September 7, 2005
Kickball is the winner
Over at the Chicago Metblog I talked about our new season of locally- and loosely-organized kickball. My suspicions of looseness were confirmed tonight when out of four nominal teams we had enough people show up to make two teams. But out of all the things in my life I'm uptight about, kickball is not one of them, and most everyone else in the league feels the same way. We divided up odd-birth-month and even-birth-month and played some by-god kickball. They (the cursed odds) should have won at the bottom of the fifth, but there was still light, so to a chorus of "one more inning!" we played on and we (the glorious evens) came back to... well, to either win or tie. No one was really paying attention to the score. It is, after all, only kickball.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
August 2, 2005
Rusty's Wranglers
So, our Kickball Nemesisi, Rusty's Wranglers, (aka the costume team) were the Chicago Kickball Champions. And they went to the Nationals in DC. And they had a series of Chicago Tribune articles. But if you google "Rusty's Wranglers" hits one and two are the Tribune and three and four are my site. So here's a little link-love: Rusty's Wranglers. Rusty's Wranglers. Rusty's Wranglers. (Oops, sorry about that last one.)
Ooh, and look, they have a picture of Erica taking this picture.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:37 PM | Comments (1)
July 20, 2005
Wranglers
Our kickball rivals, Rusty's Wranglers, (that is, the ones who wear costumes) have a piece on chicagotribune.com.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2005
Darn
I wish I could say this was our victory photo. But it's not. Once again, we came in second.
The day started out well. We got to skip straight to the semi-finals because our first-round team forfeited ahead of time. In the semi-finals we took Feets of Fury 4-3 in a rather tight game. Pete had the play of the game with a slide home that sent up such a cloud of dust that you couldn't see him for a minute. In the championship game, Rusty's Wranglers (aka "the costume team") bested us 2-0 with their firey pitcher and "white-trash prom"-themed costumes.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:42 PM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2005
Muddy Victory
Tonight was our rain-makeup game against Yes We Can, so it was ironic that it was drizzling as we started. It rained pretty steady through the first three innings, but none of us wanted to give up. In end we won 5-1, which means that James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party finishes the regular season undefeated (7-0-1 if you're keeping track at home). Next week the playoffs begin.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)
June 8, 2005
Back on it
7-3 over the Bike Rack Bullies. Yeah, we're winners. And sometimes, winners have to wear balls on their heads. You just gotta...
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
June 3, 2005
Shucks
The ball isn't visible because George has just kicked it out of frame, but it might as well be a picture of George kicking the ground in a traditional "shucks, mister." We weren't defeated, but neither are still all-victorious -- we went up against Rusty's Wranglers (aka "the costume team") and we tied 2-2. Shoot.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:41 PM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2005
Kings and Queens, I tell you
4-1 over Ferocious. This was a huge win, because they were also undefeated, but a game ahead of us, since we had a "buy" week and they had not yet. So we're now 5-0 and they're 5-1.
After the game we went to the official league-sponsor bar. It's new this season and last night was the first time I've made it over there after a game. I guess it's a little hoity and everyone else on the team is tired of dealing with the staff's attitude. So we packed up and moved up the street to Gio's (4857 N Damen) where they welcomed us with open arms and treated us like Kings and Queens. And not just the staff, the patrons were very accomidating to this huge group suddenly appearing in their midst. And Gio's looks very regular-Chicago-barish, but has a lot of Mexican food on their menu, which turned out to be excellent. Mike inhaled a beef chimichanga next to me and I had a delighful carne asada.
And... 4-1. Remember that part? Aces!
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:19 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2005
Kick that ball
7-0 over Is It In You? last night, and I kicked in two of those runs (whee!). It was sprinkling throughout the last three innings, but we all soldiered on and played a full game.
The league supplies shirts to everyone, with the only difference between teams being the color of the shirt. So we had our shirts screen-printed again with our team name on the back and team nick-names on the front. Here team co-captain Amber models her fetching new shirt:
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:42 PM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2005
Cowboy Kickball
These guys make me question my team's commitment to kickball. I mean, sure we win (6-3 over the Burninators last night, taking us to 3-0 for the season) but we don't dress up like all the parts of a rodeo. (And I didn't even get a picture of the folks who were wearing child-size ride-a-ponys around their waists).
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2005
Frozen, but winners
It's a little blurry, but I think you can see the victory in our eyes. Yes, kickball season has started again, and James Brown Celebrity Hottub Party is off to a great start with a win over Feets of Fury this week and one over the Kicktators last week. I think that's spelled 2-0.
I missed the game last week because of my book group, so I really felt I needed to go this week, even though I had missed half a day of work because I was sick. So I went to kickball and stood out in gale force winds for an hour and a half and, surprise!, I missed a whole day of work today because of my coughiness. Brainiac = me. (AND I'm kicking 000 for the season. Whee!)
And I don't know the whole story here, but Shaun and Tim asked Amber to customize their shirts and she showed up with these...
That's "Ahole" and "Cuz" spelled out in googly-eyes on the fronts of their shirts, which I guess are their nicknames, and, um... lace. Light blue and pink lace.
"I'd rip the lace off, but I think I know how much work went into attaching it to the shirt," Shaun said. And if that isn't the sweetest thing he's ever said, I'm not sure what it would be. (And if me posting that picture isn't the meanest thing I've ever done, it's probably in the top ten.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:48 AM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2005
Some shows
Hey, I'm performing in a variety of shows over the next few weeks!
Friday night (January 28) I'll be at The Playground (3209 N Halsted) at 8 pm, performing with Chicago Comedy Company and James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party. Yes, my kickball team. Six of us on the team are improvisors, so Rene signed us up at The Playground for a guest slot. (Feast of Pedro and Inside Vladimir will also be performing.)
Saturday night (January 29) I'll be back at The Playground, but for the midnight show -- the Belmont Burlesque Revue. Shaun and I will be "Gerdes and Himmerick" -- our vaudeville-esque comedy duo. The shows features a variety of musical, comedy, magic, and burlesque performers.
Monday night (January 31) Shaun and I will be Bare, our two man improv show, at the Bird's Nest Bar (2500 N Southport). We're up with some stand-up comedians and another sketch or improv group. The wings, as I often mention, are excellent.
And then next weekend, it's a (semi-)tropical getaway! We'll be doing two Bare shows at the Miami Improv Festival. Thursday, February 3, is my birthday, so come to that show. Yes, fly to Florida and come to my show for my birthday!
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:07 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2004
Kickball folks clean up nice
Becca said, "Put up your pictures from the kickball end-of-season party and make me the gateway image so that people can see how pretty I am when I get dressed up." There you go, Becca. Very pretty. Nowhere near as pretty as my girlfriend in some old t-shirt, though (sorry, I'm biased).
In any case, I've posted a slew of pictures from the Chicago Deep Dish League 2004 Fall Season Championship Playoffs and from the End-of-Season Party at Fizz.
Posted by Fuzzy at 7:38 PM | Comments (1)
November 8, 2004
Kickball (near) Champions
Your 2004 WAKA Chicago Deep Dish League (cough-2nd place) Champions. See you in the spring!
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)
November 6, 2004
Damn, that was close
We held them to 0-0 until the bottom of the 5th, 2 outs and then they scored a run. Congrats to Navy Menace.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:30 PM | Comments (1)
0-0
Top of the 3rd and we're tied 0-0. The Kansas City team just showed up for the regional.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:01 PM | Comments (0)
Finals
Dangit. Phone cutting off posts. Us over Kicktators 10-3, us over Feets of Fury 4-2. Next, Navy Menace in the finals.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
Semi-finals, here we come
They scored 3 runs in the first inning and we got off to a slow start -- we didn't start scoring until the 3rd inning. But then we took off and we beat them 10-3.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
Kickball Playoffs
The first round of the kickball playoffs were supposed to be on Thursday night, but were rained out. So we're doing the whole thing today - and I'll be liveblogging the day.
It's a beautifully clear morning here at Union Park in Chicago, and it's even pretty warm (well, 60 or so). We're up against the Kicktators first.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2004
Victory Collage
I forgot to get a victory photo right after our game yesterday, so I got a picture of each member of James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party at the Four Treys hoisting a victory toast. Last night was the last game of the regular fall season, which we finished 7-1. Evidently, there has been some controversy over the league standings. The Chicago Kickball website has been calculating standings usually some complicated formula that takes into account runs earned and against, etc. By those standings, James Brown CHTP is #1. But the WAKA standings are just based on wins-losses, with the tie-breaker being who won in head-to-head meetings, so by that account Navy Menace is #1, since our one loss was to them. In any case, we're #1 or #2! We're #1.5! Next week the playoffs begin and conclude next Saturday.
To balance out all the happy faces above, I present a collage of (from left to right) "I am sad that James Brown CHTP has defeated my team again", "I am proud to be number 3", and "Look at my owie".
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:10 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2004
James Brown is #1
This picture is last week's victory photo -- New Orleans' lack of easy internet foiled its posting. That ball is a regular red kickball -- it was drizzling through the whole game last week and so the ball (and us) was covered with a layer of mud and then a layer of dust. Hmm... dusty mud. But that win propelled us to #1 in the league.
And, without me, the team won again last night, so I think the team is still in first place. I'm waiting for the standings to be updated on chicagokickball.com.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)
October 8, 2004
It is fun to win
No victory picture, because I was rushing out of the house and forgot to grab my camera. But we won, 2-1. Go James Brown!
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
October 1, 2004
Faces of Victory
Gaze upon the Faces of Victory (surrounded by, evidently, the Bubbles of Victory). James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party defeated Bike Rack Bullies 7-6 last night. As usual, you can check out more stats and standings than you ever thought possible for kickball at the Chicago Kickball site.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:27 AM
September 25, 2004
Shucks
All right, I'll say it. We lost. 3-2. But we lost to last season's champions, and the 2 runs we scored on them are the only runs anyone has scored on them so far this season.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:58 AM
September 18, 2004
Victory
Are these the faces of victory? Yes, yes they are. 6-5 over the Feets of Fury in a nail-biting bottom of the 5th comeback.
And now you see schedules of upcoming games and more standings and stats than you'd ever care about at the new Chicago Deep Dish Division Kickball site.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:11 PM
September 13, 2004
The important things
Well, in between all this kerfluffle about shows I was doing in other countries and such, I completely forgot to mention the real news -- my kickball team, the James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party, defeated the Burninators 13-4 in our opening game of the fall season. No thanks to me -- I was on a plane to Toronto at the time. But this week, beware... other kickball team... whose name I haven't looked up on the schedule... just beware.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:51 PM
July 28, 2004
At least we got socks
How the mighty have fallen -- undefeated most of the season, we lost again last night. It was a nail bitter -- a tied game going into the bottom of the fifth (kickball games only have five innings). And they got one in.
At least we had nice socks -- Strange Cargo had these tube socks in (more-or-less) our team colors. 13 for $14. What a deal!
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2004
Sadly, I report
Well, the round-about way to say it is... we're not undefeated anymore. In fact, we were pretty soundly not-undefeated. And worse, it'll (probably) be on National TV. HGTV (Home and Garden Television) is producing a show called "The Games We Loved" and they sent a camera guy out last night to interview some kickball players and get some of the game action on tape.
I was a little surprised to see that the camera the guy had was basically the same as mine, and that, even though he'd brought a tripod, he did a lot of his shooting hand-held. I'm more professional than I'd thought.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)
June 30, 2004
Still Undefeated
I know what you really come to FuzzyCo for -- updates on the standings of my kickball team. Still undefeated! (Same as last week -- technically won by forfeit, then beat them in a unofficial pick-up game.) Evidently, there's another team in the league that's also undefeated, so we'll see what happens when these two titans clash. There can be only one!
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:19 PM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2004
Ninjas
Photo by Erica Reid
James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party remain undefeated -- last night the other team had to forfeit (not enough players, I believe) and then picked up some sit-ins and played us and we beat them. Again. Or, anyway. In any case, we won. So we posed as ninjas. It makes sense when you've been playing kickball. I think I've managed a credible ninja pose this time. Or I'm doing the robot.
I reffed for an earlier game last night and discovered that the World Adult Kickball Association official rules PDF is protected so it can't be printed out. Which I think is dumb-city. For an organization whose motto is "it's only kickball" I think they're taking themselves a little seriously.
More ninja/kickball pictures by following this here link.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:47 PM | Comments (1)
May 27, 2004
Tie!
I played my first game of league kickball last night -- we tied it up 1-1, with my friend Susan providing our only run. I made two outs, which I think was pretty good for my first game.
Evidently ties are (unofficially?) settled by a game or two of flip cup over at Carol's Pub. At which game Kickball Therapy soundly stomped us. Which proves that they're bigger drunks than us, I suppose. Drunks with good hand-eye coordination.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:49 AM
April 9, 2004
Kick It!
I've joined a kickball team, and I've been reminded that I should mention that there's still plenty of space on the Chicago Deep Dish League. Go James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party!
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:08 PM | Comments (0)