Kickball League? People Still Play Kickball? And Where Can I Sign Up?

I would have thought that kickball was one of those kids' games buried somewhere in the distant past, but apparently not. A 2500-member league known as "BigBalls Kickball League" is in the news this week in St. Louis (link below). It seems that BigBalls has been kicked to the curb by the park in which the league has played since 2007. So why in the world would the park want to do something like that?

Well, in defending the park's ouster of BigBalls (which allows drinking during games and has many teams using "sexually suggestive names and logos"), the park director cited "frequent complaints of public urination, drinking and nudity" by BigBalls participants (who are shown in the second picture above). The park director also pointed to the ongoing nature of such alleged behavior: "The overall condition of very loud, raucous behavior, lewd profane language, disrespect for [park] rangers, public nudity, and public intoxication continue unabated." In short, he described it as a "pattern of trouble" and a "drinking club . . . not a kickball league."

Things apparently reached their boiling point last weekend, when -- according to the park director -- "one BigBalls member cursed out a park ranger and another [member] drove a dune buggy-type vehicle onto the fields." But the BigBalls League President says that BigBalls immediately expelled the member who cussed out the park ranger. Also in BigBalls' defense, the President says the events described by the park director were isolated and that BigBalls has tried to work with the park to resolve past problems. But the park's decision has been made and now BigBalls is apparently struggling to find a new park in which to party, errrrrrr, play.

On that front, based on my limited knowledge of the St. Louis metro area, I might have a few suggestions for BigBalls. The league could try to take their kickballs to one of the ghost towns in and around that area. I know of at least two of them. First, you've got Kinloch right by the airport -- a town that largely disappeared in the 1980's after the City of St. Louis bought up block after block of residential neighborhoods there (only the lots, trees and old city streets still remain today). Second, down south you've got Route 66 State Park on the site of the former Times Beach -- a town that disappeared in the 1980's after the EPA found dangerous dioxin levels in the soil (yes, the soil there is safe today). Now, would either the City of Kinloch or the State Park welcome BigBalls with outstretched hands and open arms? I have no idea, but it can't hurt BigBalls to ask.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/807CE5B276FDB70F8625770C0062074C?OpenDocument