Back to the horse and buggy?

Reading the Washington Post this Sunday, I laughed at seeing a story about the NAKID kickball league in the Sunday Source section. My view regarding coverage of kickball in national reports is always "the more the better". I figure as long as it is positive and can assist in increasing the number of people who play - in any league - it's good. Apparently not everyone shares this view.

I am fully aware that in some way the four leagues in this area are in competition for my kickball dollars. Let's face it, there are a small number of people dorky or obsessed enough to play in more that one league - and virtually none who would play in all of them. As a player though, I couldn't care less about that. I just want to play.

Perusing message boards, Sideshow Bob came across this nugget though:

As a good friend of mine asked me after reading this article... "are there THAT many fat ugly people that want to play kickball??"I like how the reporter didn't bother to do her research on the guy. No word that he tried to steal teams from (division edited out by me) and other WAKA divisions.

We could discuss whether or not calling someone fat and ugly is worthy of adults, but I think we all know the answer to that. So let's talk about this idea of "stealing teams". Last time I checked my ass, I don't have a "Property of WAKA/DC Kickball/NAKID/District Sports/any other league" tattoo on it. I'm not sure how one "steals" players or teams from another league. As I stated before, they are all competing for my dollars. And we all have free will to join or not join.

Every day people compare the cost of everything from gas to KY Jelly to clothes, so why not the same for kickball? Companies spend billions a year on commercials to get you to buy their crap instead of the other guy's. Many times I have been at a bar where some beer company is giving away beer for free that may not be my league's sponsor beer. If I take the free beer have they stolen me? I don't think so.

I fail to see how contacting someone or a group of people is attempted theft. Or offering a discount to a team or people if you try a different product. Or if you offer more services. For me it just makes things more fun and throughout history has made things better. Otherwise we'd all still be paying $3000 for a VCR.

I could even see if the post above was from someone making money in WAKA, but it's not. It's just from some guy with an inflated ego and obvious anger issues. Maybe he'd be happier if we all still rode a horse and buggy to work and had no electricity; after all Ford and GE "stole" those customers from someone, didn't they?

Dude , it's a kickball fluff story - and funny at that. Relax.