Sunday’s muddy action made kickball a hot mess for everyone in McCarren Park.
But Brooklyn Kickball’s largest team, Hot Mess, had the most difficult day, sloppily dropping both games to two top-ranked squads, Ramrod and Diddy’s White Party, in inauspicious ways.
In the first game, the Mess had kept Ramrod at bay with a 1-1 tie, until a questionable call by a referee put Ramrod kickers on base with two outs to go. But the Mess unraveled with a series of fielding errors, and Ramrod broke the game open with an 8-0 run and won 9-1.
In the second game, the Mess were trailing Diddy’s White Party, 5-4, but had two men on with one out in the bottom of the fifth — but then the lights above Gilroy Field went out and the game was called.
Mess captain Randall “Not a Crook” Mixon was frustrated with the results.
He even briefly disputed the second game thinking that it should have been tied, but deferred to the referees.
Instead, he blamed “overstrategizing” during the team’s pre-game brunch.
“I’m pretty sure a large portion of it was indefensible — we overstrategized ourselves into one bad inning,” said Mixon. “Our team is cognizant of the fact of what happened.”
Hot Mess wasn’t the only team whose play did not impress.
A week after sweeping two top teams, Brooklyn United beat up the nerdy Mathletes, 7-2, but dropped a tough contest to archrival Never Scared, 5-3, who then lost to a rookie team of former Majesty players, American Blood.
Never Scared star player Karl “The Sausage Grinder” Pawlewicz said that teams shouldn’t count out American Blood.
“They may have started 0-2 this season, but they will make a run at another Final Four appearance,” said Pawlewicz, who added his personal goal was to stymie defunct kickball team Crucial Taunt.
But Brooklyn United infielder and former Taunter “Hey” Kate Brown chalked the inconsistent play among veteran teams to poor conditions in the field.
“The real winner in every game was the mud,” said Brown. “It was like one giant slip ’n’ slide.”
Yet some teams adapted well to the weather.
Booze on First and Saved by the Balls continued to roll, beating the same pair of opponents.
Booze conquered Recession Aggression, 7-1, and defeated Drinkers with a Kicking Problem, while Saved by the Balls shut out Recession Aggression, 5-0, and Drinkers with a Kicking Problem, 2-0.
And People’s Court won both its verdicts against rookie team Natural Born Winners, 10-2, and the veteran Pirates, 7-1.
Court captain Jeremy “Judge” Medanich said the team picked up its victories despite the absence of several players including its heart-and-soul, seven-year veteran Courtney “Peoples” Danielson.
But Court was in session last night, and the much-loved team is now near the top of the standings with a 3-1 record.
Brooklyn Kickball at Gilroy Field in McCarren Park (Bedford Avenue at N. 13th Street in Greenpoint), Sundays, 5–11 pm.
