Chocolate covered kudos

Complaints from kickballers rarely get listened to. Whether it's because the HMFICs don't care or because they just view us as drunken piles of money I don't know. So when complaints are addressed, I believe kudos are in order. Or at least, as in this case, partial kudos.

DC Kickball last fall experienced many problems due to poor planning. Some games were called off after three innings due to lighting issues. Game start times had to be moved up. Many DC Kickballers were left angry - and some just left. The founder of the league though, has heeded the words of his customers in this case and decided to act, witness this post from him:

For anyone who played kickball last Fall, you know how rough things can get as the sun starts setting earlier and earlier. Games getting moved up to 6:15pm, games being shortened to 3 innings, you get the picture.

So this Fall we decided to do something about this. Starting Week 4, we will be moving to Stead Park (map).
Stead Park is located near the corner of 17th and P St, just a couple of blocks away from the Dupont Metro. You can see a map showing the journey from Stead Park to Tom Tom on the Adams Morgan Division website.

Stead Park has a lot of things going for it: size, grass and LIGHTS. Fields with lights cost more than fields without lights, but can you really put a price on getting in a full 5-innings of kickball goodness? I think not.

I would debate the last line, but overall I applaud this measure - with one caveat. I am a little concerned by the cryptic line, "Fields with lights cost more than fields without lights, but can you really put a price on getting in a full 5-innings of kickball goodness? I think not." I will assume that this means that it is costing more from his profit margin and not that he is going to charge us more this season. If that's the case, thanks very much. If it's not... well that will be another blog entry.

While I could argue that the thought could have gone into this before the season started, thus meaning that we would be at the same fields this whole season, I won't. And while others have argued that it's a far walk now from the fields to the bar, I disagree. The walk is further than it was, but it's no further than most other leagues distance to their sponsor bars. And now we have lights, which is a step in the right direction, and more than other leagues would do upon hearing complaints.

However...

A few entries ago I mentioned that the flip cup champions in DC Kickball didn't get a trophy for winning nor did they get a mention on the DC Kickball website. Voila, the mention appeared. Voila, at the end of season party a trophy appeared. But the trophy was not really a trophy at all. I was reminded of this by the article in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine. In the picture at the link you see one of the kickball "trophies". I use quotes because these are spray-painted things that look like they have tin foil on them. Those are hardly worthy of a real business.

In college, they would have been cool and funny because a lot of us were poor (or would have rather spent our money on booze). If I was 7 that would be neat. But when I am paying $50 for a season and the guy running it is taking the lion' share of that money I don't find that cool or neat; it's just crappy. A trophy costs between $25 and $100 depending on what kind you want - I don't think that's too much to ask. He could have even gone to Pier 1 or someplace and just gotten a pitcher for $20 and people would have been happier. It doesn't take much to make kickballers happy, but it takes more than a spray-painted mini keg; and I don't think that's asking a lot. But then, it would take away from his profits.

I may just be disappointed though because I assumed, "Well if it's this cheesy it must be chocolate filled like those coins we used to get at Easter from the Easter Bunny" and it wasn't. Upon touching it and further inspection, it was just a spray-painted kickball type thing and mini keg (note there was one real one, so I assume that counts). Guess I have to wait for the good tin foil wrapped stuff.

So, half a kudo for the DC Kickball guy. Just buy some freakin' trophies, will ya?