If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.

Welcome to Great Things Tampa Bay, the podcast about great eats, great places and great people in the greater Tampa Bay Area. I’m your host, Kyle Sasser, a Tampa Bay native and realtor. This is Episode 15, Get Your Game On!

I’d like to thank you for giving us your time. I know there’s lots of things vying for your attention and I appreciate you choosing to spend your time listening to me in this podcast. I promise I will do everything I can to bring you something awesome. Also wanna let you know that we now have express feeds. If you’re only interested in our food reviews, just do a search for “Great Bites, Tampa Bay.” If you want more of our interviews with interesting movers and shakers in the area, just look for the feed, “Great People, Tampa Bay.” And for things to do in the area, shops or other events, just do a search for “Great Places, Tampa Bay.” These feeds are listed on our website, greatthingstb.com, under the heading “Express Feeds,” up at the top there.

So, you know, one of the annoying things about getting older, growing up, and all that good stuff, is that, you know, there’s not really anyone around to play games with anymore. Yeah, I’m sure you keep track of one or two, friends over the years, but, you know, the days of going through the neighborhood and be able to throw together a pick-up football, basketball, or soccer game, are many years in the past. Everyone’s just got way too much stuff to do.

Thankfully, we got a little place here, locally, it’s called Tampa Bay Club Sport and it’s a great place for adults, young and old, to get together and play some sports. Those of you that actually know me know that I wasn’t really too big into sports in my younger days, definitely something I’ve grown into as I’ve gotten older. Honestly, I wish that I would have done it a lot sooner, it’s very rewarding and fulfilling. So, if you’re someone who’s just kind of sitting around…honestly, I spent years in front a computer and if you’re doing the same, you know, get out there. Even if you don’t really know what you’re doing, it’s worth it to get out there just to have a little fun and meet some new people.

So, Club Sport was founded in 1995, specifically as an outlet for young adults to play sports. I mean you’re pretty good up through college with being able to throw people together, but once you get past 25, it starts getting really tough, you know, jobs, sleep, kids, career, all that stuff sort of gets in the way.

Tampa Bay Club Sports has locations all around the Bay Area, from Brandon, over on the other side of Tampa, they have some in Tampa. Coquina Key, they don’t have some in the extended area, they have some affiliated clubs down in Sarasota and the like. But, yeah, they more than likely have something close to you. And they cover a wide range of skill levels from recreation, up to intermediate, to competitive. And it can get pretty competitive out there, I can tell you.

Nice thing about it, they do charge a fee, of course, for all this. They paint lines and stuff, it’s not gonna be a pro-level field or anything like that, but they do pay the referees, so you do have someone out there making calls and all that good stuff, which is awesome. They have a ton of sports available. They have soccer, which is my favorite. I currently play every Wednesday, over here in St. Petersburg, at Puryear Park, which is awesome. They also have softball, volleyball, kickball, which my wife played for a couple years there. They also have football, which I’m guessing is of the flag variety, I have not actually signed up for that yet, but I can’t imagine that they would have tackle football. Basketball, tennis, golf, cornhole, which is questionable sports, bowling, and, finally, a Bar Games League, which is Flip Cup…I don’t know if they have Flip Cup, but I know I saw pictures of beer pong. So those last few are definitely more of a game than a sport, but there you go. And, yeah, I know some of you all are probably kinda mad saying that, you know, golf’s a sport, but, yeah, let’s get real. And I say that as someone who loves golf.

So, you don’t actually need a full team to play, so you don’t need to get together, you know, 10 people to play soccer or anything like that. If you just wanna play solo, just give them a call, they will sign you up as a free agent and place you on a team. The team that I’m on, we actually all were free agents, and we started just after the last World Cup. We’re still around, which is pretty good, real good bunch of people. So those on the Moist Towelettes Soccer Team, that are giving us a listen, it’s a lot of fun playing with you guys. So, their website is www.tampabayclubsports.com, and you can go there and it’ll display all the leagues and give you all the options, and all that good stuff. Or, if you just rather just call them, their phone number is 877-820-2582.

Segment 2, “Tell ’em Twain.” Mark Twain is one of the most quoted Americans of all time. I saw this one the other day. Thought it was rather appropriate for our new modern age of yellow journalism, and it goes a little something like this, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.”

I wanna thank you for sharing Great Things Tampa Bay with your friends and family. You can share us by going to our website, greatthingstb.com. There you’ll find share buttons on nearly every page. You can share us on Twitter, Facebook, all that good stuff. If you are looking for your own great place in Tampa Bay, I’m also a licensed realtor, specializing in deep knowledge of Hillsborough/Pinellas County. So if you wanna talk real estate, you can give me a call at 727-300-2111, or you can send me an email at kyle@sassergroup.com. That’s kyle-S-A-S-S-E-R-G-R-O-U-P.com, and I’d be more than happy to help you find your next home here in Tampa Bay.

I also need your feedback. I need you to tell me where we should be going, and what we should be eating, and who we should be talking to. So, please go to our website, greatthingstb.com. Or, you can hit either the “Contact Us” link at the top or the “Get Social Links,” also at the top. If you wanna be a cool guy or a cool girl, you can call our voicemail number, which is 727-440-4455, and leave us a message. I’d love to hear from you.

So, thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time. And, oh, by the way, if you don’t want to miss the next episode, please subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play, that’ll guarantee that you get the next episode delivered straight to your mobile device of choice.

Thank you so much and I’ll talk to you next time.