Wiffle ball

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Curated by Larry McCray and Jeffrey Kittel
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Game	Wiffleball
Game Family	Kickball Kickball
Location
Regions	US
Eras	Derivative, Post-1900, Contemporary
Invented	No
Tags
Description	A Wiffle Ball is a hollow plastic ball with holes strategically placed in order to exaggerate sideways force, and thus enabling pitchers to produce severe curves and drops (and rises?). Competitive games of Wiffleball are known, some exhibiting team play. None, we believe (as of September 2018), appear to involve live baserunning. Note:  Wiffle Ball, Inc., which holds and protects key trade marks, has set out a set of rules at http://www.wiffle.com/pages/game_rules.asp?page=game_rules.  However, many leagues treasure their innovative rule options, including the doctoring of balls to make them curve more dramatically, and of bats that are dissimilar to the familiar yellow plastic cudgels you may think of.  Several leagues seem to claim that their championships produce the true national crown for wiffle ball.    The poem, Wiffle Ball, appears in he Supplemental Text below.  It was furnished to Protoball by its author, Glenn Stout, on 8/17/2018.  A fine recollection of wiffle ball games is found in Glenn's "Wiffle Rules", at https://verbplow.blogspot.com/2018/08/wiffle-rules.html.
Sources	For a longish New Yorker article on an advanced form of wiffle ball, see https://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/the-men-who-have-taken-wiffle-ball-to-a-crazy-competitive-place?mbid=social_twitter.  (Submitted 9/3/2018 by Glenn Stout; pitches have been measured at 90+Notwe: mpg.) A web search for <ben mcgrath wiffle ball> may help you locate the New Yorker piece.  It is dated August 31, 2018. For a lighthearted You Tube exposition of the fourth-best team in the the National Wiffleball Championship Tournament (year?), see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPEnXCtwHeU.
Source Image	[[Image:|left|thumb]]
Comment	Well, the You Tube video shows, but does not define, a form of live running by batters.  And fielding, too, for balls that do not leave the yard.   Protoball has some things still to learn about this derivative game. Your patient help with this page is welcome.   Edit with form to add a comment
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Has Supplemental Text	Yes

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Supplemental Text

WIFFLE BALL

by Glenn Stout (for Chris Tillman)

I pitch and then
your memory rises high above the house to bounce
upon the roof, careen across the shingles
and then begin to roll back to earth.
I dash beyond the porch
on backyard, left field grass to warning track
beneath the eaves and overhang
calculating hit to carom to catch
last moment stride to blind belief
see it all bounce off the gutter once
reach up and try to hold it
but it falls beyond my grasp
then lies there still, a ground-rule double.
Your ghost man lopes toward second base
but turns, pulls up then kicks the bag
and stays there. You laugh
and then, too late, I kneel
and grab the ball. It is
empty, white, weighs almost nothing.
One side is cracked, and full of holes.