“Isn’t it amazing,” says Tim Dean as he looks out on the softball field in Cedar Park, Texas.
It really is. Where do you get the opportunity to see men, women, kids of all ages competing on the same field, with an equal opportunity to claim a victory? Where do former MLB outfielders go toe to toe against former college football standouts?
On the wiffle ball field. The sport has captured the attention of the nation, more so during the Covid-19 pandemic than any other time in the sport’s history.
That is no more evident that when you look out on the softball field at Brushy Creek Sports Park, where five fields are set up and 15 teams compete each Wednesday night in the fall league. In fact, it is the second largest wiffle ball league in the country. Dean is largely responsible for that, as he promoted the sport, and brought it to Cedar Park at a time when most thought wiffle ball was just a backyard sport played amongst families with no real rules or competitiveness involved.
“I’ve really enjoyed the diversity in the types of players we’ve had playing on Wednesday nights,” says Dean, who brought the sport to Cedar Park 20 years ago. “
In a way, that is how it started, with wiffle ball as a backyard game, but the landscape of the sports has largely changed. As the story goes, David Mullany of Fairfield, Connecticut created the first wiffle ball in 1953 for his 12 year old son and his friends to be able to play a form of baseball with a small number of players and in a small space. The name originated from the slang term for a strikeout; a “wiff”. The name stuck and slowly but surely it evolved into more than just a backyard sport.
Now, the passion, enjoyment and fun first enjoyed in backyards across America can still be seen, but rules have been written, leagues have been founded, and it has caught on with people of all ages joining in on the competition. Of course, there is also a much larger following now than in the sport’s early days.
In fact, this weekend, an actual pro baseball stadium will be used to hold one of the biggest tournaments ever contested. Set to be played over the course of two days, 40 teams will be in attendance at PeoplesBank Park for the United WiffleBall national championship. The ballpark, located in York, Pennsylvania, seats 5,200 fans and is known for the variety of backdrops for hitters. This tournament is unique. United Wiffleball was formed just this year, in order to create an opportunity to hold a national championship, even when Fastplastic had cancelled all of its tournaments due to Covid-19. Dean will be running this tourney and expects big things out of it. After all, it is not often that you can get teams from 20-plus states together for one tournament, with the best of the best ready to duke it out over two days of top-tier wiffle ball.
One team that Dean is particularly excited to see play is the Midwest Monstars, a squad comprised of players from different circuits across the midwestern United States. All indications are pointing to this being an opportunity for them to make a statement, especially over the east-coast teams. A fierce rivalry exists amongst the midwest and east coast ballclubs, as they each play differing styles of the sport.
“They are a mix bag of players from the midwest,” Dean said of the Monstars. “The leagues and tournaments in the midwest [which often draw 80 or more teams] play a different style. They run bases. They pitch with a clean ball, meaning no scuff marks. They also use the skinny yellow bats. So with that said, this ought to be a cake walk for them. It should be an easy adjustment for them.”
One reason for this huge ascension in the sport across the country, in leagues ranging from Texas to Michigan to Virginia and back over to California, has been Covid-19. With so many people looking for things to do in a summer in which almost everything was cancelled, wiffle ball tournaments like those held in Cedar Park began to take root. Existing tournaments and leagues skyrocketed in the numbers of entries and new tournaments and leagues caught on. When you think about it, it makes sense. With just three players on the field at a time, no baserunning involved (a single is past the white line which represents the infield, a double is when a ball hits the ground and then hits the fence, a triple when a ball hits the fence in midair, and a home run when the ball is hit over the fence) and the fields are small, typically between 75-and 100 feet from home plate, so finding a big enough place to contest a game is not a challenge. Plus, rules are simple and mirror that of baseball. As Dean puts it, “people were itching to get out and do something.”
“What happened was you had the postponement of tournaments throughout the spring and early summer and these guys weren’t able to play in tournaments until late June or the first of July,” said Dean. “It magnified the amount of teams that were playing. In Texas, people were itching to get out and do something. We had three tournaments cancelled, and that really made a big difference. People were tired, they wanted to get out and do something. Wiffle ball can really be a social distancing sport. You don’t need to tag anybody, there is no catcher and you can social distance from other teams and even your own team if you choose to do so. So it was a natural sport for a time with Covid-restrictions, and it worked out really well.”
That is an understatement. The popularity of wiffle ball has skyrocketed. In Texas alone, at least three leagues started this year, and perhaps more by the end of 2020. Covid-19 has resulted in a time of uncertainty, restrictions and unrest, but ultimately, wiffle ball benefited. And it will only continue to grow in notoriety as word of the sport is spread around and people see the sport in action.
If you’d like to find out more about this sport which is catching on across the nation, and perhaps find a place to play check out these great links:
United Wiffleball: https://www.unitedwiffleball.com/
Cedar Park Wiffleball: https://www.teamsideline.com/sites/cedarpark/content/16004/Wiffle-Ball
Videos from one of the greatest pitchers in Wiffle ball history: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTzIRFmsXkv3voUWwsv3eVw
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