Professional Wiffle Ball Brings the Glory of Baseball Back to the Masses

If the pitcher is God unfurling fate, then the batter is man, facing a 90 mile-an-hour unleashing of reality, making nanosecond decisions. It's bravery to even inhabit the batter's box. Most remain in the stands, or next to a radio, or in their living room in front of the television, meditatively seeking inspiration to bring to their daily challenges. They're engaged by the mystery and beauty of a simple, powerful game called “base.”

All of his experience and history pumps through the veins of the batter as he grips the bat and coolly eyes the pitcher. Evil lurks in the musculature and cleats of the fielders. Their gloves are a netting set in place to crush and stomp out petty and feeble attempts at glory.

The home run is the ultimate glory—the moment when all adversity has its jaw broken.

The white sailing comet soars as if powered by the awe-filled hearts of the fans. They leap to their feet as the ball plummets to the earth and lands in the stands. The batter jogs in complete security from base to base into a home full of the welcome of brethren and applause of the fans.

Should this miracle remain only in the hands of millionaire athletes? That would be anti-American.

Should this not inhabit the lives of any interested youth? This is the American dream.

Is that not why the game of “base” is America's national past time? Shouldn't this game be available to everyone? Baseball has taken a new form and shape that meets the needs of modern American youth who want to get into the game.

Wiffle ball, created fifty years ago by David N. Mullaney in Fairfield, Connecticut, is going pro. Nick Benas and Jared Verrillo, co-creators of Big League Wiffle Ball, are bringing professional wiffle ball to the masses. Players only need two or three buddies to get a team together, wiffle balls scuffed to their preference (to intensify movement), and a trustworthy bat within the regs. Benas and Verrillo have produced a formula that maximizes wiffle action. A medium-plus pitch speed limitation and the mandatory yellow bat allow for hit-ability and breath-taking tests of fielder skill.

Anyone can register with a quick on-line transaction. Winners are photographed and posted on their website (www.bigleaguewiffleball.com), flashing hundred dollar bills and grinning.

Professional wifflers have transformed what began as a child's game into an absolutely addictive sport. With pitching that appears to break the laws of physics and the incomparable feeling of cracking a home run smash, professional wiffle ball delivers a contemporary twist to the timeless game of baseball. Professional wifflers, addicted by the accessibility and action of the game, possess an unparalleled devotion to their sport.

America is catching on.

With amateur leagues springing up across the country, with states adopting Wiffle Ball as a state game, and with Big League Wiffle Ball facilitating professional tournaments, you might want to paint a strike zone on your garage wall and work on your finest riser, slider, or drop-curve.

You're going to need skills if you want to make it in the Bigs.

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article from The Bleacher Report

Professional Wiffle Ball Captures The Attention of American Youth

America is unique among nations because it is a nation of immigrants. Immigrants who came to a wild land and sought to construct an ideal society. Gleaning history of its successful and unsuccessful governmental processes, the minds of the great philosophers, and their own experiences, the Founding Fathers stripped government of pretense and an ability to oppress. They pursued checks of power. These wise men understood the character of man deeply, and created a government forced to walk hand in hand with its citizens while guaranteeing vital freedoms.

Built into this system is argument, confrontation, and an appeal to rationality. Built into this system is allowing poor character and poor ideas to fail. Effectiveness is achieved by holding leaders accountable with frequent elections and by possessing a population of educated and involved citizenry that collectively and continually reject a government that is ineffective. Representative democracy is one of the most unique and powerful concepts that has ever been embodied in government. This is evidenced by the effect of the United States of America upon the earth since its inception and the desire of the global population that longs, fights, and struggles to be a part of it.

Baseball has been called this nation's past-time. Possibly America's most loved sport, the essence of the game is infused in the heart and mind of America. It began with groups of people meeting in a field and initiating a game of “base.” The four bases were placed strategically and inhabited by the players: pitcher, catcher, fielders, batter, base-runners. Here the realities of life are orchestrated, between the foul lines. The American heart and mind are captured, entranced, and exhilarated by it because it simply and symmetrically mirrors their lives.

Sport is war without death. War is the basic situation of man. Sport elevates and unites us through the bitter sweat of failure, through the liberation of hard work, and the pay-off of success in a disciplined craft that accesses the mind, the body, the spirit, and the team.

America's youth are tapping into this American game in a remarkable way. Testifying to the adaptability of the human spirit and the timelessness of the sport, baseball has taken on an unforeseen shape. The neighborhood no longer has mass amounts of children with free time enough to meet at the local ball diamond. Their parents are working two and three jobs. Their lives are busy with homework and handfuls of other extracurricular activities. In the aisles of the local department store while their parents cram errands between work, daycare, and dinner, they happen upon a wiffle ball and bat. They ask; their mother checks the price. She can spare the five dollars. It's plastic. It's not a threat to pediatric bones, windows, or siding. “Put it in the cart.” Or, they ask their father who, for a moment, is yanked out of the work stresses of personalities, paychecks, and projects. He handles the yellow bat which is light as air, but heavy with the childhood joy of first pitches, first base-hits, and first homeruns.

When they get home, they begin the challenge of figuring out how to pitch the plastic ball with holes in one side. It curves and sinks intensely. They pop on the family computer, google “wiffle,” and suddenly they become aware that this is no longer just a fleeting joy of childhood. It is the new face of American baseball. Meeting the need of intensely busy families and kids who can't organize 17 others for a game, these players construct strike zones out of PVC pipe or simply chalk a square on a wall. All they need is one other kid, which they are usually able to find. Tournaments are organized, pitches are honed, stats are tallied on multiple websites. Videos are uploaded across the nation of the meanest pitches and longest homers which make the human mind marvel at what can be done with one plastic ball with eight holes on one side and a narrow yellow bat.

Like anything great; it is brilliantly simple. Nick Benas, co-creator of www.bigleaguewiffleball.com/, says: “It's a beautiful thing. It's accessible to all. It opens the playing field to anyone who has five bucks, a buddy, and a little bit of space.” He started Big League Wiffle Ball with his childhood buddy named Jared Verrillo. They grew up a half hour away from The Wiffle Factory, smacking homeruns into their neighbors' yards. Their childhood dream is becoming a reality. Having tournaments from the East Coast all the way to San Diego, Big League Wiffle Ball is taking the country by storm. Connecticut made wiffle ball one of their state games, and other states are joining the line-up.

This is what happens when citizens of a nation are afforded freedom. This is the brilliance of the Founding Fathers creation which allows eternal principles to overcome economic class, unfairness, and exclusiveness. Benas, a Marine who served a combat tour in Iraq, says with a relish that is reserved for one who knows his nation intimately through sacrifice: “This is the American dream. America is still a place where dreams can come true.” His message is confirmed by the expression on the face of his wiffle ball tournament customers every time they smack a line drive homerun or strike out a heavy hitter. These customers that don't have million dollar salaries. They work down the block. They're intense when it's game time. They're hungry. They're serious. And they're good. Real good. Whether it's the legendary team named DOOM on the East Coast or DGA in the Chicago-land area, chances are that unless you've put in work, you will find yourself wiffing while they walk away with the tournament prize money.

Homeruns are no longer reserved for millionaire athletes. Baseball is back in the hands of the common man. It's back via an invention created 50 years ago by a father for his children in Fairfield, Connecticut. While America's baseball stars are holding press confessional press conferences about steroid use, American youth are taking baseball's future into their own hands. They're making it their own by swatting wiffle homerun balls with a narrow yellow bat.

article from The Bleacher Report

Baseball For the 21rst Century

Fifty years ago, David A. Mullaney was playing baseball in the backyard. To prevent dented siding and cracked windows that resulted from using an actual baseball, he and his friends used a tennis ball and a broom handle bat. His mother happened to be hanging laundry in the yard when he hit a pitch and almost nailed her with the yellow ball. The game quickly came to an end.

His father, David N. Mullaney, was a retired semi-pro pitcher. Unwilling to let his son be forced to abandon his love for baseball by possible injury, space constraints, lack of a full line-up, or the threat of property damage, he began to create a backyard-safe bat and ball and a set of rules that could make a competitive game between as little as two people. What was born was an idea so simple that its genius has become an American icon. Rare is the hand of an American youth which has not handled a WIFFLE ball and bat at some point in their development.

Since its inception in 1953, WIFFLE ball has gone from backyard fun to a competitive sport. Tournaments with serious prize money are offered across the nation. Connecticut has adopted WIFFLE ball as a state game and more states are interested. Variations on rules and pitch speed color national tournaments. Nick Benas and Jared Verrillo, creators of Big League WIFFLE Ball, are at the heart of the WIFFLE phenomenon.

“We’re a medium-pitch organization,” Verrillo said. “We find that pitch speeds up to 35mph create a tournament that is action friendly, allows sufficient hit-ability, and still allows for all the play you expect in WIFFLE pitching.” You can see how satisfying their tournaments are (and how profitable), when you check out their web site. Teams in the winner’s bracket can be seen flashing stacks of hundred dollar bills. They even have a Guinness World Record attempt approaching in May 2009 for the largest mass participation in a WIFFLE ball tournament.

You may notice that the winner’s bracket is often inhabited by the legendary professional WIFFLE team called DOOM. Dallas Mall and Adam Trotta dominate the East Coast but constantly are under threat by teams like Absolute Gunners, Lou’s Diamonds, Cereal Killers, and Krusty’s Kids. Teams like DGA tour the Midwest and battle their arch rival High Heat for victories in the Chicago-land area. Chad Heyda and Brian Payne compete in the Minneapolis area and with the help of a mutual friend took first place in a tournament in Madison, Wisconsin.

Serious WIFFLE players like to theorize why the game is so enjoyable. Many believe that it fits a niche in the American psyche where playing baseball can no longer reach the masses. When people are working two or three jobs or taking multiple extracurriculars along with long hours of schooling, there is neither time nor possibility to get the numbers needed for a baseball game at the local diamond. There is, however, time to get a few friends together to hear “the crack of the plastic” as your buddy smacks a home run or to hear the “wiff” of the iconic yellow bat as it misses a wicked curve, slider, or riser. America’s past-time has evolved. It’s latest manifestation is WIFFLE.

Article from Blast Magazine