From the Police to Pickleball
By Matthew Schwartz
January 1, 2025
If you ever play pickleball against Charlie Esposito and body bag him, nail him in the face or chest with an overhead smash, it won’t faze him.
Charlie has been shot at. He’s walked in the dark in New York’s most dangerous neighborhoods. He’s confronted murderers, drug dealers and fugitives.
You think a plastic ball scares him?
Charlie Esposito was a New York City police officer for 16 years. He spent much of that time patrolling crime-ridden housing projects in Brownsville, Brooklyn. One well-known newspaper columnist said patrolling those projects was “the toughest job in the entire police department,” and that “cops there were 10 times more likely to get killed” than anywhere else. Despite that, Charlie thrived on the action. “I loved it,” he tells me.
He received many commendations and was promoted to sergeant in 1999. He says during his years on the job, from 1992 to 2009, he was involved in more than 4000 arrests.
Charlie retired due to health reasons when he was 41. He spent most of his time watching his two sons and one daughter play sports. They excelled, as he did. He loved hockey growing up on Staten Island and was an all-New York City goalie for St. Peter’s Boys High School. He graduated in 1987 from St. John’s University, where he majored in sports management and minored in criminal justice.
He endured a painful divorce. “I’ve been knocked down,” Charlie says. He talks fast, with a thick New York accent. “I didn’t go around that mountain, I went through it. But like Rocky said, ‘When you get knocked down you get up and keep fighting. That’s what winners do.’”
Charlie calls Lucy his rock.
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At 59 he’s a 5-foot, 9 inch tall whirlwind, known by friends as “Charlie Always on the Go.” That’s also the name of the transportation businesss owned by his second wife, Lucelly. Charlie calls her Lucy and “The greatest woman in the world.” They met at a party and in 2016 moved from New York to Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Charlie works part-time as a driver for his wife’s car service. “I’ve driven around a lot of movie stars and executives,” he says.
Charlie had learned construction and home investing over the years. By the start of 2024 he owned four condominiums, two houses and one villa. He also worked in security. He discovered pickleball in 2021 and like most of us quickly became obsessed with it. “I love everything about pickleball and I’ve made so many friends through it,” he says.
He lives in PGA Village Verano and plays tries to play pickleball five days a week in-between chauffeuring customers around and tending to his rental properties. He’s also an ambassador for Hudef Sport. “They have the highest quality paddles you can buy for their prices and the best warranty in the business,” he says. The Viva Pro Gen 3 is his main paddle.
Everyone in his community knows “Charlie Always on the Go.” He’s on the pickleball committee and condo board. “I have a huge customer base for the transportation service,” he says.
His pickleball team is called the “Verano Sopranos.” Their saying is “Bada Dink,” named after the strip club in The Sopranos, the “Bada Bing.” He has colorful nicknames for his buddies who play. There’s “Tony Lobs,” “Al from da Bronx,” and my personal favorite, “Dominick your pizza sucks.”
Charlie had played racquetball for years and quickly became good at pickleball. He says he’s close to a 4.0 player, maybe a shade under, and won medals in mens doubles in all 12 tournaments he entered in 2024.
Charlie calls Lucy his rock. “I love her more than anything,” he says. They both love their five-year-old rescue dog, a chihuahua mix named Simba. “He’s so smart,” Charlie says. “I say ‘pickleball’ and Simba runs to the front door. My wife puts on his leash and he leads her to the pickleball courts.”
Charlie has a pickleball New Year’s resolution. “I want to improve my skills and be more consistent,” he says. “Be a solid 4.0 player.”
After all that Charlie has been through, coming from behind in a pickleball game is nothing. Charlie likes to say, “Never surrender,” in pickleball and in everyday life. “Never surrender, fight, and don’t let anyone say you can’t do something. I did and I’m an average Joe.”
So you can see why getting drilled by a plastic ball doesn’t faze him.
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Here’s a story from the “It’s a small pickleball world” department. Last week I profiled a pickleball player, podcaster and cancer survivor named Cody Heyer. A few months ago while at a tournament near his home in Richmond, Virginia, Cody met the female pro pickleball player Taylor Garcia. Taylor enjoys doing volunteer work to help support troops overseas. Cody’s brother, 31-year-old Chris Heyer, is a staff sergeant in the Air Force stationed in Kuwait. Like Cody, Chris loves pickleball and set-up a makeshift court and mini-tournaments at his base. Guess who recently visited the base and met Chris? Taylor Garcia.
“Taylor and other pros put on a clinic and showed the troops what high level play looks like,” Cody told me. Taylor and another pro played against Chris and the other best player on the base. Cody says the pros pickled them in under three minutes.
“Taylor then challenged Chris to a game of singles and again served another pickle,” Cody said. Chris called Cody afterwards and told him that the pro players, “make it look easy on TV, but if you are not near perfect with every shot and your footwork, you’ll get destroyed easily.”
Taylor later messaged Chris saying it was one of the coolest experiences she’s ever had.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
- The new Netflix film, The Six Triple Eight,is incredible. Tyler Perry wrote and directed the movie about the only all-Black Women’s Army Corp unit serving in Europe in World War II. It’s one of the few untold stories about that war, and another example of the shameful way that Blacks in the US military were treated. I expect Kerry Washington to at least be nominated for an Academy Award for her memorable performance.
- When did so many college football players start wearing their uniform pants above their knees? They look like shorts and look ridiculous to me.
- If you like who-done-its, the dark comedy No Good Deed, is terrific. You can easily binge it because there are only eight half-hour episodes. The Netflix show is smartly written and has a wonderful cast including Ray Romano, Lisa Kudrow, Linda Cardellini, Denis Leary and Linda Lavin.
- No Good Deed turned out to be Linda Lavin’s last role. The actress died on Sunday from complications of lung cancer. She was 87. Lavin was best known nationally for her starring role in the TV sitcom, Alice, which ran from 1976 to 1985. But her first love was the theatre. Lavin was an award-winning stage actress and performed in eight Broadway productions.
- Some pickleball paddle companies have terrible return policies. They provide no refund if you don’t return the paddle in unused How the heck do you know if you like it or not if you don’t play with it? And it’s not often possible to demo every paddle you’d like to try.
- If I had a penny for every car insurance company commercial I’ve seen this year I’d be rich. Like the athletes to whom they pay a fortune to do the spots.
Hudef is giving away a new paddle to the first person who emails the correct answer to one question at the end of my first blog of every month. This month’s winner will receive the Kevlar/carbon fiber Hudef Viva Pro Gen3 paddle, valued at $169.99.
The question: In my November 27th blog, I wrote that several popular paddle reviewers say unless you’re a high level player, you need not spend more than a certain price for a paddle. What is that price?
Email your answer to sales2@hudefsport.com. The winner will be contacted by email.