Backyard League in PA is Thinking Big

Kevin Sickle of Wilkes-Barre, PA could possible receive a $10,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project. If Sickle gets the grant he will get a piece of land and build a wiffleball field that can host league games and charity tournaments. There's no reason NOT to believe that he'll do this as he's done charitable tournaments before for Sears' Heroes at Home and the Colleen Shea Foundation. Sickle has overseen 8 seasons for his league, Backyard Wiffle Ball League and would become a fixture in the sport in a hurry if he receives the honor of getting the grant. Sickle can't get this funding on his own. There's a voting system on the refresh project site and the top ideas get the money. Currently, Sickle's idea is in 12th place in the $10,000 tier - four places lower than a few days ago. Help this guy out by VOTING for his idea and watch another extraordinary wiffle event unfold.

WiffleATL Turning Over A New Leaf

Last spring I expressed how skeptical I was that WiffleATL would updated their website. They're notorious for having a sleek website with outdated information - which is a shame. 2011 saw more updates from them than I can recall in 2010. And for that, I think congratulations are in order. But I've noticed that the homepage of the website never featured the end of the playoffs or anything like that. So I prowled their messageboard and it didn't take long to find out that someone from the league has built a blogger website for the league and it appears that it could possibly replace the current website. Perhaps relieving the burden of working on the design of the site will be exactly what the league's webmaster needs to update the site more often. Leagues using blogger can have really nice sites too (such as Wiffle in Southeast Michigan) so it's not like WiffleATL is settling for less.

Golden Stick Experiences Website Woes

 

This comes as no surprise to Golden Stick followers, but the GSWL website has been hacked and Lou Levesque has temporarily shut down the site until the problem is resolved. Although the threat to visitors is gone, others may have not been so lucky as facebook information was required to get to the messageboard and eventually to view the site at all. Levesque does not know the origin of the problem. The site could take some time to bounce back, depending on the severity of the hack. But if there's any league that can bounce back quickly it's GSWL. This happens only days before the big announcement of a major format change that is expected some time this week.

Wiff Junkies Indoor Tournament In 9 Days

If you visit the Tournament Tracker page on this blog you'll quickly notice that there were nearly 100 tournaments this year and few stand out. You'll also notice that the frequency of tournaments dramatically drops after late August or early September. So when a promising winter tournament in New England appears I feel I must point it out. Scotty "Wiffs" Martell (from Golden Stick) emailed me about such a tournament. He's hosting a tournament in N. Smithfield, Rhode Island on December 17. It's not only an indoor tournament, which is rare, but it's a tournament that takes place during the middle of the night - the only tournament to do that this year (that I'm aware of). It starts at 10 p.m. and, depending on the amount of teams, will surely continue well past the time when the rooster crows.

I should also mention that Martell runs a site that some of you may have heard of, Wiff Junkies. The site is similar to this one, a blog that sports an online magazine. From what I can tell, all (or most) of the articles appear to have been written by Martell. Quite impressive if you ask me - that's quite a load. The things I have previously mentioned is where the similarities between Wiffler's Digest and Wiff Junkies end. Wiff Junkies has a primary focus on GSWL/GSTC whereas Wiffler's Digest focuses more on backyard/recreational leagues. There's nothing wrong with that and readers from both magazines could benefit from reading what the other end of the spectrum is talking about...see how the other half lives, if you will. But there is no animosity between the two projects as Martell appears to show respect to the Digest in the Editor's Note from the first issue. So if you want to know a little more about GSWL or just want some more wiffle reading material check them out.

The Digest Is Now Smartphone Friendly

 

I've been reading the site visitor statistics lately and noticed that 15% of our readers this past month visited the site using the Android network, iPhone, iPad, and various other wireless devices. When I visited this website using my smartphone I noticed that that it's troublesome to zoom in to tap any of the links and took away from any enjoyment the site could bring to potential visitors. The solution: now when you visit the digest on your smartphone you should see the mobile friendly version of the site (preview in the image above). Think of it as a Christmas gift from Wiffler's Digest. Enjoy.