wordplay by Jeremy Johnson
images courtesy PlayCoed.com

The rugged athletes before me nursed hangovers and sipped cold PBRs as they donned pretty pink long socks and some of the shortest shorts since Joanie loved Chachi. The dugout floor was littered with empty beer cans, bottles of water, Gatorade and ice cream wrappers.
Clouds of dust began kicking up in the field as the big, red ball began its fiery roll. Welcome to a Sunday with the Denver Kickball Coalition.
“Instead of a league it’s more of a coalition,” DKBC commissioner Mark Hughest said. “We get people to just come out and play.”
This reminiscent retread of recess routine became a hardcore sport here in Denver five years ago when the idea was suggested by Joe Phillips, Los Angeles’ kickball ambassador and the DKBC’s original commissioner.
A handful of original players turned into a field-full of competitors, and the rest is kickball lore.
The league now has 12 teams consisting of two divisions known as Hot Lunch and Sack Lunch. With each team needing essentially a dozen or more players to field a team, the DKBC stands at over 150 members strong.
And they welcome more.
“We take everybody,” Hughes said. “If you want to play, we will let you play.”
The league roams the public parks of Denver, converging at diamonds in the hot Sunday sun in neighborhoods near you.
“We come play guerilla-style,” Hughes said. “I don’t see the point in paying for a public field.”
One particularly sweltering Sunday afternoon at Veteran’s Park pitted the pretty-in-pink Hot Licks against the wizardly, but fashionably challenged, Natural 20s. It turned out to be a decadent and dirty game that included everything that baseball has to offer but with cheaper beers, lovelier legs (you know the ones I’m talking about, ladies), more self-proclaimed superheroes and superqueers and a lot more of the f-bomb.
One such superhero was the 20s’ Hector “The Mexicandyman” Cobain. When asked about his involvement in the super world, “The Mexicandyman” had this to say: “It’s a secret identity and a secret life that I don’t really like to talk about,” The Mexicandyman said from behind his thick black glasses stamped with Batman logos. “But on the low-down, I do save the occasional party from being trashed.”
Bodies flew about the field that day as hands tried to grasp a truly awkward-sized, dusty, red ball. The outfielders napped. The dugouts yelled “S-T-E-V-E P-E-R-R-Y!” in a menacing manner that had me anticipating the red ball’s fate while secretly singing “Wheels in the Sky” in my heat-addled brain.
Although I never asked what the score was, I knew that the Hot Licks had taken a few licks of their own. Hector and his henchmen had trashed the party and come out victorious. It had been a brutal day in which much blood, sweat and tears were shed.
The coalition followed their weekend up with a slated match against the Real World posse and another Denver recreational sports staple called Play Co-ed.
Along with kickball, Play Co-ed participates in such sports as dodge ball, soccer, bowling, volleyball, inline hockey and more. Play Co-ed has organizations spanning from Orange County to Pittsburgh. Along with Denver, Play Co-ed also has a Ft. Collins affiliation here in Colorado and has over 10,000 members state-wide.
Like the DKBC, Play Co-ed aims to involve adults in outdoor activities and to create a social outlet that includes healthy, athletic competition and a noble amount of charity events and fundraising.
In an event slated for Saturday, August 12, Play Co-ed will be hosting a slew of games to benefit the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis fund that will include possible special guests such as Mayor John Hickenlooper, Sports Illustrated writer Rick Riley and Denver comedian and United States paraplegic soccer player Josh Blue.
But the 75 to 100 people that showed up at Welton and Park Avenue that night, drenched in beer and anticipation, were disappointed when the Real World didn’t show, and the game between the two organizations was cut short by neighbors’ complaints and the Denver Police Departments’ strong arm of the law.
Play Co-ed’s commissioner Mike Downey said that he was meeting with the mayor soon to discuss making such night games a reality of the future.
“What we’re hoping, in joining with the DKBC, is that together we can make an impact on our community.”
But for that night, both leagues dispersed to bars on all corners of town to plot their next meeting.
That’s when I began to wonder if Denver would ever embrace these recreational rebels with open arms. If they were too real for the Real World AND the Denver Police; was there any hope for these fine athletes, community leaders, average Samaritans and superheroes? Who knows where they’ll be tomorrow?
In my opinion, as long as grassy fields are left unattended and men and women seek each other’s company over sport, the big, red ball will keep on turning.

Myspace.com/DenverKickballCoalition