“We’re grown-up adults and we are taking our careers and our lives seriously, but in our off time we’re enjoying it,” says Tiffany Ficklin, director of public relations and events for the World Adult Kickball Association, the closest thing the sport has to a national governing body. WAKA boasts more than 20,000 members in 20 states.
The rules are pretty much the same, but they’re now available in PDF format. Any kicked ball caught in the air is an out. There are force outs. Any runner not on base hit by a ball is out. Four foul kicks from a kicker is an out. Three outs make half an inning, and “bouncies”—any pitch that comes in bouncing more than one foot high—are prohibited in WAKA.
The self-described social athletic club was started in 1998 and has caught on with thousands of regressing American citizens, but finds its membership dominated by a group not far off from eating paste.
“Our largest concentration of people who register are between 25 and 30 and they are usually young professionals,” Ficklin says. “It’s people who are post-graduate and starting off their careers. They haven’t gotten into the whole family and mortgage situation yet.”
Brooklyn Kickball (BKKB), an independent league that vehemently denounces any association with WAKA, trolls the Brooklyn playgrounds every summer. The current stomping grounds for “GhostFace Kickah” and the pirate team, BKKB started with two teams in 2003 and now counts 20 squads, some with more than 20 members.
“We highly encourage teams to come clad in uniform and with plenty of moxie,” said Ruth Heronemus, co-director of BKKB. “I think the more people dress up and play into their team name, the more fun they have. Everyone likes a little role-playing and if that means coming out dressed like a Pirate or Catholic school girl, then so be it.”
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