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Kickball gaining in popularity If you said slow-pitch softball or bowling - you answered too quickly. The answer is kickball, my friends. That's right, kickball - the game many of us grew up playing during recess in elementary school. The one with the big red ball made of vulcanized rubber. Granted, playing games with the feet isn't America's forte - unless it's track and field - but you get my point. Leave it to a bunch of American soldiers to scorn their Allied partners' games when enjoying some R and R during World War II and turn soccer into baseball. It was journalism legend Ernie Pyle who first reported on the game, and it was the patriotic gym teachers reading back at home that adopted the game for their students. Now that 50 is the new 40 and white is the new black, nostalgia demanded that the schoolyard games many of us played as a child come back into vogue. Tag leagues have sprouted up in major cities, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship is nothing more than a glorified schoolyard "meet me at the flagpole" fistfight. Dodgeball was given an epic feature film starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. So why shouldn't kickball get back on the charts? On the surface, kickball seems to be taking a formal route back to the ball. The 10- year-old World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) claims to be the foremost governing body for the sport. They provide a copyrighted version of the rules to the various leagues, parks, charities and organizations that may have a hard time grasping the intricate rules of kicking a round ball with your foot and running bases. I mean, just how far does a "ghost runner" advance, anyway? I know enough about sports fans to know that somewhere out there, there is a kickball league and kickball teams that are taking kickball very, very seriously.
I also know enough about coed, after-work sporting events to realize that playing kickball has got to be a real hoot.
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