Over The Line

Today, Alex and I headed down to Fiesta Island for the fourth and final day (occurs over two weekends) of the 57th Annual World Championship Over-the-Line-Tournament. To call this the "World Championship" is probably a bit of an oversell, as I'm pretty sure the most exotic team at this event travels from no further than maybe Los Angeles. Actually, I do think there are teams from all over the country, but clearly this is a SoCal thing.

The region-centric makeup doesn't make this occasion any less illustrious. Over the Line (or just, OTL) is a San Diego institution, dating back from the 1950s, and the tourney has become a national destination for beach partying (for what that's worth). I was proud to introduce Alex to this uniquely San Diegan cultural event.

For those who don't know the game: start with the game of baseball ... drop from 9 players on a team to 3... remove all the running... and add beach and beer... and you have over the line. The perfect SoCal sport.

Here's a video I found of this year's event (gives you a good taste of what it is all about):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meIO0lNnKQ0

But here are just a handful of photos we took today:

Here's a shot of the action from behind 'home plate'. This was a champsionship game, so these guys were actually damn good (not like most of the jokers shown in the video)....

OTL tournaments are graced with eccentric characters...

The tourney begins with some 1200 teams. Play goes from about 8;00a until 6;00p over the course of two weekends, finally whittling down (via single elimination) to champions in each of several divisions depending on sex and age. One of the great OTL traditions includes the clever (if low brow) team names. There go some celebrities now, with team names on the back of their jerseys!

Ah, some of the young lover spectators...

And another eccentric fan...

Unfortunately, we missed the annual Miss Emerson contest (you might imagine what this contest is all about). Alex was very disappointed.

All in all, a romantic afternoon...