Spectators and Players, Portland Is a Ping-Pong Town

Major League Table Tennis matches make it clear: The hype for ping-pong shouldn't end at Marty Supreme. by Corbin Smith There’s a scene in the recent hit movie Marty Supreme in which Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), an American table tennis champion and inveterate liar getting by on the skin of his teeth in post-WWII America, is seeking capital from a wealthy man, hoping to grow the game he loves and his own prestige. At one point, in a rare move for the character, Marty tells the truth: “I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m telling you, this game fills stadiums overseas.”  In the 70 years since Marty Supreme— a fictional story rooted in...