50 Years of Wiffle Ball

From Popular Mechanics
Of all the milestones being marked in the new millennium, here's one that probably got by you. The Wiffle ball is 50 years old. And, like many notable achievements of this modern age, this ubiquitous plastic ball with holes on one side was created more or less by accident.

According to David A. Mullany, President of The Wiffle Ball Inc., it all started in the early 1950s, in Fairfield, Conn., when Mullany and a few of his school chums got into hot water playing baseball in the local schoolyard. The yard was so small, they often broke the school windows, which, in turn, drew the attention of the police.

Moving the game to his parents' backyard, Mullany substituted a tennis ball for the baseball and a sawed-off broom handle for the bat. But this, too, caused property damage, as the ball knocked shingles off the Mullany home, which was used as a backstop.

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