Big League WIFFLE Ball News

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Silver- Absolute Gunners
Bronze- Lou’s Diamonds

Pics and Video coming soon…

by Mack Dreyfuss

In the film For Love of the Game, the phrase “Clear the mechanism” is used by Billy Chapel, an aging professional baseball pitcher played by Kevin Costner. His entire life is in chaos. His mercurial girlfriend of four years is leaving him. In a profit-over-decency mentality, his team’s new owners are trading him. His aging body aches against the strain of the job he loves.

Like so many of us who work for a living, he goes to work anyway. Because that is what you do. You keep going.

Chapel’s physical, emotional, and spiritual resources are bleeding out when he takes the mound, but it doesn’t matter. He feels the familiar hide of the baseball in his hand, the cleats dig into the dirt, the light fills the stadium, the sounds of the ballpark fill his ears, and the smell of the grass fills his nostrils. The familiar meditative glory of a simple mastered work disciplines the lonely man from pain to perspective as the opposing team, the opposing fans, and a foreign city threaten to drive him shamefully from the tiny plate on a tiny mound of dirt, in the center of their stadium.

The love of the game clots the bleeding and balms his wounds. He orders his mind to “Clear the mechanism” and attacks.

His mind reels through the events of his life between pitches in the meditative brilliance of the game. Each opponent is silenced with ground outs, fly outs, and strike outs. Late in the game, even the opposing crowd sheds their animosity and reverently watches as Chapel approaches a perfect game.

When the final pitch is thrown, Chapel has done the imaginable which is so often unattainable. With tenacity, perseverance, and discipline, he ends his career on his own terms and gains order, perspective, and peace. A spiritual working man’s humble mentality slaughtered the lion of chaos in the center of the stadium for all to see including his own ego, his girlfriend, his teammates, his team’s profiteering owners, his opponents, and the opposing mob of fans. It is a gift from Reality that can’t be pillaged, a gift to a tiny man that now sealed into history, could not be taken away.

It is often in the laying low that the greatest glories are unleashed. This blog, which I call, Clear the Mechanism, will be a celebration of these concepts.

For more from Mack Dreyfuss, check out www.themackdreyfusslounge.com

Field Assignments for Connecticut State Nutmeg Games will be posted tomorrow 21July2010.

So in the mean time stare at this picture:

We figured out what to do with those empty WIFFLE Ball cartons, we realized you can reuse them as a sleeve for your hot cup of coffee.  All you need to do is fold the bottom of the cardboard on the inside, next you slide it up from the bottom of the cup of your steaming cup of Joe and wallah!

This picture was taken at Common Grounds Coffee Shop in Branford, CT… near Big League’s Headquarters.

The 7th annual Britton John Broatch Memorial Wiffle Tournament was held on July 10, 2010 in Milford, CT. To learn more about Connecticut’s largest Wiffle tournament, please visit www.thebjbtournament.com

This is one of our favorite tournaments to play in and we always look forward to hanging out with the Broatch Family.  Once again Doom secured the top spot.

Erik Anderson went pro with this tattoo! The Rhode Island native captains a bunch of wiffleball teams.

The Arthritis Foundation will be hosting their “Strike Out Arthritis” WIFFLE Ball Series that will take place on Saturday, June 26, 2010 at The Fessenden School in Newton, MA. The round-robin tournament is a competition for Wifflers, who want to team up to have fun, win prizes, bid on great auction items and help support their community. All participants must be 18 years or older.

To register or for more information, visit www.strikeoutarthritis.org or contact Chris Bartlett at the Arthritis Foundation at 1-800-766-9449 ext. 120 or afwiffleball@yahoo.com

We give this kid an A for effort, and an A for his love of wiffle. However, we have to give him a D for camera work. Kind of got dizzy and light-headed after watching it a few times. Very creative and low budget scoreboard, backstop and strikezone. Highlights: the Monster and the signage.