Why are 2,000,000 Americans playing pickleball? That's the question I asked myself each time I rode past the tennis and pickleball courts in my new housing development at Arbor Creek in Southport, North Carolina. The first few weeks I was too busy unpacking boxes to join in the fun, but a friend (who plays twice a week) said, "Joe, you will love the game because you already love tennis, racquetball, and ping-pong." She was right. The game is a combo of all four activities. The paddle, made of graphite or wood, is larger than a ping-pong paddle, and shorter that a racquetball racquet. It's lighter than a badminton racquet. The court is rectangular, 20 feet wide, and 44 feet long. The "kitchen" is seven 7 feet long starting from the net and twenty feet wide. The kitchen is a safety where you cannot slam the ball in someone's face. If the ball lands in the kitchen, you must let the ball bounce once to keep the volley going. Save face, pickleball. (...