Softball
From The Extended Group
Softball as experienced by the Group refers to a sort of word game, based loosely off of "Hardball with Chris Matthews", where instead of tackling tough political issues, Group members would discuss mundane issues with very simple solutions, but the debates would become quite heated.
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History
The game was pioneered by Kevin and Jeremy between the years 2004 and 2005, when the pair would commute to school together. Between the painful mix albums and the drudgery of the Daily Grind, attempts were made by the two to find some form of catharsis. Where the absurdity of Situations failed, other word games developed. The most popular game involved asking straightforward questions that were rendered in such a way that they were only valuable on the rhetorical level due to their very obvious answers. An example might involve Kevin as the interrogator asking Jeremy if "(We've) ever parked at Montlake", with Jeremy refusing to answer in anything other than laughter. This form of "proto-Softball", rooted in heavy sarcasm and the general idea of "asking questions one knows the answers to", would provide the foundation for its more advanced successor.
Softball Symposium, 2005
At later points, friends Brett and Asher became involved, which racheted up the intensity of the game due to their unusual knowledge of world events, group events, and local politics combined with their proficiency in the art of debate. This culminated in the spring of 2005 when Asher, Brett, and Kevin made a trip to visit Lukas in his dorm room. After eating food purchased from the Corner Store, the foursome settled on Lukas's couch to talk, but it was soon clear that their presence irked Lukas's roommate Mike, so they moved to the Balcony lounge. The discussion started very civil and with an almost academic air, as Kevin moderated while Asher, Brett, and Lukas provided commentary as "panelists". Initial talking points ran the gamut of typical group truisms, such as Asher's Jewishness and Brett's love of cheese. The conversation began to shift towards a debate form after controversial admissions by Asher, claiming to be a practicing Zoroastrian, and Brett, who confessed to living as a closeted cheesemonger. Soon the discussion deteriorated into an intense political shoutdown, with some denying that Brett had even seen cheese before in his lifetime. Eventually it became so heated that one of Lukas's floormates stuck his head through the door asking if it were "cool if (I) come in to get something?", timidly entering to grab something from the freezer but clearly terrified by was unraveling. The debate lasted until Asher found a keyboard, ending amicably as a new game was born-- telling Asher song titles and getting him to compose a song on the spot (This was the beginning of the legendary Lukas Peter, Friend of the Octopus incident).
References
- Brett and Kevin created a parody of Ozma's "Baseball" in song form shortly after the symposium
- Brett lampooned the game in a book jacket for the Brettsellers List:
