— articles about professional wiffle ball
As fate would have it, the Midwest Managers of Big League Wiffle Ball were able to link up in Baghdad for some wiffle ball. The July 2009 sandstorms relented during their window of opportunity and out came the yellow bat and wiffle strike zone.
When Big League Wiffle Ball's Midwest Managers Cpt Cory Newmann and Sgt Ben Biddick were deployed to Iraq, they brought the yellow bat with them.
When Nick Benas and Jared Verrillo of Big League Wiffle Ball were kids, they had no idea that the game they played on the cul de sac at the end of Bunker Hill Road could wind up being a career. Or maybe they did.
Fifty years ago, a father named David N. Mullaney created a game for his sons. Unable to play baseball in the backyard due to fly ball threats to siding, windows, and their mother hanging laundry, their father began to experiment with a plastic version of the baseball and bat. Soon after, he and his sons were smashing line drive home runs safely across the property and pitching some of the most wicked curve balls ever seen. As they swung and wiffed, they named the game Wiffle Ball. Their mother was also free to work in the yard again without fearing for her own safety from flying base or tennis balls.
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.”
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.
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.
When you are embedded in a group of soldiers, you learn a lot about the American identity. This is particularly true if the soldiers are going to war.
I bought a regulation WIFFLE ball and bat for less than ten dollars. If I asked you when you thought the prior statement was true, you may have answered, "Ten years ago." Or if you were a young buck full of spunk, you may have said, "A long time ago, back when you were a kid." But both answers would be wrong.