Thursday Night Games

For the past five years or so, I have played in a sand volleyball league at a local bar. Our team survived break-ups, moves and the endings of good friendships. Not surprisingly, the team seemed to get worse and worse every year. By last year, I don't think we won a game the whole season. Even the drinking on the patio ceased to be fun most nights. Without a discussion, we all kind of decided Thursday night volleyball was not to continue into 2007.

Suddenly finding my Thursday summer nights free and having nothing good on television, I jumped at the chance to play kickball with a couple of work friends. Yes, kickball. It seems this deceptively simple game has moved off the playground and into the young professional scene in cities across America. As I have mentioned before, Columbus is making efforts to attract and retain young professionals. There is some debate about who these young professionals should be: bankers and lawyers or the burgeoning creative class. I'm not going to comment on that debate here and now, but I will say if the presence of two kickball leagues in downtown Columbus is meant to attract and retain any young professionals it is going to be the bankers and lawyers. The kickball teams are full of wholesome looking young women and ex-frat boy young professional men. This isn't being said in criticism: kickball is surprisingly very fun and our team won which made it even more fun.

One of my friends mentioned he wouldn't dream of playing kickball as an adult because he remembers too clearly the gym class nightmare of being picked last. The people playing kickball now are playing because they have fond memories of the school yard sport and want to knock back a few beers at local bars before and after the games. I say long live kickball in Columbus and bring on more organized sports which keep people, whoever they may be, in the downtown center longer on week nights.