Wild about wiffle ball
Austin Berger of the G.O.A.T.S tries to avoid being tagged out before reaching home plate by Nate Morris, head coach of Nate Dawg & Boys, during a regular-season Wiff is Life League wiffle-ball game at North Strabane Township Park.
Jake Davey of the Mariners throws a pitch during wiffle-ball practice.
Hunter Behling of the Morning Woodsman slams a home run over the fence off Jared Beach of the G.O.A.T.S.
Tommy James, right, head coach of the Team, and teammate Jake Trainor walk off the field after a wiffle-ball game.
Eddie Cottrill of the 3 Amigos, foreground, rests on the sidelines after hitting six home runs in one of his best games of the season. Also pictured is Connor Coleman of the Marlins.
Players take pride in taping up their plastic wiffle-ball bats.
CANONSBURG – Eddie Cottrill was just a few steps away from first base when he slowed down, threw up his arms and shouted, “I’m rethinking my life right now!”
Why would he say such a thing?
“He caught the ball. I can’t have that happen,” Cottrill later explained.
Cottrill is among the 50-plus students from Canon-McMillan School District who play in the Wiff is Life League, an organized wiffle-ball league operated by Canonsburg area teens for Canonsburg area teens.
Last year, the league had eight teams. This year, the league expanded to 10 teams, as this popular pastime of the 1960s continues to gain momemtum throughout the United States.
Jake Davey, a junior at Canon-McMillan who, along with junior Mike Graziani, founded the league last year, said the teens play for the fun of it, although there is no denying they have a competitive spirit as well. Players hustle around the base paths and put as much muscle as possible behind each swing, each team striving for a chance to grab the top seeds in the league’s in-house playoffs, which are scheduled to culiminate today with the championship game at 8 p.m. at North Strabane Township Park.
At first glance, it may not appear as though Cottrill is taking the game seriously. A stocky kid who plays lineman for the Big Macs football team and is a shot putter for the track team, Cottrill plays wiffle ball in his bare feet.
But there is a very good reason for that.
“I’m more speedy in my bare feet. I get more traction,” he said. “I’m a big guy. Any advantage on the base path helps.”
Cottrill, who is a senior, played baseball until he was 7 years old. He then switched to soccer and swimming before settling on football and track – and wiffle ball.
“I like hanging out with my friends and playing,” said Cottrill, a member of the 3 Amigos in the league’s Western Division.
Despite his competitive nature, Cottrill also tries to provide some comic relief. As he closed in on home plate after smacking his second home run in as many at-bats, Cottrill stopped, touched home plate with his hand, then his foot.
“I want to make sure we have a good time, but win at the same time,” said Cottrill, who had just completed what he called one of his better games after he blasted six home runs.
Davey and Graziani took up wiffle ball several years ago, “building” a field in Graziani’s backyard.
“That got too small as we got older,” Davey said.
Now, the teens play at North Strabane Township Park, where they set up two wiffle-ball diamonds on the football field one day a week. Two games are played simultaneously, with each team playing three games throughout the day during the regular season.
The players also serve as umpires, managers and statisticians, and Davey maintains an elaborate league website, complete with rosters, statistics, schedules and free-agency acquisitions. The website also features a Game of the Week and Player of the Day, and each week, they livestream one game, then post the replay on YouTube.
“We’re just a bunch of kids, mostly baseball players, who like playing wiffle ball,” said Davey, who is a left fielder for the Big Macs baseball team. He also plays for the Mariners, who won the league’s Eastern Division with a 19-7 overall record and 14-2 conference mark.
Wiffle ball is a variation of baseball, and can be played indoors or outdoors. The game is played with a perforated, lightweight, resilient, plastic ball and a plastic bat.
Since the ball is light in weight, it can’t be thrown or hit any great distance. Altered rules are used by some tournaments throughout the United States, such as removing base running and assigning, instead, values to batted balls based on where they land in the field. Others even allow stealing and bunting.
Wiff is Life is a medium-pitch league in the summer; in the winter, the players switch to fast pitch. Games last five innings, with each team getting two outs per at-bat.
Teams in the league consist of four to six players. It is recommended that teams have two fielders and one pitcher on the field at all times.
Graziani said “there is plenty of strategy involved,” especially when the wind whips up at the field on the hill at North Strabane.
“You can use the wind to your advantage,” said Graziani, a catcher for the Big Macs who plays for the league’s Morning Woodsman, which won the Western Division and posted the best overall league record at 23-3.
According to Wiff is Life rules, to be eligible for the playoffs, players must play in at least 10 games for their current team. This year, 37 players were eligible for the playoffs.
“There’s not a lot of pressure on you like real baseball,” Graziani said.
For more information about the Wiff is Life League, including statistics, rosters and game recaps, visit http://leaguelineup.com/miscinfo.asp?menuid=33&url=wiffislife&sid=348699774.