March 16, 2011

Butterfly Cary Cup

Tomorrow I leave for the Cary Cup Open in North Carolina. I'm only playing in the hardbat event (I'm the defending champion, though I'm normally a sponge player), which is on Friday morning and afternoon. The rest of the tournament I'm just coaching. (Wait a minute - what's this "only" thing? Next time I'm playing in a tournament I'll tell people I'm "only" playing, not coaching. Hmmm...)

So what does one do just before a tournament? Why, practice serves, of course. Sometime today I'll stop by the club and practice my hardbat serves - yes, hardbat - so they'll be ready.

History of U.S. Table Tennis: Vol. 11!

It's hard to believe, but after 13 consecutive days of non-stop work, Tim Boggan's History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. 11 (!) is done. (516 pages, 805 photos.) Tim moved in with me on March 3, and has been sleeping on my sofa ever since. (Mal Anderson helped tremendously by supplying and scanning most of the photos.) I spent my days doing the page layouts and fixing up photos (you can do wonders with Photoshop), with Tim sitting at my side, saying things like, "That photo there, but first remove that black mark over there, flip him so he's looking the other way, lighten it, and take those people out of the background." This is the tenth straight year we've done this. Visit TimBogganTableTennis.com for more info on these volumes - and remember that Volume 11 will be out in a few weeks!

More on Tim Boggan - the Table Tennis Nominee for the George Steinbrenner III Sport Leadership Award

Here's Tim's nomination! Sean O'Neill wrote the first draft, and then I made some additions (with Tim's help) and proofed it. Cross your fingers.

A Ping-Pong Paddle Shaped Hotel.

Yes . . . a Ping-Pong Paddle Shaped Hotel. Looks like it's for a pips-out penholder, with convenient ball-shaped garage.

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