can America’s fastest growing sport break through in the best possible way?

Hailed as the fastest growing sport in America, it has taken nursing homes by storm and spread contagion through department stores and sports arenas across the United States.

Now pickle ball supporters are gearing up for a campaign to conquer the next frontier in gaming: television. At noon today, before an important college basketball game, sports channel ESPN will air the Pickleball Slam: the latest attempt to promote the rowdy game played with paddles and a perforated plastic ball as a spectator sport that can hold viewers’ attention.

Organizers haven’t turned to the world’s best pickleball players, like the mustachioed and mullet-wearing Tyson McGuffin or teenage dynamo Anna Leigh Waters of Delray Beach, Florida. Instead, they are