Kickball

I’m not going to lie to you. Kickball wasn’t the first idea to end our week of fun outdoor games that we used to play as kids. When we were brainstorming for this week, Katie came up with the following game, “Throwing sticks at cars late at night and then running if they stop.” I’ve never heard of this game, nor played it so I decided to feature Kickball. And, if your car was ever hit by a stick late at night in the 70s when travelling down Ingleside Road, you know who to call. 

I found this photo at Mike Casey’s Blog on 99.5 The Mountain. Apparently, NY State authorities just categorized Kickball, Freeze Tag, Whiffleball, Capture the Flag and Red Rover as dangerous activities warranting summer camps to have to have medical staff on hand to deal with potential injuries, read: increase prices of running a summer camp and create more ways for Albany to get other people’s money. Shameless. Have you EVER heard of a kid being mortally wounded in a game of Freeze Tag? Mike makes a great point that perhaps we should decide as a nation if we’re worried about our kids being obese or being hurt because there is a tipping point and we seem to be choosing sedentary obesity — and regulations — over skinning one’s knee. I enjoyed reading that one of the games NY State authorities approved as safe is Frisbee since my little brother lost his spleen playing Ultimate Frisbee and had to be life-flighted to the nearest hospital.

We played Kickball a few years ago for my sister-in-law’s birthday at Prospect Park and it was a blast. I’d say almost every personality type would be willing to play this one. Although, I wouldn’t recommend bringing your 12 month old son into the outfield with you as a friend did. Poor little guy never knew what hit him — and yes, of course he survived and his father realized how dumb that was in hindsight. So let’s say it’s for 4+ year olds and I guess you might need a medivac helicopter on hand if playing in NY!

Kickball Rules

The OFFICIAL rules can be found at www.kickball.com — yes, it too is an official sport like Dodgeball — but we offer a few basic ones for our purposes of summertime fun. Generally, Kickball is the same as Baseball and Softball: 3 strikes=1 out, 3 outs per inning, etc., with the obvious exception that the ball is kicked rather than struck with a bat. The pitcher rolls the ball towards home plate where the catcher is. Then the batter, or kicker, kicks it with his foot, then runs to first base, thereby becoming a runner. While you can use soccer balls or volleyballs, dodgeballs are often the friendliest to play with because they have more give.