August 7, 2002

5:31 PM

Today I played kickball. My team came in third of four, but we'd had too much fun (and Mike's Hard Lemonade) to care. Wanna organize your own game? All you need is a copy of the rules, a few rubber kickballs, a way to invite your friends and beer.
posted by Shadowkeeper (19 comments total)

third-grade memories of sliding into home base...on an asphalt playground...
posted by gottabefunky at 5:39 PM on August 7, 2002

...another simple game to play is 'flatball.' also known as Ultimate... yeah we dropped the "Frisbee" we're snobs and not loyal to the Wham-O brand. You can even play it with only 10 simple rules.
posted by damclean2 at 5:59 PM on August 7, 2002

I was a chubby, unathletic and roundly despised child. But I stomped the terra when it came to kickball. My childish girth, when coupled with a Dexter hiking boot, nearly always sent the ball on a low orbit flight. Thanks for the memories.

But wait! Let's not forget tetherball!
posted by pejamo at 6:01 PM on August 7, 2002

Let us not forget dodgeball as well. The rules and regulations page is enlightening. Below the shoulders?!?! Pshaw. My wife argues that a game in which your object is hit other people is unusually cruel. I thought it was fun as hell as a kid.
posted by josephtate at 6:10 PM on August 7, 2002

and let us not cast aside Disc Golf, another sport great with drink and smoke
posted by wuakeen at 7:13 PM on August 7, 2002

Kickball

I'm in first grade, my big sis is in fifth grade. Nobody likes me and they don't let me play kickball at recess. I cry to my sister and she and her green-plaid coven (Catholic school uniform, natch) stomp over to the game and insist I am in the game, NOW. I am inserted at bat (at foot?) and promptly boot the red rubber ball on one hop over the fence out into the street on the first slightly bouncy roll.

I round the bases triumphantly as my sister and her friends scream and cheer from the third base line.

The next day as they're picking teams, I overhear one second grader tell another, "That's the guy who kicked one over the fence..."
posted by vito90 at 7:38 PM on August 7, 2002

Aaaaah, josephtate, thank you for those links.

I loved dodgeball and have only fond memories. There was also a variation called "German dodgeball" which was played in a circle. If I remember right, the regular (non-German) version was considered more hard core and only the 5th and 6th graders were allowed to play that one.

I really, really liked dodging the ball...seems like I should have grown up to be a politician or at least a secret spy.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:55 PM on August 7, 2002

pejamo: I absolutely loved to play tetherball! What a great game.

Kickball was always great. I'll have keep your idea for a good time in mind when I go back to college, Shadowkeeper.
posted by insomnyuk at 8:03 PM on August 7, 2002

kickball was my second favorite playground game. probably because i was a good kicker. like secret life of gravy above, there was another game i loved to play, and it was only allowed for the 5-6th grade playground.

the name of the game was three-step. no teams. a ball is thrown in the air, and whoever catches it can take three steps before throwing at someone. if you catch the ball, the thrower is out, but if it hits you (and you don't catch it) then you are out. when only two players are left, there is no longer a three step rule.

looking back, the most fun wasn't playing against my peers, but in late night games in the neighborhood, against my brother and his friends. they were all four to six years older, some already had cars. if you wanted to play, they'd let you. but when you busted your nose or lip - and for us younger kids it was inevitable, you'd better not go crying home about it, or that would be the last time you were in the game.

even now, i can feel the sharp stinging pain of the ball hitting my hands and chest, and i can taste the satisfaction in seeing a self-confident smirk wiped from the face of some older kid who thought he'd tear my head off with his throw...
posted by lescour at 8:49 PM on August 7, 2002

kickball, tetherball, disc golf, ultimate frisbee...

none of these have anything on calvinball.
posted by chumptastic at 9:36 PM on August 7, 2002

In case anyone missed this, we partook in some juvenille kicking and screaming at SXSW...
posted by fooljay at 12:26 AM on August 8, 2002

"another sport great with drink and smoke"

wuakeen, if one can drink and/or smoke whilst participating I'm afraid I have to argue that it's not a sport. Pastime, possibly. Hobby, sure. Sport, no.

Secret Life of Gravy: I also excelled at dodgeball, but not for my ability to evade the ball. It was my ability to catch a ball thrown at whatever velocity a sixth-grader could impart on a ball the size of his own head. I was always the last one left on my side, just because I never dropped the ball.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:36 AM on August 8, 2002

Crash -- if one calls ball golf a sport (which is debatable, i know) then one must also call disc golf a sport. Usually though, i save the drinking for after the round, as the people that walk around with coolers tend to litter, take their sweet ass time, and make really annoying comments. Yet, there is a pro disc golf tour (wuakeen linked to the PDGA home page) with prizes and people that do it for a living. Course, they make less money in a year than most pro ball golfers do in a weekend, but that's just b/c they're underappreciated.
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:44 AM on August 8, 2002

So, Crash, we can see that the world is divided into three kinds of people: those who never drop the ball, those who dodge anything thrown at them, and all the rest (aka the losers.)

You and I need to sit down and write a business tactics book, something like: Catch It! Or Dodge it! How Not To Be A Loser. I predict two years on the best selling list followed by the "Catch/Dodge Cookbook", "Catching and Dodging For Teens", and "The Big Book of C/D Poetry For The John." The latter printed on toilet paper, presumably.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:19 AM on August 8, 2002

In case anyone missed this, we partook in some juvenille kicking and screaming at SXSW...

Given the discontent for Metafilter Meetups, MeFi Kickball Saturday might be the way to go for those weekend gatherings.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 8:48 AM on August 8, 2002

We only played games designed to tire out children. My favorite was "donkey ball" - just like kickball but with a bat. Man, can you knock those red and green playground balls into the stratosphere with a bat! Once you'd whomped it a couple of blocks outside the schoolyard, you'd run around the bases accumulating runs until the other team got the ball back and tagged you out. We'd frequently have scores in the triple digits.

Another game was "star wars", a complicated 4-team dodgeball/capture-the-flag hybrid involving lots of hula-hoops as "safe zones" and beanbags as the objects of currency.
posted by some chick at 9:00 AM on August 8, 2002

I was a scrawny kid, but fast enough to do well at dodgeball. So it was one of the sports I liked best.

I've been out of the US for many years now, but I find it hard to believe that this article could really be true:
Concern over the game's potential for brutality and intimidation led school districts in New York, Virginia, Maryland, Maine, Ohio and Texas to ban dodgeball.
posted by fuzz at 9:22 AM on August 8, 2002

Tis true, fuzz. Here's the old MeFi thread about it.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:01 AM on August 8, 2002

Some pals and I have been discussing starting up a kickball league in East Nashville, and those links were just what I needed. Thanks!
posted by mikrophon at 1:54 PM on August 8, 2002