Who are these people?
It's inevitable no matter what league you play in, what team you're on, even if you know everyone on the team, eventually someone asks: What is wrong with these people? I'm talking of course about the people who register for your team and never show up.
These people can literally ruin a team. With the exception of one of the leagues I have played in, there is a minimum number (usually 4) of each sex that teams have to have on the field in order to avoid a penalty. If they don't show up they can cost your team a forfeit or force you to start down a number of runs and it really sucks. And it's really weird.
Think about this: when we were kids we would rush out to play a team game and hang out with friends and it didn't cost us any money. As adults people spend anywhere from $35-$65 to play kickball and some never even show up. Do people get more selfish, dumber, and less polite as they get older? The answer seems to be that many do. The excuses that these people give are the lamest too. Here are a few I have heard: "flip cup and the game are too competitve", "my internet connection at home is weak", "I had to travel alot", "I didn't realize we played on X day", etc. One girl even said that her mother had cancer! WTF!? I know people here are flaky but this is ridiculous.
If you are one of these people and are reading this, let me just say this: YOU SUCK! I understand if people can't show up every week, but to show up once or never is inexcusable. You people are wastes of kickball space, and I mean that literally. You take up a spot on a roster and then you never come to the field or more importantly the bar and make your team seem less social. Yet, I know that you all will continue to do this and thus you cannot be changed so I appeal here to the leagues I play for to take action.
WAKA and DC Kickball both have hard and fast rules: minimum of 4 guys and 4 girls - if you don't have 'em, you forfeit. If you have three or more forfeits your team is dead to us. This seems harsh to me because many times there are random people that are assigned to these teams who the captains have no contact with, therefore the team is punished for people they don't even know. If the point of kickball is to meet people and have fun, I fail to see how forcing a team that is one girl short to leave the field with a forfeit is helpful. It punishes the forfeiting team AND pisses off the opposing team who had all of its players come out for nothing (sometimes in the rain). And this obviously hurts bar turnout.
NAKID seems to have it a little better. The minimums are higher (5 and 5) but, the penalty for being down players is that your team starts down the number of runs = to the number of players down and you take an out every time that player would come up in the lineup. This sucks (believe me) if you're the team short players, but at least you get to play (and my team actually won one of these) and then you want to go to the bar. Also, after some weeks you can remove these people from your roster and get your friends to join during the season, which is really cool and seems to benefit everyone (the bar, the league, the team). This idea should be incorporated into my other two leagues, it just makes sense.
For those of you who never show up on a team, good riddance. For the leagues I play in, let's do something to not punish the rest of us who do.
These people can literally ruin a team. With the exception of one of the leagues I have played in, there is a minimum number (usually 4) of each sex that teams have to have on the field in order to avoid a penalty. If they don't show up they can cost your team a forfeit or force you to start down a number of runs and it really sucks. And it's really weird.
Think about this: when we were kids we would rush out to play a team game and hang out with friends and it didn't cost us any money. As adults people spend anywhere from $35-$65 to play kickball and some never even show up. Do people get more selfish, dumber, and less polite as they get older? The answer seems to be that many do. The excuses that these people give are the lamest too. Here are a few I have heard: "flip cup and the game are too competitve", "my internet connection at home is weak", "I had to travel alot", "I didn't realize we played on X day", etc. One girl even said that her mother had cancer! WTF!? I know people here are flaky but this is ridiculous.
If you are one of these people and are reading this, let me just say this: YOU SUCK! I understand if people can't show up every week, but to show up once or never is inexcusable. You people are wastes of kickball space, and I mean that literally. You take up a spot on a roster and then you never come to the field or more importantly the bar and make your team seem less social. Yet, I know that you all will continue to do this and thus you cannot be changed so I appeal here to the leagues I play for to take action.
WAKA and DC Kickball both have hard and fast rules: minimum of 4 guys and 4 girls - if you don't have 'em, you forfeit. If you have three or more forfeits your team is dead to us. This seems harsh to me because many times there are random people that are assigned to these teams who the captains have no contact with, therefore the team is punished for people they don't even know. If the point of kickball is to meet people and have fun, I fail to see how forcing a team that is one girl short to leave the field with a forfeit is helpful. It punishes the forfeiting team AND pisses off the opposing team who had all of its players come out for nothing (sometimes in the rain). And this obviously hurts bar turnout.
NAKID seems to have it a little better. The minimums are higher (5 and 5) but, the penalty for being down players is that your team starts down the number of runs = to the number of players down and you take an out every time that player would come up in the lineup. This sucks (believe me) if you're the team short players, but at least you get to play (and my team actually won one of these) and then you want to go to the bar. Also, after some weeks you can remove these people from your roster and get your friends to join during the season, which is really cool and seems to benefit everyone (the bar, the league, the team). This idea should be incorporated into my other two leagues, it just makes sense.
For those of you who never show up on a team, good riddance. For the leagues I play in, let's do something to not punish the rest of us who do.
posted by Kickball Homer at
5/20/2006 11:31:00 AM
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