Off Week (Su10): No Wiffleball, But Not Because of Earl
written by Commissioner Gallaway
Rumors have been going around since Weeks 2 and 3 (you might remember those as windy and rainy) that the Commissioner wouldn’t even cancel wiffleball for a hurricane.
The chance to test that theory is lost this weekend as Labor Day has already caused an off week in the summer schedule as Hurricane Earl plans to bring at least some wind and rain to the DC area this weekend.
Don’t give up hope though, hurricane season runs longer than the summer wiffleball season, so more chances remain.
Enjoy the break…four more weeks of wiffleball action remain this year.
Color Commentary - posted 2010-09-03 00:02 in News
Player of the Week (Su10): Week 4 Nominations
written by Commissioner Gallaway
Any time a pitcher gets nominated you know hitting wasn’t that great this week. Mr. Party could be poised to win two in a row, but we do have to let you vote anyway.
VOTES ARE DUE AT NOON ON FRIDAY
- Brian Ford (Scared Hitless) – Ford spent the first two weeks of the season hooking up with 65 year old roadies and was still sleeping one off causing him to miss most of Week 3. However, Week 4, he finally showed up. He pitched 16 scoreless innings, threw two one-hit gems, and struck out 17 batters, albeit against teams who can’t hit for dick. He’s moved on the league leaders list in OBA and ERA following those performances, and his team finally won two games they were supposed to win, something they hadn’t done without him.
- Pat Hook (Superman’s Wheelchair) – Hook becomes the third Wheelchair player nominated this season. He hit two dingers and drove in three runs, batting .500 and slugging 2.000 in the Wheelchair victory. They only had one game this week, which is why Hook sneaks onto the list with only four AB’s.
- Nicholas West (Mr. Party’s Waddle) – West gets his second nomination of the season and is a stone’s throw, (or rather 6 singles) away from a Batting Triple Crown. His three homers and five driven in led Waddle to upset the unbeaten NWO and cruise by the cellar dweller Varmints. For the weekend he hit .455 and slugged 1.273. He had as many strikeouts as he did homers, so he probably doesn’t like to run the bases. He only got 34% of the vote when he was nominated in Week 1, but at that time we all thought his numbers were a fluke.
About POTW: Each week three nominess will be announced for Player of the Week. The league, fans, and press will vote for the winner. Winners receive a very limited edition wiffleball keychain. For a history of the award, check out Player of the Week History.
Color Commentary - posted 2010-08-31 19:45 in POTW
Hit or Error?
written by TWIF
Brian Ford was perfect for 7.5 innings, but Scared Hitless couldn’t score a single run to give the hurler his 4th perfect game. Brandon Carter ripped a line drive to second in the 8th inning to bust up the perfecto. Hitless held on and ended up winning in the 10th.
A controversial scoring decision in the 8th followed a questionable managerial decision to put Kyle “Hands” O’Grady in the field when Matt Dreyfus had to leave the game early for a pap smear.
Scared Hitless skipper Pat Browning, perhaps to make up for the previously referred to managerial decision, has formally asked Commissioner Gallaway to review the play. The PWL policy is to review scoring decisions upon request, as long as they are submitted within one week of the game. The game was scored by Alex Filides.
At issue is whether the dropped ball by O’Grady would have been caught by an “outfielder at that position making ordinary effort.”
Thanks to our friends at YouTube you can watch the clip in 1080p.
Color Commentary [8] - posted 2010-08-30 22:16 in Blog
Complete Game Videos (Su10): Week 4
written by Commissioner Gallaway
Complete game videos from Week 4.
Read the full entry - Color Commentary [1] - posted 2010-08-29 21:46 in Videos
Week 4 (Su10): Parking Problem
written by Commissioner Gallaway
You have wiffleball on a nice day, rather than a hurricaine, and you have trouble parking in the lot. Close calls for a couple of teams straddling the 5 minute forfeit time, but their opponents took pity on them.
One of the two unbeaten teams got beaten…NWO drops one to powerhouse Mr. Party’s Waddle. Then loses their second to the Master Batters. That drops them to sitting in as the overall #3 seed with Scared Hitless improving to overall #2.
The first team was eliminated from a Division race today. The slumping Varmints have no chance to win the Central but are still, technically, in the running for the Wild Card.
Also, we’re still not sure who in the hell Nicholas West is, or why he’s leading the league in homers and RBI. Or why he plays for Mr. Party’s Waddle. If he stays within 6 singles of the Triple Crown after next week, we might be forced to find out.
Brian Ford had a bid for the 19th perfect game in league history (and his own 4th) through 7.5 innings, but his team just couldn’t score a run to close the deal for him. It was finally busted up by Brandon Carter. Last week, three pitchers took perfect games to the 5th inning before losing them.
- Scared Hitless beat Canvassers (4-0) [ box ]
- Scared Hitless beat Clubber Lang (1-0) 10 innings [ box ]
- The Gnats beat Canvassers (1-0) [ box ]
- Mr. Party’s Waddle at NWO (2-0) [ box ]
- Master Batters beat Clubber Lang (1-0) [ box ]
- Master Batters beat NWO (2-1) 7 innings [ box ]
- Mr. Party’s Waddle beat Flea Bitten Varmints (6-2) [ box ]
- Superman’s Wheelchair beat Flea Bitten Varmints (6-0) [ box ]
Color Commentary [13] - posted 2010-08-29 13:34 in Scoreboard
Player of the Week (Su10): Week 3
written by Commissioner Gallaway
John Cain pulled out a come from behind victory to win Player of the Week honors for Week 3. The Waddle manager hit three dingers with the wind at his back to get his first nomination. The race was one of the closest in league history.
Color Commentary [2] - posted 2010-08-27 11:53 in POTW
Week 4 Preview (Su10): No Rain, No Wind, No Way
written by Commissioner Gallaway
Normally Week 4 is when we pass over the half way mark for all teams.
Due to the extra week added to accomodate the nine team schedule, some teams are crossing the mid-season mark now and some will do so next week.
Regardless, time is starting to run out for teams hoping to position themselves for October wiffleball.
This is also the last week where the two undefeated teams can remain that way, at least on paper. Not since the inaugural 2005 season has a team gone undefeated for the entire season.
After two weeks of dodging the weather it looks like we’ll finally get a break from the wind and the rain. The sun, however, is sticking around. That’s why we call it the summer season.
| Time | Place | Home | Away | |||
| Week 4 Games- 8/29/2010 | ||||||
| 10:30 AM | Green | Scared Hitless | Canvassers | |||
| 10:30 AM | Blue | |||||
| 11:30 AM | Green | Scared Hitless | Clubber Lang | |||
| 11:30 AM | Blue | Canvassers | The Gnats | |||
| 12:30 PM | Green | NWO | Mr. Party’s Waddle | |||
| 12:30 PM | Blue | Master Batters | Clubber Lang | |||
| 1:30 PM | Green | Mr. Party’s Waddle | Flea Bitten Varmints | |||
| 1:30 PM | Blue | Master Batters | NWO | |||
| 2:30 PM | Green | |||||
| 2:30 PM | Blue | Flea Bitten Varmints | Superman’s Wheelchair | |||
Color Commentary - posted 2010-08-26 20:34 in News
Winter Wiffleball: An Armory Awaits
written by Commissioner Gallaway
For years I’ve been looking for a place to play winter wiffleball in DC. Whether it’s a league, or a one day tournament; November to March is far too long not to have any wiffle action.
The problem, of course, is the venue. You have to have a place that’s indoors, and thus not covered with snow. You have to have a place that has a high ceiling. Ideally you want a place with carpet (or artificial turf) rather than hardwood. A place that’s affordable is also important.
A high school gym is rented cheap, but a gym with a regulation basketball court can only hold one field. And, it’s hardwood. Indoor soccer fields have the right turf, and can fit one field…maybe two if we squeeze…but they all have low ceilings. Home Runs, people…home runs. In the winter these places are expensive by the hour.
After five years of frustration…it finally hit me the other night. The DC Armory.
In additon to a floor space that is 380’ by 183’, (that’s 4 to 6 wiffleball fields), it has a ceiling height of 88’. More than enough room to let the home runs soar, and the pop flies fall harmlessly back to earth. Certainly, like any domed stadium we’d need ground rules to cover the inevitable ball hitting the ceiling, or more likely ball hitting one of the lights which hang lower. But, all things considered, the perfect solution for winter.
When the floor seating is pushed back, as we’d need it to be to make room for the fields, the spectator seating is all in the upper deck on second level. Of course, we’d arrange fields so that home run balls hit really well could reach the top tier of the stands into the stadium seats.
It’s hardwood in its natural form, but the indoor football team that played there brought in a rug, and if it works for football, it will work for wiffleball. 70,000 square feet of carpet isn’t the kind of thing you put in a rental van and transport each week, but the Armory is too expensive to use weekly for a league anyway. At $7,500+ a day, this is a one day tournament or special event.
So, that leaves us with a single day tournament in January or February. An all day event with a pool play round that then seeds a double elimination tournament in the afternoon. With six fields, we’d be able to max out at about 24 teams for a pool play and then 16 teams seeded in the double elimination tournament.
As Chris Knight would say…“it’s a moral imperative”. We must do this. I’m now on a mission from god to make this happen.
What do you think?
Color Commentary [5] - posted 2010-08-26 20:18 in Blog
Player of the Week (Su10): Week 3 Nominees
written by Commissioner Gallaway
Week 3 was one of those weeks without breakout performances and our mixed bag of nominees reflects that. We like to nominate players who help their teams to victory, and sometimes that’s hard when they lose more games than they win.
VOTES ARE DUE AT NOON ON FRIDAY
- John Cain (Mr. Party’s Waddle) – Cain is the last person anyone would ever expect to get a POTW nomination, but he claims one this week. Since the voters love an underdog, and Cain is probably a better organizer than slugger, we wouldn’t be surprised if he wins. The newly minted manager of the Waddle hit three home runs and slugged 1.182 on his way to 1-1 week for his team. They gave Superman’s Wheelchair a run and almost beat the undefeated team, but a walkoff homer stole it from them.
- Aaron Christoff (Superman’s Wheelchair) – A second consecutive nomination for Christoff this week as his three doubles and a home run have him slugging 1.250. He didn’t get the hero shot to keep Wheelchair one of the two undefeated teams, and his hits didn’t come at opportune times for scoring, but he still snags a spot this week.
- Tony Ragano (Clubber Lang) – Ragano made a serious dent in his “man of honor” street cred by being a sore loser this week. Fortunately, the video footage of his childish antics have been sealed in the PWL archives. A second loss to Division rival and former teammate traitor NWO is what caused his issues. Despite that, Clubber picked up their first win and behind Ragano and free agent Andrew Martin (who just missed qualifying for a nomination with only 6 AB’s) might be building for another late season run and ticket to the post-season. Ragano homered twice, slugged 1.250 and didn’t have a single strikeout…and his team could have been 2-0…if only he’d have picked up that ball.
POTW Week 3 (Su10)
John Cain
About POTW: Each week three nominess will be announced for Player of the Week. The league, fans, and press will vote for the winner. Winners receive a very limited edition wiffleball keychain. For a history of the award, check out Player of the Week History.
Color Commentary [7] - posted 2010-08-24 22:32 in POTW
Complete Game Videos (Su10): Week 3
written by Commissioner Gallaway
Complete game videos from Week 3.
Read the full entry - Color Commentary - posted 2010-08-23 19:28 in Videos
