If you’re into baseball, you might already know about the Edmonton Prospects.

The Prospects are part of the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL), which is a college-level league. It’s about a single A level and you might just see a future star or two at the plate.

You’ll see Alberta and Saskatchewan teams in the WMBL, like the Melville Millionaires, in from the province to the east for another game tonight.

The Prospects only have a few home games left this summer (playoffs don’t look good), and play down at John Fry Park.

Anyway, people do this in any number of ways -  growing long, gross curly fingernails; making cheeseburgers so big, they need to be flipped with snow shovels. And now, some members of Edmonton’s Flag Football Association aspire to do it with the longest running flag football game in history. EVER.

The event, happening the Canada Day long weekend, was dreamed up by flag footballers, Kail Schofield, Michael Dugan and Michael MacFynn.

“It came up over coffee one day, between me and Dugan,” says Kail. “We had seen that the world’s longest hockey game was going on. We thought to ourselves, what would be a good way to promote our sport?’

Organizer Kail Schofield, who insisted we use this picture

The obvious answer: by playing it for two days straight!

“The unofficial record is 25 hours, 50 minutes,” explains Kail. “We’re shooting for 50 hours.  We’re looking to have a certain amount of guys so we can do it in shifts over the entire weekend.”

Yes, that’s right: starting at noon on July 1^st, the footballers are going to keep playing right through until 2 pm on July 3^rd.

It’s not just for bragging rights though – let’s be honest, any chump with 1000 pounds of ground beef and a snow shovel can do that. The game will benefit the research of Dr. Bernard Thebaud at the Stollery Children’s Hospital – where he’s working to increase the survival odds for premature babies with lung problems,

The event has a personal connection to the Stollery. Organizer Michael Dugan’s daughter has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and visits the facility frequently.

Kail says they’ve had great reaction to the event so far – especially from EFFA members.

“Within the league, we’ve obviously had a lot of members step up, and we’re also getting people from outside the league who didn’t know it existed.”

Including people who played football casually, or were high school athletes.

“We’re getting a lot of Al Bundy-s,” jokes Kail.

For those of us who, like me, do not know what flag football is, Kail explains that it’s different from both football and tackle football.

“In touch football.. all you have to do is touch. We literally have a “flag” that hangs down.” Players then take out their opponent by grabbing the flag, as opposed to tackling. “It’s a like a hybrid,” he says.

Organizers are still looking for some help with their event. If you’d like to participate, volunteer or act as a corporate sponsor (Kail says they’ve done their best to keep the events on a bare bones budget, but they could still use a hand), you can send an email to flagfootballgame@gmail.com, or check out the World’s Longest Flag Football Game on Facebook.

The weekend ramps up the morning of July 1st with a pancake breakfast at 9 a.m. – the game kicks off at noon.

But hey, our lighthearted discussion of news expertry is ledeing (get it?) me away from another important story – and that story is that our foxy friends at E-Ville Roller Derby are having an information session tonight for any and all interested in getting involved.

I was talking to Jessica Cross (of the Berzerkhers) and Tess Dehoog (of the Slice Girls) on Twitter today, and they have informed me that tonight’s session is targeted at folks who may be interested in joining E-Ville’s “Fresh Meat” class this January.

Why roller derby?

Tess says “As cliched as it is, you only live once and derby is a sport that pushes your personal limits, forces you to grow and be awesome.”

You probably don’t need more reasons to check it out.

The meeting is tonight at the Edmonton Sportsdome (10104 32 Ave) between 6:30 and 8:30. And, while they’re capping the January intake at 50 skaters, they will take all the referees they can get. Which means if, like me, you would love to get involved but you, also like me, have a tendency to cry when people run into you there are still plenty of opportunities to be had.

Maybe it’s just because I came of age in the time of Tiffany, but man oh MAN,

That’s my personal guarantee to you; 60% of the time, it works every time.

But that’s not to take anything away from this year’s newly announced squad of Crush dancers; I’m sure the ratio of ‘annoyed people trying to eat their Taco Bell in peace’ to ‘genuinely captivated audience’ was at an all time high. After all, who’s going to complain about a bevvy of beautiful ladies dancing up a storm next to a buffet of delicious fast food? Exactly nobody, that’s who.

Which brings me to the point in this post where I have to break Samsonow’s heart; you missed tryouts this year, buddy. Your dream of dancing before a cheering crowd is going to have to get put on ice for another year.

Or at least, dancing in front of a cheering crowd at a lacrosse game.

You can get a peek at this year’s lineup of ladies (that sounds way creepier than I meant it to) at the Crush website here, or you can just stick with watching the creepy perv video I took on my cellphone in the City Centre mall food court, posted above.

Alright. Let’s talk roller derby.

This long weekend, the Oil City Derby Girls are sending their All-Stars to picturesque Boise, Idaho for the Spudtown Knockdown. One of two Canadian teams in mix, they’re sure to do Edmonton proud.

If you’re not headed to Idaho for the Labour Day weekend, you can catch the Spudtown action online, at the Derby News Network.

Oil City is back in Edmonton action on September 18. They’ll be taking on Calgary’s Hellion Rebellions in the WildRose Challenge at Northlands. The Edmonton EXPO Centre is a bigger venue, so be sure to head out and support the locals.

Now, while that’s two events, it’s not the double-whammy I promised.

No, the second half of this roller derby smackdown concerns the E-Ville Roller Derby. Their new season begins this month.

These ladies will get their new season rolling (see what I did there?) with a double-bill on September 25, at the Kingsway Hangar.

E-Ville also has a junior league (where teens can learn the basics of the game), and they’ve got a fundraiser coming up at the start of October.

Edmonton, get out there and support your very active roller derby scene.