Wicked Cow Entertainment Reps Wiffle, Inc.
Just shy of two years ago, Jared and I had met with Michael Hermann and Perrie Brisken of Wicked Cow Entertainment, at their office headquartered in New York City. WCE is a licensing and branding agency that represents the likes of Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls and Porn Star Jenna Jameson.
Jared and I were excited to see the vision WCE had for the Wiffle Brand. Michael and Perrie are amazing individuals with a keen eye for the aesthetic. Since 2007, we kept in touch with WCE, providing vast amounts of knowledge, time and energy to help them understand the brand and culture. This was done on good faith. We even introduced them to Former New York Yankee All-Star, Jim Bouton… who’s the inventor of Big League Chew Gum and author of the famous book Ball Four. Jim is now one of Wicked’s clients.
Now fast forward to last week, 10SEP09 and WCE was requesting that Jared and I do an interview for a book Michael was writing on Wiffle. Many others in the community were contacted to help provide content for this project as well. To this date WCE has only produced a silk-screen bat and ball combo for the MLB All-Star Festivities, not very impressive but it’s a great start after having Wiffle, Inc. on retainer for 3 years.
Long story short, Jared and I politely declined their invitation for the book interview. Attached below is the voicemail response from Michael Hermann the following morning.
Despite the threatening nature of this voicemail… we are extremely flattered! To have someone this upset could only mean one thing, we are true pioneers of the game and true to the brand.
The David Mullany Story ended in 1953 when the Wiffle Ball was invented. Mike Alessie of WiffleUp!, Billy Owens/Bruce Chrystie of Fastplastic, Mike Palinczar, New Jersey Wiffle Ball, Adam Trotta the Captain of Doom, Brett Bevelacqua of HMP Films, Lou Levesque of GSWL the players and enthusiasts I did not list and yours truly… Nick Benas and Jared Verrillo of Big League Wiffle Ball…We Own The Culture.
FYI It was actually Bruce Chrystie who got Fast Plastic off the ground.
Comment by Jon - Lawn Boys — September 14, 2009 @ 2:29 pm
Wow Nick. Kudos to you for outing this jerk. I continue to be astonished by people who think they can hide behind bad behavior as a business tactic and think they won’t get found out. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out. Wonder if he escalate his threats or apologize for being a first class moron. Either way - you’ve threatened him which means you and Jared do own the culture. YAY for you.
Comment by Sarah Robinson — September 14, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
Thanks Jon! I fixed it.
Comment by Nick Benas — September 14, 2009 @ 6:58 pm
FYI it was actually bill and bruce who got fp off the ground. bruce ran things in the east while bill founded the game from nearly nothing in the west. get facts straight
Comment by Tommy — September 14, 2009 @ 7:43 pm
Wicked Losers!
Comment by decaf — September 14, 2009 @ 9:47 pm
Chill Tommy (Loco?) I never implied that Billy had nothing to do with it, I just wanted to get Bruce his credit. See you in Texas.
Comment by Jon - Lawn Boys — September 14, 2009 @ 10:01 pm
Wow looking back at what I first posted kind of did imply that Billy had nothing to do with it. Not my intention. Point taken.. and once again, see you in Texas!
Comment by Jon - Lawn Boys — September 14, 2009 @ 10:15 pm
Nick,
It is too bad that people go to this level. You would think they would want to work together and do things on the up and up in such a small community.
I wrote a book on Wiffle which was documented on Yard Ball. I did it on my own though.
Tom
Comment by Little Ebbets — September 15, 2009 @ 1:04 pm
Wow Jared.
It sounds like this guy is full of crap but if Wiffle decided to penalize you, I am sure that they would not be pleased about their family friendly product being associated with a porn star in any way. Dirty little secret?
Comment by jlove — September 15, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
To clarify… he’s being a jerk because you didn’t want to participate in his book project??? If so… wow… talk about getting into a huff, taking your ball and going home.
Comment by Jodie — September 16, 2009 @ 12:34 pm
What a slimy D Bag! who does he think he is messing with Nick–Big Mistake
Comment by Mike Smith — September 16, 2009 @ 11:06 pm
Wiki page on wiffleball has been severely chopped in the past month… wonder who is in charge of that.
Comment by Daryl — January 2, 2010 @ 2:48 pm
Interesting isn’t it…
Comment by admin — January 2, 2010 @ 4:57 pm