Lights Out! Part Deux

Written by: Rich "Compromise" Alvarez
Questions/Comments: metermanrich@gmail.com

What happens when you call the city to let them know that, ever Wed. the field lights go out in the middle of our kickball games? The answer: Absolutely nothing.

The kickball faithful playing past 9pm at Jimmy Ochoa field have been plagued by lighting mishaps. First the Multiple Scoregasms and the Pirates! had to have their game postponed last Wed. because someone at the Parks Dept. was either too lazy or just didn't care enough to make sure that the field lights, on a paid field - mind you, were on the right timer schedule. Now that might sound a little harsh, especially considering that Dennis, one of the permit directors, is been really working with us to make sure that the fields are always playable and we have what we need. All we have to do now is make sure the rest of the Parks Dept. is as helpful. However you should never bite the hand that feeds so for now all we can really do is hope and pray that the light timer gets fixed, eventually. Although I have been guaranteed that they will be by this coming Wed. We shall see.

The good news is that the two teams affected by the blackout this week, I'd Hit It and Red Hot Cherry Poppers, were able finish their game at the big dominating Shocker Stadium. Special thanks goes out to Bobby & Cimi of the Pirates!, Chavo of Beavers & Balls, and Jose & Domingo of the Billy Bad Asses for filling in for some missing Popper personnel, that couldn't stay to finish the game. An ever bigger thank you ultimately goes out to Coach Lucas of I'd Hit It, for making a Gentleman's agreement that did not not require the Poppers to keep with the SCK Pick-Up Rule and letting them pick up extra players to ensure an exciting, even game.

SCK Pick Up Rule

7.9 If a team does not have enough registered players to field a team they
will be allowed to pick up other registered league players to field a team.
Teams will only be allowed to pick up enough females to get you to the minimum
three. Also teams will only be allowed to pick up enough players to get you to 8
players after the 3 female minimum is met.

There is a reason why Lucas won Sportsman of the Season....

Become a Famous Kickballer!!!!

Throughout the season you may notice some camera people floating around the kickball fields. Teams from last season are already very familiar with this film team. Mario Dozal and Gabby Morales came to us as a pair of UTEP students looking to make a documentary about our league. They produced an awesome film about Sun City Kickball, that was shown at the pre-season party. This season they are back to continue recording and telling the story that is SCK.

Now the first thing you need to know is don't panic, they aren't some sort of kickball paparazzi. They aren't out there just to record and post all your embarrassing follies, blunders, and/or mistakes. However they might if it's just too funny. Instead they are out roaming the fields looking for some good solid kickball material, sound bites, and plays. So don't be shy! Make your presence known! It is all done to enhance the Sun City Kickball experience. Videos will be posted at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMGDProductions. You could become the next Youtube sensation!

Lights Out!

Written by: Rich "Compromise" Alvarez
Questions/Comments: metermanrich@gmail.com

The match up between the Pirates! and the Multiple Scoregasms started off as a fun affair. Both teams were pumped and excited to get onto the kickball field after two weeks of nagging rain outs. All players seemed in high spirits and as an umpire, I felt relatively comfortable that this game would go off without a hitch.


The game went through 3 innings of sobering, uneventful play; however that was until Eli Avila, of the Multiple Scoregasms, stepped up to kick. Eli was able to blast an absolutely devastating, base clearing, lights out, grand slam. And when I say lights out, I mean LIGHTS OUT literally! No sooner after the grand slam happened, bureaucracy reared its ugly head as apparently someone in the Parks Dept. forgot to extend the light timer to 11pm. What to do, what to do... Well after an hour of Three Stooges' eye-gouging and nose pulling, both opposing coaches grudgingly agreed to reschedule the game.

As it stands now, the score is Scoregasms 4 and the Pirates! with a big donut, bottom of the 3rd.

Mercy is for the Weak!

Written by: Rich "Compromise" Alvarez

Questions/Comments: metermanrich@gmail.com


In an earlier post, I commented on the Shockers' lack of urgency for the upcoming season. Their confidence seemed almost borderline arrogance. While other teams were trying to focus and practice for the spring season, the Shockers were planning their three-peat Championship party. Now whats that saying about not counting your chickens before they hatch, well the Shockers' don't have to worry about that. After their 17-0 spanking of Los Totally Awesomes they are clearly still on top of their game and they are the team to beat.

The new mercy rule implemented for this season, merely to help with time constraints, was used for the first time this season.



7.7 Mercy Rule. If winning by 12 or more runs at any point in the game, the winning team will only be allowed to have the next six players in the kicking order kick. After the sixth player kicks, their side of the inning will end unless three outs are earned before the sixth player kicks.

So basically it works like this, three outs or 6 kickers, which ever comes first. In other sports, if you reach the mercy rule then the term is you have been skunked. In kickball, if you reach the mercy rule then you have just been Shocked!

Surprisingly though the best part of this game wasn't the brutal 17-0 bashing of LTA, not at all. The best part of this game was hearing the tough, tenacious LTA ladies telling the Shockers to, "kick it like a man!" Hilarious. The Shockers have a bunting strategy that gives teams fits. So kudos to the LTAers for standing up to the bully Shockers.

Next Matchups:
Shockers v.s 1 More Shot
Los Totally Awesomes v.s. Drunken Monkeyz

New Kids on the Block!

Written by: Rich "Compromise" Alvarez
Questions/Comments: metermanrich@gmail.com


The slated match between the Hash House Harriers, aka Drinkers with a Running Problem, and the baby faced Kick N Da Balls was a game that should have warranted some attention but totally missed my kickball radar. Its was the classic battle of youth versus age. The young band of merry kickballers from Kick N Da Balls was looking to make a statement with their first game of the season. Both teams were making their kickball debut in SCK.

Apparently they extended the early bird special at Luby's because the Harriers were dangerously short on personnel come game time. Maybe they forgot what time the game was at because they are going through the early stages of Alzheimer's. Regardless of the reason their ranks were razor thin and had to play with the minimum 8 players. The defense deserves all the credit for keeping the score close. They limited the Kick N Da Balls to only 3 runs and considering they were short on players, this is a positive element to build off of. However their offense never showed up and you need both to win. As a rookie team, they tried to take it step by step and were hangin' tough throughout most of the game, but these new kids of the block had all the right stuff.

Im sure the Kick N Da Balls are revealing in their first win of the season. They came in confident are ready to earn a big win. When the game was finally over, the kickball kiddos watched as SCK field maintenance had to clear the diamond of all the mangled walkers and broken in half canes. Each player had a grin from ear to ear as they celebrated.

Kickball Daycare

Now before all the kickballer parents get all excited, no we aren't starting a daycare to watch your kiddos while you play kickball. Sorry. However considering how young the Kick N Da Balls team is we might as well as start a daycare.

According to their group page on Facebook, not a single player on Kick N Da Balls is older than 21. Translation: If you ever see them in a bar, feel free to grab them by the ear and throw them right through the front door. From what I remember, I don't think any of the guys, excuse me...boys, on their team are even shaving yet. They are by far the youngest team in the league. I had to chance to speak with Coach Tiger Pride and asked him how he feels about having such a young team, he said "I think we will hold our own. We are very excited about competing. We have an excellent chance at getting to the tournament." When asked if youth has any advantage over other older players, Tiger Pride simply said "Energy." I have to say I was very surprised that his responses were so matter of fact and ultimately very reasonable. His responses were missing that element of youthful arrogance I have come to expect from kids his age and that attitude that has become so synonymous with his generation, which I have to admit is a relief. That last thing we need is a young band of kickball hooligans running around and terrorizing our older more "seasoned" players.

So to all the older kickballers out there, I hope I have set your mind at ease. You won't have to worry about kids throwing eggs at you or toilet paper or whatever it is kids do nowadays. We can all expect great things from the these kickball youngsters, on and off the field. They seem to be a respectable group of kiddos. For being such a great group the first round of Carpi-Sun pouches and oranges slice will be on me. Have fun peeking through the bar windows while the grown-up kickballers have some real fun. Silly children....

Nervous Rain

For the second straight week now, the weather has been making kickball life impossible. My theory is someone has really been pissing off the kickball Gods and it needs to stop. We may need to do a traditional kickball sacrifice to get the Gods back on our side. In any case, please know that we will be monitoring the weather throughout the day and we won't make a decision on canceling the games until we get closer to game time. We should know by 5pm whether or not the games will be played. We need to make sure the fields are safe and playable.

After the rain outs last week, there were many kickball grumpies upset that we didn't play in the rain. Some players wanted to play in the rain for the experience; while other kickball addicts just didn't want to go into withdrawal. However the fields were literally like swimming pools and unsafe. Remember safety is very important. We want all kickballers to have a fun and SAFE experience when the come out on Wednesday nights. I think someone on Facebook said it the best, "Big kids like to sue". Believe me when I say the league doesn't like to cancel games for any reason but when there is a safety issue...well its unavoidable.

The rain is supposed to start coming down conveniently at game time. Hopefully it gets delayed just long enough so we can get through all the games. Now if it isn't raining when we start at 7pm but lets say it starts raining around 8pm, we may have to postpone some of the games that haven't been played. We are going to try to get through as many games as possible. So keep your fingers crossed and lets hope for the best.

Opening Day a Bust!

**Tonight's games are cancelled***. The fields are unplayable so please let fellow players and fans know. We will inform you next week when we will make up tonight's games. Sorry guys and gals :(

The schedule will continue with Week 2 next Wed.

Practice?!?!? Are we talking about practice?!??!

There are two trains of thought when it comes to kickball practice?

#1 - Kickball practice is ridiculous and over-rated.

#2- Kickball practice is absolutely necessary & required if you want to win.

Its really up to each individual team's level of competitiveness that leads them to want to practice or not. As a kickball enthusiast, I always keep my ears open and find out who is practicing. So far this season its a short list.

Los Totally Awesomes & Los Totally Awesomes too have been practicing for months now. I hear they might even be running two-a-days during the weekend, well maybe that's a slight exaggeration. Either way, Club LTA is looking to win some games this season, if not all of them.

The Balls & Dolls have also been practicing religiously for weeks now. Coach Oscar Esparza has apparently been running some sort of kickball boot camp over the weekend, trying to get his players looking sharp for the beginning of the season. However we wont know if the practice is working until Week 2, seeing as the Bs & Ds have a Week 1 bye.

1 More Shot is another team that has been taking advantage of the off-season. With a roster full of new players sometimes it helps to get players familiar with the rules and kickball motions. The only other team I know that has recently practiced is the Drunken Monkeyz. They ran a quick practice on Sunday to knock some of the kickball dust off.

I'm very anxious to see how these teams do. Does practice make a difference? We will soon find out.

Scouting Report - Multiple Scoregasms

I know I had promised more scouting reports before the season started; however my other kickball duties kept me busy. But after some brow-beating from the kick-bloggers here is another scouting report.

The Multiple Scoregasms are basically a revolving door when it comes to kickball. They were initially formed under the team name the Ball Knockers. The Ball Knockers were a strong, dedicated, and cohesive team. The team consisted of players who were very close on the field as well as off the field. During their more dominating seasons they had a superb coach, who was probably the nicest guy you would ever meet. Through his coaching, they always seemed to find themselves in the championship game. However much has changed since those times.

When the Ball Knockers made the jump to Sun City Kickball, they changed their team name to the Multiple Scoregasms. Not only did they change their team name but they also under went a coaching change. Former Ball Knocker first baseman Evil Aldo would now man the helm of the once mighty Ball Knockers and become Coach Evil Aldo for the new Scoregasms. Initially their roster was very similar to their old Ball Knocker team. Most players stayed with the team and carried on their mighty kickball tradition. During the past two seasons the team's talent has slowly bled out. Today's Scoregams roster is full of new names. At one time their prospect for a kickball championship seemed very possible but the team has been on a steady decline. Although during the Fall 09 season the came very close to securing a division championship and a trip to the championship game but things change quickly.

During this most recent off-season, a majority of the Scoregasm players left the team, just like rats from a sinking ship. It is safe to say that the Scoregasms are in a rebuilding year. Coach Evil Aldo is now left with the difficult task of bringing back the winning days of his now re-formed team. With a roster full of new names and the help of a small handful of last season's players, the Scoregasms will now have to claw their way back to the top, not an easy task with a crop of talented teams. There is always hope though....