Editorial

In a family dynamic shortened game last night, thr Surgeon continued his dominance, throwing 3 shut out innings as the Loggers bounced back from their 12-inning heartbreaker to the Lagers last week. The Loggers showed signs that they may be the team to watch, giving up a near record low of 4 runs in 8 innings. Both teams are now 2-2. More later

Wiffle ball goes big time—well, not so big

by Lee Green
The Wiffle Effect

If the phrase "organized adult Wiffle ball" has a slightly ludicrous ring to it, that's because we invariably associate the white plastic sphere with childhood, backyard fields, and quirky ground rules. A one-hopper off the tool shed was a double, a shot over the boxwood hedge was a home run, and a foul ball into the fenced province of the neighbors' dog meant the game was over.

That version of the sport still exists, fostering, as one enthusiast's Web site puts it, "the ruining of America's backyards." But in the mid-1990s isolated groups of adult players—usually in their twenties or thirties—discovered on the Internet that plenty of others out there shared their passion. Adult tournaments have been around for years, particularly in the Northeast, where the Wiffle tradition runs long and deep, but competitive adult Wiffle ball has now grown into a thriving subculture of self-described "touring pros," structured competitions, cash prizes, and slick playing fields. Forget the boxwood hedges; these guys swing for low, Fenway-green outfield fences eighty to 110 feet from home plate. And forget those plastic Wiffle bats, too. "That little yellow bat just doesn't cut it today, especially against the pitchers you're facing," says Mike Palinczar, the organizer of two annual tournaments in Trenton, New Jersey, and one of the game's premier pitchers. "If you're up there with a yellow bat, you might as well give up." Today's players wield sturdier plastic or aluminum bats (including one manufactured by Palinczar) with names like Ledge Sledge, King Stick, and Wiffle Pro. A carbon-graphite model, the Moonshot, sells for $120.

The sport reached a milestone in January of 2001, when six players from various parts of the country, frustrated by bitter rivalries and a lack of organization, convened in Baltimore to see if they could invest the game with some semblance of order and uniformity. Two days later they emerged as the United States Perforated Plastic Baseball Association, a governing body that publishes rules, sanctions a series of tournaments on both coasts during baseball season, and conducts post-season playoffs that culminate in a fall national championship. The organization's name may suggest a lack of seriousness, but the players, most of whom played baseball in high school or college, intend nothing of the sort. Billy Owens, of Costa Mesa, California, a thirty-four-year-old electronics distribution manager, is one of the association's founders and the editor of an online Wiffle-ball newsletter called Fast Plastic. Owens bristles at the notion that he is consumed by a child's game. "For ex-baseball players," he told me, "this is the closest thing they can get to playing college-level baseball or even semi-pro."

www.theatlantic.com

About once a year I get the inkling to spend a couple all nighters rebuilding web sites. A month ago I promised to put forth the same effort on the LowBall site. Little progress was made in March, and then the snow melted. Suddenly HST became visible and the memories flooded back. I went to work. After around 48 hours of near continuous work and a few cans of the old good life, the site is live and revived. I hope it gets you as excited as I am for the season.

A brief background, the header/background design was developed out of these source images. When I started working on the site, I really wanted to get the feeling of old time baseball across. To me, that is LowBall, the pure spirit of baseball without all the pretense; just friends and competition. These two images caught my eye and I really worked to make them a part of the theme.

I went through a lot of iterations to reach the end product. Since in my mind, I feel that Lonny was the LowBaller of the Year, I worked him in place of Hank Greenberg. I figure getting the header image for a year is a decent reward for 142 at bats. I like the merging of a modern wiffle photo with an old time baseball photo. That really is the thing, every time you take the mound or step into the batter's box, you step into something bigger and for a brief moment you are part of the big show. If that made no sense to you, you should stop reading and start playing in your company's slow pitch softball league.
I also quietly revised the LowBall Coat of Arms. This ended up being a real chore. I really did not want to use a photo of myself in any of this. However after spending hours cutting and pasting different LowBallers into the crest, it became apparent that this photo worked best. Having built the site and built a lot of baseball cards, I now know what photos I need and what angles work best. Next year should go smoother. I would like to have the LowBaller of the Year (voted by committee) emblazoned on the crest for their reign as LOTY. That's a long ways off.

As a note, I put up some base posts for the individual fields. These should be expanded upon by the appropriate owners.

For now, all this staring at wiffle photos has got me amped up for some wiffle. Now let's wiffle you hosers.

HOT ROD.

Tuesday night featured Lowball wiffle on VPT's Outdoor Journal, which was filmed this past season. Saturday morning at 10 am it will be on again. Dont miss it!!

Alright lads,

Believe it or not, the long winter is slowly losing its cold grip on the fields of wiffle. Within mere months, the thrill of an epic battle between pitcher and batter will once again be the center piece of lazy weekends and long summer nights. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting a return to greatness and my sophomore season amongst the hallowed ranks of Lincoln's Old School Wiffle league.

In preparation for the fresh season, I will be spending the month of March working on a redesign on our lovely internet home field. With the relaunch in early April will come the much anticipated final 2007 stats. In the interest of this much discussed delay in release, I believe we all agree that we must come up with a better system of keeping and releasing stats. My suggestion is that we start to treat the site as a weekly newspaper, "The LowBall Wiffle Weekly". In this way we would have designated roles and a "semi" set schedule for the release. In the weeks to come, I will expand on my ideas for this and invite you to add your suggestions for the site.

One Wiffle,

If you didn't hear through the grapevine, the Library of Congress has released a gang of photos on Flickr. Definitely worth a look, check them out CLICK HERE

Hey Lowballers,
Wisdom and I have a birthday party coming up on Jan 26th and you are all invited. The kid's party starts at Noon and the grown-ups are welcome any time after that. If you have a question about whether you qualify as a kid or a grown-up call me. We usually skate and play hockey on the pond during the day light hours (I realize it's not wiffle but I want women to come to the party too) There will probably be some music and dancing once the sun goes down. Bring a dish to share and come party with us.

***Conflict alert***

Dan Guy has his birthday party on the same day as mine, and this is terribly unfortunate. I'm sorry if you have to choose one over the other. Just think though, if you pace yourself you might be in for a great day.

Thanks to all the Lowballers that showed up at the Bristol Bakery gig. Barika Ensemble is playing at the Richmond Bakery on Thursday Jan. 24th in the evening.
Hope to see you there.

Lonichiro

Thursday night, the first ever indoor wiffle will take place at the lincoln elementary school, if i can get the key! Plan on this day, and if anything changes, youll know it. Seth-can you bring the strike zone?

Hey Lowball nation,
Come to the Bristol Bakery on Friday the 21st and let the Barika Ensemble rock your knee high socks off!