Funny CaliforniaOTL in the News
Simon Samano reported the following in the local North County Times:
SAN DIEGO ---- The sun. The suds. And the sand.
Those are three key ingredients to a typical day of good times during the summer in America's Finest City.
Complement those original three items with a positive attitude, a ball and a bat, and you've got yourself a San Diego tradition: Over-the-Line.
The Old Mission Beach Athletic Club will be at it again, hosting the 53rd annual Over-the-Line World Championship Tournament, which begins Saturday at Fiesta Island. The event actually consumes two consecutive weekends and concludes July 23.
OTL, a 3-on-3 version of softball native to the beach, is about more than just the sport. There is a peculiar grandeur that goes along with the tournament, the atmosphere that makes OTL the extravaganza it is: the free-flowing booze, the ridiculous looking uniforms that some would rather refer to as costumes, the outrageous team names inspired by current pop culture and politics ---- among other things ---- that induce huge laughs from the crowd when they are announced over the PA system. And of course, what would OTL be without a bikini-clad Miss Emerson, OMBAC's queen of the beach?
Is OTL more of a sporting event or a beach party?
"It's a good mixture of both," OMBAC Vice President Sonny Petersen said. "It's a great beach sport that adds to the beach way of life. It's just happy, and everyone is having a good time. A lot of people are just relaxed and enjoying the games. It's a pretty laid-back atmosphere but highly competitive also."
In years past, the OTL tournament was an out-of-control experience, sometimes a hotbed for trouble. That's because lewd acts and drug use were common when the tournament was at the peak of its craziness decades ago. The times have changed, however, and nowadays OTL conforms.
"We've pretty much changed the image quite a bit from how it used to be," Petersen said. "There aren't all the risque things that used to go on. We've got a lot better handle on the crowd now to keep things like that from going on. We've cleaned it up, because it's not the right thing at this day and time."
Despite an atmospheric overhaul, the tournament continues to thrive. This year is no different, as an estimated 1,200 teams (five men's divisions and four women's divisions divided by age) will compete in nearly 2,400 games during the four-day spectacle. Anyone and everyone from ages 21 to 85 plays.
Petersen expects upward of 50,000 people to converge onto Fiesta Island during the two weekends.
It certainly takes a lot of work for OMBAC to put the OTL tournament together, but despite the laborious efforts, the World Championships is what OMBAC members live for. And they can hardly wait for it to start.
"We start getting geared up for it in August," Petersen said. "As soon as we're done with it, we start gearing up for the next year."No matter how much work it is, we all look forward to putting on the tournament and having people from all over the world come in to play in it."
Contact staff writer Simon Samano at simon_samano@yahoo.com.
All about Over the Line
Who: Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC)
What: 53rd annual Over-the-Line World Championships. OTL is a 3-on-3 form of softball played on the beach.
When: July 15-16 and July 22-23. Play begins at 7:30 a.m. and ends at dusk.
Where: Fiesta Island on San Diego's Mission Bay
For more information on the tournament, parking and new bus and trolley routes for this year's event, visit www.ombac.org.
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Union Tribune Update
Elizabeth Fitzsimons reported the following in the San Diego Union Tribune:
The annual Over-The-Line Tournament, a San Diego tradition on Fiesta Island, is named for the objective of the game played here: to hit a ball past a line marked in the sand.
But the phrase “over the line” could be applied to much more.
Such as the women dropping their bikini bottoms for a photo; the old-timers camped out with a sign offering “free breast exams”; or the men who held their cameras at chest height and clicked away as they turned in the crowd.
The tournament, which began yesterday and continues today and next weekend, has a reputation as a bawdy and boozy affair. This year, the tournament's 53rd, is no different.
Intentions, though, are honorable. The thousands of dollars raised each year by the tournament's host, the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club, supports youth sports and other community endeavors.
“It's fun, it's for a good cause, why not?” said Juliet Wahl, 31, of Ocean Beach, who was playing for the second year with her team.
The tournament was expected to draw as many as 55,000 people over its four days; 1,200 teams were registered to play. Yesterday, more than 20,000 people attended.
“From everything we've seen, this is the biggest we've ever had,” said Duke Marston, a longtime athletic club member and event organizer.
Games began at 7:30 a.m., and by 9:30 a.m., brackets on the scoreboard were being updated as the announcer read off the pairings of teams, sounding like any sports announcer in his tone and cadence. Except the team names had more to do with body parts, and what could be done with them, than with your typical sporting mascots.
Over-The-Line team names have always leaned to the coarse, and some are clever. Some involve less than tasteful humor about real events, and very few can be printed here.
Games are played on 50 courts, each shaped like a rectangle with a triangle on one end. Three teammates take turns hitting a ball with a bat. The ball must stay inside the court, and fly past the line 55 feet away to count for a base hit. If the ball is caught before it touches the ground, it's considered an out. If someone tries to catch a ball in foul territory and drops it, that's a hit. Games last four innings.
Tents line the perimeter of the playing fields, and much of the action happens in the tents, and on the paths between them and the courts.
Inhibitions and modesty tend to disappear on this sandy island, but few are willing to attach a name to their antics.
In one tent, two enterprising men draped beads across the front of their tent, inviting passing women to bare their breasts in exchange for a necklace.
“This is basically spring break and Mardi Gras all tied into one. You mix people with alcohol and you just get craziness,” said one, a 28-year-old in a white tank top who lives in Tucson. He would not give his name because he didn't want to dishonor the branch of the military he serves.
His friend, a 35-year-old in a red tank top, explained their negotiation policy.
“Some girls want more than some beads. If she's really beautiful, like yourself,” he said to a visitor, “then we'd give her two and some shots.”
Red Shirt wouldn't give his name, either. “I'm a local business owner. I can't be known here! My grandma might read this.”
Just then, two women appeared. They eyed the beads, and struck a deal. One waited until the other was ready and then they lifted their shirts in unison as White Shirt leaned back with his camera and snapped a couple of shots.
The girls downed their Jell-O shots, made with vodka and triple sec, and were on their way.
Around the bend, a man dressed in a fur hat and matching shorts sipped from a can of beer and waited for his game to start.
“They were custom-made by a furrier in Alaska,” he said of his shorts. He would give only his first name, Mark.
Mark has been playing at Over-The-Line since 1981. His team's name is the Anchorage Oosiks. An oosik is the sexual organ bone belonging to animals such the walrus, seal, otter and polar bear. Mark retrieved a walrus oosik, about the size of an adult human's tibia, from a duffel bag to show what he was talking about.
Nearby, Wahl's team was preparing to play. They wore black tank tops and shorts and holsters for their bottled water and beer. On their heads were sombreros with donkey ears.
The team, consisting of Wahl and her friends Caryn McInnes, 31, of Ocean Beach, and Nicole Lacayo, 36, of North Park, was keeping its hopes realistic.
“We have no strategy,” Wahl said, making quote marks with her fingers around the last word. “Just hit the ball, catch the ball.”
Even if the team advanced, it wouldn't be returning to Over-The-Line until next year, Wahl said.
“One day is really enough.”
Enough said.