Big League WIFFLE Ball News

If you’ve ever seen the Devil’s Advocate you’ll remember Pacino at the end, “Vanity, it is my favorite sin.” I reference it here because many wiffleball teams playing competitively these days are so wrapped up in themselves, that they often fail to appreciate the efforts of others. At tournaments like Wifflerock, there are many teams there who have never played before, or who may never win a Championship. Their main goal is just to have fun. For the rest of us, it’s win at all costs. Lose and feel destroyed mentally. Anger and disappointment consumes us as we ponder what might have been. And while we’re all caught up in our own plight, we fail to celebrate the achievements of our opponent.

During prelims last Saturday DOOM played a game vs. a team I’m sure many of you have never heard of. Come the bottom of the 6th inning their underrated pitcher had held us to only 1 run. To that point, I had yet to give up a hit and in talking to maybe the least talented kid on their squad their expectations of winning were minimal. But that doesn’t mean they were just going through the motions. They had every desire to win, and when their pitcher hit a solo to tie it up, the stage was set for the so-called “least talented” player (maybe in the whole division) to step into the box and make his mark on the game. A few seconds later he lined a ball up the middle and off Dallas’s outstretched hand, for the walk off game winning HR. Even though we were disappointed in losing the game, how could we not be happy for that kid and his team? Forget the fact, they just beat DOOM, the #1 ranked team in the tournament, but they also just hit 2 HR’s to win a game against a picther who was throwing a no no. An unforgetable accomplishment. And the kid who hit the walk off was the MOST unlikely of heroes, but to have his teammates rally around him and celebrate with him, that’s a feeling we all hope to experience.

Those of us who are in it to win it, fail sometimes to appreciate the other sides perspective. We fail sometimes to appreciate the true love of the game and how it can be found even in defeat> so long as our vanity doesn’t block our ability to see it.

WFFLE ball tournaments and leagues like GSWL, are breeding grounds for people with common interests to get together and form realtionships with one another. Some of my best friends are WIFFLE ball players. I see them almost every weekend. They have in turn become part of my extended family. Over the years I’ve come to appreciate more and more the value of having these people in my life.

Being part of this ever growing WIFFLE community, has been an honor and a privledge and I hope this article helps to inspire others to think less about themselves and more about the joy that comes from the experiences we all share together. Happy 4th of July!

Okay, let’s make this clear at the outset:  I am not here to bash Wifflerock, although there are many in the WIFFLE community that do.  I don’t know the inner workings of their tournament.  I will not publish conjecture and I will not make unsubstantiated conclusions.

That said, I just paid $100 to sign up for Wifflerock.  Every year, I tell myself I won’t, and then every year I do.

Wifflerock is one of the largest tournaments in New England.  Their website boasts that they have held tournaments of close to 200 teams.  So why is it that Wifflerock can draw 180 teams and BLWB can’t?  I think we need to seriously examine that issue if we are going to grow this format, because, frankly, the value for the money isn’t there at Wifflerock.  It has to be the marketing.

I hate it when people rip the tournaments for not returning enough prize money.  Most of the time, the comments don’t account for field costs, insurance and other hidden costs associated with holding a tournament.   But the payout structure at Wifflerock is ridiculous by any standards.  Let’s say they get 180 teams averaging $100 per team.  That means $18,000 in entry fees.  While some text on the Wifflerock homepage states, “$2,000 in prize money aren’t bad either,” unless we value a box of Twinkies at $100, the actualy number is closer to $1,900.  That means that about 10.5% of the entry fees are returned to the players in prize money, resulting in a house hold of 89.5%.  A slot machine in Vegas is illegal if it has a hold of more than 17%.  And this is a tournament with multiple sponsors.  I assume that these sponsors pick up some or all of the costs of holding and advertising the tournament. 

It should be noted that the website claims that some money raised by the tournament goes to charity, and I think that is wonderful.  Perhaps a majority of the $16,000 in profit goes to charity.  If that is the case, I congratulate those who run Wifflerock for their service to the community.  However, I would also recommend that if they are raising $16,000 or more for charity every year they should make that point clear on their website to eliminate some of the confusion in the community regarding where all of this extra money goes. 

So Wifflerock returns 10.5% in prize money.  NEWA is regularly bashed for returning a number much higher than that, and BLWB leads the region, often returning 80%, 90% and even on occasion more than 100% of the money to the players.  Yet people rush in droves to play Wifflerock while BLWB is still struggling to grow.  Why?  The organizers of Wifflerock do a competent job, but, frankly, they run one tournament a year and they are not nearly as adept at keeping the player happy as are Euro J-Rod and Benas.  Moreover, the format is designed to get games completed as quickly as possible, not to identify the best WIFFLE ball player/team (although the year Dallas won as a one-man team they probably did both).  Tiebreakers are arbitrary and confusing.  Teams advancing to elimination play are required to return on sunday morning for what might amount to one game.

Considering the size of Wifflerock and their realtive inexperience (one tournament a year), the organizers do a passable job.  However, the tournament offers horrible value from a financial perspective, and the format is certainly less than ideal.  So I ask again, why do they draw 180 teams while other more player-friendly tournaments struggle?  Clearly they are capturing the casual WIFFLE ball player at an impressive rate.  It absolutely has to be the advertising, because there is simply no other explanation. 

The organizers of other formats like BLWB need to figure out what the folks at Wifflerock are doing and copy it.  If they can draw 180 teams, imagine how many BLWB could draw with the same advertising, offering players free drinks, doughnuts, sandwiches, shirts, calendars and 80+% return in prize money.  The choice between BLWB and Wifflerock should be clear.  If they continue to draw better than BLWB and other formats, it can only be because they are playing the advertising game more intelligently.

And before I get inundated with support emails for Wifflerock, I want to make it absolutely clear that I don’t know what they do with the money, and, indeed, all of it might go to charity as far as I know.  My only motivation was to draw a comparison between the different formats and examine their ability to draw record crowds.

On a side note, and by way of follow-up on my last article, I would like to congratulate the Hustlers on their first Goldenstick victory last Sunday.  In fact, the boys were 1 run away from going 2-1 on the day.  After the jamboree experience, I was expecting it to take weeks to get a victory.  I now have hope that we might not humilate ourselves too badly.

For those playing Wifflerock this weekend (and clearly most of you are), good luck.  For those who are playing Wifflerock and haven’t yet tried BLWB, give it a shot.  You will be amazed by the difference.

It was only 3 short years ago that the Diamonds made their debut on the WIFFLE scene in Haverhill, MA.  Having dominated our pick-up game for several seasons, we were thrilled to discover an actual WIFFLE tournament with prize money.  Now we wouldn’t have to force our friends to play every weekend.  We could get some recognition and even a little cash.  Easy money. 

But there was a slight problem.  We overestimated our ability a little bit.  We also grossly underestimated the quality of play one might expect at a tournament.  We had no idea that there were so many WIFFLE freaks out there spending countless hours mastering the movements of a ball that sometimes seems to defy the ordinary laws of physics.  Our first ever playoff game was against WAYBACK, a solid team.  It lasted all of 6 minutes and we were off to the car wondering how the hell we could lose 10-0 so fast.  We also wondered how they made the ball do what they made it do.

Well, fast forward a few years and we can now make the ball do a few things, and we can even hit it when it is doing some funny things.  In fact, with wins over most of the top teams out there at one time or another, a couple of tournament wins and several finals, we could probably even be considered a good team at this point.  Not a great one, but a good one.  I think that’s fair. 

Some of our best moments have come while playing with Andy Grady of the Whitey Whackers.  When he needed a team for the Goldenstick prospect division, we jumped right in.  Now, we knew that the level of play there was pretty good, and we heard the stories about this guy who can throw 90 MPH and this other guy who hit 3 HRs in one game with the bat in his mouth.  We knew those guys could play, but we figured we could jump right in and compete in this elite fast-pitch league.  After all we play many of those guys on Saturdays, and we have had more success than failure recently in medium pitch tournaments. 

Well, it would seem that we were a bit unrealistic once again.  Much like that first tournament 3 years ago, our first Goldenstick experience did not work out well at all.  We didn’t hit much.  We didn’t pitch at all.  We dropped fly balls.  We booted grounders.  We forgot the rules.  By any reasonable standard, it was a horrific disaster.  But you know what?  I left that place with a big grin on my face.

It was really fun to step in there against a guy who was throwing so hard that it actually hurt to get hit by the ball.  It was fun to learn the new and complicated rules.  It was fun to play against incredible athletes with no restrictions on their play.  I left that field 100 times more impressed with many players than I was before.  I have a new respect for what they can do.   Sure, there were a few too many bare chests and you could actually taste the combination of testosterone and ego in the air, but man was it fun.

We went 0-4-1 on the day.  It has been a very long time since we played 5 games without winning one.  Were we a bit humiliated at times?  Absolutely.  Were we disappointed that we didn‘t perform better?  Sure.  Are we discouraged?  Absolutely not.  If we weren’t willing to take a beating and then sign back up to take another beating in another town we never would have made it this far.  Everyone can get excited about winning a tournament and a trophy and some cash.  But every weekend there is one winner and dozens of losers.  Most of the teams that play every week don’t win that many tournaments.  What keeps teams like them (and us) coming back?  I think that what we really love is a challenge to attack.  Climbing the mountain from the bottom is fun and rewarding.  It gives you a true appreciation of each step that you take as a team and as an individual.  

And that is the beauty of WIFFLE ball.  It is accessible to everyone.  If you have the willingness to learn, work hard and take the occasional beating, there is not much to stop you from succeeding.  I could bust my ass for 10 years and I couldn’t play middle linebacker for the Patriots.  It just isn’t in my DNA.  But I can, and have, experienced some great WIFFLE success, even on 2 horrible knees.  We can all experience the sense of accomplishment that comes from working our way from pathetic to respectable to successful. 

I write this because every week I see a few new teams at the tournaments.  Most of them get hammered.  Most of them don’t come back.  Maybe they think that there is no way they can get as good as the teams that have been doing this for years.  We were tempted to think that too, and now as I look back I am very happy that we didn’t take that route.  The inexperienced teams should set modest goals and keep working, and I am positive that they will see improvement every week.  Nobody ever got a feeling of accomplishment by virtue of backing down from a challenge.   It may be cliche, but it is true that things worth having are things worth working for.

Believe me when I tell you that if my team can work itself up the ranks, so can yours.  And in my opinion, it is a very worthwhile pursuit.   Handling disappointment, working toward a goal, winning with class, losing with class and confronting and overcoming obstacles are just a few of the things one can learn from this game, and I for one am going to keep learning.

As for Goldenstick…  Those guys are better at that game than I am right now, but maybe I was getting too comfortable with the game anyway.  I am excited to start at the bottom again and work my way up.  I am willing to take a few welts and I know my teammates are willing to swallow a few losses, because I know that we will have our eyes wide open just like we did the first time.  We will see what they do and how they do it.  And hopefully, I will be writing 3 years from now about the first time we played, how terrible we were, and how far we have come since then.  Whether we become Goldenstick champions or not, I am certain that the journey will be satisfying and worthwhile.  I hope that some of the teams that have had a rough first experience with BLWB will feel the same way.   Coming out to BLWB Manchester this weekend with only a $10 entry fee is a great way to keep climbing the ladder.

For me, Goldenstick could never replace the Saturday tournaments.  I love the medium-pitch tournaments that create a more relaxed atmosphere and allow more diverse teams to be competitive.  But I feel like I am going to learn to love the fast pitch game as well, which features great players with nothing holding them back from competing to the best of their abilities.  In my view, there is plenty of room for both in the WIFFLE world.  After all, the weekend has 2 days, doesn’t it?

How does that song go? 

Nobody said it was easy……..

I’m going back to the start.

Sounds like fun to me.

This past weekend BLWB held their 4th tournament of the year. It was also FP’s second. The turnout for both tournaments was small. FP drew 13 teams where BLWB only drew 9 teams. The most notable difference, was in the prize money awarded. FP paid out $500 to 1st, while BLWB gave away a remarkable $1300 to the top 3 teams.

It is truly a credit to Nick and Jared that despite being a new format, they are willing to go deep into their own pockets to ensure each event, regardless of turnout, lives up to the hype which promoted it. This format continues to prove it is an up and comer and ready to challenge all other formats for player appreciation. 

The rumor coming out of Wiffle-Up Hopkinton was that the veteran squad, Yo Ho HO and a Bottle of Rum called for the radar gun to detect illegal pitch speed in the playoffs. 

In  this age of selfish competition and win-at-all-costs mentality, it showed incredible sportsmanship for the members of Yo Ho to finally step up themselves to stop Russ, their own pitcher, from throwing so freaking hard.  Having heard the complaints that have mounted over the years, Yo Ho Ho stood up and did the right thing, caring more about the integrity of the game than the outcome.  In so doing, their chances at the sportsmanship award have increased almost as much as Russ’ ERA now that he has to throw 38 MPH.

After reading everyone’s comments, most recently Merrifields, I’ve come to the same conclusion about the best possible rule changes.

- 5 balls, 2 strikes

- scuffed balls

- unlimited fouls

- 35 mph

- no S&M or 1&D rules

There is no right or wrong answer on the swing and a miss/one and done debate. Everyone has their own personal preferences. To accomodate that best, eliminate both rules from the format. Batters will gain an advantage, but to combat that ptchers will get an extra ball to escape an influx of walks, and they’ll still be using a scuffed ball which increases movement.

As for the speed limit, I think it should still be lowered, b/c we don’t want speed deciding outs. It should be placement and movement. In WIFFLE ball, that’s what sells. Plus, given that it is suppose to be a Gentlemens game, umpired by those playing, making the speed limit more obvious to identify is what’s best. The rule is simply, if it’s too fast to make contact, it was faster than 35mph.

We also talked about making the game more 3-dimensional. To get defense more involved you have to be putting the ball in play more. These new rules will do that. To add incentive and drama to the defense you add double plays. BLWB says you can turn two on any pop up or ground ball, but only if someone is on base. That’s already more than most formats, but if games are running too long b/c of the new rules, then one thing to look at is being able to turn two on anything, even if no one is on base. If nothing else, it makes every put out more exciting. Only thing I wouldn’t like is a DP off of a weak grounder 10 feet in front of the plate. Nor do I like the idea of winning a game on a ball that stops 10 feet from the plate. Nothing generates more arguments then, it stopped! No it didn’t!

Keep your comments coming. I’m not the one who decides the rules, Nick and Jared are and this post should give them something more to think about.

So first off it was a fantastic day in Bedford on Saturday, and I have to say this it is truly amazing to see that many teams in one place playing at such a high level.  I am going to do a writeup of all of the action giving credit to the outstanding play of several teams and individuals, but I wanted to wait on that for a couple of days because I think that the issues Trotta raised in his entry should remain front and center for the wifflers to weigh in on.

To me it is really simple.  It isn’t about how many people were having fun Saturday.  I feel like most of us who drive all over New England (and sometimes beyond) every Saturday after working all week at some god-awful hour to do something that almost always results in some sort of pain, be it physical, psychological or both have to be having fun or it just doesn’t make sense.  I mean, it isn’t as if we can walk into a bar and say, “Did you know that I am a member of the 5th ranked Big League WIFFLE Ball team of all time, and that I once pitched 11 consecutive scoreless innings in Goldenstick league play?  We have shirts with real logos and hats.  I wear 5 knee braces at one time and I am pretty sure I need Tommy John surgery.  Would you like to be making sexy time with me now?”  Probably not.  It might work for guys like BLWB co-founder Euro J-Rod, who wears sunglasses indoors with tight jeans and a tighter shirt, but it probably won’t work for you.  My point is that ego can only be a small part of it, so there has to be some fun or we are all just mentally ill.

Some people really enjoy the competitive aspect of it, and get their kicks from trying to play at the highest level possible.  That’s admirable.  Hell, if my team didn’t have that attitude, we wouldn’t win any games at all, being that 2/3 of us struggle with basic mobility and none of us were ever identified by the national baseball development program, assuming that such a program exists.   I am sure every team out there has envisioned themselves winning some national title on some car trip to Hopkinton at some point.  It should be that way.

Above said, however, Trotta is dead on with his main point.  The goal of this thing is to make it bigger.  For the same reason that playing BLWB Bedford last weekend is more fun than playing some pick up game in the back yard with whatever warm bodies you can snag from the neighborhood, playing in bigger tournaments with bigger money and bigger draws and more potential glory and more bells and whistles would be even more fun. 

To grow we need to focus on the local people- the recreational wifflers.  We need 15 of those teams from Bedford playing in 15 divisions.  And besides, the only way a recreational team can become a regular team is if we get them there in the first place.  This requires, in my mind, two things.

The first goes to the promotion of the tournaments themseles.  By traveling from town to town, we have a tremendous opportunity to draw from different local populations, grow our tournaments and gain potential regulars.  I think too much focus is on advertising in the wiffle community and too little is on promoting in the towns themselves.  I believe that if local high schools and colleges and college towns, and YMCAs and athletic clubs were somehow able to get the information at it were presented properly, all sorts of people-  adults, kids, families would be willing to pay $20 a head to give it a shot.  If we give them a good experience, a percentage of that number will be willing to travel an hour or two next weekend to give it another go, and we can add them to the new people we can generate in the new town.  It can grow with every tournament.   What we need are ideas to get this done.

The second goes to actually providing them with a good experience.  Euro J-Rod and Benas do a great job with the structure, facilities, equipment, food, drinks, and general people skills, so I think we have that covered.  The question is whether our current format is perfectly-designed to achieve the goal, which is providing a stage where the top teams can play hard, competitive games to determine the best teams, and the newer players can come, have a great time, see some great play but not be so overwhelmed that we scare them away.  I can’t count the number of teams that we have destroyed in the round robin, watched get destroyed by Yo Ho Ho and Whitey WHackers, and never seen again.  These are the teams we need to capture.  And the more of them we capture, the more of them will be at the next tournament, creating more matchups between weaker teams and a greater likelihood that even more of them come back.

I think I like his speed limit proposition.  At this point, most of us can hit the ball at 40-45 MPH, but there were still a bunch of low-scoring games that aren’t exactly thrilling from a marketing perspective.  ANd the one team that went 0-4 in our division couldn’t hit it at all, and I wonder if they will be back.  Also, I think it is difficult to judge the difference between a 40 MPH drop and a 45MPH.  35 is not fast.  If the ball comes in fast, it isn’t 35.  Maybe I am wrong about this, but it seems to me easier to judge.  THe pitcher gets scuffed balls so the talented ones will still have the advantage of some nasty movement, and he also gets the advantage of pitching to yellow bats.  The batter gets unlimited fouls and a very manageable speed limit.  I think there will be an overall shift to more balls in play, with a greater emphasis on fielding, keeping the walks down and forcing batters not to give away outs.  Each game can be won or lost by any player on the field.  I think it sounds exciting and I think it will result in more action.  More action means more consistent interest from more people.  I also think the best teams will still rise to the top. 

The top teams still have many chances to play fast pitch for high stakes.  If we make this change, they also get the different, but I think equally-challenging opportunity to weave their way to the top of medium pitch tournaments using a slightly different set of skills.  I love playing this game in any format, but how would more people with names we don’t know want to play?  That’s the question. 

I really want to hear your thoughts on this.

And speaking of slower pitching, I paid $250 to GSWL today to sacrifice my body to the prospect division.  This obviously calls my judgment into serious question.

After losing to 1-man DOOM in the Finals of this most recent BLWB; Wiffman, Gongman, Boomer and Leahy were found in the parking lot taking out their frustration on the poor 2nd place trophy. It wasn’t that the trophy was undesirable, it’s what it represented….not quite good enough. So instead of going on the mantle, it became a pinata, absorbing blow after blow from the bats of the guys who finsihed second.

Has this sport become too competitve? Is winning all that matters? Where did the fun go? Seems like for most teams, fun takes a back seat to success. In a growing format like BLWB, we have to guard against the spirit of the sport being compramised. New teams, average teams, family teams, all play initially for the love of the game. They keep playing, b/c of how much fun they’re having. These teams will eventually make up the majority of BLWB if it’s to succeed.

So what do we do to maximize FUN? For me, it’s finiding a way to increase balance within the format. This weekend there were way too many 1-0 games. If the bat must be yellow ONLY, then the options become: lower the speed limit more or make the ball unscuffed.

1. An unscuffed ball moves less and will make pitchers work harder to get batters out. (due to the unlimited fouls rule)  Advantage: Hitter

2. Having scuffed balls with a lower speed limit of 35mph, allows pitchers more movement, and gives yellow weilding batters a better chance of putting the ball in play.   Advantage: Both (good balance)

Remember, this is all about the big picture. How do we get WIFFLE recognized Nationally? BLWB is the front runner in making this a reality. To pull it off two things need to happen. It needs to multiply in size and it needs to be marketable.

1. To grow, you must ensure every team equal opportunity to win, b/c winning does matter and to those whom it doesn’t, you still have to make it fun for them so they want to come back. Getting shut out every game won’t inspire that.

2. To be more marketable, the fans need to enjoy what they’re viewing. It needs to be exciting. The pitching needs to be crafty, not over powering. The hitting needs to be frequent, not occasional. And the defense needs to play a significant role, and that only happens when the ball is put in play.

To give all three elements their fair shake a rule change needs to be made. Should it be changing to unscuffed balls, or should the speed limit be reduced to 35mph? I think my opinion is obvious, but I look forward to yours.

BLWB is proud to announce its new team of writers. First is Adam “the Franchise” Trotta, Captain of DOOM, and 16 year WIFFLE pro. He will be heading up the “DOOM Blog” — covering anything that matters to WIFFLE enthusiasts. Trotta has led DOOM to 75 Tournament Championships… and shows no signs of slowing down!

Joining him is Dave “the Animal” Morse. Perhaps the most colorful WIFFLE personality in the game. He heads up the WIFFLE ball team Lou’s Diamonds. Dave is best known for his witty rebuttles and insightful observations.

Lastly, the beautiful April Lange. She will bring the charm and charisma along with frequent updates regarding the format.

The 5th Annual BJB Memorial WIFFLE Tournament will be held July 12th at Joseph A. Foran H.S. in Milford CT.

The $100 registration fee per team includes, lunch provided by Outback Steakhouse, t-shirt, DJ, raffle and guaranteed 3 games.

Reg. is limited to 64 teams (16 fields). The tournament has sold out the last three years so get your team signed up ASAP. Thank you! www.thebjbtournament.com