VA Peninsula Kickball: Week 4 Bar Buzz

How many of these people ended up at the Katt? 

Alright. I'm going to take a crack at this thing. I make one AMP (see above) and all of a sudden I'm the social expert!

The original belt was literally
a $20 WWE belt with a kickball sticker
slapped on it. We've come a long way.

First off, let's level set. What is the Bar Buzz? It all started 6 years ago in the spring of 2011. I talking with Trici Fredrick and together we came up with an idea. What if we created a weekly recap and rankings that focused strictly on what happened was after the games? The goal was to capture the stories and camaraderie of our league and to recognize those individuals who displayed the best WAKA spirit. I immediately went out to buy a pro-wrestling toy belt to serve as the prize and Trici committed to publishing the recaps each week. And thus the Bar Buzz was born.

Over the years, we've had several authors of the Bar Buzz. Trici started out with weekly rankings and pop culture references. Marilee Columbus took over in 2012 and add gifs and flair to her recaps. When Fagel Baer took the reigns, she introduced fun challenges to the mix. Brad Gault continued these challenges and expanded the contest to everything that happened Thursday through Wednesday. Each brought their own spin to the Bar Buzz, but the overall mission was the same: Who stands out as the greatest, bestest, most friendliest, dopest teams in VA Peninsula Kickball?

So now it's my turn to take a crack at it. At least until we get another enthusiastic volunteer who wants it. Here's how I'm looking for:

• Attendance: You get credit just for showing up with your teammates! Great news, millennials! 
• AMP Attendance: If your team is representing at midnight, then you'll get extra props.
• Mingling: Being there is good, but if you're just off in the corner with your team you'll only get so far in the rankings. Get out there and meet people! 
• Life of the Party: Who's getting the dancing popping? Who is starting some flip cup games? Who's doing rounds? Starting a new challenge?
• Documentation: I can't be everywhere at once, so if you are posting pics and videos on Facebook then it goes a long way towards improving your team's rankings. 
• Personal Bias: I will rank the people/teams I like higher and diss the hell out of my enemies. (kidding)

I will rank each team from worst to about 3 or 4. The top tier will not be ranked but will be considered our 'finalists'. The winner of the Bar Buzz will be decided via Facebook poll, with everyone encouraged to make the case for their team or better yet, for one of the other nominees. The team with the most votes on Tuesday night will get to party with the prestigious VA Peninsula Bar Buzz Championship belt on Wednesday (and for the rest of the week)! 

WEEK 4 RANKINGS

14. RUMSPRINGA: They had a decent showing at Tapps in week 3. Guess we won't see them at the bar again until June. It was nice. 

13. FOUL BALLS: They had a great game against the previously unbeaten BNB, getting a draw. Maybe if they would've gotten the win some of them would've been in the mood to celebrate. 

12. BAD NEWS BEERS: More like Bad News Not Drinking Beers at Tapps. 

11. PBJT: I saw Dom Guarry out, but the rest of the Jelly was nowhere to be seen. 

10. GARAGE PARTY: DP and some of the GP ladies were enjoying the cool the evening air on the back deck. The rest were somewhere else probably being lame. 

9. CARDIAC ARREST: You may have noticed a dark corner of the bar with Marilee, Ryan Schmid, and Brandon Silver crushing some ciders. Would love to have more of my teammates show face... Next week might be the week as Lindsey "Doo" Strickland and Julie Bowers promised they would come out. I'm sure they won't let me down! 

8. FORCING THIRD BASE

7. ALCOBALLICS: I think both of these teams were at the bar early. I didn't get a chance to hang out though as it seemed like they both vanished all of a sudden. Regardless, I'm lumping them together because I'm colorblind and can't tell the difference between Maroon and Cardinal. 

Lana representing the F3B crew.

6. HOT DOGS & TACOS: Liza Maula was holding it down early and once Curtis Blauch got to the bar after closing down the fields, it didn't take him long to catch up. 

5. JUST FOR KICKS: The ol' wahoo himself, John LaNeave and Amanda LeRoy were representing JFK in the AMP. Kelsey did a great job of getting the dancing challenge going, as seen on Facebook. 

4. PLAN B: Jeremy Edge does his best work pre-game. Post game, it's all on Casey Heck and Shane Chambers to carry the load though. Not. Good. Enough. 

THE FINALISTS (No particular order)

• FIREBALLS: You know that Paola is always going to Paola. But this time her squad was out en force. Definitely a good turnout by orange. 
• BABY GOT BUNTS: There was so much gold out on the back deck that it looked like the sun was out. Good turnout, but only Grace Shin remained when the clock struck 12. Will it be enough to win the title? 
• CORN DOGS & SOFT TACOS: The reigning bar belt champs are looking to defend their titles. They spent most of the night taking photos by the stage with their new hardware. In the end, they were the most heavily represented team in the AMP. 

As I posted on Facebook, the social aspect of this league is what makes it special. If you come out and play a game of kickball before headed home, you're probably going to have a good time. But if you play your game and then meet up with your friends at the bar after, you're going to have a GREAT time. The turnout this year has been decent, but I miss the days when we packed the bar with CLUBWAKA players talking, laughing, dancing, and enjoying themselves. Let's get those days back!

NOTE: I will continue the Bar Buzz this season unless someone else wants to take the reigns. I'm happy to get it rolling again. Be sure to send me your stories, blurbs, and notes from Tapps so I can include them! 

UPDATE (5/16):

Your reigning and defending Champions of Tapps, CORN DOGS & SOFT TACOS! Enjoy partying and taking pics with the belt for another week.

CHALLENGE THIS WEEK: Show the fuck up and have some fun. It's not hard.


With that said, I won't be in attendance on Wednesday because I will be at the Hampton Roads Sports Awards, where CLUBWAKA has been named a finalist for the Best Sports Organization honor. What I ask of you all, is to submit me a short paragraph or so recap/summary of the events at Tapps. I will compile all of the blurbs together into a blog post and then we'll open the polls up.