Kickball, first dubbed “kick baseball,” was invented in 1917 by the supervisor of Cincinnati’s playgrounds. Terming it an “invention,” however, seems like a stretch, because it certainly didn’t require a rocket scientist to create a recess-friendly youth activity on a baseball diamond without the bat and hardball.
Kickball has been one of the world’s safest at-school activities over the years but is now regarded as a legitimate intramural and club sport — and most of the participants aren’t children kicking and throwing around that big, red playground ball.
The World Adult Kickball Association, founded in 1998, calls itself North America’s first “widespread coed adult kickball league.” Last week, the WAKA held its 13th Founders Cup World Kickball Championship at Desert Breeze Park in Las Vegas, where Panik Attack of Virginia Beach, Va., beat The Other Shotcallers from Washington, D.C., in overtime (extra innings) in the championship game.
Denver-based Upper Deckers and Your Mom also qualified for the tournament but were eliminated in the three-day affair.
The WAKA has a heavy presence in Denver and its suburbs and has helped grow the sport to where most community recreation centers and alternative-sport organizations are now offering it.
“It’s almost like a social happy hour, but you’re actually participating in a physical activity,” said Paul Longfellow, a Littleton resident who plays kickball for the Jagercookies of the Western Alternative Sports Association. “I was kind of coerced into it by a co-worker. I showed up, it was really fun and I ended up sticking with it. It’s a socially competitive, fun thing to do. Just a laid-back atmosphere.”
Like many adults now hooked on kickball, Longfellow hadn’t played since grade school or junior high.
“It’s more fun as an adult,” he said. “The group that I’m in has a restaurant that sponsors the league, so after the game, we all go over there and socialize.”
Kristen Dummer, who manages WAKA leagues in Colorado, said finding players to grow kickball isn’t difficult. But finding enough fields — even soccer or football fields with no backstop — is tough.
“Most of our leagues start with about 60 to 100 people, and the second season we have twice as many,” Dummer said. “But we pretty much have to battle it out every year to get fields. For the most part, the people we do have are very excited about the sport and want to get others involved. You can play it competitively or just as a social outlet.”
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
Kickball’s basic rules
• Maximum number of on-field players is 11, but teams can play with eight.
• Game is five innings.
• Sixty feet between bases, and the distance between home plate and the pitching strip is 42 feet.
• The strike zone is 1 foot wide, and 1 foot above home plate.
• In addition to creating baseball-type outs (strikeout, being tagged out, flyout), a batter is out when struck with the ball while running to a base.
Source:
World Adult Kickball Association-sponsored Colorado leagues
For more information about them, visit .
Flatirons (Boulder)
• Field: New Vista High School
• Sponsor: Sushi Spot
Mountain (Denver)
• Field: City of Cuernavaca Park
• Sponsor: The Ginn Mill
Mile High (Littleton)
• Field: Centennial Park
• Sponsor: The Olde Towne Tavern
Another kickball organization:
• Western Alternative Sports Association
; 303-578-9272
