Losing is a bummer but don’t fret, Park View Little League Baseball team. Or any kids for that matter —there are plenty of games to be played throughout life, many of them with greater rewards than a plane ticket to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, credit card debt for the parents and a T-shirt that says you played in the 2018 Little League World Series.
Previously we touched on the recent effort of local Little League parents hiring a private investigator to determine if there were ineligible players on an opposing team.
In Dirty Laundry Dive the object of the game is to find out if the people you are playing against are hiding something. In this case Team 1 wanted to know if Team 2 had fudged some records so that some of its platers would be eligible to hunt for the golden ball. If Team 1’s suspicions had been confirmed by the game umpire, in this case Little League Headquarters, then they could have won by eliminating Team 2 for rules violations. But if Team 1’s suspicions are not proven then Team 2 advances to the hunt and they win, even if they don’t catch the golden ball. And they double win if they did violate rules, fooled the umpire and merely advanced to the elimination round.
If laundry diving isn’t your speed there is Jump to Conclusions.
The number of players needed for this game is one to infinity and recommended ages are 13 and up. Jump to Conclusions can be played anywhere. Anytime. Currently it’s being played in National City.
The police department jumped to the conclusion that protestors at a City Council meeting could get violently out of hand after a series of council meetings had been interrupted by people asking that the death of a local man be placed on a council meeting agenda. As result, the local police had a significant number of outside agencies help them police the area outside City Hall.
Sometimes a concurrent game that is played at the same time of Jump to Conclusions is Hide in Speak, an activity that’s usually played by people in positions of power or authority on one team and everyone not in the power circle on the other team.
Hide in Speak offers the appearance of addressing an issue when in reality the objective is to say something noncommittal while appearing to take concrete action or consideration.
An example could be an elected official telling a gathered audience that their concerns are being taken seriously but no concrete steps are taken to indicate how those concerns will be addressed.
Sometimes those two games are played while participants are also engaged in a round of Run for Cover. That is when comments are made or an action is taken, usually by an authority figure or person of influence, and the reaction is not what was expected so the position has to be changed or the words that were uttered during Hide and Speak have to be changed or amended to offer a new opportunity for others to Jump to Conclusions.
