Aiming at fun with a bit of sport

With the Washington Monument looming in the background, Scott Tillett lines up behind home plate, steadies himself for the pitcher’s delivery and then slams his foot into a large red ball, which flies into right field and drives home a run.

Mr. Tillett makes it to second base and beams, despite the fact that his team is still down 15-1.

Mr. Tillett is captain of the Red Rovers, one of 16 teams in the D.C. Capital Division of the World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA). And on this pleasant Thursday evening in early May — one of the few playable dates in a cold, soggy spring season that has seen too many games rained out — he is among nearly 40 players battling for victory.

The two teams razz and tease each other and cheer their own players in a lively set-to. It’s a typical kickball game that for many of the players brings back childhood memories.

But here, on the grounds of the Washington Monument, adults are at play. More than 2,000 men and women, most in their 20s and 30s but some in their 40s and 50s, play on WAKA teams amidst Washington’s corridors of power and national monuments.

Six WAKA divisions, comprising 87 teams, play ball at the Washington Monument. Another four play throughout the District, in Adams Morgan and the Dupont Circle neighborhood. Still another 2,000 adults play in five other divisions in the suburbs — one 12-team division in Rockville and four divisions (of 53 teams) in Northern Virginia.

“You can go anywhere and play softball and soccer, but playing kickball is unique,” says John Powers, a 34-year-old Arlington resident who designs software. “This just seemed like a nice little way to keep the Peter Pan complex going.”

Kickball is played much like softball or baseball, with some exceptions. WAKA allows 11 players on the field and there must be a minimum of four men and four women or the game is forfeited. WAKA games go five innings and usually last 45 minutes. Unlike softball, players can be hit with the ball for an out as well as thrown out at a base. In WAKA, however, head shots are prohibited. In kickball, the distance between bases is usually much shorter than softball as well — sometimes as little as 20 feet of distance separate them.

Mr. Powers says that while WAKA is a sports league, it is really more of a social league that plays a sport. “The people you meet playing kickball have a sense of humor to them that doesn’t exist in a lot of the other organizations I’ve been a part of,” Mr. Powers says.

Mr. Tillett describes WAKA’s coed kickball league as 25 percent kickball and 75 percent social activity. The Arlington resident took up adult kickball because he was looking for a sport easier to play than soccer or softball.

“It’s a lot of fun,” says Mr. Tillett, a 32-year-old writer for a non-profit organization. “It’s a good opportunity to get involved in social activities like scavenger hunts or making friends at the sponsor bars afterward. And it’s a very inclusive sport.”

Indicative of the playfulness are the fanciful team names, which can range from Finnegan’s Wake to Vandalay Industries (a play on a running gag from TV’s “Seinfeld”) to Liberace’s Hot Tub Party.

Players try to be creative with amusing names to call their teams, says Jennifer Bitticks, a 27-year-old Rosslyn publications manager who plays for the Capital Division’s Gang Green team. Its players tossed around a number of names before deciding on Gang Green. Naturally, they play wearing light green T-shirts.

“It kind of rang and had a necrophiliac edge,” Ms. Bitticks says, laughing. “There are a lot of double or quadruple entendres. We’re green, we’re new, we feel the infection. It’s just kind of silly stuff we come up with.”

Story Continues →