Obsidian Potency 3.0
My First Kickball Game
posted Thursday, 26 April 2007
As an adult, I mean. My team lost, 3-1. It was a bit of a defensive struggle. Let me just say that adult kickball is a lot harder than it looks. With 11 fully-grown people on the field, you can't just blast the ball and count on someone not to make a play, because it's relatively easy to for an adult to catch a red rubber ball. Since it's not a soccer ball, it's hard to get much velocity.
In fact, the best strategy is to bunt and kick it along the ground -- that is, until you load the bases. At that point, you have to kick the ball into the outfield to give the runners a chance to score. But that's easier said than done. The pitchers roll high-velocity balls at the kicker along the ground in order to encourage you to pop it up for an easy out. Plus, they put some spin on it to induce more of the same. In my only 'at-bat', I fouled one off, got overzealous on my second kick and gunned a hard line drive right back at the pitcher, who of course caught it. I also made 2 or 3 catch-out plays. Considering much of my team (including me) is totally new to the game, I think we did pretty well.
Not that it mattered -- people don't play in most of these leagues in order to win. Because it was so low-scoring, the game went pretty quickly. We moved on to our post-game happy hour and spent a lot more time there than we had playing kickball. I played flip-cup for possibly the first time in my life, and met some people on other teams. The truly striking thing about kickball is how nice and chill everyone seems to be. The entire contingent was so easy to talk to, whether we were on the same team or not. I've never experienced anything quite like the vibe of a kickball crowd.
I'm glad I chose Wednesdays, because if I had gone with Thursday I would have missed my first game due to the conference. I picked an earlier weekday precisely for that reason. Anyway, I now understand why the 'sport' has taken off the way it has. It's fun, laid-back and full of people who don't take themselves too seriously.
In fact, the best strategy is to bunt and kick it along the ground -- that is, until you load the bases. At that point, you have to kick the ball into the outfield to give the runners a chance to score. But that's easier said than done. The pitchers roll high-velocity balls at the kicker along the ground in order to encourage you to pop it up for an easy out. Plus, they put some spin on it to induce more of the same. In my only 'at-bat', I fouled one off, got overzealous on my second kick and gunned a hard line drive right back at the pitcher, who of course caught it. I also made 2 or 3 catch-out plays. Considering much of my team (including me) is totally new to the game, I think we did pretty well.
Not that it mattered -- people don't play in most of these leagues in order to win. Because it was so low-scoring, the game went pretty quickly. We moved on to our post-game happy hour and spent a lot more time there than we had playing kickball. I played flip-cup for possibly the first time in my life, and met some people on other teams. The truly striking thing about kickball is how nice and chill everyone seems to be. The entire contingent was so easy to talk to, whether we were on the same team or not. I've never experienced anything quite like the vibe of a kickball crowd.
I'm glad I chose Wednesdays, because if I had gone with Thursday I would have missed my first game due to the conference. I picked an earlier weekday precisely for that reason. Anyway, I now understand why the 'sport' has taken off the way it has. It's fun, laid-back and full of people who don't take themselves too seriously.
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