Independence Day Observations

Now that the fireworks, beer, and burgers are all gone, I have had time to think about a few things regarding Independence Day and (what else) kickball and how they are intertwined. I know it sounds ridiculous, but indulge me for a few minutes.

I awoke about about 7am (as always happens when I'm off) and flipped on the CBS Early Show and caught, much to my surprise, a piece about KICKBALL! It started out as a rah-rah everyone is playing it again, WAKA has 50,000 members piece and then, inevitably, focused on the lawsuit. So here again I have to listen to the WAKA spokesdork Tiffany something spout lines like, "We just want to protect the kickball experience". Then when pressed by the interviewer, "But suing the other kickball league?" she responded, "We just want to play kickball". No Tiff, I just want to play kickball. Many others just want to play kickball. WAKA wants to get rid of the competition, that's why the sue.

Then the DC Kickball founder Carter somebody is on the air stating that despite the fact that it's a fun game there is still ALOT of money involved and that's why he's being sued. No "Local Celebrity" shirt, as another blog noted, for this interview. Odd, there's a lot of money involved, but not enough for a $250 bar tab - interesting, but I digress.

So instead of this being a cool story covering a fun thing I do, once again it's about lawsuits and how much money these guys make. Great, just what I wanted to see. Luckily, most kickballers are not up on a non-work day to see this crap that early (probs hungover) so most did not have to be disappointed as I was.

Later, talking to some fellow kickballers (and non-kickballers) at a party I heard that the DC Kickball guy has been accepted to business school and now I am left wondering what will happen. Will DC Kickball shut down? Will it be passed on to someone else? I got to the DC Kickball site when I got home ready to pose these questions and found that Mr. Founder has disabled anyone's ability to post a comment on his blog for the league. Is this his way of dealing with controversy deriving from his "free beer" inappropriate responses? Cut off all debate?

In any case, I hope people who play in the league will find out soon. Maybe this will mean an end to the lawsuit? If so, hopefully other independent leagues will survive, as despite Tiffany's implications, competition will only make the WAKA experience better for those of us who play with them, as it does throughout America.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!