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Over-the-line is a bat-and-ball sport, a game 
Unlike in softball, the batter and pitcher are on the same team. The batter stands at Home. The pitcher stands anywhere in front of The Line, not in the triangle. Fielders (the other team) stand behind The Line, in fair territory. The objective for the batter is to get a hit which is to hit the ball into fair territory without a fielder catching it. A hit may also be made when the fielder who catches the ball crosses over the line (or the line's extension) or drops the ball in either fair or foul territory. No bases are physically run, however.
An out is made if (a) the ball is hit into your triangle, (b) a batter gets a strike (swings and completely misses), (c) the defenders catch the ball without crossing over The Line or its extensions, (d) a batter has two fouls (a foul is a ball that lands in foul territory, a pitch taken at or a balk), (e) a player bats out of order, or (f) either the pitcher or batter touches but does not catch a struck ball (if the pitcher or batter catches it, there is a no pitch). Unlike baseball and softball, where the foul lines are in fair territory, the ropes are in foul territory. Three outs end the half-inning, as in regular baseball and softball.
The scoring system is as follows:
# The third hit in an inning scores one run and each subsequent hit scores another run and
# A home run (a ball that lands past the Fielder furthest from The Line, not over, just needs to be past) without it being touched by a Fielder scores a run and the unscored hits that preceded it. The hits are then reset to zero.
Over-the-line was first played in Mission Beach, San Diego, California in the 1950s and continues to thrive in the area. It is seen largely as a novelty game in the inland counties (and, debatably, the beach counties as well), but still persists as a physical education activity at local high schools, and most visibly in the practice of an annual tournament held on Fiesta Island. By far the locale's most notorious activity, the annual "OMBAC World Championship Over The Line Tournament", organized by Old Mission Beach Athletic Club, is a prominent event in San Diego's beach sports life. The tournament has a history of adult-themed team names, often with variations of the sport's equipment — namely bats and balls — that are seen as explicit enough to discourage most youth attendance. As such, the tournament has gained a negative reputation over the years for these hedonistic and sexual overtones. Despite its infamous reputation, however, the game has grown in popularity among the San Diego populace and governing bodies over the years, even surpassing about 60,000 spectators over the two July weekends the annual tournament was hosted in 2011. To help highlight the sport rather than the spectacle and encourage more family-friendly participation, OMBAC has made strides to cut back on these and some of the tournament's other, more offensive, elements by de-emphasizing slogans such as "beer, babes, and bats on the beach."
The annual World Championships now gathers more than 1200 teams from all over the world separated into multiple divisions. Players range in age from 18 to 80 years old and are split by gender. In an effort to help further the sport, an OTL Players Association was established several years ago. They currently host several additional tournaments each year.
Old Mission Beach Athletic Club's Over The Line Website
OTL Players Social Network
Baseball genres Ball games Culture of San Diego Sports originating in the United States
related
''Related'' is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on The WB from October 5, 2005, to March 20, 2006. It revolves around the lives of four close-knit sisters of Italian descent, raised in Brooklyn and living in Manhattan.
The ...
to baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
and softball
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
. Like those games, it involves a batter, pitcher, and fielders. Because a game requires only three people per team, it is considerably easier to get a good informal game going. The equipment consists of a rope (or lines marked in the sand), an "official" softball bat & an "official" Orange rubber DeBeer softball. No gloves are allowed while fielding in the Men's divisions unless 60+ years of age. However, gloves are allowed for the women's divisions. Junior (typically 20 years or below) events also allow a glove on defense. A single golf glove may be used when batting. Gameplay, however, is very different.
The name "over-the-line" is a registered trademark
The registered trademark symbol, , is a typographic symbol that provides notice that the preceding word or symbol is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office. A trademark is a symbol, word, or wor ...
of the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) of San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
, California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, which organizes an annual tournament that is one of the city's largest summer social events. It is also known as OTL (also trademarked by OMBAC). OMBAC allows other organizations to license the trademark for their own events for a nominal fee.
An over-the-line court is normally made up on a beach and comprises a triangle and an open-ended rectangle marked by ropes or lines in the sand. The base ("The Line") of the triangle is long, and the distance from the line to the opposite point ("Home") is also . The rectangle is composed of two parallel ropes or lines that extend out indefinitely away from home starting from the two ends of The Line and at a right angle to The Line. The area between the parallel ropes and over The Line is fair territory. Everything other than the triangle and fair territory is foul territory.
Unlike in softball, the batter and pitcher are on the same team. The batter stands at Home. The pitcher stands anywhere in front of The Line, not in the triangle. Fielders (the other team) stand behind The Line, in fair territory. The objective for the batter is to get a hit which is to hit the ball into fair territory without a fielder catching it. A hit may also be made when the fielder who catches the ball crosses over the line (or the line's extension) or drops the ball in either fair or foul territory. No bases are physically run, however.
An out is made if (a) the ball is hit into your triangle, (b) a batter gets a strike (swings and completely misses), (c) the defenders catch the ball without crossing over The Line or its extensions, (d) a batter has two fouls (a foul is a ball that lands in foul territory, a pitch taken at or a balk), (e) a player bats out of order, or (f) either the pitcher or batter touches but does not catch a struck ball (if the pitcher or batter catches it, there is a no pitch). Unlike baseball and softball, where the foul lines are in fair territory, the ropes are in foul territory. Three outs end the half-inning, as in regular baseball and softball.
The scoring system is as follows:
# The third hit in an inning scores one run and each subsequent hit scores another run and
# A home run (a ball that lands past the Fielder furthest from The Line, not over, just needs to be past) without it being touched by a Fielder scores a run and the unscored hits that preceded it. The hits are then reset to zero.
Annual tournament
Over-the-line was first played in Mission Beach, San Diego, California in the 1950s and continues to thrive in the area. It is seen largely as a novelty game in the inland counties (and, debatably, the beach counties as well), but still persists as a physical education activity at local high schools, and most visibly in the practice of an annual tournament held on Fiesta Island. By far the locale's most notorious activity, the annual "OMBAC World Championship Over The Line Tournament", organized by Old Mission Beach Athletic Club, is a prominent event in San Diego's beach sports life. The tournament has a history of adult-themed team names, often with variations of the sport's equipment — namely bats and balls — that are seen as explicit enough to discourage most youth attendance. As such, the tournament has gained a negative reputation over the years for these hedonistic and sexual overtones. Despite its infamous reputation, however, the game has grown in popularity among the San Diego populace and governing bodies over the years, even surpassing about 60,000 spectators over the two July weekends the annual tournament was hosted in 2011. To help highlight the sport rather than the spectacle and encourage more family-friendly participation, OMBAC has made strides to cut back on these and some of the tournament's other, more offensive, elements by de-emphasizing slogans such as "beer, babes, and bats on the beach."
The annual World Championships now gathers more than 1200 teams from all over the world separated into multiple divisions. Players range in age from 18 to 80 years old and are split by gender. In an effort to help further the sport, an OTL Players Association was established several years ago. They currently host several additional tournaments each year.
References
{{reflistExternal links
Old Mission Beach Athletic Club's Over The Line Website
OTL Players Social Network
Baseball genres Ball games Culture of San Diego Sports originating in the United States