Kickball!
Last Saturday I was at a friend of a friend's party, doing my best to talk to others. Turns out that a few people at the party are in a kickball league (yep, just like what you played in grade school) organized by MUSA. They invited me to come out and play with their team, "Cntr | Alt | Del", and I accepted. They play on Wednesdays at 9pm, so I don't have to leave work early for it, and hey, it's a co-ed league. :-)
We played at Como Park, under the lights on the softball field. Kinda surreal to be playing kickball under kilowatts of artificial light.
We won the rock-paper-scissors face off and elected to be the "home" team. Not having played kickball for, oh, 25 years, I was put in right field. One of the first balls came right too me. I was a little far back, so I came running forward, lost the ball in the lights, tripped over the grass/dirt interface and got a bloody knee and scraped up palms (caught and dropped the ball). It didn't phase me, it made me more intense. This was going to be fun.
A good time was had by (mostly) all. One player on the opposing team was a bit of an ass, which seemed to wind up one of our players a bit and later a tag was made in a rather forceful manner that had people muttering. Disparaging remarks were made, but it wasn't too bad.
In the 7th or 8th inning, I switched to playing second base, feeling confident I could do a decent job of ball handling. Plus I was tired of doing nothing in right field (I only ever got that one ball -- most balls stay well inside the baseline). One man got to first. The next ball was kicked right to me. I ran forward a few feet and waited for it to arc right to me, hoping that it wouldn't bounce off of my hands. I grabbed it for a fly out and looked to my right to find the man who was on first standing just a couple of feet to my left say "Oh, that's not what I wanted to see." I tossed the ball at his back for an easy tag out and double play. Then center fielder asked me if I was going to be here next week. :-) I almost caught the next kick too, but once again, I lost the ball in the lights and it went over me (I got a pinkie on it, but that was it).
We lost, something like 12 to 5, but we all had fun. I know I had fun. Afterwards we went to Dave's, a bar just one block away to get some beers. I stayed until about 11:30pm, chatting with people. They all seem like very nice people, mostly mid-thirties, so there's a real possibility of making some friends. Yea!
I'm already committed to the Fall league, and I'm excited.
We played at Como Park, under the lights on the softball field. Kinda surreal to be playing kickball under kilowatts of artificial light.
We won the rock-paper-scissors face off and elected to be the "home" team. Not having played kickball for, oh, 25 years, I was put in right field. One of the first balls came right too me. I was a little far back, so I came running forward, lost the ball in the lights, tripped over the grass/dirt interface and got a bloody knee and scraped up palms (caught and dropped the ball). It didn't phase me, it made me more intense. This was going to be fun.
A good time was had by (mostly) all. One player on the opposing team was a bit of an ass, which seemed to wind up one of our players a bit and later a tag was made in a rather forceful manner that had people muttering. Disparaging remarks were made, but it wasn't too bad.
In the 7th or 8th inning, I switched to playing second base, feeling confident I could do a decent job of ball handling. Plus I was tired of doing nothing in right field (I only ever got that one ball -- most balls stay well inside the baseline). One man got to first. The next ball was kicked right to me. I ran forward a few feet and waited for it to arc right to me, hoping that it wouldn't bounce off of my hands. I grabbed it for a fly out and looked to my right to find the man who was on first standing just a couple of feet to my left say "Oh, that's not what I wanted to see." I tossed the ball at his back for an easy tag out and double play. Then center fielder asked me if I was going to be here next week. :-) I almost caught the next kick too, but once again, I lost the ball in the lights and it went over me (I got a pinkie on it, but that was it).
We lost, something like 12 to 5, but we all had fun. I know I had fun. Afterwards we went to Dave's, a bar just one block away to get some beers. I stayed until about 11:30pm, chatting with people. They all seem like very nice people, mostly mid-thirties, so there's a real possibility of making some friends. Yea!
I'm already committed to the Fall league, and I'm excited.
posted by Mark at 9:11 AM
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