by: Mike White
Soon the time will come for the NWLA's National Tournament. The best teams in Wiffle® ball will be playing to see who indeed has the best league, players-wise. There are many good teams out there, and if you asked someone who will win it all, you are going to get different answers. One thing, however, that seems to be a shared feeling by most, is it won't be the BWBL's S.H.I.T.. In fact, some have even ranked S.H.I.T. as the worst team in the tournament, with everyone ranking them in the lower end of the tourney teams. Looking at the regionals, outside looking in, it is very easy to see why. But, for those who were at the BWBL Regional, you know you can’t base the ratings off just looking at numbers and the scores.
The BWBL Regional was, by far, the toughest regional - with three teams that have reasonable odds to win it all. When taking a look at the batting numbers, you must take into account that Diamond City Park, is not a hitter-friendly park at all. It is, without a doubt, the best looking field this tournament can offer, however. The umpiring was atrocious at times, but I’m willing to say that the other regionals had problems there, too. Oh, and the pitching was top-notch. With team’s third and fourth pitchers better than some of the teams from other regionals first and second pitchers. Due to some bad luck and missed calls, BWBL could have gone 1-1-2, even possibly 2-1-1, but that isn’t the way the chips fell .
We (BWBL) played like our name states, shit. But, with us playing as bad as we did, we hung with all the teams in our regional but one (if our starting pitcher played like he gave a shit, we would have played them well as well). As stated before, if not for bad luck and/or calls, we would have fared much better than we did. That being said, we still have a lot to prove to other leagues and their laughable rankings if we want to show that we belong with the big boys.
We can't play like we did in regionals, that much is a given. If we want to turn some heads, we need to play to our abilities. As I said in a previous article, due to tragedy, we are a more focused team with one goal. We will represent our league with honor and pride. As long as we don't go back into our selfish or timid ways, we will win games. How many ... who knows?
We have disadvantaged ourselves for this tournament. For the most part, we don’t use the yellowstick and our strike zone isn't the same measurements. The strike zone was a huge problem for some of our guys to get used to. They weren’t used to that many low strikes, or as they are called in baseball - balls. They started getting a little used to it, just a bit too late. We have made some adjustments to help remedy that problem. Our pitching will be better this time around - for our one pitcher should actually be caring this time around, although why he didn't in the first place is anybody's guess.
I’m not going to sit here and say we have a great chance to win this whole tournament. I’m not going to sit here and say we can't win this whole tournament. I will, however, say the truth. There are a lot of funny things that can happen in the game of Wiffle® ball. There are David and Goliath match-ups all the time in sports. Sometimes David wins, but most of the time Goliath wins. We know we are a long shot. We know we are David going into this tournament. But, we know we are definitely not the worst team in this tournament, as most seem to believe. We weren't a team, in the truest sense of the word, heading into the regionals. We are a team now, and together we are strong.
Yes, we are David, but this David has a chip on its shoulder, and has nothing to lose - and that, my friends, is a dangerous thing. One thing is for sure - any team that plays us will find out that we are not a joke and we are not to be taken lightly. We may be heading into the nationals as David, but this David … plans on leaving a Goliath.
Soon the time will come for the NWLA's National Tournament. The best teams in Wiffle® ball will be playing to see who indeed has the best league, players-wise. There are many good teams out there, and if you asked someone who will win it all, you are going to get different answers. One thing, however, that seems to be a shared feeling by most, is it won't be the BWBL's S.H.I.T.. In fact, some have even ranked S.H.I.T. as the worst team in the tournament, with everyone ranking them in the lower end of the tourney teams. Looking at the regionals, outside looking in, it is very easy to see why. But, for those who were at the BWBL Regional, you know you can’t base the ratings off just looking at numbers and the scores.
The BWBL Regional was, by far, the toughest regional - with three teams that have reasonable odds to win it all. When taking a look at the batting numbers, you must take into account that Diamond City Park, is not a hitter-friendly park at all. It is, without a doubt, the best looking field this tournament can offer, however. The umpiring was atrocious at times, but I’m willing to say that the other regionals had problems there, too. Oh, and the pitching was top-notch. With team’s third and fourth pitchers better than some of the teams from other regionals first and second pitchers. Due to some bad luck and missed calls, BWBL could have gone 1-1-2, even possibly 2-1-1, but that isn’t the way the chips fell .
We (BWBL) played like our name states, shit. But, with us playing as bad as we did, we hung with all the teams in our regional but one (if our starting pitcher played like he gave a shit, we would have played them well as well). As stated before, if not for bad luck and/or calls, we would have fared much better than we did. That being said, we still have a lot to prove to other leagues and their laughable rankings if we want to show that we belong with the big boys.
We can't play like we did in regionals, that much is a given. If we want to turn some heads, we need to play to our abilities. As I said in a previous article, due to tragedy, we are a more focused team with one goal. We will represent our league with honor and pride. As long as we don't go back into our selfish or timid ways, we will win games. How many ... who knows?
We have disadvantaged ourselves for this tournament. For the most part, we don’t use the yellowstick and our strike zone isn't the same measurements. The strike zone was a huge problem for some of our guys to get used to. They weren’t used to that many low strikes, or as they are called in baseball - balls. They started getting a little used to it, just a bit too late. We have made some adjustments to help remedy that problem. Our pitching will be better this time around - for our one pitcher should actually be caring this time around, although why he didn't in the first place is anybody's guess.
I’m not going to sit here and say we have a great chance to win this whole tournament. I’m not going to sit here and say we can't win this whole tournament. I will, however, say the truth. There are a lot of funny things that can happen in the game of Wiffle® ball. There are David and Goliath match-ups all the time in sports. Sometimes David wins, but most of the time Goliath wins. We know we are a long shot. We know we are David going into this tournament. But, we know we are definitely not the worst team in this tournament, as most seem to believe. We weren't a team, in the truest sense of the word, heading into the regionals. We are a team now, and together we are strong.
Yes, we are David, but this David has a chip on its shoulder, and has nothing to lose - and that, my friends, is a dangerous thing. One thing is for sure - any team that plays us will find out that we are not a joke and we are not to be taken lightly. We may be heading into the nationals as David, but this David … plans on leaving a Goliath.