Over the Line returns: San Diego's rowdy beach tradition turns 72
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The 2023 Over the Line World Championship. Photo: Tristan L. Juárez via Old Mission Beach Athletic Club
The Over the Line World Championships are back for their 72nd year.
Why it matters: It doesn't get more San Diego than this adults-only beach party celebrating a sport invented here in the 1950s and still played daily on city beaches.
- The two-weekend Fiesta Island fiesta is also one of the public's only chances to drink alcohol at the beach, thanks to the beach booze ban in 2008.
Driving the news: The competition is Saturday and Sunday for the next two weekends, with men's division games starting at 7am Saturday and women's division games starting at 9am.
- Attendance is free, it's BYOB (no glass) and roughly 15,000 people show up each year.
- The first weekend is the bigger party, while the second weekend brings more intense competition in the double-elimination tournament featuring over 700 teams.
Between the lines: The event is open to everyone, but organizers at the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club advise keeping it 18 and over.
- Raunchy team names, costumes and signs are a big part of the tradition.
How it works: It's a three-on-three game played with a wooden bat, a rubber softball, no baserunners and no mitts for fielders.
- A teammate pitches by kneeling next to the batter lightly tossing them the ball.
- The batter aims to hit the ball over a line about 55 feet away while keeping it between two foul lines. Hits begin counting for runs after three in an inning. Games typically last four innings.
- Fielders record outs by catching fly balls before they land in play, but they cannot cross the "home run" line to catch a ball. Anything hit beyond the deepest fielder is a home run.