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Those of us in Pleasanton have survived the huge weekends at the Alameda County Fairgrounds for the Goodguys car show as well as the Scottish Games.
Both have been late-summer staples for years at the fairgrounds and the two events pretty much take over the city on those weekends, turning downtown Pleasanton into a celebration.
Now that the big events have come and gone, I think this weekend – Sept. 5-7 – has an event worth everyone checking out.
Major League Table Tennis is back for opening weekend at the fairgrounds, as our Bay Area Blasters are playing host to three other teams for the opening weekend of the MLTT season.
I wrote a story on the league back in January as they were halfway through the season. The story was published on Jan. 7 if you wanted to go back and check it out.
This weekend our Bay Area Blasters will welcome the Florida Crocs, Texas Smash and Portland Paddlers. Each team will play the other three teams in matches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Back to lead the Blasters is United States Olympian and Bay Area resident Lily Zhang.
Zhang is a four-time Olympian and six-time U.S. Women’s Singles National Champion; she also claimed gold in Women’s Team and bronze in Singles at the 2015 Pan Am Games.
There are 10 teams in the league for this season.
Major League Table Tennis is America’s first-ever professional ping pong league. Founded by tech entrepreneur Flint Lane in 2023, the league quickly earned rave reviews for its unique team-based format.
Each team match features 21 total points up for grabs. Teams earn one point for every individual game won across the match. The standard match format includes five total games: two singles, one doubles and two more singles.
It all culminated in the Golden Game – a high-stakes, race to 21 points finale, where each member of the five-player team rotates in every four points. The winning team gets an additional six points, and as can be imagined, the Golden Game can turn the tide of the match.
The schedule for this weekend is:
Friday (Sept. 5): Florida Crocs vs. Portland Paddlers, 4 p.m.; Texas Smash vs. Bay Area Blasters, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday (Sept. 6): Florida Crocs vs. Texas Smash, 4 p.m.; Portland Paddlers vs. Bay Area Blasters, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday (Sept. 7): Portland Paddlers vs. Texas Smash, 11 a.m. Florida Crocs vs. Bay Area Blasters, 2 p.m.
This is something that should interest all of us. At some time in our lives, we have all played ping pong – some of us still do. When I was in college at Chico State, we had a center in a warehouse called “Ping Pong Palace”.
We spent many hours in the Palace playing. It was really cool – it even had a small tournament court with bleachers – and wasn’t “Beer Pong”, which was another coming-of-age event as we grew through early adulthood.
I work at Harvest Park Middle School as the campus supervisor, and we have three tables that are packed, even during passing periods as kids rush to the tables, getting in some play, even during the four-minute passing period.
And some of these kids are good players. I used to fancy myself as a pretty good player when I was younger, but I watch some of these middle schoolers play and I am amazed.
It’s a sport we can play well into our senior citizen years and enjoy with our grandkids.
Now you have a chance to see some of the world’s best plying their trade in intimate settings for not too much money.
If you can’t make it out this weekend, the MLTT will be back at the Alameda County Fairgrounds Feb. 13-15, 2026. For tickets or to follow the MLTT, go to www.mltt.com.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
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