It may be a child’s game, but pickup kickball on Sunday afternoons in Alexandra Park is anything but child’s play.

Here, grown-ups go back to the playground, playing the sport from elementary school recess with adult-like intensity and, occasionally, tossing around a few swear words.

Just like when you were a kid, disagreements are settled by rock-paper-scissors battles.

Unlike when you were a kid, teams are assigned so no one has to be picked last.

It’s a weekly routine that started a decade ago. Toronto Kickball founder Andrew Ennals was visiting friends in Brooklyn when he spotted a group of people playing kickball in a park and wearing silly clothes.

It looked fun.

He began organizing a Toronto version of what he saw that day in Brooklyn. The idea was to create a way to meet new people without having to go to a bar.

“We barely had enough for two teams, we all sucked,” says Jonathan Richard, who joined in that first year. Now he’s a kickball veteran.

Toronto Kickball is much more organized than it was back then, Ennals says. The skill level of the players is higher, and more serious kickballers can enter a draft and join league play. Some travel to Brooklyn to play in tournaments against tougher American teams.

But one thing hasn’t changed, and that’s the central tenet of kickball: new people are always welcome, no matter how little they know about the sport or how non-athletic they are. Strangers watching in the park are always invited to join in.

Kickball — or soccer-baseball — is similar to baseball, with many of the same rules. The difference is that it’s much easier to make contact with the ball. Instead of a pitch, the soccer-sized ball is rolled to the “batter” who has to kick it into play.

If it’s caught before it hits the ground, you’re out. If you kick three fouls, you’re out. While running the bases, the ball can be thrown at you like in dodgeball, and if it connects, you’re out.

Avoiding an out while kicking is all about looking for holes in the field and keeping the ball low, so opposing players have to work harder to get the ball, Richard explains.

Once practice is over, players are divided into teams and the real fun begins. There are diving catches, dramatic outs and, like a game of dodgeball, lots of ducking.

Arianna Vogler remembers playing kickball with a giant ball in elementary school. One time, when she was 9 or 10, the ball hit her in the head and knocked her over. She hadn’t played kickball since Grade 4 until she walked on to the field at Alexandra Park five years ago. She didn’t know anyone on that first Sunday, but she got hooked right away.

“I’m really athletic and I used to do a lot of sports as a kid. When I moved to Toronto, I kind of fell out of that,” Vogler says. “It was nice to get out on a Sunday and get some exercise.”

Vogler is the commissioner and oversees everything from T-shirt orders to the draft for league play while making sure everyone has a say in decisions.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Though Toronto Kickball has become more organized and more competitive as it has expanded to welcome more people, Sundays at Alexandra Park are still quite casual. Team captains keep score of each game. Players switch teams after a game. And everyone goes out for drinks after.

The score, Vogler says, doesn’t really matter.

“We’re playing a children’s game here. The point is to come out and have fun — it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose.”