Grand Slam Paddle Jam

The package included a one-night stay at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa, round-trip airfare on Southwest Airlines, one year of DirectTV, a $200 Wine Bistro gift certificate, and a magnum of Legends Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 wine from Cosetino Winery, Sonoma.

With a USATT logo on the wall and four Butterfly Europa tables set up in center of dance floor, (a 50 feet by 30 feet area, it seemed too small for playing table tennis, but who cared?) everyone came just to have a little fun. All the barriers were decorated with pink, yellow, green silky fabric, which represented the main tournament sponsor, Dippin’ Dots. A multicolored crystal ball illuminated the tables with sparkling lights, and loud rock music played in the background. Next to the table tennis courts was an open bar and catered food. Dippin’ Dots also provided blends of ice cream, yogurt, sherbet, and ices. Spectators sat on plush sofas and lounge chairs, with a large VIP section on the second floor. This was the uniquely surprising tournament venue, complete with the glitz and glamour of the first “Celebrity Grand Slam Paddle Jam—Ping-Pong Tournament.”

Linda Hsing was the primary USATT representative and she enlisted local umpires and coaches (including Mas Hashimoto, Lee Kondo, Ben Johnson, Bella Livshin, Lloyd McQueen, Diego Schaaf, and Wei Wang) to help with the event. The event was an immediate hit with the media; TV and film entertainers all over Hollywood were talking about it.

More than 20 star-studded player pairs paid $250 per team to enter the celebrity doubles event, 28 other teams entered a second event, and spectators paid $50 each to attend. These players consisted of actors, actress and models from such TV shows as “Heroes”, “Desperate Housewives”, “What About Brian”, “October Road”, “Shark”, “Battlestar Gallactica”, “24”, “Bill”, “Boston Legal”, “The OC”, “Weeds”, “Inspector Mom”, “Monk”, “Nurses”, “Less Than Perfect”, “Sons of Hollywood”, “The Biggest Loser”; and “Days of Our Lives”. Film stars represented at this event were from such movies as “Mean Girls”, “Fantastic Four”, “Hairspray”, “Balls of Fury”, “The Grudge 2”, “Football Wives”, and “A Raisin in the Sun”.

This fundraising event was held to benefit the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas to treat adults and children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases without regard to their family’s ability to pay.

The event itself was a logistical challenge with 48 teams, in two events, to play all their matches on only four tables within five hours, from 7 pm to midnight. Matches were two out of three games with very lenient rules, and special care by umpires to help manage the games. There was an additional challenge in that it was discovered that some USATT players had managed to gain entry into the event. This was initially handled with a ruling that USATT players would need to play with their off-hand, but very quickly that ruling was changed to give the opposition a 5-point handicap as well.

The celebrity event formally began at 10 pm, about the time when in-crowd Hollywood nightclubs usually open their doors. The crowd rapidly doubled in size, as the atmosphere at the Vanguard transformed itself into a high profile, television media event with cameramen standing mid-court to film the hip Hollywood-style commentator-narrated play-by-play action. Security guards were posted to control the crowds. The filming lights intensely lit up the tournament tables and players. Packy, the multicolored Dippin’ Dots costumed mascot, danced about and cheerfully waved to spectators between games. Teams played on four tables, with 16 celebrity-stars playing together at any given time. Celebrity game show hosts, Affion Crockett and Adam Hunter, served as commentators, busily traveling from table to table, describing the action on their wireless microphones. Unlike our usual sedate, ho-hum, polite USATT tournament crowd, the Hollywood celebrity crowd cheered, jeered, and shouted at every exciting point. So much so that the announcers sometimes had to quiet the crowd to continue.

For entertainment while the tournament games were being played, a commentator asked the crowd table tennis trivia questions and awarded prizes like movie tickets. The crowd was fielded questions like, “What kind of gas is injected into Ping-Pong balls to make them bounce higher?” “The 2004 Olympic men’s table tennis champion was from what country?” It was quite impressive that many non-USATT affiliated spectators gave the right answers.

This unique table tennis event prompted Barney Reed, Lee Kondo, Bella Livshin, and others to discuss whether USATT tournaments should be conducted more like our football, baseball, or basketball games to attract sponsors that spend millions to promote U.S. sports in stadiums and through television coast-to-coast. Also, spectators in the stadium or at home participate enthusiastically in rooting for their football, baseball, or basketball teams—this is in stark contrast to our table tennis games which may be overly sedate. At our Hollywood tournament, the crowd cheered, screamed, and applauded their teams, drinking beer, juices, or cocktails, and eating hot dogs, burritos, and ice cream. Maybe a major change is necessary to bring our sport to the next level, where sponsors like Budweiser, Sony, or MGM are glad to pay million dollar contracts to players because the sport can captivate a large, enthusiastic audience. The Harlem Globetrotters popularized basketball decades ago, and now the NBA has become a huge success story— perhaps a savvy Hollywood promoter can present table tennis to Americans in a novel way that will allow our sport to increase its popularity.

One semifinal matched WWE wrestling superstar “The Miz and actor Randy Spelling against Jimmy Jean-Louis and James Kyson Lee (both actors in the NBC series “Heroes”). The Miz and Jimmy Jean-Louis exchanged taunts and athletic stretches before the match. The Miz and Spelling pulled out a close win. In the other semifinal Barry Watson and Rick Gomez (both of “What about Brian”) defeated Ioan Gruffudd (of “the Fantastic Four”) and Bryan Greenberg (of “The Perfect Score”).
The finals pitted The Miz and Randy Spelling team against the Barry Watson and Rick Gomez “What About Brian” team. The crowd went wild as the commentator announced the action point-by-point. When the dust settled, The Miz and Randy Spelling became the Golden Paddle Champions. As the champs scored the final point to win the game, The Miz exclaimed… “Like I said…What About Brian?!” The crowd roared, and the winners were given the coveted Golden Paddle.
By about 1:00 am, the marathon table tennis event was finally finished, with umpires experiencing hoarse voices from having to shout scores for four hours of non-stop action, above the din of an enthusiastic crowd.

The next day, entertainment industry players and stars phoned and e-mailed St. Jude to express their appreciation for this successful worthy event. The St. Jude marketing director said, “This was so much more fun than other fund-raising parties we’ve held. We will have to locate an even bigger place for this celebrity table tennis event next year.” Together, we plan to share ideas and suggestions to make this event more enjoyable for everyone, Hollywood celebrities and non-celebrities alike.