London Wiffleball Tournament Date Announced

The long awaited date for the 14th annual London Wiffleball Tournament was finally released a couple of days ago - July 14 (Saturday). Brian Wheeler, the tournament's organizer, emailed us with the date and his hopes for it this year. Some leading commissioners of leagues in the NWLA that went to the tournament last year plan on getting more leagues involved. The plan is to get as many NWLA teams together the following Sunday to play each other. The event could also serve as a meet and greet that would otherwise never take place. Wheeler said in his email that he will cooperate with the NWLA in their efforts to play on July 15. Leagues with teams that plan on attending include, Wiffle in SouthEast Michigan, Potomac Wiffleball League, Kalamazoo Wiffleball League, HRL: Twin Cities, Ontario County Wiffle Association, National Wiffleball League, and Suburban Chicago Wiffleball League. If this occurred, it would be the largest known summit for independent wiffleball leagues to ever take place - a truly historic event. More details on this event as the tournament date comes nearer.

"The Boss. He's Back!"

Commissioner Dee of the HRL Twin Cities posted an update on November 9th entitled 'Life, the Universe, and Everything'. The big news message within Dee's message has rocked the wiffleball world with excitement: Pat "Truck" Moriarty is coming back. And by coming back, I mean reclaiming his role as commissioner of the HRL. In 2010 he stepped down as commish and turned the league over to Craig "Dee" Deelsnyder. While Dee has done a great job running the league, it is undeniable that the HRL lost it's social flair (with the exception of the Blue Jays, of course) that it had when Truck was at the captain's wheel. I was not the only person who shared the position that the HRL had become reclusive under Dee's watch. The HRL was once very involved in the NWLA messageboard but suddenly dropped out of the national spotlight in 2010. Their league board was quite alive and well, however, leading some to believe that they no longer were concerned with what everyone else was doing or maintaining their reputation as the nation's top recreational wiffleball league. With the sudden downturn of the HRL, the Kalamazoo Wiffleball League and Palisades WBL muscled away the spotlight and the HRL - a distant memory. KWL commissioner, Brian Meyers, wrote an article about his disappointment in the HRL and called them out as his league (KWL) had won the 2010 Wiffy Awards for Website of the Year and Commissioner of the year, which the HRL previously had a dynasty on. But I've got to ask, is Dee the one who should shoulder all the blame for the HRL's fall from grace? I don't think so. It takes more than one guy to get the word out about a league and a commissioner can only do so much. Dee cited that he had a lot of things going on in his personal life and that he could no longer "put the time and effort needed to run the HRL" and that "life was catching up" to him and that, as a result, he was stepping down as league commissioner. It is unfortunate that such an able commissioner is stepping down from one of the nation's top leagues but we can all take great comfort in the fact that the league is still in good and familiar hands as the league enters it's second era under Pat "Truck" Moriarty's reign.

All Eyes On Michigan

The catch seen round the wiffleball world is now experiencing Day 2 of being the top story on Deadspin.com. Deadspin is typically known for controversial stories such as the budgets of MLB teams, the scandal at BYU involving a black player being suspended for having sex, and Brett Favre's penis scandal. But Deadspin doesn't always do negative controversial news, like talk about how the KWL called MLB umpire Bill Welke to rule on a tough call. Welke with 4 other umpires accompanying him at the time of the call agreed that catching the ball before going over the fence is an out. The story has also been acknowledged by AOL's Sporting News recently and will most likely continue to be discussed elsewhere. Who knows? Perhaps it'll make it on ESPN's SportsCenter. This is without a doubt the biggest wiffleball news story of the year thus far, whether you think it deserves this much attention or not.
Wiffle in SouthEast Michigan has posted their latest podcast, making this episode #4, with Carl Coffee hosting. As always, it's nicely done and entertaining and worth a listen. Finally, the Orioles of HRL: Twin Cities posted a Public Service Announcement within the last 24 hours about staying in school. Who knew there would ever be a wiffleball PSA?

St. Patty's Day Predictions continued

I had a difficult time making my predictions to submit to the National Wiffleball League Association. Don't get me wrong - some leagues were a easy to predict what would happen, small leagues mostly. But there are leagues out there that have always been hard to predict because the competition is so fierce. Leagues like KWL, HRL: Twin Cities, & ORWBL exhibit these traits. Furthermore these leagues are so large that a dark horse could be in the midst and none of us even know it. There could be some major surprises in store for the fans of these leagues. Another thing that made predicting difficult is that some leagues have completely reformed, contracted, or expanded. Some leagues have redrafted and jumbled up the teams while other leagues have switched team names, done trading or ditched certain teams altogether. Last year was not nearly as difficult to make the predictions but the NWLA has nearly doubled in size since then. For some leagues this is their premier season and hype alone is the only thing to guide the columnists with their predictions. However, in the end these predictions are for amusement and little else...although they may have a profound influence on the early rankings. The only thing left to do now is wait for the other columnists to make their predictions and hopefully they are posted on the NWLA site soon, which may be after St. Patrick's Day.

Kalamazoo is really running away with the poll aren't they? CCWA isn't looking too bad either; they've nearly caught up to Palisades! There hasn't been a single vote for Palisades WBL in over a week! I want to take this opportunity to thank 2 leagues for either saying kind things about this blog or promoting it. Both of these leagues have done this without me asking them to do so, which means a lot. First, KWL made this blog their top headline and also took the opportunity to plug them being on our poll (2 birds with one stone - nice). Next, the Old Republic Whiffle Ball league added us to the bottom of their home page as a link. Thanks a lot and keep coming back for more news, the flow of which is expected to increase as season openers are just around the corner! By the way, Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

The wait is finally over...

 If you asked any wiffler a year ago or two which league they thought was the best league in the nation the likely answer would be "It's all about HRL : Twin Cities, man. Hands down." But recently the HRL's had a tough time keeping the crown. One of HRL's best features has been their impressive website. They've been notorious for winning the Best Website Award from the NWLA (4 years running) until the Kalamazoo Wiffleball League took the award for 2010. But a recent debate seems to question that part of HRL's claim to fame. But that wasn't all - Kalamazoo's commissioner (Brian Meyers) wrote an article "calling-out" the HRL. The article accused the league of slipping and that the KWL could be the next league to take the crown as the best league in the country. And he could be right! But the HRL seems to have taken the debate and article to heart and it seems that they're going to be bringing their A-game for 2011. Why should you not count the HRL out? This video is hot off the press, uploaded to Youtube within the past 24 hours. The HRL had some impressive videos back in the day and it looks as if they could be getting back into the game. But do they have the goods to keep it up in 2011? Better question: can the KWL continue to keep the HRL at bay and continue to make a run at taking the crown? This is just another reason Wiffle in 2011 is going to be so good!