by Caleb Wyeth

Created on: October 24, 2009

"Firm-wide Kickball Team: Players Wanted," read the subject line to the email, one of the first emails I had received since taking a position with a new CPA firm. I gave it some thought. True, kickball isn't the sexiest, most adventuresome of sports, but it seemed likely to be a good social setting where I could get to know my new co-workers better. I had played on a softball team with my previous firm, and really enjoyed that experience.

I looked back at the email, and pictured cool fall evenings at the ball park sipping cold beer, laughing, and chatting up other like-minded professionals unwinding from their mundane and tedious day at the office. Eager to get involved at my new firm, I hit reply and shot back a brief response to the team organizer:

"I'm new here. Never played kickball before, but count me in-sounds fun!"

In a matter of minutes I received a five-paragraph reply, outlining some of the particulars (times, dates, locations) of the league and games. Also included was a discussion of a few of the more subtle aspects of the rules and a history of my firm's teams and their relative successes in the past. This year we would settle for nothing less than the playoffs. Apparently to emphasize that goal, attached to the email was 64 page pdf document detailing the complete league rules. If the prompt five-paragraph reply during business hours wasn't enough of a red flag, the attachment should have been.

"We're talking about kickball, right?" I muttered to myself out loud. "Beer, baseball field, bouncy big red rubber ball, right? Do we really need a 64 page rulebook?"

The night of our first game I arrived a good 15 minutes before the game to warm up, which consisted of chatting up a few folks in the team dugout playing in the game ahead of ours while putting back Coors Light. It was cool and the air fresh, just as I had imagined. The laughter was good, the chatter comforting, and a softly setting sun provided a bonus of a back drop to the evening.

Two beers down and half way through a third, my team was up. We had just enough players to field a team, the co-ed league requiring a minimum of four women per team and an alternating male / female lineup while at bat (kick). A coin toss put us in the outfield first, and I took my place, having volunteered to handle third base.

First kicker, a female, immediately cranked out a base hit down the left field line just beyond the reach of our first base man. Second kicker, a large, full-bearded yet bald-headed

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>