by: Tom Hannon
On July 17, 2015, a dysfunctional Wiffle® ball team from a small city in Pennsylvania will embark on a 462-mile trip to Dublin, OH. Now when I say the word dysfunctional, I don’t mean that we don’t get along - I just mean we have tons of different personalities. We have the quiet ones in Daulton Shearer and Joey Dougher. The Pennsyltucky ones in Steve Dotzel and Jake Lukachik. A guy who thinks his real dad is GOD in Mike White and another who seems to only think about himself and was once called a narcissist, which leads to Tom Hannon. We can’t forget about the guy trying to fornicate his way to making himself a legit Wiffle® ball team with his super sperm - Matt Morgan. Oh, and lastly, the roster wouldn’t be complete without the addition of the token black guy - Mikey Holloway. This roster may not be the best we could put together for the BWBL, but I will guarantee this team will have more fun than some of the other teams the BWBL could have put forth.
After our regional and only taking away two points, things looked bleak for us and some of the team felt we wouldn’t get in for the national tournament. So like the dedicated Wiffle® ballers we are, we looked into many different outcomes of the HRL regional and figured we still had a fighting chance as long as the TBWL and HRL did their jobs and beat the teams they were projected to beat. Not only was I watching, but two to three others from our team as well as a member from the SRL watching what was going on. I messaged our manager, Kevin Sickle, and told him what was going on as it was happening and informed him that the TBWL had just beaten Shed by nine and we had a good chance as long as HRL didn’t take this game off. This led to talking around the league on what will HRL do since they are an automatic qualifier; will they throw in the towel or would they just let it go? I don’t recall what inning it was, but I recall the score at the time being 14-3 in favor of HRL. All we needed was three outs and we were in the national tournament. Then while watching, I saw things unraveling and Shed began their comeback to shatter the hopes of the BWBL sending a team to nationals. HRL just had to win by six, but they threw in the towel and gave up eight runs to win by three, sending us packing. I was furious with the outcome and drove down to our field to discuss things with Sickle and how I felt, and he too felt the way I did.
As we sat in the dugout talking, thoughts began to cross my mind on how I hoped a team would drop out of the tournament and that we get to play HRL in a tournament-defining game. The chances of a team dropping out were slim in my eyes, but within a week of our regional we got word that Shed couldn’t partake in the national event. Why, if you couldn’t attend the national tournament, play in a regional, I asked?
It was a pretty crazy roller coaster of events from the lowest of lows - losing Brandon Haydt to a knee injury against the SRL, to the highest of highs - getting the call to play in Ohio. Playing in the BWBL region will help this team out immensely, since Wiffle® ball is king on the East Coast. It originated on the East Coast and some of the best players play there in various Golden Stick tournaments. Now don’t get me wrong - there are some really good Wiffle® ball players coming to this tournament from other states, but our region as a whole had the most talent out of the four.
Looking ahead, we don’t mind what pool we end up in since we went through the ringer in regionals and we feel we will be ready for anyone that gets thrown our way. We are not proclaiming a championship or a top eight, (which is what we are striving for) but we won’t go down without a fight and will never throw in the towel like some of our comrades from another state (*cough cough* HRL).
On July 17, 2015, a dysfunctional Wiffle® ball team from a small city in Pennsylvania will embark on a 462-mile trip to Dublin, OH. Now when I say the word dysfunctional, I don’t mean that we don’t get along - I just mean we have tons of different personalities. We have the quiet ones in Daulton Shearer and Joey Dougher. The Pennsyltucky ones in Steve Dotzel and Jake Lukachik. A guy who thinks his real dad is GOD in Mike White and another who seems to only think about himself and was once called a narcissist, which leads to Tom Hannon. We can’t forget about the guy trying to fornicate his way to making himself a legit Wiffle® ball team with his super sperm - Matt Morgan. Oh, and lastly, the roster wouldn’t be complete without the addition of the token black guy - Mikey Holloway. This roster may not be the best we could put together for the BWBL, but I will guarantee this team will have more fun than some of the other teams the BWBL could have put forth.
After our regional and only taking away two points, things looked bleak for us and some of the team felt we wouldn’t get in for the national tournament. So like the dedicated Wiffle® ballers we are, we looked into many different outcomes of the HRL regional and figured we still had a fighting chance as long as the TBWL and HRL did their jobs and beat the teams they were projected to beat. Not only was I watching, but two to three others from our team as well as a member from the SRL watching what was going on. I messaged our manager, Kevin Sickle, and told him what was going on as it was happening and informed him that the TBWL had just beaten Shed by nine and we had a good chance as long as HRL didn’t take this game off. This led to talking around the league on what will HRL do since they are an automatic qualifier; will they throw in the towel or would they just let it go? I don’t recall what inning it was, but I recall the score at the time being 14-3 in favor of HRL. All we needed was three outs and we were in the national tournament. Then while watching, I saw things unraveling and Shed began their comeback to shatter the hopes of the BWBL sending a team to nationals. HRL just had to win by six, but they threw in the towel and gave up eight runs to win by three, sending us packing. I was furious with the outcome and drove down to our field to discuss things with Sickle and how I felt, and he too felt the way I did.
As we sat in the dugout talking, thoughts began to cross my mind on how I hoped a team would drop out of the tournament and that we get to play HRL in a tournament-defining game. The chances of a team dropping out were slim in my eyes, but within a week of our regional we got word that Shed couldn’t partake in the national event. Why, if you couldn’t attend the national tournament, play in a regional, I asked?
It was a pretty crazy roller coaster of events from the lowest of lows - losing Brandon Haydt to a knee injury against the SRL, to the highest of highs - getting the call to play in Ohio. Playing in the BWBL region will help this team out immensely, since Wiffle® ball is king on the East Coast. It originated on the East Coast and some of the best players play there in various Golden Stick tournaments. Now don’t get me wrong - there are some really good Wiffle® ball players coming to this tournament from other states, but our region as a whole had the most talent out of the four.
Looking ahead, we don’t mind what pool we end up in since we went through the ringer in regionals and we feel we will be ready for anyone that gets thrown our way. We are not proclaiming a championship or a top eight, (which is what we are striving for) but we won’t go down without a fight and will never throw in the towel like some of our comrades from another state (*cough cough* HRL).