming on the pod. That's all

the time we have for you today. Thank you so much. We actually, we really get you off.

Nico, it's been a minute since the lefty reset. It's been a minute. How is your, how's your health

journey with Merrick gone? What are you up to these days? Yeah. So it's actually been going fantastic.

I will say maybe there was a slight slip up where I went to Kansas City and I all the barbecue

that I could possibly find, which by the way is not as good as Texas barbecue. I will die on that hill.

And maybe Merrick health could have told me that ahead of time, but when Merrick Health does,

I wanted to highlight Merrick diagnostics. So there's like Merrick Health that does all of these

different things, you know, from blood tests, blood work to supplementation. There's like a full

gamut, right? So you can be as detailed as you want to be. But if you're just interested in the

initial phases, you want to discover what's, you know, working for your body, where your markers

are actually at, you just use Merrick diagnostics, all right? So we cut out all of the stuff that maybe

you're not ready for. We start with a blood test and you can get a couple of markers or you can get

like a full panel that tells you basically everything, whether or not you have low T, whether or not,

you have low vitamin D. There's a ton of different things. So you get the blood test,

you take it and then you can start your health journey. However you see fit.

The test comes at all different price points. You can get a test as cheap as $10 for a few

biomarkers or you can get the full gamut. You use the order online, then you walk into any quest

diagnostics for a blood draw, results at your inbox, easy as that. So with Merrick, you can check out

Merrick diagnostics, get over to MerrickDiagnostics.com, use code TheDink for 10% off. Again, that's

M-A-R-E-K-D-I-A-G-N-O-S-T-I-C-S.com and get 10% off with code TheDink.

All right, we're going to play a stupid game that Nico created.

Hold on, before we do this, Federico, do you like sports movies?

Yeah, I love it.

Okay, why don't we just do a sports movie draft with Federico? That's probably better. You got a

choice. We can talk about Disney characters or we can talk about sports movies.

I feel like I will be bad at that because I know them in Spanish names and we will get all

confused. You can just do it on the villain, whatever. The villain, okay, we'll do that. All right,

all right, so we're just trying to figure out, one is I want to figure out like team hero versus

team villain. So I want to get your guys' take on this. We're going to MLP Orlando, Disney Capital

of the world. I want to figure out which players play on team villain, which players play on team

hero and which team is actually better. So Federico, first I'm going to start with you. Are you team

villain or are you team hero? I have my thoughts, but... No, I think I'm team villain.

Historically villain, I'm trying to be a hero, but not in...

No, not there yet. I think you're right, but you're a likable villain. You're charismatic and

likable. I'm like the one that he's like, we know he's a villain, but we keep him around because

he's a good time. He's a good time. Who is that? Who is that? That's like the... It was it. Is it

Hades from Hercules? I feel like that's like a Federico villain. That's a good question.

I would think... They're toy story villains, they're like funny villains.

Some of them are pretty ruthless. What about Analy Waters?

I have stuff. She... I don't say slightly hero, but it's not that clear. It's not that clear.

I think so. Like the thing... The things that the villain can't win that much.

Analy Waters is always the character in a movie that other people are going to be trying to

dethrone, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like she's so good, it's hard to write a story about her being

so freaking good. She would always be the person trying to be knocked off by the hero in a movie,

which puts her kind of like that as the villain. That's how I see it. Yeah, that's how I see it.

All right. Yeah, that's so villain. We agree on villain.

So then who's... I'm trying to think about other villains right now is... Hey, Hayden's got to be

team villain, right? Is there anybody more villain? He's number one.

Number one of the villains. Hayden's team villain. I think you got to put Gabe team hero for sure.

Gabe. Yeah, yeah, he used team hero. Gabe's easy hero. I feel like you got to go

animate. Yeah, right. Team hero. Jaydav is team hero. CJ team super hero.

Well, CJ team hero for sure. Yeah, CJ is like the best hero.

Yeah, Zane, you are Zane. I think Zane's team hero, but Zane is more like, he's hero side characters.

So like you're like Moushou in Lawn or like the Camurian in Tangled. You're not the main character,

but you're like the funny guy. You're like Don Quix and Shrek. Like that is you.

Shrek is so good. Don Quix and Shrek is amazing. That's amazing.

And there's like Captain America, you know, like, like, insane hero.

Wow. What are you then, Nico? What do you have any? What are you?

I'm team villain. I'm I want to be a man. I'm stressing.

Nico.

I thought that was wrong. Now I'm handsome Shrek. I'm Shrek once he turns into a man.

Exactly. The human human human human. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, Alshon villain.

Oof, they wonder if everybody wants to kill right away.

And he's like the one. So I'm not sure. You know, those like Disney movies where

the hero or the villain really thinks he's doing the right thing like he doesn't understand

that he's the villain. That is Christian Alshon. Like Christian Alshon is talking about Shrek

movies. Christian Alshon is literally the same. What's the guy the guy that has the long hair

in the shrek movie? You know, North Park what? No, no far, no far, no far,

what is the blue one? They don't want the top that the top German charming is the

That's that's that's crucial. The same person

Yeah, I think I think

Clearist clears villains

He Christian reminds me a little bit of the the shooter from the Odyssey that we were just talking about too

Oh the shooter

You see the Odyssey? Yeah, so I saw yesterday amazing amazing

nominal. Yeah, the the shooter like the main shooter guy. Oh the Robert Panson guy. Oh, why?

Yeah, but it's a new

Yeah, I guess yeah, yeah, I can see it. Even instructions

Who else you got for us man John's

Here here

Hero, but doesn't want to even be a hero

Yeah

Yeah, fair

What character is that I don't even know like what Disney character I feel like I feel like there is there is but

But I don't know yeah, that kind of like um

What's the Ryan Reynolds one where he's like kind of an anti hero like doesn't really want to be

He's a hero, but he's kind of in it for himself

Deadpool, yeah, I mean he's

Like character, but it's got he shares that sort of a it's like shazam. I don't know if you've seen shazam shazam, but it is

Same thing. It's like I don't want to be this guy

There's not enough I feel like all the women in the league

We almost always just automatically put them on the hero side, but I need you guys to come up with a couple of villain

women

Do it you know what I think Danny Townsend would relish the opportunity to be the villain she's not really but I think she would

Be good in the role. Okay, can you fight here? I think

I like a little villain didn't

Little bit of action

I mean, what about play as a clear villain oh, yeah, oh my god, how did I know you's not immediately say that oh

Yeah, oh

Yeah, I mean those are the only the only only couple maybe Lucy covalova just cuz she's sassy

You sure about that one

Everybody else saying that we're thinking of that we need to put in a category

Now almost all the girls are heroes

That's basically his lay out Kate

Danny I like that pool though. I think Danny Danny is cast as like a hero, but she is waiting like I think

She was actually hoping I think that she became the villain on the Dallas Flash

But then they did so well and like everybody just like she is once again the hero

So I don't think you can avoid it, but

Yeah, one day one day it'll change. She'll do something little piss somebody off and I'm excited for the heel turn

She's ready to be Darth Vader. She's ready

All right, Fed we'll let you get back to you. I'm sure your Tesla is charged by now and you don't like bucket hats

So it's it's for real time to get rid of you now

We I'm just bad. I'm just bummed though by the way that we didn't get you on for the World Cup

We talk a lot about the World Cup on this podcast. We are pro soccer. Oh

My pro soccer. We're pro Argentina. You know, by the way Fed you're gonna hate this well like I

So maybe I should get you take on this, but we talked to Anneli Waters is old soccer coach

To and cuz he said oh, yeah, so she was like oh Anneli can go pro in six months

I was like this is crazy as good as she is at pickleball. That's crazy, but

We're doing the podcast

In the middle of the Argentina match and I so I don't have it on I'm recording it

And obviously as soon as the podcast ended he's like all right

Messi is like one nothing messy scored. I'm like fuck. I was like why as like don't you know?

We're talking about soccer. You know, I like soccer. Why would you do this?

So that guy is on my debt to me list, but I thought you got it you get it to go to a couple games or yeah, yeah

It was awesome honestly one of the best experience of my life

Going to watch World Cup was insane

Bomb that the last yourself, but it was honestly was insane. They said my final was crazy

Did you what's acid you go to?

I went to honestly all of them of the playoffs

Yeah, four of them so it was great the one of Egypt that they they come back in like 10 minutes was crazy

Um honestly all of them were crazy like

I think that was the problem on the final that they were like so tired because every game went to extra time

So they ended up being you know they were dead, but uh

Yeah, it was it was great. It's great

There's a enjoyed it too, so

I just every time I think the World Cup is over I'm wrong and Nico still manages to bring it up. So

That's why we have now it is over now

So I think I think as soon as I felt bad as as soon as uh fed got traded on his story

He had posted a picture of like sad messy with his silver medal and I had said

This is gonna be fed in in two months or in one month on MLP silver medal

Sad he'll get to be messy just like it's gonna be fun. That'll be funny

All right, well sadly soccer's soccer's done Argentine is done

But the fives they still got a chance. We'll see what you guys do against the shock

But thanks for coming on fed and go appreciate

Thanks, Fed bye-bye

In honor of the dink we're drafting the best sports movies of all time

Nico you want the first pick or the next two

I will take the first pick

Uh, all right. I am taking

Rocky

Rocky

That's a pretty good one. That's kind of like the sports movie of all sports movies right um

Hmm

Analy of sports movies. I think you gotta give me

I gotta go I gotta take the sand lot

Um, that's an epic one

And then

Uh, give me miracle

Miracle all right. Okay, these are two good ones here. I am going to take

Uh, give me remember the Titans

I think that's the Ben Johns of uh sports movies like I'm analy and Ben here

I'm not trying to sway the audience, but it's looking pretty good already and then

Give me happy Gilmore

Hmm

I didn't know for you. I'm gonna go for the for the funny ones right away

Yeah, that's tough. That was definitely high on my draft board. So

I'm gonna zag a little bit. I'm gonna go with a modern classic of moneyball

Phenomenal movie a little bit different a little bit off the beaten path in terms of sports movies

But I think it's a great one um and then let's see

After that

You know what

You're already cooked

I'm gonna go

That was gonna be one of my next picks uh, that's a good choice. That is a good one uh Ben

Stiller making a good movie uh versus the dink bad um all right. Give me

Space Jam the original space jam um and

Let's see

I also want

Hmm

And sam that was a good pick. I'm not gonna lie um

Give me

I'm taking Hoosiers

Like your your purest movie number one

The old school pick that's like the Simone Jargeem of uh a pickleball movies

Yeah, no, you're definitely winning the the the 50 plus crowd here

Um, so I'm gonna go a little bit newer

Ah

Hmm I get the last two here I

I really liked the blindside

Oh blindside

controversial movie

It is a controversial movie um and then let's see

After that

I feel like I need another comedy and I'm I'm torn between two will Ferrell classics

Taladega nights and blades of glory. Oh

I think Taladega nights is a little bit more in the uh in the uh in the pop culture

So I'm gonna give me Taladega nights. That's a good choice. You know uh honorable mention before I give you my last pick

Speaking of will Ferrell is kicking and screaming if you like soccer

Uh and will Ferrell that movie is is fucking hilarious uh, but it's not gonna win me any points

You got a really no ball for that movie

Is will Ferrell actually a sports movie goat

I

I think so I mean Taladega nights that movie uh

Flades of glory. Give me a

Give me all right. I'm you know what I'm putting Taladega nights on my injury reserve and give me coach Carter from the waivers

We just signed him a minute ago. I'm Paul Beach Royaling this shit

All right, who do you want on your on your ir get one more get one more good one

All right, so I have I think I've only picked five five movies. I got one more movie to get here right so with my last movie

I'm taking probably the sports movie. I've seen more than any movie uh in history