MLP New York 2025 – Preview
It’s Independence Day weekend so what better time is there to have an MLP event? The event is in New York City at Randall’s Island Park after a schedule change was announced from Washington, D.C. at the beginning of June. The event is being hosted by the Brooklyn Pickleball Team (formerly DC). It’s hard to imagine this will be the ideal weekend for eyeballs and fans but, hey, this is the dead zone for sports and why there is merit to having MLP during the summer. We’ll be curious to see what the crowds look like in New York.
Time for a quick primer of MLP New York.
What will this weekend tell us about Columbus?
The Columbus Sliders had a solid weekend in San Clemente, but they lost in a Dreambreaker to the LA Mad Drops in their toughest matchup of the weekend. CJ Klinger and Lea Jansen lost the key mixed match against the Mad Drops and they also dropped a meaningless final mixed game against Sock/Bouchard. Their women also haven’t quite figured out who is going to play the left and right consistently.
It is a pretty soft schedule for Columbus in NYC. They get to play the Hustlers in twice in New York, on Thursday and Friday, with the Thursday one being made up from the re-scheduled match they did not play in Columbus. The rest of their schedule has them playing Miami, Carolina and Orlando – they avoid Brooklyn for the second event in a row.
Anything less than a 4-1 weekend is likely disappointing, but a good or great weekend from the Sliders won’t tell us that much with none of the big dogs in town. If they can show that they can handle business against the middle to bottom end teams. then we can start to talk again about the Sliders being a sneaky contender.
Carolina Hogs Revamped
The new Carolina Hogs will be unveiled in NYC as Ben Johns and Tammy Emmrich will be joined by Etta Tuionetoa, Roscoe Bellamy and Martin Emmrich. We expect that Tuionetoa and Bellamy will get the nods as starters for the weekend, and it will be interesting to see how this group fares against some middling competition in the Big Apple
Roscoe Bellamy has to be considered a downgrade from Collin Johns in men’s. How much will Ben enjoy playing with Roscoe? Can Roscoe get used to not only the unique pressure of playing with Ben, but also the large amount of court Ben likes to cover? Is Ben tired of losing MLP matches? The Hogs need 2 wins from Ben to have a chance and this men’s doubles team should still be pretty tough to beat on paper.
They have two very strong Dreambreaker men and two sub-par Dreambreaker women. That’s not a recipe for Dreambreaker success, and it won’t be easy for them to find 3 wins against any team other than the Hustlers.
It doesn’t look like Jessie Irvine is going to be traded to the Hogs before this event, which means the other big question is whether Etta and Tammy can find a way to go .500 or above the rest of the way?
Brooklyn Trying to Stay Afloat
Brooklyn will likely be without 1 or 2 of its starters again this weekend, and it is unclear if Pat Smith is going to be over his illness yet. They somehow avoid Columbus so the softness of the schedule is good timing. If they can get one of their starters back along with AJ Koller, they should be in line to put together another strong weekend.
It remains the case that replacing a top 10 to 15 female is much harder than it is to replace a top 10 to 15 male. It would be devastating to Brooklyn if they lost either Rohrabacher or Kawamoto, but they can stay afloat with AJ Koller able to fill in at a higher level than any other sub on a Premier team.
After getting 10 of 12 available points in San Clemente, Brooklyn only needs to have an okay weekend to remain right in the mix for one of those top 6 spots, just in time for their big guns to return to full strength.
Where Ya Been Miami and Orlando?
It has been a hot minute since we have seen either Miami or Orlando at an MLP event as they both had heavy front-loaded schedules. Is Orlando just a better version of Miami? Both teams have two quality men, one Premier level female and a #2 female that is still figuring it out.
The difference is that Orlando’s 3 best players are better than Miami’s 3 best players individually.
The season is too short for us to see big enough jumps from Mya Bui or Samantha Parker to catapult these teams into contention. Nevertheless, the most interesting aspect of both these teams is monitoring how far their #2 women have come since the beginning of the season.
*Looks like Jay Devilliers is on baby watch so he may not be around this weekend:
Where Do the Hustlers Stand?
The Hustlers will have a different look to them in their home state event. We are expecting to see their full squad with Zane Ford, Donald Young, Dominique Schaefer and a significant upgrade with Helena Jansen. Jansen will get some playing time after the Husterls received some cash from the Ranchers for Felicity Di Laura, who they stole from the Shock off waivers.
If the Hustlers have their whole squad in NYC, expect them to be more competitive than we have seen them at other events. It will be a full slate of 6 matches, including 2 against Columbus, but they should be in the mix to push teams like Carolina and Miami to at least a Dreambreaker.
The SoCal Hard Eights were the team of the event in San Clemente despite winning only 1 match. The ball is in New York’s court.
Collin Johns is Back
This wasn’t part of our initial preview but we added it because Erik Tice reported Collin Johns will be filling in for the recently traded Sam Querrey in Challenger for the Bay Area Breakers.
The Bay Area Breakers suddenly become the most interesting team in Challenger for a weekend. Collin Johns having to play with DJ Young and potentially deal with the likes of Michelle Esquivel screaming in his face in mixed is close to must see TV.
We have no clue what Bay Area is accomplishing here by trading for Querrey and presumably replacing him with an on site sub going forward as Andrea Koop suggested on X.
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