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Getting a kick out of life again

Last Updated: July 20, 2002

By: Mike Nichols

Jackson - Tim Olszewski, a one-time Germantown High School star who was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles and pitched more than four years of minor-league baseball, assumes a familiar position on the mound, stares down his opponent hovering over home plate and proves that, at 28, he still possesses the arm of a kid.

Not to mention the heart, the grin and the 81/2-inch rubber playground ball that - cheered on by infielders old enough to qualify for AARP - he proceeds to roll-bounce toward home plate.

Forget Miller Park. You want to see some folks regain a child-like innocence, but do it with full-grown enthusiasm, stop by Hickory Lane Park in Jackson one of these Friday nights.

The stubble-faced Olszewski, still game enough to pitch baseballs for Lannon in the Land O' Lakes League, is one of a growing number of athletes, former athletes and non-athletes playing in Jackson's Friday Adult Co-ed Kickball League.

The youngest person on the field the night I showed up was 16-year-old Brian Stevens. And he was the umpire.

"I am really familiar with it because I played kickball when I was a kid," said Stevens. "I stopped in fifth grade."

Getting their kicks

Adult kickball is not just a phenomena in Jackson, which has five teams. Milwaukee reportedly has more than 80 adult kickball teams, and there are also adult teams in Green Bay, Madison and Oshkosh. The World Adult Kickball Association, according to its Web site, now has more than 4,000 players.

"Kickin it" has taken on a whole new literalism.

League organizers suspect the Jackson league will grow next year and other areas have expressed interest in finding out more about how it works.

Just like it worked before your voice changed and you knew what beer tasted like is the answer. In the latter-day version of the game, by the way, beer tasting is definitely allowed.

Otherwise, the rules are somewhat similar to softball. No sliding or stealing allowed and absolutely no arguing with the umpire. The kicker must remain in the kicker box when booting the ball.

"No cheating like in grade school," according to written Jackson rules.

"It's a nice thing to do in the summer," said Olszewski, who gave up pro baseball a few years back and now works for the village of Germantown and lives right near the park in Jackson."It's close. It's a good time."

"It is," said his brother, Jay, who is 32, "excellent."

Dangers of the game

Despite the fact players are allowed to throw the ball at each other to make an out, there is little chance of getting hurt - unless, of course, Jay follows through on his threat to hurt me if I actually include the fact that he once skipped a Land O' Lakes game to play kickball.

That might have had something to do with the fact their team, the Odd Couples, includes not just Tim and Jay, but their mom and dad - Kathy, 52, and Joe, 54 - their 25-year-old sister, Jodie, Jay's wife, Julie, 27, and an assortment of other relatives. Tim's wife, Nicki, would play, but they have a 5-month-old baby, Nolan.

In addition to the Odd Couples, who played in the second of three games the night I was there, the Jackson league includes the Pitchers Hand, the RECers, "WeWin-UBuy" and the Ball Busters.

It's the name of that last team, I suspect, that most successfully captures the spirit of the league, where after the final game of the night one of the losers congratulated the winners by being honest and laughingly telling them they "suck."

When that game ended, some of the adults walked back out on the field with their kids, little kids, and rolled them the ball, let them kick it out into the infield and run through the dirt, just like their parents.

The Olszewskis, who had retired to a nearby pavilion for some beverages after their own game ended, wrapped things up at about the same time, and as the sun started setting Tim walked home across the outfield with his family. Nicki pushed a stroller that held little Nolan, a kid named after a guy who played games until he was 46 years old.

They had almost made it to the street when Tim stopped and, unaware anyone was watching from a distance, did a cartwheel under a spectacular pink-hued sky.

Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 21, 2002.