How We Play Kickball

@ Gill Park
Home > Rules & How We Play > Kickball – Gill Park

Some more about how we get our kick on!

1. A standard full team in the field consists of 5 guys and 5 girls at a time. 10 players maximum in the field, including the catcher. There are no rules on who must play which positions. If you have less than 5 guys and/or 5 girls, you are allowed to play with up to this many of each gender on the field.

2. All active players will be put into the kicking order. If you will be playing in the field even for 1 inning, you must kick. If you kick, you do not have to field. You can change fielding positions at anytime, but once the game starts, the kicking order may not be altered. Teams must send up players to kick as every other gender. To keep your lineup going like this where everyone kicks equally and there’s no plug and play kickers being sent up, set it up with separate lists, going through them until each person has kicked. Then go back through the lists and make tally marks after they go again. This makes sure you keep the order consistent and everyone kicks equally.

3. There are 6 ways to get out: 1) striking out, 2) fouling out, 3) the runner being tagged by the ball, 4) the runner being hit by the ball (below the head!) while going between bases (even if you’re tagged and the ball is dropped), 5) a fly ball caught by the defense or 6) thrown out at a lead base.

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3.5 When the play is dead and runners have stopped advancing, fielders will get the ball to the pitcher. At this time the play will be over and runners must stay on their base. We don’t allow you to sneakily take bases during this time, so don’t try that. Also, the play may be determined dead by the ump even before the ball is given to the pitcher. Umps will not verbally call out “time” after every play, but in a situation where he/she determined it was dead and then runners try to advance, they will be sent back.

4. At Gill Park there is a parking garage in right field (see pic below). There is a decent chance that if you hit a strong fly ball into right field (or possibly center field), that the ball will go OVER the top wall and into the garage. If this happens, we may lose the ball and need to use a new one. There are a limited number of balls at the field each night, so to deter you from aiming there, if a ball goes over the top wall, or into the garage in any way, it will be considered an OUT and no players may advance. Then the following inning you’ve gotta go into the garage and fetch the ball. BUT if the ball hits the wall in fair territory it will be considered a live ball, which can still be caught on a fly for the out.

5. Since this is kickball and no catch is a gimmie, we enforce an “Infield Fly Rule” only if a double play is turned on a dropped ball that flew up in the infield with an arc of 15-20+ feet. Therefore this will rarely be called, but if it is will be called after the play has ended. This is simply to prevent players from trying to pull a fast one and intentionally dropping easy fly balls to turn a double play. Just play with integrity on this please. It is entirely the umps judgement call when to enforce this rule. No fly ball is really a gimme in kickball 🙂
6. You must stay on the base until the ball is kicked. If the runner leaves before this time, that player is out and the ball re-thrown. If that was the third out of the inning, the person who was up when this happened is still up first the next inning. There are also no lead-offs. If you lead off you will be called out. You may leave the base as soon as the ball is hit. You may tag up on foul balls that are caught.

7. The pitcher and fielders must stay behind the pitcher’s mound until the ball has been kicked. Kickers and catchers may not cross home plate until the ball has been kicked. Kickers must not kick the ball until it reaches close to home plate. We allow you to kick slightly in front of the plate, especially if the plate in the ground is close to the backstop fence, but if you basically charge the mound and kick it wayyy in front of the plate that’s an illegal kick. On these kicks, the fielding team may still catch the ball and you are out and runners may not advance. Also, 3 strikes/fouls and you’re out. There are no walks.

8. Bunting is not allowed, whether on purpose or by accident. This will be called an ILLEGAL KICK at the ump’s discretion. Calling bunts is a tough thing to do, but just know that your league ump will be consistent on how they call em all season. The general rule about what is and isn’t a bunt has nothing to do with how your leg moves when you kick but everything to do with how the ball moves and where it goes after being kicked. Basically the idea is that if the ball was kicked in a way where it’s moving slowly or doesn’t go very far very fast in front of the plate, this will be considered an ILLEGAL KICK. Especially because the fielders need to stay behind the pitcher til it’s kicked. There will be many close ones for sure because there is no exact science to this, SO JUST KICK THE BALL AS HARD AS YOU CAN! ILLEGAL KICKS are counted as a foul ball so a bunt with 2 strikes and you’re out.
9. If you throw a ball and hit a runner in the head, that runner will be called safe. You better not be aiming for people’s heads, but if you hit someone there you will get a warning. Multiple throws at players’ heads and the ump will eject you from the game. If it looks to the ump like the player intentionally put their head into the ball, the runner will be called out for trying to pull a fast one and everyone will laugh at him/her for getting him/herself hit in the head.
10. The kickball “strike zone” includes the area 1 foot to the right and left of home plate and has very minimal bounce. Balls that bounce too high will be declared an illegal pitch and must be pitched again. Pitchers must roll the ball (not bounce!) to the kicker and cannot gun it in there at Mach 3 speed. If the ball falls outside these parameters, it will be deemed a ball/redo since there are no walks.
11. Strikes, Balls, Fouls, Outs: Pitch and safe/out calls are up to the sole discretion of the game umpire. Don’t even try arguing with the ump. This is a social rec league so chill out dude!
12. The pitcher and fielders must stay behind the pitcher’s mound until the ball has been kicked. Also, outfielders must remain past the dirt until the ball has been kicked. On some fields where the dirt goes out pretty far, the ump will tell you how far into the dirt you’re allowed. If the fielding team does either of these things, the batter may be given first base. Only 6 players may be in the infield dirt before a ball is kicked.
13. On an overthrow to first or third, runners are only allowed to advance to the next base beyond where they were at the time the ball was overthrown. This base is not simply awarded, you must still reach it on your own effort. Overthrows to second base are considered live balls unless it goes out of play (past the fence), then the play is dead and players get to go to the base they were headed to. A ball thrown to home that goes out of play ends the play as well and runners get the next base.

14. Full games are 7 innings. If there’s a really big lead by one team and we’re running behind on the schedule because lots of scoring takes up time, your ump may decide to deduct 1 inning from your game. Your ump will always announce if there will be 1 less inning played with at least 1 full inning remaining. Ties are allowed if no time remains, but we do have a way to try and break the tie with 1 extra inning if there’s time for it. If 2 teams tie, then both teams win which is the best right!? There’s always playoffs redemption!

15. A game is considered a complete game if 4 full innings have been completed. If a game is rained out and 4 full innings have been played, the game may be declared official and the score counted as complete. We’ll do our best to try to make up the game but we have limited field time for the season.
16. There is a 7 run slaughter rule for all innings except the final inning. There is no slaughter rule in the final inning. If a game is shortened due to time constraints and an inning is declared the final inning of the game, there is no slaughter rule in that inning. If your team is losing by 4 or more runs going into an inning, you are allowed to score up to as many runs as it takes to put your team up by 4 runs. There is no game slaughter rule. If your team just gets absolutely stomped, there are plenty of shots waiting for you at the bar.

SAFETY IS IMPORTANT: VERY IMPORTANT RULE!

17. There is a STRICT NO CONTACT RULE in effect that BOTH teams must be aware of. Runners must do everything they can to avoid contact, but fielders also must be aware of where they are positioned in relation to the runners and do everything in their power to avoid contact as well. FIELDERS, DO NOT BLOCK THE BASES. If you block the base or impede the runner from getting to the base, interference may be called and the runner called safe. If you take your last few steps while running home to go around a baseman that’s blocking the base so you don’t plow em over, we’ll likely call you safe. The ump will make the call as to who’s at fault with the contact and make the appropriate call as to whether it is safe or out. Situations that arise from contact may warrant a playing being ejected from the game at the ump’s discretion. It is the umpire’s judgment call as to what the call will be. Just remember that this is a fun league and we’re here to just have fun, so avoid contact AT ALL COSTS.

18. Your team forfeits if by 10 minutes after scheduled game start time, you do not have at least 7 players, including at least 2 of each gender. We always want to play games rather than forfeit cuz that’s just more fun, so the ump may decide to give a team a little additional time to get enough players so we can play an official game. The score of a forfeit game will be 10-0. Tell your team as soon as you know if you can’t make a game!

Those are the rules! Just remember to play fair, have fun, and be safe.

Forfeits

Teams may use fill-in players during the season to field a full team, but only bring subs if you need them for a full team so those that paid to play don’t lose out on playing time. Also, subs are only allowed in playoffs if you email to get it approved in advance in certain situations.
If your team forfeits a match during the season, the following rules apply:

First Offense: 10-0 loss of game and warning issued.

Second Offense: 10-0 loss of second game and S3 reserves the right to remove team from the league or playoffs with no refund for games not played.

Third Offense: Automatic removal from the league with no refund for games not played.

The reason for the harshness of this is because we want all teams to be able to play. If your team is a no-show, then the other team also doesn’t get to play, and that’s not cool. So just get subs or at least let us know if you’re not going to make it!

If you know in advance that your team will be forfeiting a match, you are required to email us at teams@s3leagues.com so we can let your opponent know that you won’t be showing up or try to get others to attend in your time slot for us to do a pick up game!

Sportsmanship

The idea of this league is to have fun. We hope that all participants keep that in mind when becoming involved. Although the games may become intense, you still can be competitive while maintaining good sportsmanship. With this said, any behavior deemed unacceptable by staff may result in suspension and/or ejection from a game or the league. S3 reserves the right to remove a player from a game or a league if they are considered to be bringing down the quality of the league.

Playoffs

For playoffs in all of our leagues, teams are placed into multiple divisions based on regular season records where there is a winner of each division. Because these are super social rec leagues and many teams were made at random, some teams end up not as good at winning game as they are at just having fun being active outdoors. This method creates a more balanced playoffs system in a league where players and teams can range from professionals to those not quitting their day jobs. It allows similarly skilled teams to play each other in the end while still giving a first round benefit to those teams with a higher ranking, and makes it so that any team can throw a couple wins together and get one of the champion prizes!