Big League WIFFLE Ball News

Okay, let’s make this clear at the outset:  I am not here to bash Wifflerock, although there are many in the WIFFLE community that do.  I don’t know the inner workings of their tournament.  I will not publish conjecture and I will not make unsubstantiated conclusions.

That said, I just paid $100 to sign up for Wifflerock.  Every year, I tell myself I won’t, and then every year I do.

Wifflerock is one of the largest tournaments in New England.  Their website boasts that they have held tournaments of close to 200 teams.  So why is it that Wifflerock can draw 180 teams and BLWB can’t?  I think we need to seriously examine that issue if we are going to grow this format, because, frankly, the value for the money isn’t there at Wifflerock.  It has to be the marketing.

I hate it when people rip the tournaments for not returning enough prize money.  Most of the time, the comments don’t account for field costs, insurance and other hidden costs associated with holding a tournament.   But the payout structure at Wifflerock is ridiculous by any standards.  Let’s say they get 180 teams averaging $100 per team.  That means $18,000 in entry fees.  While some text on the Wifflerock homepage states, “$2,000 in prize money aren’t bad either,” unless we value a box of Twinkies at $100, the actualy number is closer to $1,900.  That means that about 10.5% of the entry fees are returned to the players in prize money, resulting in a house hold of 89.5%.  A slot machine in Vegas is illegal if it has a hold of more than 17%.  And this is a tournament with multiple sponsors.  I assume that these sponsors pick up some or all of the costs of holding and advertising the tournament.

It should be noted that the website claims that some money raised by the tournament goes to charity, and I think that is wonderful.  Perhaps a majority of the $16,000 in profit goes to charity.  If that is the case, I congratulate those who run Wifflerock for their service to the community.  However, I would also recommend that if they are raising $16,000 or more for charity every year they should make that point clear on their website to eliminate some of the confusion in the community regarding where all of this extra money goes.

So Wifflerock returns 10.5% in prize money.  NEWA is regularly bashed for returning a number much higher than that, and BLWB leads the region, often returning 80%, 90% and even on occasion more than 100% of the money to the players.  Yet people rush in droves to play Wifflerock while BLWB is still struggling to grow.  Why?  The organizers of Wifflerock do a competent job, but, frankly, they run one tournament a year and they are not nearly as adept at keeping the player happy as are Euro J-Rod and Benas.  Moreover, the format is designed to get games completed as quickly as possible, not to identify the best WIFFLE ball player/team (although the year Dallas won as a one-man team they probably did both).  Tiebreakers are arbitrary and confusing.  Teams advancing to elimination play are required to return on sunday morning for what might amount to one game.

Considering the size of Wifflerock and their realtive inexperience (one tournament a year), the organizers do a passable job.  However, the tournament offers horrible value from a financial perspective, and the format is certainly less than ideal.  So I ask again, why do they draw 180 teams while other more player-friendly tournaments struggle?  Clearly they are capturing the casual WIFFLE ball player at an impressive rate.  It absolutely has to be the advertising, because there is simply no other explanation.

The organizers of other formats like BLWB need to figure out what the folks at Wifflerock are doing and copy it.  If they can draw 180 teams, imagine how many BLWB could draw with the same advertising, offering players free drinks, doughnuts, sandwiches, shirts, calendars and 80+% return in prize money.  The choice between BLWB and Wifflerock should be clear.  If they continue to draw better than BLWB and other formats, it can only be because they are playing the advertising game more intelligently.

And before I get inundated with support emails for Wifflerock, I want to make it absolutely clear that I don’t know what they do with the money, and, indeed, all of it might go to charity as far as I know.  My only motivation was to draw a comparison between the different formats and examine their ability to draw record crowds.

On a side note, and by way of follow-up on my last article, I would like to congratulate the Hustlers on their first Goldenstick victory last Sunday.  In fact, the boys were 1 run away from going 2-1 on the day.  After the jamboree experience, I was expecting it to take weeks to get a victory.  I now have hope that we might not humilate ourselves too badly.

For those playing Wifflerock this weekend (and clearly most of you are), good luck.  For those who are playing Wifflerock and haven’t yet tried BLWB, give it a shot.  You will be amazed by the difference.

It was only 3 short years ago that the Diamonds made their debut on the WIFFLE scene in Haverhill, MA.  Having dominated our pick-up game for several seasons, we were thrilled to discover an actual WIFFLE tournament with prize money.  Now we wouldn’t have to force our friends to play every weekend.  We could get some recognition and even a little cash.  Easy money.

But there was a slight problem.  We overestimated our ability a little bit.  We also grossly underestimated the quality of play one might expect at a tournament.  We had no idea that there were so many WIFFLE freaks out there spending countless hours mastering the movements of a ball that sometimes seems to defy the ordinary laws of physics.  Our first ever playoff game was against WAYBACK, a solid team.  It lasted all of 6 minutes and we were off to the car wondering how the hell we could lose 10-0 so fast.  We also wondered how they made the ball do what they made it do.

Well, fast forward a few years and we can now make the ball do a few things, and we can even hit it when it is doing some funny things.  In fact, with wins over most of the top teams out there at one time or another, a couple of tournament wins and several finals, we could probably even be considered a good team at this point.  Not a great one, but a good one.  I think that’s fair.

Some of our best moments have come while playing with Andy Grady of the Whitey Whackers.  When he needed a team for the Goldenstick prospect division, we jumped right in.  Now, we knew that the level of play there was pretty good, and we heard the stories about this guy who can throw 90 MPH and this other guy who hit 3 HRs in one game with the bat in his mouth.  We knew those guys could play, but we figured we could jump right in and compete in this elite fast-pitch league.  After all we play many of those guys on Saturdays, and we have had more success than failure recently in medium pitch tournaments.

Well, it would seem that we were a bit unrealistic once again.  Much like that first tournament 3 years ago, our first Goldenstick experience did not work out well at all.  We didn’t hit much.  We didn’t pitch at all.  We dropped fly balls.  We booted grounders.  We forgot the rules.  By any reasonable standard, it was a horrific disaster.  But you know what?  I left that place with a big grin on my face.

It was really fun to step in there against a guy who was throwing so hard that it actually hurt to get hit by the ball.  It was fun to learn the new and complicated rules.  It was fun to play against incredible athletes with no restrictions on their play.  I left that field 100 times more impressed with many players than I was before.  I have a new respect for what they can do.   Sure, there were a few too many bare chests and you could actually taste the combination of testosterone and ego in the air, but man was it fun.

We went 0-4-1 on the day.  It has been a very long time since we played 5 games without winning one.  Were we a bit humiliated at times?  Absolutely.  Were we disappointed that we didn‘t perform better?  Sure.  Are we discouraged?  Absolutely not.  If we weren’t willing to take a beating and then sign back up to take another beating in another town we never would have made it this far.  Everyone can get excited about winning a tournament and a trophy and some cash.  But every weekend there is one winner and dozens of losers.  Most of the teams that play every week don’t win that many tournaments.  What keeps teams like them (and us) coming back?  I think that what we really love is a challenge to attack.  Climbing the mountain from the bottom is fun and rewarding.  It gives you a true appreciation of each step that you take as a team and as an individual.

And that is the beauty of WIFFLE ball.  It is accessible to everyone.  If you have the willingness to learn, work hard and take the occasional beating, there is not much to stop you from succeeding.  I could bust my ass for 10 years and I couldn’t play middle linebacker for the Patriots.  It just isn’t in my DNA.  But I can, and have, experienced some great WIFFLE success, even on 2 horrible knees.  We can all experience the sense of accomplishment that comes from working our way from pathetic to respectable to successful.

I write this because every week I see a few new teams at the tournaments.  Most of them get hammered.  Most of them don’t come back.  Maybe they think that there is no way they can get as good as the teams that have been doing this for years.  We were tempted to think that too, and now as I look back I am very happy that we didn’t take that route.  The inexperienced teams should set modest goals and keep working, and I am positive that they will see improvement every week.  Nobody ever got a feeling of accomplishment by virtue of backing down from a challenge.   It may be cliche, but it is true that things worth having are things worth working for.

Believe me when I tell you that if my team can work itself up the ranks, so can yours.  And in my opinion, it is a very worthwhile pursuit.   Handling disappointment, working toward a goal, winning with class, losing with class and confronting and overcoming obstacles are just a few of the things one can learn from this game, and I for one am going to keep learning.

As for Goldenstick…  Those guys are better at that game than I am right now, but maybe I was getting too comfortable with the game anyway.  I am excited to start at the bottom again and work my way up.  I am willing to take a few welts and I know my teammates are willing to swallow a few losses, because I know that we will have our eyes wide open just like we did the first time.  We will see what they do and how they do it.  And hopefully, I will be writing 3 years from now about the first time we played, how terrible we were, and how far we have come since then.  Whether we become Goldenstick champions or not, I am certain that the journey will be satisfying and worthwhile.  I hope that some of the teams that have had a rough first experience with BLWB will feel the same way.   Coming out to BLWB Manchester this weekend with only a $10 entry fee is a great way to keep climbing the ladder.

For me, Goldenstick could never replace the Saturday tournaments.  I love the medium-pitch tournaments that create a more relaxed atmosphere and allow more diverse teams to be competitive.  But I feel like I am going to learn to love the fast pitch game as well, which features great players with nothing holding them back from competing to the best of their abilities.  In my view, there is plenty of room for both in the WIFFLE world.  After all, the weekend has 2 days, doesn’t it?

How does that song go?

Nobody said it was easy……..

I’m going back to the start.

Sounds like fun to me.

The rumor coming out of Wiffle-Up Hopkinton was that the veteran squad, Yo Ho HO and a Bottle of Rum called for the radar gun to detect illegal pitch speed in the playoffs.

In  this age of selfish competition and win-at-all-costs mentality, it showed incredible sportsmanship for the members of Yo Ho to finally step up themselves to stop Russ, their own pitcher, from throwing so freaking hard.  Having heard the complaints that have mounted over the years, Yo Ho Ho stood up and did the right thing, caring more about the integrity of the game than the outcome.  In so doing, their chances at the sportsmanship award have increased almost as much as Russ’ ERA now that he has to throw 38 MPH.