Corporate Challenge Kickball

I may have mentioned this before, but some hippie no name group puts together an event in the Cleveland area aptly named "The Corporate Challenge." Essentially it is a bunch of different games played by various companies. The sports that I know about include softball, putt-putt, volleyball, bowling, cornhole, and kickball. I was supposed to be Pease and Associates' "ringer" for softball, however the tournament was rained out. Therefore, my job was on the line for kickball. Perform well or face the possibility of losing my internship. No pressure.

The kickball tournament started bright and early, 12:30pm this past Saturday. I spent the previous night helping my parents with their paper route since their van broke down halfway through. It's a long story. Point is I was up from 3:30-7:30 Saturday morning. Considering what was at stake for this kickball tournament, I was not in the best shape to play already. Would I be able to pull through?

We arrive at the field around 11:30, and in typical Pease fashion, kick back a couple beers before we start. The tournament was incredibly unorganized, and the games were running late. Our original starting time of 12:30 was pushed back to 1:30. We take the field, with me playing shortstop. First game went by pretty smoothly, with Pease taking an unexpected win.

Then the waiting came. Since each game took much longer than expected, we ended up sitting around until our next game started TWO HOURS later. Luckily we brought plenty of beer to pass away the time (UD grads know how to play kickball).

To give you an idea of how unorganized this tournament was, let me give you some facts. There were probably a total of 25 teams in three separate divisions. Assuming each time has 8 players, that's about 200 people. There were also family members who came to watch, and the staff. I would say the total amount of people there was around 350. THERE WERE TWO PORT-O-POTTIES! AND TWO TRASH CANS! These cans were overflowing with garbage. I've never seen anything like it.

On to game two. We win again! We're thinking pretty highly of ourselves right now. With our expectations being two losses and leaving (It was a double elimination tournament), we were flying high. However, we were all getting tired and no one brought sunscreen so we were getting pretty burnt, me especially. I'm glowing red as I write this.

Game three. We lose. Damn.

Up to this point, I haven't done much to really stand out in order to keep my job. It's not that I was bad, but I wasn't anything special either. Then came game four. It was my time to shine. I think the opposing team wanted to help me keep my internship so they hit everything in my direction. Let me tell you, I was ready for it. At one point my teammates were saying they were only performing well because I willed it to happen. One teammate even exclaimed, "Thanks for willing me to catch the ball Legcock," after he caught a fly ball. I was nicknamed Legcock also. Funny, because its kickball. I use my legs. Between the 3rd and 4th innings, I recorded 6 straight outs. Not too shabby. I think it's safe to say my job is still intact.

Game 5. We lose again. Normally this would be a heartbreaker, but considering it was 7:30 in the afternoon, no one actually wanted to play anymore. The loss worked out in our favor.