Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Kickball Time Already?

For an off-season that seemed painfully long... the last few weeks have flown by and I'm not anywhere near ready to see you people again.

That being said, I suppose this Thursday is our first week of the season. Let's discuss a few things:

1) Litman just emailed my team to say he's not drinking this season. Does anyone out there believe this? I mean, even if he is attempting to NOT drink... he's bound to cave in after a long stressful day, or in celebration of some other life event. Regardless, he's losing 300 Man Points for the suggestion.

2) The schedule is published here. You might have noticed that it was slightly different on GKB's website. That has now been changed (I think). I even heard Deeks' team emailed out the incorrect time. So make sure you know when you're playing and all that good shit. Why was there ever a discrepancy? Let's just call it.... "work-arounds." As always, I'll gladly fill in those gaps in person if anyone is interested. But as Johnny continues to try and make GKB the best value in Tampa... there are always going to be annoying obstacles.

3) Speaking of... the City of Tampa, in my opinion, has fucked us. With only a two-week notice, they changed our field. This creates a TON of issues.
     a) Taylor is much smaller than Doc Nance. If you played in GKB Season 1, you might recall we went to the smaller Taylor Field after the whole "tree falling on the lights" thing at Doc Nance. This forced us to go to 3 time-slots (6:30, 7:30, 8:30) and play with over-lapping outfields. Miraculously, we finished the season without much incident, and everyone except Off Constantly was content. You also might recall there was a larger field at Taylor, which we couldn't use due to a men's softball league.
          i) The larger field I speak of is where we are playing.
          ii) We actually played one week out there (Week 4, March 23rd 2011).
          iii) The larger field is STILL too small for us, and it's going to be super tight out there. In fact, Johnny is enforcing that all teams set-up/hang-out in the infield clay. There is not enough room for anyone to be standing between fields.
          iv)  I've spent a lot of time after work and the past couple of weekends at Taylor Field. I'd like to remind the 10 of you who read DPT that I don't get paid for this shit. I do, however, live very close so I don't mind as long as it's helping to make our season better. Johnny has actually gone out there every day for the past week or so. After setting up a few different field positions, I think the best thing to do is see if we can make the Frank-Layout work. Any other design creates over-lapping outfields. If everyone starts complaining that the fields are just too close together... we'll have to go to three time-slots (6:30, 7:30, 8:30).
     b) I'm going to talk about "Issue B" right now. Ask me again on Thursday.

4) "Ok! STFU already. We get the situation is not perfect. Why don't you spend less time rambling and more time seeing if we can play on __________?"
      a) Let me explain to you why there are no stupid questions... only stupid people who ask questions:
          i) Doc Nance - A local school uses this field for their home baseball games. They do not want anyone else using that field until April. Allegedly, we can play there next season. Why are they implementing this rule now when they didn't two seasons ago? Probably because the baseball team that is out there practicing complained about all you people bringing your dogs to the fields.
          ii) Small Taylor Field used in conjunction with large field - You'll probably notice on Thursday that nobody is using the small field. So why don't we put two games on the big one, and one on the small one? Same reason as Doc Nance. But this time it's Tampa Prep softball that has put money into the field and thus has convinced the city not to rent it out during softball season.
          iii) Any field owned by a school - They don't need the money. Nor do they want grown adults stepping on their sod. Every school that has been contacted quickly says "no."
          iv) Other fields I don't want to name at the moment - One is having discussions with GKB... another one that would have been perfect told us "no" after talking with the Little League that plays there.
          v) PAL - Money reasons and obviously Thursdays are booked. Remember when Kickball Society tried to get in there on Wednesdays in 2011? WAKA bought the entire year just so they could keep other leagues out (at least, that's what PAL told us). Granted... I still blame the KBS owners for dragging their feet and missing the opportunity. But that's their loss, and their Thursday league is still under-sized because of it (10 teams).

5) Shocker Rob has come up with a great way to give out gift-cards each week at the fields. He's working with GKB to make it happen.

6)  Who wants to do some picks again this season? Last year Frank won a big wedge of aged-cheddar cheese. If people are down... obviously I'll keep records. Maybe the winner can get the $70 I still haven't paid Gorecki for winning the DPT BQBL.

See you kids Thursday.

6 comments:

Robes said...

There is a schedule posted on gkb's website?!?

Chandler said...

Haha. Apparently someone found it...

Anonymous said...

If you go to "view profile' when you are signed in you can find your team's schedule. Just like WAKA I find the website somewhat difficult to navigate.

Also just heard that the games are cancelled this week due to field condition. Please tell me this is just some cruel joke.

Chandler said...

No. It's not a joke.

Litman said...

Don't hate.

Litman said...

Don't hate.