No. 176 - Wiffleball

I was very busy today. Half the day slipped by quickly and I knew the second half was going to pass just as fast. So I phoned my dad and asked him to teach me something new. He did me one better. He gave me a great idea!

Across the street from the house I grew up in was a playground. Every night in the summer after dinner (and after homework!) we played wiffleball. My dad was always the designated pitcher. All the neighborhood kids played. They were fairly competitive and really fun.

My dad suggested that I learn something new about wiffleball.

For anyone not familiar, wiffleball is a variation of baseball played on a much smaller field. The game is played using a light-weight, rubbery, plastic ball and a long, plastic (typically yellow) bat.

I learned that the wiffleball was invented in 1953 by a down-on-his luck shoe polish salesman and his 13-year-old son using spare perfume packaging. David Mullany of Fairfield, Connecticut designed the ball so that it would curve easily for his son. Because of the way the ball is constructed, it allows pitchers to throw a tremendous variety of curve-balls. It was named when his son and his friends would refer to a strikeout as a "whiff." It was a popular game in the backyard and at picnics in the 1960s and 1970s. A few websites say that starting in the 1980s, the game exploded into an organized sport, with many successful sports leagues and tournaments now played across the United States.

I don't recall seeing a wiffleball game being played anywhere in many, many years...perhaps dating back to the 1980s.