Table tennis and competitive sailing really aren’t strange bedfellows. Both are made up of team spirit, enthusiasm, cultural bonding and can easily go down big on the same day as a spectator sport in San Francisco.

Just as San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee celebrated the second annual Chinatown Sunday Streets and Ping Pong tournament, he was also shining the spotlight on the Marina, as boats with 45 foot sails sped along the water in the America’s Cup World Series. Both events drew big crowds, cameras, lots of applause, dollars for the city — and both venues united in closing roads to traffic. Perhaps ping pong and sailing are also positive news for the environment.

So what else to the two team sports have in common?

Concentration
Top performance
Blending communities
Thrills and excitement
International spirit
Olympic status
iPhones in the air like Bic lighters at a rock concert
And sometimes…two teams collide

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee loves table tennis as much as he loves the crowds drawn to ACWS events leading up to the big show in 2013 – the next precursor being October 2nd-6th of this year.  Here’s to SF sports and professional players that rely on speed, agility, strength and special skills to become champions.