Full Transcript for Let’s Get Pickled!

an extra in the movie that are part of Martin Scorsese, Matt Damon, Leon and I DiCaprio, Jack Nicholas, and it was, you know, it was so exciting and I used to act as a kid, and so I'm like, so all these movies started coming in, and it started with extra work. But then you know, I slowly started getting in and moving in, getting to you know, a few like a few lines on these like you know, these movies, and but then it started getting bigger and bigger, and you know, I had my practice going and I've had it, you know, for a long time, so that was kind of always going. But I so I'm like, all right, I wanted to fill this other side of me that I've wanted to do come back to since I did it as a kid. So I started to go into New York and started to make these drives and to you know, Boston out in New York. While you know, I would take client calls and you know, during the during the drive down with my assistant kind of patching them in, but I would kind of do kind of do the act something and trying to you know, just do it as a hobby for fun. Whenever I do something, and maybe you can kind of tell already, but when I focus in on something, I go in pretty full and it doesn't necessarily have to be with some end goal. But I just like when I'm passionate about something, I love it and I just kind of jump right in. And so I'm like, all right, this actually is great, but I want to do it as best I can. So I started getting known in New York and started getting bigger roles in New York and bigger shows and you know, the Law and Orders and the Royal Pains and the mcgivers and the you know, Daredevil's and all those kinds of things, and then but COVID hit. And when COVID hit, it changed the audition style. So instead of used to have to go into a casting office and you know, go in and audition there. But you know, most of the work is in LA, and then the second hub is New York. But I would get things in New York, but I couldn't get into LA until COVID hit, and it changed the audition process. Instead of going into an office, you would actually have to do auditions through video, and that opened it up to people all over the country. And really it's focused in on who was the best actor for the job rather than who lived ten minutes from the LA office. And that what kind of brought me to some of my large roles as a serious regular a show called City on Fire on Apple TV, and I was on Landman and Linus, the Taylor Sheridan shows. 00:05:18 Speaker 3: You know, looking at your list of credits, and it's a big list. You started in two thousand and seven, You've worked literally every year with a variety of shows, and I'm impressed. I had not looked at this list before today, and this you've you're doing well. I mean you got this going here. I mean you've it looks like forty seven different productions, which that's pretty good. 00:05:56 Speaker 4: You know, yeah, thank you, thank you. 00:05:59 Speaker 3: I guess I know how difficult it is. I had one role in a movie called Reversal of Fortune, and no one else has ever come back to me looking for me to make a and I haven't gone and auditioned. I do with this thing here on radio, and I used to be in TV, so I'm kind of a similar spirit with you in terms of I like adventure and all of that, and now your big adventure is pickleball. How long have you been playing pickleball? And give me a quick biography on pickleball. How long has it been around? I think you said to me it's been around longer than I realized. 00:06:39 Speaker 4: Yeah, and actually it started the nineteen sixties. I think it was nineteen sixty five, so I just had its sixty year anniversary of the founder of pickleball. However, though, it was one of those sports that really got popular also through right at COVID, so people started, you know, doing kind of games and you know, kind of in their driveways. When you know, people can really do stuff, you know of things that were you know, contact, and so pickleball started really picking up, and it is now the fastest growing sport in the country. It's one of the fastest growing sports, one or two fast growing sports in the world. And I'm actually now right now calling from a hotel in for Florida at the Pickleball World Cup where there's seventy two countries open and the Senior Division, which is fifty plus that are competing. It's I mean, there are thousands of literally thousands of people here and it was it's crazy. I just kind of came in. We played, We played tomorrow and Sunday. But the sport has gone huge. 00:07:40 Speaker 2: When you say we. 00:07:41 Speaker 3: Play, are you down there playing with a partner or are you down there in your capacity as a member of the Boston Dragons. 00:07:48 Speaker 2: Is the Dragons in this competition? 00:07:51 Speaker 4: I know? So this is all different countries coming into play. I'm actually representing. I'm on Team China. I'm Chinese American off at Generation and I got asked to play, and so I am. I am playing with you know, with with Team China, with a lot of my friends all over We're all in a lot of these other teams, and so it's it's a lot of fun. 00:08:12 Speaker 3: Okay, well we haven't even touched on the Boston Dragons, so let me take a break. When we got back, I want to talk about the Dragons. I want to talk about where they where they have come. You know when I say where are you at this point in that the team I know exists, there's a roster, there's a website. I've looked at it. That's very impressive. But then the question, of course is going to be where is this taking you? And where where will we be three or four or five away? Do you hope to be three or four or five years from now with Seeingior Pickleball, the Boston Dragons, You have sponsors. I mean, this is the real deal. This is not some fly by night operation. And I think we have learned. Look, I know that I myself a couple of years ago realized that there were corn hole competitions on these these uh these networks, and I mean that just seems to

be a total appetite for genuine, you know, live competitions, not just the World Series, just just not the NFL or the NHL or the NBA, but other competitions. And I think that's what you're. Uh, You're you're, you're, you're really getting getting into here, and that's where I think you may end up going, but I want to hear it from you. I'm looking where I think you should go, but you've got to tell me what's possible. 00:09:37 Speaker 2: My guest is Michael Toe. He's the owner of the Boston Dragons. 00:09:41 Speaker 3: Obviously an interesting guy, has quite a resume as an actor, also happens to be a certified financial planner, and in the meantime has come up and developed a skill at pickleball. And uh is the owner of the Boston Dragons. So look, we'll be back if you I'd like to ask a question. If you're a pickleball player and you're as enthused about it as Michael Toe is, feel free six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty. I intend to talk about this until eleven, and at eleven we will go to the twentieth hour, and in the twentieth hour we will have a Halloween themed twentieth Hour. I don't know who we've ever had a well, I guess we probably in nineteen years have had Halloween on a Friday night, We're gonna take advantage of that. 00:10:28 Speaker 2: Tonight. Back on night Side, Light the lines up right after this. 00:10:32 Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on w b Z, Boston's news radio. 00:10:38 Speaker 3: My guest is Michael Toe. He's the owner of the Boston Dragons. It's a professional pickleball team, a senior pickleball league. How long has the league been around, Michael? 00:10:50 Speaker 4: This is our inaugural year. OK, it's it started out. We had our first we Are Combine in Richmond, Virginia. We had hundreds of players try out to turn to be on a team and it was a great event and we end up having and we had our first event in Indianapolis in September. We have twelve teams in the league and the United States Legends Pickaball League the USLPL fourteen players on a team, so we have and it's been, it's been. It's a ride. We just came back from Philadelphia for our second event a few weeks ago, and then we go to Baltimore in the first week of December. So we're kind of right now in the training level of trying to get our get our get our team up and running and working on things and getting our plays in and getting our training in to really kind of compete. We got some tough matches coming up into So this is strategy. 00:11:50 Speaker 3: When you talk about getting plays in, you get some strategy in this. This is just not what when you see pick a ball. Uh, you know, when you're going through your your recreational facility in your community and to see four people playing pick a ball, they're hitting the ball back and forth. 00:12:06 Speaker 2: This is a little more intense than that I assumed. 00:12:09 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it's I mean, that's doing about pickball. The reason why it's such a fast growing sport is that it's a sport that you can play day one. You could have someone who you know, a relatively that doesn't have to you know, very ethnic. It's just a relative person with some hand eye coordination. You can have a ten year old play with a seventy five year old on a court, have so much fun day one and just jump on the air and play. That's why the sport is is growing like wildfire across the country. People. You know, so many courts are being built outdoor indoor. I'm at a place where the ford in Fort Laarde with there's like forty outdoor courts. It's unbelievable it is, and they're all packed, and so it's been happening that like this across the country. But the thing is, the sport can start that way. So it's very the entry to play, it's very easy. Unlike golf or maybe tennis, you can't really have a great rally. I was a college tennis player, and you can't really kind of come in and be a beginner and tennis and kind of have fun really back and forth. That doesn't happen till later on. Just like golf, you know, to get under one hundred, you know, kind of a you know, a you know, a ten fifteen handicap or lower. That could take years. 00:13:20 Speaker 3: I'm working on under one hundred on the front nine. So believe me, I know of what you speak there. Let me tell you so, Michael, let me ask this, what's the funding mechanism for this league? The funding mechanism for the NFL and MLB is the major sports networks, you know, NFL Football every Sunday, Thursday night through Monday morning, Monday afternoon. Ye know, they's just everywhere. What's the funding mechanism for this pickleball league? 00:13:48 Speaker 4: Sure? Well, that's the difference with pickleball. It's different than especially senior pro pickball. It's there's not a huge demand for people watching, right the TV rights are not a people are not knocking on the door to try to try to get the TV rights. However, the people who want to get involved, uh in the sport is huge. It's it's it's because it's such a fast growing sport. There's as you kind of as you've probably heard a lot of the stories, there's a lot of injuries now people who who get involved with you know, injuries from the sport or now people are now doing you know, the pickleball shoes, you know shoes and the outfits and the and all the different gears. So there's a lot of companies who who who connect to the sport. Market merchandise, yes, yes, marketing, merchandise, uh, you know, healthcare. Uh so there's a lot of places that kind of connect and so that's, uh, that's why the sport is so enticing, and you know, because you have so many people playing. That's a difference I think a lot of times with with the sport is you know, we you know, I'm a huge you know Red Sox fan, Patriots fan, but the last time I played baseball. The last time I played you know, you know, played flag football back in the day, and that was, you know, fifteen years ago, twenty years ago. The thing with pickleball is

that there is now the pro circuit is really starting to grow, the young pros and the senior pro market. And but people can, you know, you can, you can strive for this sport is so young that the barriers to entry to kind of make it to the to a limit. It's there's no real limit right now. Okay, one of the one of these. 00:15:30 Speaker 3: My assumption is is quite different than yours. Yours probably obviously an assumption that that is based much more on experience and reality. What I'm thinking is that if one of these sports networks needs to fill time, they could broadcast pickleball games, particularly pickleball games tournaments where your team and the other teams here, got teams from Florida and New York City and as this said, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, a Jersey team, a Buffalo or Roanoke, Virginia team. 00:16:10 Speaker 2: It would seem to. 00:16:11 Speaker 3: Me that there would be a television market marketplace. Now, they may not pay you, you know, NFL money, but I still would think that people could sit on a Saturday afternoon, or for that matter, during the week and say, you know, they can identify viewers can say, hey, you know, I'm learning, I'm not only enjoying the competition, but I might I can learn something from the competition, or am I over selling it. 00:16:41 Speaker 4: I do think that that's definitely something that's in the cards and it's go and to me, that's where the future is going. I mean, the sport is going to be. It's we talked a little bit about this, but there are now clubs across the college teams now across the country. Now there's a whole College World Series and so there there are some either either clubs or full teams. We just had the bu pick a Ball club join us at eleven OZ at the Patriots Place for our exhibition last Sunday. You know, so we have these a lot of college players, high school teams are starting to join in with clubs, and the Olympics are you know, there's talk about the Olympics having pick a ball as as as the next new sport there. So it's it's it's so young in the in the growth of the sport that all this stuff to me is possible. And that's why it's so exciting to be to be part of it, you know, be part of the ground floor and and knowing a lot of these pro players and senior pro players and and you know, it's really exciting. And so I do think that'll get there. And that's why it's that's why I love it. It's it's like that, it's not something it's like starting. You know, you see these these documentaries about the Last Dance with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls or you you kind of see these back you know, but this and that happened in the eighties, you know, or you know when the you know, in the uh, I don't know when the when the first football you know as the the NFL's first started and it had all these different leagues, or or the NBA. Well, right now we're talking about, you know, something that's that's forming right now in the last few years. I mean, all things are happening. 00:18:15

Speaker 2: Michael. 00:18:15 Speaker 3: I can tell the NBA formed before I was born, but I'm enough of his story to know that they were teams like the Cincinnati Royals and the Syracuse Nats, the Philadelphia Warriors, those teams have moved on. 00:18:29 Speaker 2: They were teams like the Buffalo Braves. I mean there were teams that have the BA. Right, well, no, no, this was this was some of it was a BA. 00:18:38 Speaker 3: But but in the late forties when when the NBA was formed, and the Celtics were an original team. But this was the late forties and pro basketball didn't exist in the twenties and the thirties and and until after World War Two, and then of course it was it was a league. They used to play double headers at Boston Garden. You would have the Celtics playing the Neck and you'd have the Cincinnati Royals playing the Syracuse Nationals. 00:19:04 Speaker 2: You see four different teams. 00:19:07 Speaker 3: And the Celtics, even when they were doing great in the sixties and dominating the league. You can walk up and buy a ticket any game when they if they got five thousand people in the garden. They were the Bruins who were losing, were selling it out thirteen nine oh nine every night even though they were losing. And then basketball, you know, just took off. Hockey now is well behind basketball. Even though hockey now has teams across the country, it's it's still considered you know, a northern American Canadian sport. Yeah, you got teams in Florida, and you got Nashville, and you you had a team in Phoenix. 00:19:44 Speaker 2: There now in Utah, so you have growth potentially here. Let's do this. 00:19:49 Speaker 3: Let's take a pause for the news and we'll go to phone calls right after the ten thirty newscasts. So sit back, get a glass of water, and we will got one line at six one seven four ten thirty that's still available, and I got a couple at six point seven nine three thirty. Love to have some of you folks join in. If you're a pickle ball player, you feel free to join in. But this is the real deal, and I am not nearly as excited about it as Michael Tolway's, but I am excited about it to be able to talk to you about the really the birth of a league that someday might I don't know if I'll ever be as big as the NFL, but it might have an audience that rivals the NFL. Look, there was a period of time when baseball was the national pastime. Not that way anymore. 00:20:42 Speaker 2: It's now this. 00:20:43 Speaker 3: Professional football baseball is still big, don't get me wrong, but it has taken a bit of a backseat to the NFL. So taste change sports, come and go. This one is coming. 00:20:54 Speaker 2: Feel free to join our conversation back on Nightside right after this. 00:20:58 Speaker 1: It's a Night's Side with Dan Ray on. 00:21:01 Speaker 4: Boston's news radio. 00:21:03 Speaker 3: My guest is the owner of the Boston Dragons, the new senior pickleball team here based in Boston, based in New England. Michael Toe is our guest.

Michael, let's go to phone calls. Our first call is from one of your rival owners, Ron, who owns I guess the New York team. 00:21:24 Speaker 2: Ron. Welcome to night Side. How are you? 00:21:27 Speaker 6: Thanks for having me? 00:21:28 Speaker 3: It would be great if we get the New York Boston rival We're going here tonight. 00:21:33 Speaker 2: You go right ahead. You're on with with Michael Toe. 00:21:37 Speaker 6: Oh, it's a pleasure to be here. And uh and uh now the Boston rivalry has been super fun. Uh we we we took the first battle in in uh in the Philly area. And I'm sure Michael is going to be gunning for us in the in the next battle. 00:21:52 Speaker 3: So, so tell me a little bit about about your team. How'd you get involved in this? Ron? 00:21:56 Speaker 2: And and we're we're. 00:21:58 Speaker 3: I guess you guys had a calm and you had a draft like the NFL. 00:22:03 Speaker 6: Right, yes, well, first twelve owners. Twelve owners got selected to their purchase franchises from different cities, predominantly across the East Coast, and then we were able to protect four players. And then we had to pick ten people in the draft. And so we went to the combine in Richmond, and there was some great talent and we all assembled very competitive teams. 00:22:31 Speaker 3: Now, by the way, both all the teams have a male contingent and a female contingent. So, yes, how was the team brought? Either of you could jump in here, Michael or Ron. Is it seven men seven women or is there a different balance? 00:22:47 Speaker 4: Yes, seven men, seven women. And there's actually an age component too, so we have we have two males and two females who are over sixty to over fifty, and two over fifty five, and the rest can be any any age over fifty. So it spreads out the age range too, rather than just being a league of you know, if it's fifty over you probably you probably have a primarily young fifty kind of league. 00:23:16 Speaker 3: Like to see the golfer, you know, everybody who's winning, it's fifty one and fifty two because they can still hit. 00:23:21 Speaker 2: The ball three hundred yards. 00:23:22 Speaker 4: So that's right. 00:23:24 Speaker 3: So do you have is it, you know, two men competing in men's events two other guys? 00:23:30 Speaker 2: When when this when you guys are playing? 00:23:32 Speaker 3: Or can you have a mixed doubles team or is there a mixed double element of it? Obviously in tennis, mixed doubles is is a traditional element as well as you know, women's doubles and men's doubles. 00:23:44 Speaker 2: How does this work? 00:23:46 Speaker 4: Well, that's the exciting part of it. And i'ron I think can attest to this as well. They're in tennis, it's primarily singles with pick a ball. It's primarily doubles. And the thing about it's not just right, it's not just we don't want type of doubles. It's gender doubles. So we have men's uh you know, two men against two women, I mean two men against two men, and then uh, the women have their matches and then we have mixed matches, so a man and a woman versus a man and woman. So uh, it's a pretty it's it's they're in they're different games. A men's game is different than a women's game, and a mixed game is different than than gender games. So it's it's really kind of all and this is all within the torment we had. We had the Boston Dragons play against the the the New York Ballers, and that was that was part of a rivalry that that kind of was, you know, that's kind of fallowing a tradition of Boston New York teams. And and unfortunately the Boston team came, we came a little bit short, a little bit short, uh, and I had to uh do a bit of a payoff a bet with with Ron here. But but but that's only right. 00:24:57 Speaker 3: Unlike found out football, Betty is a looted amongst the owners and the players of pickleball. 00:25:09 Speaker 4: Yeah, we had a we had a private, private, well not too private. It was on social media that that the losing team at where the gear and and pose with gear. So so unfortunately I had to put on a New York Okay. 00:25:24 Speaker 3: No, I'm joking with you, because obviously you're getting this thing off the ground. 00:25:29 Speaker 2: Ron, how was it that you came to own the New York team? 00:25:33 Speaker 3: Michael has told us a little bit about since you're kind of have to call in what is your background that you were able to purchase a franchise. 00:25:43 Speaker 6: One of my friends is one of the other owners of the Del Rays, and she told me about the league. And I haven't played competitive team sports since college tennis. And who would have thought at the age of fifty one, I would not only be able to get a wonderful team, but to also compete. And uh, it's it's been, it's been a dream. 00:26:04 Speaker 2: What college do you play tennis? 00:26:06 Speaker 6: Binghamton University in New York. 00:26:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, I know what Binghamton is. Yankees used to have a farm team out there many years ago. All right, gentlemen, I thank you very much for well, not gentlemen, I'm good. Ron. We're gonna thank you for calling in. Uh and Michael say right there, we got other phone calls. 00:26:23 Speaker 6: All right, thanks for having us. 00:26:25 Speaker 2: You're very welcome. Tom, Thanks Ron, thank. 00:26:27 Speaker 6: You, Michael, and congrats on all the accolades. 00:26:31 Speaker 2: Well we'll have a good night. 00:26:33 Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you, Ron, appreciate it. Let me go to David in Ohio. David in Ohio, David, welcome. Are you involved in the league as well? 00:26:40 Speaker 5: Well? Interestingly enough, you and I have actually met and part of the reason you're talking to Michael tonight is because you and I are connected to one another. And I'm connected to Mike through the Legends Pickleball League because my wife Pam plays in the league on another team against Michael. 00:27:00 Speaker 2: So how have you and I met? David? Did you do prison time with me? 00:27:08 Speaker 4: You know what?

00:27:08 Speaker 5: No comment? 00:27:09 Speaker 2: No, no comment? 00:27:10 Speaker 5: And I met you and I met in the doctor Al Frankie's office a number of years ago. 00:27:15 Speaker 2: I have a mutual friend. 00:27:17 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, And I bought I bought the whole concept of prolo therapy to him in the Boston area and I've been there a couple of times and we've met and Al's a great friend. And as you may know, Al is currently the title sponsor of the Boston Dragons. 00:27:35 Speaker 3: Okay, I I want to turn over my I want to turn over my wife to you. 00:27:40 Speaker 5: So you have the opportunity to speak to a former collegiate player. When she graduated college from Flagler University in Saint Augustine, Pam's ranked first United States in both singles and doubles. It was a few years ago, but she's one of those plus sixty players for the d m V Picklers out of the District, Maryland and VIRGINI. This is Pam Lippy. This is my friend indirectly through doctor Frankie, whom she's known for ever since we've been married. This is Dan Ray night side baby. 00:28:12 Speaker 4: Yeah, Hi Jan and Hi Michael, Hi Pam Bam. 00:28:17 Speaker 2: Were you a tennis player in college? Did your husband say? 00:28:21 Speaker 4: Well? 00:28:22 Speaker 7: Not only was I a tennis player in college, I still am a tennis player. 00:28:27 Speaker 8: Whoa Okay, the most famous tennis women tennis players that I've ever known are Nancy Ritchie, Cliff Ritchie's sister. 00:28:39 Speaker 2: She's in the Hall of Fame. 00:28:41 Speaker 3: Uh. And I once hit with Barbara Potter, who was a great player in the eighties. I think she was ranked number ten in the world and she just blew me away. I mean this amazing, The respect that I have for phebale athletes having played, played, tried to play. 00:29:00 Speaker 2: It's I know. If you remember Barbara Potter, she was out. 00:29:03 Speaker 3: Of Connecticut, uh, and she was an awesome, big left handed tennis player, and she could she could hit the ball so it goes right, so close left, an unbelievable experience. 00:29:14 Speaker 2: So I stand in awe of women tennis players. 00:29:17 Speaker 4: I want you to know that and actually again a lot of the a lot of players, as Pam, you admit that you're still playing tennis, but a lot of people are switching from tennis over to to pick a ball, and it's Pam is one of those ones who can do both. To me, it's hard. I've kind of put up the put uh hung up the rackets, uh you know, uh years ago, and it's it's all pickaball now. But but we have a lot of people who are now coming in who are pro tennis. As my sister's a was a pro test player on the tour and she she's a pro pickaball player now as well, not a senior. But there are people Von Lindel, Andre Agassi, you remember those names, Max, lend All, They're all they've all come over into into pro P. 00:30:00 Speaker 2: I did realize Lendel and Legacy. Half wow. 00:30:03 Speaker 3: I'll tell you, Michael told you you may be onto something

here. Let me tell you, well, we got to take a break, David, thanks so much for calling in, Pam. Pleasure to meet you. And probably at some point I'll bump into you guys up here in Boston sometimes through our mutual friends and uh great to uh great, great, to meet both of you. We have a lot of listeners in Ohio, believe it or not, so feel free to tune into night'st any night from all HIV. 00:30:32 Speaker 7: Thank you, great show, and Michael, I'll see you in our showdown in Baltimore. 00:30:37 Speaker 4: That's right, Pam, we'll get ready. 00:30:40 Speaker 2: Okay, players are very polite here. I like that. Thanks guys, we talk, we'll talk. So thanks, Thanks David, Thanks Pat. I appreciate it very much. Have a great night. 00:30:51 Speaker 4: Thank you. 00:30:52 Speaker 2: All right, this is wonderful. We got a bunch of calls. Let's keep rolling. Michael. 00:30:55 Speaker 3: We got to take a final break here, one final commercial break, but I got coming up up Jennifer in Boston. I got Sienna in Boston and uh te ha or t h t t yaw uh from Denham. We'll be back on Nightside right after this. We'll finish it up right after the break. 00:31:14 Speaker 1: It's night Side with Dan Ray, Boston's News Radio. 00:31:19 Speaker 3: All right, here we go. We have we four lines. I'm gonna try to get everybody in. Won't be easy, but let's start with Jennifer and Boston. Hey Jennifer, welcome, how are you tonight? You're on with Michael toe. 00:31:29 Speaker 7: Hi Dan Hi, Michael, this is Jennifer Jenna Metti. I'm a SAG actor and any film producer, and my question for you, Michael is have you considered doing a film on pickleball, especially a comedy and what are your upcoming projects acting projects that you're working on. 00:31:47 Speaker 4: Thanks Jennifer. So it's actually we're actually I would love to be in a pickaball movie. The only thing is it's and there have been there, there's a there's a new Benseller one, but I because it's a new sport, I think they it's one of those ones where they're they're taking people who are not necessary players in it and so so so my skill there doesn't really translate over into into being a caster. However, we are actually doing a documentary and I'm doing a documentary with my uh my producing partner while we're doing the team. So we're doing a documentary called Making the Boston Dragons, and so we're documenting uh it's it's it's combining my my film side and and you know, having a cast and crew and director and sound people and videographers and all the stuff that's happening with making a team, which is which is way more complicated and stressful, but but awesome and great and fun at the same time. 00:32:48 Speaker 3: We have Tea on the line. Uh, she's the next caller, so we're going to be able to talk with her about that. I know she's involved in this project with you. 00:32:58 Speaker 4: Yes, Jennifer, Yes, but thank you, Jennifer. 00:33:02 Speaker 2: Thanks for calling in. Jennifer, appreciate your time, Thank you, Thank you. Good. 00:33:06 Speaker 3: Now let me go to Taya, who actually I believe is involved in the documentary with you. 00:33:12 Speaker 2: Heya, you're on with Michael Toe. 00:33:15 Speaker 9: I am here, and I am very excited to talk a little bit about this short form documentary series. Mike is a really good friend of mine. I've been producing videos with him for many years now. The footage that we're getting is quite exhilarating. You get to see some very very interesting perspectives of age and playing pickleball and athleticism and all of the very complicated routines and all the expectations there are from building a team like this. Mike is doing an amazing job, and I'm just really proud to work with him. 00:34:00 Speaker 3: How will you How will you market? I'll tell you, how will you market this? This film is this sort of something going to go to different film festivals or do you hope that you can get it on I don't know, ESPN or one of the one of the sports channels. 00:34:17 Speaker 9: I've made hundreds of documentaries, and there's usually a marketing strategy for any any of this kind of work. The difference in this case is that we're not only developing it as we you know, as Mike is building the team, but we're we're creating a new sort of genre of short form documentary uh and uh series. So we're not quite sure yet where it will fit. But what we do know is that the drama of the the story is very compelling, so I think we'll be able to find that market once we get closer to finishing uh the most of the filming. 00:35:03 Speaker 4: Well that's great, actually I could so the great thing about it. Tea is is my partner, but he's he's uh my producer, part he is an Emmy award winning editor and so he we have a great team involved, uh you know, making this. But what what I found really interesting so far is not just that not just the pickleball sports piece, but it's actually all the human stories behind it. So some people, I mean the people you know all my Yeah, I mean that the people on my team, that there are people who are doctors, who are entrepreneurs. One of one of my team, my my team captain was the one of the founders of Constant Contact. I have my managers Tabda who used to be a dragon back in back in Ducks for Duxbury Days. You know. There there's a there are pro tennis players as a captain on my team. You know, business owners, you know. Uh, it's people all watched life with every very different stories who have now come together because of this, because of this sport that we all love and are playing at. It's such a high level and it's really you know, it's really been our passion. It's it's it's changed and and helped helped our lives in so many different ways. And I think that's the part that Tay and I are seeing, uh in in the documents the footage that we've seen so far, as the great human interest stories behind the sport of this awesome sport of pick. Oh. 00:36:25 Speaker 2: Yeah, the theat the. 00:36:27 Speaker 3:

Great stories and sports are not not not the box scores or even the game reports, but they're the backstories the player who perseveres and uh, and and somehow prevails. Hey, I got a couple of other calls. I'd just like to give them a quick minute. Do me a favor when you when you get this and you're going to, you know, show the documentary somewhere, let me know and I'll have you on and we'll get you some publicity on it. 00:36:51 Speaker 9: Okay, you got it. 00:36:52 Speaker 2: Sounds great, Tell you, thank you very much, appreciate it. Let me keep going here. 00:36:57 Speaker 3: I want to try to accommodate Sienna and Jody do your next on nightsig go. 00:37:01 Speaker 6: Right ahead, Hi, Hi, Hi, I just have a. 00:37:07 Speaker 10: Question for Michael. Right ahead, Yeah, I And I know he's he's not only is he a senior pro Pagaball player and a team owner, he's also an actor and a financial player and even a fall They're like, I just wonder how you can balance all these different things like in your day. 00:37:25 Speaker 2: That's great, it's a great question. Go ahead, Michael. 00:37:28 Speaker 4: Well this is coming from uh from someone himself with my daughter, and it's you know, when you have when you have so many things going on, it is it is it is tough because you know, I do have a family and I do have you know, I do have daughters, and and sometimes sometimes it's tough when you have all these kind of passions. But what I've always tried to do is kind of actually incorporated my family with it into this. So so now in terms of pickle ball, my wife plays, she's down with me here in fort Lydale, and in my movie areas, I've always brought my daughters in to be involved, whether or not it's being helping me with producing something or joining me in a play that we have in or you know. So to me, it's it's the combination of of the passions that I have and kind of bringing you know, bring my family and integrating them with me. 00:38:19 Speaker 2: How many daughters do you have, Michael, I have. 00:38:22 Speaker 4: I have three. And unfortunately this is a whole another thing. But my oldest passed away a few years ago. She was at nineteen. But pickleball, thank you. But but pickleball has been what really has saved our family in many ways. It's been a place that we've been able to go to heal and to work with grief, and and it's really been a saver. And this is actually a lot of stories like that when you when you hear pickleball, because you know, if you're you know, when we were dealing with the loss, you know, three years ago. It was one of those things when we played, when I jumped on the court and pick a ball while I'm still grieving, I could. I had to focus on the ball. If I went anywhere else, I would get I would get hit. 00:39:05 Speaker 2: You know, understand Sianna. 00:39:06 Speaker 3: We're flat out a time, so I'll give you your dad back and thanks, thanks so much for calling. 00:39:13 Speaker 9: Yeah, of course, Michael, gotta. 00:39:17 Speaker 2: Let you go. 00:39:18 Speaker 3: If folks want to get more information on the Boston Dragons, what's the website? How can they find you? 00:39:23 Speaker 4: The best way to find us is on Instagram or Facebook. Boston can look up to Boston Dragons. You can find myself, Michael Toe. You can kind of see all our you know, kind of events and you know, you know, our our training facilities at leven Oh or you see our players like Lauren Charles and Randy Park. You'll see all the footage and videos there. And Dan, thank you so much for having me. 00:39:45 Speaker 3: Very welcome, Judy, welcome, Michael, best of luck, keep in touch. Okay, thank you so much. We're gonna wrap the week and wrap the evening here in the twentieth Hour. Come up, it's going to be Halloween themed. I'll explain it on the other side of the eleven o'clock News