For many of us, watching a baseball game is a great way to do something fun and get away for a bit after a long day of working at our jobs. But what about the people whose job is baseball? How do they get that mental reset?
Enter pickleball.
The game that has swept the nation over the past couple of years has swept up the Milwaukee Brewers coaching staff and is showing no signs of stopping. From the coaches to the front office, pickleball has been the way to bring the organization closer together,
fuel their competitive fire, and keep their minds sharp.
It all started with third base coach and infield coordinator Matt Erickson.
Three years ago, during the offseason, Erickson’s stepmom wanted to learn pickleball, and she enlisted him to join her. Erickson had no idea what it was, but once she offered to buy lunch, he was all in. So they went to a nearby church in Appleton with a couple of pickleball courts and tried to learn how to play.
“Two older ladies came over and they basically just took 15 minutes out of their day and explained the game to us, like the rules and everything, and then proceeded to kick our (expletive),” Erickson said. “And I was like, ‘this is a game that I have to figure out,’ right?”
The competitor in Erickson was motivated.
He started playing a couple times a week, and by the time spring training came around, he was ready to bring the game to Arizona and his fellow Brewers coaches.
“We talked our grounds crew into putting a court up by the cages in spring training. And so that first year, a few people would trickle out. (Jason) Lane started playing, I started playing, (Matt) Arnold started playing, some of our front office, some of our strength and conditioning, some of our training staff, and it just kind of brought some people together, like different departments, which I thought was pretty cool. And then the next year we had two courts out there, and more and more people showed up,” Erickson said.
“Yeah, (Erickson) was playing, and he recruited me to go play with him. He had some friends that he needed me to be the fourth, and when we played against them, they were really good players, so like right out of the gate, I was getting dominated by really good players. But it makes you learn the game really fast,” Brewers offense and strategy coordinator Jason Lane said.
The game spread like wildfire across the organization. Among the regular players are Erickson, Lane, Matt Arnold, and clubhouse attendant Joe Swanhart. The group has also gotten hitting coach Daniel Vogelbach, pitching coordinator Jim Henderson, game preparation specialist Daniel de Mondesert, bullpen coach Charlie Greene, and field coordinator Nestor Corredor to all take part in the craze.
“Strategy-wise, it’s very similar to baseball. When you’re playing defense on the pickleball court, it’s very similar to infield play and picking the right hops and moving your feet, and then when you’re on the offensive side, it’s very much like pitching. It’s going to locations to set up the next shot, going to their weak point. So the strategy of the game is the most fun part and what keeps you coming back and kind of addicted to it, because it’s very much like baseball,” Lane said.
Brewers owner Mark Attanasio even invested in putting a pickleball court on the terrace level at American Family Field for the coaches and front office to play on while they’re at the ballpark.
“I think (Attanasio) saw what it did for the different departments and bringing people together from a social aspect, and it gets you away for a second from the game and provides a healthy alternative to a little competition for us older folk,” Erickson added.
The popularity of the game inside the Brewers organization has become so well-known that it’s caught the attention of the professional pickleball world.
Erickson has played with a handful of professional pickleball players, including Kris Heddings and Racine native Zane Navratil. Those connections in pickleball also caught the attention of Joola, a pickleball company that sells paddles, gear, accessories, etc. Joola has recognized the Brewers coaches as avid pickleball players and generously provided them with paddles so they can keep playing the game.
But it’s not just about playing pickleball to help bond with your coworkers in the organization. With the nonstop grind of the baseball season, having to constantly help the players compete for 162 games, it’s a nice way for the coaches themselves to have their own little competition and talk some trash to each other.
“It’s an outlet to satisfy those competitive juices that we all have as guys who played the game, and it’s a great workout. You don’t even know you’re getting a workout because you’re having so much fun doing it.” Lane said. “It’s a great sport to talk a little trash in and needle guys and compete against each other.”
“We’re all former players, so we like the (trash) talking and all that too, right? We like being competitive in our own way, so it’s something that us old guys can do and hobble around and have fun doing it,” Henderson said.
With all these games being played, the competition, the smack talk, someone has to win these games. So naturally, I had to know who the best pickleball player on the team is.
“Erickson’s the best one,” Henderson said.
“Matty’s got the #1 slot for sure,” Lane said.
“Oh, Matty,” Nestor Corredor said.
“I’ll let the other people that you interview answer that question (laughs),” Erickson said.
Everywhere the Brewers go on the road, the coaches bring their pickleball paddles and scope out a nearby park with pickleball courts where they can play in the morning before heading to the stadium.
The competition and camaraderie that pickleball has helped build within the Brewer coaching staff go a long way in giving them a break and keeping them mentally sharp during the grind of the regular season.
“It’s a long season; if you’re thinking baseball all the time, you’re going to go crazy,” Corredor said.
“Yeah, and I think too, we’re competitors, so we want to win, and it keeps us sharp, keeps our competitive edge sharp, and then we come (to the ballpark), and we want to win here too and help the guys to be their best version,” Lane said.
We all have to have a way to get away from the day-to-day grind of our jobs, whether that’s by being active, enjoying a baseball game, or something else entirely. We need to have some sort of healthy outlet that helps provide that mental reset. Typically, in the baseball world, golf has been the go-to outlet for that sort of thing. For the Brewers staff, it’s pickleball.
“I would golf with Lane on the road sometimes and then bring a paddle and some shoes. (Pickleball)’s a little easier than bringing your clubs, so we started playing pickleball a little bit more,” Henderson said.
“Some people go for a run, some people like to lift weights, some people play golf. I played a lot of golf before this. I’ve played nine holes in the last two and a half years. Pickleball’s destroyed my golf game. But yeah, it’s a nice little getaway, a reset.” Erickson said.
