Game Recaps

If you would like to try your hand at writing a game recap for your team just comment to this post and put your name and what team you are on. You will receive an invitation via email to gain posting priveledges.

Jamestown Shows Dominance and Modesty

**This article was submitted by Brad of Jamestown**

Tampa, FL - The Ballers came into their second game with much confidence after embarrasing Dale and his Seminoles 6-2 in Week 1. However, Week 3 Breaker League MVP goes to yellow team Jamestown pitcher Erik Tate. Coming back from an embarrasing 10-2 ball crushing blow from Dont Touch My Balls in Week 1 - team Jamestown was able to chalk up their first W against the Ballers with a final score of 6-1. Mike Usry (Jamestown), suffering from a nagging knee injury was still able to add to his unbelievable chug-off career record to 29 straight! That’s right - he is now officially 29-0 through 2 full seasons and four games this season -Tuesday and Thursday. You all can witness Mike's magic on Thursday nights as well. Will he continue his undefeated streak? Mike wants some competition, so he asks to bring it! Erik managed to make all 3 outs for Jamestown to close out the top of the first. After making some acrobatic catches, Erik didn't stop his domination as he lead his team off in the bottom of the first and kicked the shit out of the ball to score his first career WAKA homerun to go up 1-0.

The Ballers scored early in the second inning tying the game at 1-1. The Ballers defense was solid, but their only mistake was kicking the ball back to Erik everytime, as he snagged each ball totalling 9 individual outs for the game. Rookie sensation, Tara Anderson will be one to look for this season for team Jamestown. She managed to easily sprint to every ball kicked into left, center and right fields as she knocked all of the guys out of her way. In the bottom of the 4th with no outs and runners on first and second, Erik kicked a triple and then later scored after an RBI single from James AKA "Jamestown." The lead was too much as the Ballers went 3 and out in the 5th making this one of the quickest games in Breaker history.

Erik Tate spoke to our reporters after the game. "Yeah, basically I was pretty dominant out there tonight as you can plainly see. I'm pretty much the best kickballer to have ever lived. I'm the Michael Phelps of kickball, in fact Michael Phelps has nothing on me. That's why I got the team to switch colors in the off season to yellow. It's to represent the gold medal I could have lead my team to if kickball were an Olympic sport. We lost in week one but I was just trying to see what my team could do that week. That loss falls squarely on them. I brought my B game this week and you saw how dominant I can be. You haven't even seen my A game yet."

Some comments from fans:

"Erik Tate is clearly the greatest kickballer ever." - Bill Loney

"I really wished we could have signed Erik in the offseason." - Dewey Needham

"Man, that Erik guy kinda sounds like a jerk." - Dale from the Seminoles

Field A is Field of the Week for Week 3

Tampa, FL - After a couple of weeks of play, Field A is proving to be the marquee battleground for Breaker Division kickball. In Week 1 it was the home of defensive battles between with I'd Hit It's walk off 1-0 victory over Great Balls of Fire and Smack My Pitch Up's defensive masterpiece in their 2-0 defeat of Drunk Again and Scoring.

Week 3 showed some exciting games of a different flavor on Field A as offense was on the menu. Field A veterams Smack My Pitch Up and I'd Hit is squared off in a barn burner 7-6 game and Jamestown crushed the Ballers 6-1.

Field B was quite upset at all of the attention that Field A has been receiving and was quoted as saying, "What the hell, man. I've had 2 ties played on me already. People are battling it out on me. What? Does someone have to actually win for it to be considered a good game?". Field C appeared disinterested and did not respond to our phone calls.

Can Field A maintain it's premier status for the rest of the season? Will Field B and Field C be able to step it up? Will the bad blood and jealousy between Field B and Field A continue? Is this just a ridiculously stupid thing to even think about? Only time will tell.

Week 3 Results

Smack My Pitch Up 7 I'd Hit it 6
Quit Yer Pitchin 2 Seminoles 2
Jamestown 6 Ballers 1
Drunk Again And Scoring 3 Shin Kickers 2
Don't Touch My Balls 4 Great Balls of Fire 2

Breaker Division Now at 188 players

The final tally is in and the Breaker Division is now at 188 players. It's the largest that the division has ever been. We are able to grow because of great word of mouth adverstising. The number one reason why people sign up is because a friend told them how much fun it is. A big thank you goes out to everyone who has been responsible for making the division more fun each season by bringing in more people to play (yes, even Dale, sorry Dale, I just couldn't resist) Here is how we have grown over the past few seasons:

Season 1 Fall 2006 - 4 teams 78 players
Season 2 Winter 2007 - 6 teams 112 players
Season 3 Summer 2007 - 6 teams 125 players
Season 4 Winter 2008 - 8 teams 169 players
Season 5 Fall 2008 - 10 teams 188 players

Week 2 Games to be Rescheduled

Due to Tropical Storm/Hurricane Fay, all games scheduled for Tuesday, August 19th have been cancelled and will be rescheduled for Monday, September 8th.

Smack My Pitch Up Shows Up Blue!

The Relocators are back this season with a new name, new jerseys, and a brand new attitude. (Rumor has it that the new blue color is giving extra Gator spirit to the team.) Returning players Natalie, Mark, Kevin, Karis, Cindy, and Bobby are ready to train the rookie players on kickball glory. Team captain Natalie quickly recruited free agent Ty after Jamestown filled up too quickly. Retired player/Team Mom Leslie helped out with assistant coaching of the new team.

Although friends off the field, Smack My Pitch Up delivered a solid thrashing to Drunk Again and Scoring on the field with a score of 2-0. New recruit Ty also dished out some solid smack talk, asking if they planned to change names back to “Drunk Again and Looking to Score”. C’mon, Ty, that’s not the way to win the Crystal Pitcher for sportsmanship.

Smack My Pitch Up is excited to meet all the new teams and players in the league. They want to see everyone at MacDinton’s after the games. Hopefully next week, the Navy Blue and Light Blue teams will join in for FlipCup.

Seminoles Lose, Dale Still a Winner!

In Week 1's game of the week, the Seminoles were defeated by the Ballers 6-2. The Ballers took last season off and returned this season with almost an entirely new team. Meanwhile, after a very dissapointing season last season, the Seminoles made some aggresive off season moves to try to improve the team and return to glory. The old rivalry was renewed last night.

The game may have set a record for the most double kicks in one game. The star of the game was most likely Rob of the Ballers. He is a former Seminole player and the seasoned veteran played like an all-star last night leading his new team to victory. With the way he played, you would have thought he could beat the entire Seminoles team single handedly.

It is definitely an early blow to the Seminoles confidence but that did not stop Dale from celebrating at MacDintons. Determined not to end the night in defeat he challenged Jen, a female member on his team, to a one on one flip cup event. Dale narrowly defeated her, despite accusations from the spectators that he cheated. Yelps of, "I'm a winner! I'm a winner!" were heard late into the night.

Week 1 Results

I'd Hit It 1 Great Balls of Fire 0
Quit Yer Pitchin 3 Shinkickers 3
Smack My Pitch Up 2 Drunk Again and Scoring 0
Don't Touch My Balls 10 Jamestown 2
Ballers 6 Seminoles 2



To see the full season schedule and results go to www.kickball.com/flbreaker/schedule.html

Rainout Line

We have a new Rain Out Line this season. The number is 813-785-9744. If there is no message, assume that the games are to be played as scheduled.

Seminoles have Secret Weapon

Tampa, FL - Seminole Team Captain, Dale, claims to have a top secret weapon in his quest to return the Seminoles to glory this seasn. Three seasons ago the Seminoles were able to claim top spot in the playoffs but have struggled to reclaim that success since the dominant Don't Touch My Balls entered the division. Last season the Seminoles started the season 0-4 and finished with only 2 wins. In the offseason Dale decided to change the team back from Maroon to Gold.

Dale has been known to pull out secret weapons from time to time, some worked and some did not. In the playoffs 3 seasons ago he arranged for the entire team to show up to the field in a Hummer Limo and came wearing a full headdress and carrying a spear, hoping to inspire his team. Last season he tried unsuccesfully to rally the troops by repeatedly playing the Seminole's war chant in a constant loop. There were also reports that Dale flew his team to Pyongyang, North Korea to practice their defense by throwing kickballs as hard as they could at the heads of poor orphan children.

This season Dale will again be trying to pull out all the stops to claim Kickball Gold. He has even resorted to the unthinkable act of recruiting Gators to play for his Seminoles team but reports say that Dale has even gone one step further. Dale was quoted to say, "I've got a top secret weapon and the 'Noles are going to win everything this year. I'm a winner damn it! A Winner!"

Only time will tell what the top secret weapon is. Did he pay strippers to distract the opposing teams? Did he find a way to cork a kickball? Is he working with the Chinese government? Anything is possible with Dale. Rumors are flying but no one knows for sure. The Seminoles will be renewing their heated rivalry with the Ballers in Week 1 and the Ballers hope not to be the first victims of Dale's new secret weapon.

Goodness Gratious, Phase 10 Changes Name

Tampa, FL - Last night at the pre-season meet and greet, several players from the team, Phase 10 got together and decided to change their team name. After much deliberation the team name was changed to Great Balls of Fire.

"Well, Phase 10 is the greatest card game ever, even if you have never heard of it, but it's not a name that exactly instills fear in your hated opponents on the kickball fields," stated team captain Shelley in a quote that I just totally made up. "There isn't anything intimidating about a deck of cards and we want teams to fear us when we take the field. We talked for quite a while and came up with some really bad names, finally we decided on Great Balls of Fire."

The new team name may be fitting since their team color is Texas Orange. Denis Quaid could not be reached for comment.

Great Balls of fire will go toe to toe with I'd Hit It in the first week of play on Tuesday.

Rule Clarifications

As I mentioned to a few people at the meet and greet, we ref our own games in our division so it's important to be familiar with the rules. Below are some of the rules that can cause confusion.

Tag Ups
10.5 - Tag-ups are only required before advancement on a caught ball. After a kicked ball is touched or caught, runners are forced to tag their their originating base before running ot the next base. If the runner has not moved off of the base before the ball is touched or caught by a fielder, the runner may run forward without a forced tag up.

According to the official WAKA interpretation of the rule, the wording that is important in this rule is after a kicked ball is touched or caught. That means that a runner can tag as soon as the ball is touched for the first time. If a ball is knocked up into the air and then caught the runner can tag on the first touch and is not forced back to the base once the ball it actually caught. Runners do not have to tag up if no catch is made on the play.

The real purpose of this rule is to prevent teams from potentially playing volleyball with the kickball and purposly hitting it into the air trying to bring it closer to the infield before someone actually catches it, preventing the runner from having any real chance at tagging up.

Infield Fly
Unlike in baseball and softball, there is no Infield Fly rule in WAKA Kickball.

Kicking Box
13.02 A Foul is:
c.) a ball kicked outside of the kicking box (in front of the back cones, behind the front edge of homeplate)

The important thing to note on this rule is that the ball is not considered out of play as described in Rule 15. Unless any of the requirements in Rule 15 happen to cause the ball to be considered out of play any ball that is kicked outside the kicking box is considered foul but a live ball. That means that if the ball is popped up a defending player can catch it in the air for an out and the play would be treated the same as it would be for a pop fly in foul territory.

Double Kick
13.02 A foul is:
d.) a kicked ball touched more than once in foul territory or stopped by the kicker in foul territory.
g.) a kicked ball touched more than once in the kickbing box or stopped by the kicker in the kicking box.
14.02 An out is:
d.) a runner touched by the ball or who touches the ball at ANY time while not on base while the ball is in play (see Rule 15.02)

Basically what this means is that if a kicker kicks the ball and then the ball hits them again either in the kicking box or in foul territory the play results in a foul ball. If however kicker kicks the ball and then the ball hits the a second time while in fair territory the kicker is out.

1st and 3rd Base Line
8.03 No player may field forward the pitcher other than the catcher until th eball is kicked, and no player may advance forward the 1st-3rd base diagonal until the ball is kicked. A team's first infraction by a team during the game will result in a warning to the team that caused the infraction. The second and each subsequent infraction by a team during the game will result in the kicker being awarded first base regardless of the outcome of the kick.

Each team will be allowed 1 warning per game on this rule. The warning is per team, not per player.

Balls, Strikes and Fouls
8.05 The strike zone extends to 1 foot on either side of home plate to the side of the kickball, and 1 foot high to the bottom of the kickball. A pitch outside the strike zone is a ball.
11.01, 12.01, 13.01 A count of 3 strikes is an out. A count of 4 balls advances the kicker to first base. a count of 4 fouls is an out.
11.03 Foul balls never count as strikes.

This is sort of a basic one but it is worth noting for new players to know that strikes and fouls are counted seperately.

Overthrows
10.07 Base Running on Overthrows;
a. an overthrow is a ball thrown, kicked, or deflected into foul territory while making a defensive play toward a
player or base;
b. a runner may advance only one base beyond the base the runner is on or running toward when the ball travels
into foul territory;
c. one base on an overthrow is a restriction on the runner – not an automatic right for the runner to advance;
d. Once an overthrown ball is back on the field of play, and the defense attempts a play other than returning the
ball to the pitcher, runners may commence base running.
1. THE PLAYING FIELD 101 e. the sidelines are lines 10 feet on the outside of and parallel to the foul lines, the area between the foul lines
and the sidelines is the sideline area; (see Rule 14.03)

If the ball is overthrown along the first or third base lines and goes into foul territory and out of play (10 feet) then the runners are restricted to only get one full base. It's important to note that it's a restriction and not a right so if the runner is taking his or her time getting to the next base and the defensive team can tag the runner out, the runner is out. After a ball has gone out of play on an overthrow, any play made by the defensive team other than getting the ball back to the pitcher can be deems a live play and runners can then advance at their own risk. The rule only applies to overthrows that go past 10 feet from the foul lines so there is no restriction on overthrows at second base, only first, third and home.

Sideline Area
14.03 Sideline area. Prior to the kick, no participants (or spectators) may be in the sideline area except for the
kicker, the catcher, referees and designated base coaches. After the kick, fielders and base runners in the
process of playing the game may also occupy the sideline area. (see Rule 1.01e). The first infraction will result in
a warning to the team that caused the infraction. The second and each subsequent infraction will result in an out
for the next kicker in the written scorebook kicking order on the team that caused the infraction.

This rule is pretty self explanatory.

Roster Requirements
5.02 Teams must field at least eight players and no more than eleven. Teams must field a minimum of four players of each sex. If fielding 11 players, one player must play the position of catcher. At any time during the game teams may only field one pitcher and one catcher.
7.04 teams must have at least four men and four women present and ready to play at the scheduled game time. Teams will be granted a 15 minute grace period for that day's first scheduled game(s), and a 5 minute grace period for any subsequent scheduled game(s). Failure to abide by this rule results in a forfeit.
18.01 The spirit of these rules is to ensure a fun environment and participant enjoyment. All games are to be played in a sportsmanlike manner...

If teams can not provide at least 4 players of each sex for a game then their opponent has the right to force a forfeit in that game in the standings. It will be at the discretion of the captain of the opposing team to decide whether to force the forfeit or not. The opposing captain may elect to allow the team to play short handed and have the score count in the standings if they wish but a final agreement must be made before the game starts. If a forfeit is enforced the teams can play a scrimmage for fun. If a forfeit is not enforced and the teams play out the team that is short handed will need to play short handed in the field according to the minimum requirements as dictated in the rules.

Example: Team A has 9 men and 3 women show up for a game and therefore does not meet the minimum number of women to play. Team B agrees to allow Team A to play shorthanded with the final result being reflected in the official standings. It has become somewhat customary that since each team must have at lest 4 men and 4 women take the field team A should only be able to field a maximum of 10 players since one spot in the field would be considered reserved for the missing female player but this is up to the captains to reach an agreement before the game.

The official WAKA rule on this is that the team that is shorthanded must forfeit and that is the rule that will be in place for the tournament in Las Vegas. However, in the spirit of rule 18.01 the alternative rule regarding short handed teams has become customary in the divisions in Tampa if the captains agree to it before the game. Referees should be witness to the agreement if one is made. If no agreement is made before the game then the short handed team must take a forfeit in the standings.

Leading Off
14.02 An out is:
f. a runner off of his/her base when the ball is kicked

Leading off a base is not allowed. If a runner leaves contact with his/her base before the ball is kicked that baserunner will be out. It is also worth mentioning that if the basecoach physically assists a runner or touches them during an actual play the baserunner is out or if a runner passes another runner on the bases the runner who did the passing will be out.

To view all of WAKA's rules go to www.kickball.com/rules

Schedule Posted

The new season schedule has been posted and can be viewed online at www.kickball.com/flbreaker/schedule.html or clicking the link to the right.

Meet and Greet and Captains Meeting Tomorrow

Tomorrow night we will be having our usual pre-season meet and greet and captains meeting at MacDinton's Irish Pub.

The Captains meeting will begin at 6:30pm. Anyone who would like to help with planning the social activities for the division is welcome to attend.

The meet and greet will happen right afterwards at about 7:30. This will just be a good chance for kickballers to come out and meet their new teammates and opponents.

WAKA Kickball in Tampa Makes The News

http://www.baynews9.com/content/34/2008/8/1/369934.html

If you have bright house networks you can watch the video story by going to Ch 340.