popular thinking

ADULT KICKBALL: Two words you didn't think you'd see together. And yet, adult kickball has become more popular over the past few years, with thousands more 20- and 30-somethings joining the craze. My story today only includes one of the pictures online but you can get more info from the World Adult Kickball Association site.

Some people relive their childhood by visiting the sites of their youth.
For 25-year-old Dan Fink, it's kickball.
Fink, a Southie resident who works at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., heads up the new Massachusetts Minuteman Division of the World Adult Kickball Association.
"We were at work one day,'' Fink recalled. "Someone said, 'How come no one plays kickball anymore?' '' Turns out thousands of otherwise normal adults in their 20s and 30s across the country have gone back to playing the elementary school playground sport that combines the basics of baseball with a big red rubber ball and a hint of Dodgeball. WAKA, as the World Adult Kickball Association is called, counts divisions in 32 states and D.C., with the nation's capital sporting 25 divisions (each division can hold 16 teams of 26 people).
"I was amazed when I went online,'' Fink said.
Boston's Ironsides Division began play last year. Fink and his team, Balls Deep, joined the new Somerville Minutemen Division this year. The Boston league's 16 teams play Sunday afternoons at Roberto Clemente Field in the Back Bay Fens; the Somerville league's initial eight teams play Wednesday or Thursday nights at Nunziato Field near Union Square.
A registration fee of $60-$70 covers team T-shirts, equipment (balls, bases, cones, scorebooks, first-aid kits, pumps and needles), league insurance and other items.
WAKA players must be 21 or older - each division has a sponsoring bar, such as The Independent or An Tua Nua, where everyone goes after games - and most players, Simons said, range from 21 to 45.
Many teams sport names with double entendres or inside jokes.
I Bent My Wookie and Last Ones Picked play in the Boston league.
Division play is ultra casual.
On opening night two weeks ago in Somerville, the volunteer umps had to review the rules for many of the players, who hadn't even seen a kickball game since fifth grade.
But most players are there to have fun. Some say they joined kickball to meet people, either socially or scoping out prospective dates.
"I like sports, but I don't like playing anything super-competitively. So kickball is perfect for me,'' said Liz Lynch, who plays for Runs With Scissors with co-workers, friends and friends of friends. "It's social. It's fun. It's quasi-competitive.''
In a game Wednesday between Big Red Rubber Balls and Freeballers, both the players and the umps even lost track of the outs and the score at different points.
Michelle Cooney, a 29-year-old bartender at Stadium Bar and Grill in Southie, recruited both friends and customers to join her on the Big Red Rubber Balls team.
"It is a spreading word of mouth epidemic,'' said Freeballers captain Sara Hills.
Hills, 27, got a few of her Reebok co-workers to join her team. One of those women got a sister and her co-workers from another company to join. The rest of the team consists of friends and individuals who registered later and were assigned a team.
"I played last year in San Francisco,'' Hills said. "I moved here at Christmastime. This is such a great way to meet people, so I figured I'd sign up.''
Fink's answer to a co-worker's question - does anyone play kickball - has led him to captain a team and lead a new divison. But he and his friends are having a blast.
"The games are a lot lower scoring than I was expecting,'' Fink said. "A little more structure than in elementary school. Same amount of fun.''

Related: Get your kicks (Boston Herald)