"Captain Pierce was a strong man, strong as any man alive," sang Les Claypool of Primus. "It stuck in his craw that they made him retire at the age of 65." Much like that mythical fire captain, 65-year-old Danny Seemiller is one tough customer, disinclined hang it up at an arbitrarily preordained age. His strength once attracted the attention of baseball scouts, playing for the Pirates' farm team in his native Pittsburgh. He once strung together 193 plate appearances without a strikeout. With his knack for whacking a ball with a bat, Seemiller also noticed that he rarely lost a game of table tennis. In addition to his major league strength and speed, he befuddled opponents with his unusual style. Instead of using opposite sides of the racket for his forehand and backhand like the traditional "shakehand" grip, Seemiller uses the same side for both strokes, switching back and forth like a windshield wiper. To further confuse matters, he uses anti-spin rubber on one side, strategically twirling the racket during the points to alternate between knuckleball blocks and devastating loop-kill forehands. While it is not unusual for a player to use an unusual grip, it is anomalous for any style outside the classic shakehand or penhold grips to have any success outside its practitioner's basement, garage or, at best, local club. Here is where Seemiller set himself apart from the pack. Using the grip that would eventually bear his name, he rose to not only national but global prominence. Seemiller was the top-rated player in the US from 1974 to 1981, winning 24 national open titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles over the years. Seemiller rose as high as #19 in the world, and outside the United States the "Seemiller grip" was referred to as the "American grip." It must have been bittersweet for Seemiller, however, when table tennis was finally introduced to the Olympics in 1988. After capably representing the United States on the global stage for years, the then-34-year-old watched as 21-year-old phenom Sean O'Neill (along with Diana Gee and Seemiller's frequent mixed doubles partner Insook Bhushan) flew the Stars and Stripes at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Seemiller never stopped competing, though, and did eventually go to the Olympics. His role, however, was that of a coach. "My focus since 1996 has been taking my players to tourneys and running around and coaching them," says Seemiller, who runs a club in South Bend, Indiana. While helping to develop America's next generation of players, Seemiller has never strayed far from the table. "I’ve had to get back in good shape," he says. "Everything on me has ached at times. I don’t think some people know how grueling table tennis can be." Ever the fighter, he is now eyeing a wildly improbable run to the 2020 Olympics, not as a coach but as a player. His wife Valerie told him, with an unknowable ratio of supportiveness and sarcasm, "Good luck!" Seemiller has plenty of support from the table tennis community, even manifesting on the material plane in the form of a GoFundMe account. With the US Olympic trials a little over two months away in late February, Seemiller must travel to hone his edge in as many tournaments as possible. With a current USATT rating of 2348, Seemiller is far removed from the level of 2016 Olympian and reigning national champion Kanak Jha, the 19-year-old Californian rated 2746. However, with his eponymous style and fighting spirit, anything is possible. "Without my technique, I wouldn’t have a chance," confides Seemiller. "But because I play a much different game than anyone else, I might be able to make a run." Fans of sport, underdog stories and the human spirit will certainly be rooting for Danny Seemiller as he chases his dream against all odds. With his stentorian firefighter's voice, Captain Pierce will be cheering the loudest.

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