Lagers: 

28

Loggers: 

31

Just a day before the biggest wiffle championship in all of Addison County and part of Rutland, the defending champion Lagers shocked the wiffling world by trading their entire 2010 line-up (and a case of Miller High Life) for Lonichiro. The lowly Loggers, struggling to sell tickets in their well chronicled Wifftober drought, could no longer afford Lonichiro's hefty contract. Knowing that you could never replace Lonichiro, they tried to get an array of players. The Lagers, left with no players after the trade, used the High Life to coax the Ghost of Guapo, J-Mac, and Lucky Charms out of retirement. They added the rookie phenom "The Beebs" to round-out the line-up on the cheap.Read more

Lagers: 

17

Loggers: 

7

The First Six:

It was 20 degrees at seven AM when the Lowbus made its first stop in Lincoln at Casa de Guapo.  By game time it had warmed to a balmy 28 degrees down in Waltham.  The grounds crew had mowed the frost off the field and was stretching the yellow power cords across the infield to mark the play boundaries.  The air was thick with the giddy feeling of getting away with something.  We had somehow convinced our wives and loved ones that a ten hour wiffle ball game was really the best use of our time.  The teams were pumped and the banter in the Oxley clubhouse was frivolous as West Coast mixed up a top-notch batch of Bloody Marys for the game.  Read more

LINCOLN, Vt.(LDP) On a stormy Sunday morning, it was a case of the constant drip and the torrential downpour flooding the Loggers hope for a home victory. Hot Rod provided the constant drip going a near perfect 9 for 10 from the plate. Crossroad teammate, Claudio Chin Music Frank, brought a deluge of runs despite going 2 for 9. The two hits were scathing, a towering grandslam and a powerful double for a total of 6 RBIs.

The game got off to a ripping start for the hometown Loggers as they racked up a quick 4 runs while OX shutdown the Lagers. Through 2 it was 4-0 Loggers on the sunny side.

The 3rd would see the Lagers earn back 3 of the runs off the OX but surrender another in the 4th off Guap. 5-3 through 4. The Lagers lit it up in the 5th. A double from Claude to drive in deux. Guap's only hit of the day, a solid double to drive in 2 and more singles from Beck accounting for another run. The top half ended with Guap getting dead bugged by the Commish. An unmedicated Guap lost control of bodily funcitons and commenced to unleash a bevy of blows to the unsuspecting strike zone. It was something like this video:

At the conclusion of the tirade, Guap solemnly drifted back to the bench plainly stating, "I need help."

Hot Rod took the mound in the bottom of the inning and finally started to click. Through 7 batters in two innings, 6 went to the bench with souvenir K's.

The Wing came on in the 6th and looked strong, k'ing two and getting the only out of the game of Hot Rod (though I protested, it was legit). Through 6 the game was tight at 8-5 Lagers smelling better.

With the Surgeon set to take the mound, young Wing needed to continue to lock the Lagers down. Despite loading the bases, he quickly rebounded to put two O's on the board and looked to be on his way to another blanked inning. Then the skies opened and with one swing Dom sent the Loggers home with no soup. The longest grand slam I have witnessed at the Gap. The Loggers made a valiant comeback attempt in the bottom half, grabbing three runs off of the stingy Surgeon. Unfortunately, the game was called after 8 with the Lagers triumphing 15-8. Hot Rod with player of the game and winning pitcher honors posting an extremely high WAR of 0.640 while batting 0.900 and pitching perfect from the mound.

Dom's grand slam landed way back here, a long, long way from way up there

It was another stunning day on Saturday as the 2008 season commenced at the hallowed grounds of Gap Bridge field. The field was in great shape and a full contingent of Lowballers showed up to do battle in what turned out to be yet another close game. The teams were chosen by secret draft by Lonichiro and the handsome one. It doesn't seem to matter how we choose the teams the games always seem to come down to a run or two in the ninth inning. The away team the Lagers consisted of Hot Rod Beck, Wingman Howell, Trip Atocha, and Lonichiro, playing against the formidable Loggers boasting the line-up of El Guapo in his first game back from the snip, The Surgeon, Trot Thompson, Vlad Oxley,and Bubba Okajima, from southern Japan sporting some snazzy pinstripes.

The game was a real roots outing as it was agreed not to worry about keeping stats and just to play some hard nosed wiffle. But boy, what a game not to have on record. Lots of plastic left the park buoyed by a fickle but forceful breeze that played havoc with the consistency of the pitches. Hot Rod Beck went yard two times including a towering grand slam shot off Trot that put the Lagers way ahead of the lagging loggers. Lonichiro also delivered a switch hit shot to left and both Trip and Wingman were on their games as the Lagers looked to be cruising to an easy win in the late going.

But, this is Lowball, and the tenacious Loggers were not going to just sit down quietly. Behind the ever intimidating Plastic Surgeon, the Loggers staged a comeback which I would say was of epic proportions if it wasn't something that seems to happen nearly every game. Coming back from an eleven to four deficit they chipped away at the lead with long balls by Trot Thompson and a very near home-run by the Vlox that was bobbled and caught just as it was about to leave the park by Lonichiro. All of the Logger players contributed to the comeback with steady hits and good plate discipline, taking walks when they could get them. The Surgeon virtually shut down the opposition until the bottom of the ninth when the home team Loggers came to the plate to face a late arriving Unit. Matt Brown took the mound in the bottom of the ninth with a two run lead, but his day at fire school left him unprepared to stomp out the flames of this surging Logger team. He didn't seem to have enough time to warm up, as he struggled finding the strike zone, blowing the save and loading the bases as a confident Trot Thompson came to the dish. The Unit dealt a hanging breaking ball over the heart of the plate and Trot turned on it sending it over the head of Atocha who was playing in the hot box at short stop. Lonichro circled under it looking to rob Trot of the double and Atocha ran back but the ball bounced in and out of Lonichiro's hands as Trip Atocha dove over to try and catch the bobble, but to no avail. Trot took a trot around the bases with a walk off double to end the game in stunning fashion, garnering a player of the game nod from his compatriots. The pitcher of the game award went to The Surgeon, in the first of what I think will be many such nominations this season. If even half of the games this season come close to this one for excitement and clutch hitting and pitching then this is promising to be one hell of a season.

October 15, 2007

In case you didn't already know, I like the wiffle quite a bit. There should be no question of the dedication of the LowBall faithful after yesterday's game. In near freezing temperatures, in intermittent drizzle, a host of the old school wifflers showed up and fought through a game of epic proportions. In true LowBall fashion, the teams were randomly drawn at the start of the game, pitting the Loggers (Trot, Ox, The Surgeon, Unit, Wingman, Sharp) against the Lagers (Hot Rod, Lonichiro, J-Mac).Read more