Let There Be Cake!
Written by Josh Smith
You may be looking at the above image and asking yourself, "What the Hell am I looking at here?" I will tell you in good time. Jacob's article analyzing the amount of walks in this year's NWLA Tournament got me thinking. It's 45 feet between the bases and we had a lot of walks. But considering there were 820 walks this year you come to realize that...well, that's a lot of walking. And I don't just mean a base on balls, I really mean walking. So I tallied it up and my findings were both humorous and shocking. Below is a chart of my findings breaking down the amount of walks into distance actaully walked.
As a whole, all teams combined walked 36,900 feet. That translates to 6.98 miles total. So who knew we were so good at multitasking? That's a wiffleball tournament and a 5k at the same time. That's pretty impressive. The team that walked the most walked over three-quarters of a mile. If you are having difficulty imaging that (since we do not do the metric system) think about 13 and a half football fields.
It is also worth mentioning that the amount of walks has been growing. 465 in 2012. 645 in 2013. And this year we had 820. This can be somewhat dismissed because we've had an influx of teams throughout these three years (8 in 2012, 12 in 2013, and 15 this year) but next year (even with the cap on teams being 16) I can see us easily going above 1000 walks in 2015 at this rate. However, the average amount of walks per team was 58.12 in 2012, 53.75 in 2013, and 54.6 this year. The number (however slight) is on the rise. Walks are part of the game, I'm not arguing that. What I'm saying is that they don't deserve to be the focal point of the game when solutions exist to easily lower that number without frustrating batters too much.
I suppose now would be a good time to explain the first image at the top of the article. That is approximate distances each team would have walked from the approximate center point of where we played this summer (rather than one field in particular). The orange outer ring represents OCWA and rings inside represent leagues with few walks and so on.
I am not going to knock on any teams in particular to walking a lot this year. I see the strategy and, full disclosure, we started doing the same thing after getting our asses handed to us by SWBL the first game. Then after that I noticed that a lot of teams were doing the same thing. It's a legitimate strategy, but it is also very boring one and tends to drag the games out. The NWLA Tournament is a special event and the organizing committee obviously puts in tons of work to make it so awesome. I was telling my team (or anyone who would listen) how awesome it is and this year definitely did not disappoint. My guys followed me into the venue Friday evening and their minds were blown. "Holy shit, there really is a jumbotron!?" Rules were tweaked earlier in the year and organizing committee members were split up to organize a handful of leagues each to ensure things went smoothly. Gallaway put on the event of the year for the third year in a row without fail. Aside from it raining (even Gallaway has limits) the tournament turned out great and it was more professional than ever, complete with ball boys (and girls). But the walking thing was sort of a drag.
Don't misunderstand me. I mean, I'm not saying the walking ruined it for me or my team...because I'm not saying that. But I really think it is something that needs to be looked at and improved upon. I realize how that sounds from someone not on the organizing committee, pretty douchey - I know. But someone told me once that there is no such thing as perfect. Maybe they were right but I don't think that has to apply to this tournament. Aside from the rain, that was the only thing keeping this year's tournament from being absolutely perfect. Oh, and the whole Mississippi Yard Wiffle League standing us up (major bummer) put a snag in things as well. What I'm trying to say is the tournament is so close to perfect why not go all the way. With an organizer like Chris and an organizing committee of esteemed wiffle dudes behind him, I never doubt the capabilities of this tournament.
Maybe we all stand at different points with this issue but I think that as it stands now the games are moving too slow and it's draining the energy of the games. This tournament is a fast-pitch tournament but more and more I saw pitchers lollipopping balls in to the batter to get them to swing. Are we really going to let it get to that point? The chess match mentality going into this year's tournament really tamed the games to a mostly boring level and it neuters the pitcher. It is an issue whether or not everyone sees it. Which is more exciting? A walk-off hit/home run or a walk-off walk?
Really the only thing missing with all this walking was cake. So much walking does remind me a little bit of a cake walk. Maybe or maybe not something is done about the growing amount of walks in the tournament. I think some of the options Fischer laid out in his article deserve some thought. But hey, if we don't make any changes the walking will continue to grow. And if that is the case, then I say let there be cake!
