14 Things I Remember About 2014
Written by Josh Smith
2014 was a great year not just for our league but for wiffleball as a sport. But I do not speak for all leagues as I can only accurately reflect on our year with any justice. We saw our share of ups and downs but had what is easily seen as our most successful season ever. Countless people told me in Columbus that they like what they see as our league continues to grow. We're getting attention not just from other leagues but from the community as we gain new players and teams. It is for these reasons and many more that 2014 has been a gem for me as a commissioner. This past season turned out more or less exactly as I had hoped it would and I want to thank every player and team for making that a reality. So stick around for 2015 and invite a few more friends to make 2015 even more unforgettable. 2014 was a year full of vivid memories but I've limited this article to just 14. Thanks for the memories.
14. Josh Berletich kicking the bucket
This is a topic I am almost as passionate about as I am about wiffleball. I could make a list of my favorite times he kicked buckets over the years but I will refrain. But if I did indulge in such a list this particular bucket kick would top the list. Look at the range of that kick. The balls depart from the bucket like grapeshot. It's truly beautiful.
13. Opening Day
The league has nearly doubled in size annually in the past three seasons. But seeing four fields going at the same time in early April was something to behold. It was a little cold and it looked like it was going to rain the entire day but we made it work. Seeing all eight teams show up on time in uniform was a first for us as a league and it could not have been done without the cooperation of all the players. I will remember opening day from this past season for a long time.
12. First Ever All-Star Game
This is something I have been wanting to do since my old league was running back in the early 2000s. But we never really could make it happen. We sort of had an all-star game in 2010 but everyone just got mad at each other and it was a disaster. But I knew we had the right stuff to make it work this year. It ended up being a major tryout for the NWLA team we'd send to Columbus later that summer. I sat behind the mound and played walk-up music for each player, giving it a major league feel. And Jeremy Litton grilled me a delicious bratwurst and it was so huge. I was eating on it the whole game.
11. HWL Playoffs and Championship
Our first year we only had five teams so we just had a wild card race to see who would play Beaver Fever for the championship. 2013 was our first year of legitimate playoff structure but we only had six teams and the top two seeds got byes in the first round. 2014 was the first year ever that we had a proper bracket with eight teams. It worked out great! There was drama of course as the Honey Badgers knocked off 20-0 Breaking Balls in the semifinals making for an interesting finals matchup between them and Sit On My Base. We spared no detail for the championship. We had four camera angles and color commentary with an on-screen scoreboard in an unforgettable video.
10. The Year of the Podcast
In August 2013 we decided to be cool like WSEM and have a league podcast. It was slow going at first and we didn't have a clue as to what the hell we were doing. I guess you could still say we don't have a clue but we make it work. That December the Coffee brothers from WSEM came in to Charleston and we recorded a vodka infused episode known as #2Coffees1Cup that remains our most listened to episode. That episode put our podcast on the wiffle media map and we recorded an episode every month until the off-season this year. We get things started again in Janurary after taking a couple months off.
9. The Honey Badgers Breakup and Recovery
2014 was a rough year as a commissioner early in the season. We had several rule changes that needed to be explained to experienced players and a ton of new players that had no idea what was going on and a troubled franchise where tempers flared. The result of which would lead to nearly half of the Honey Badgers team leaving and Paul Hesson picking up the pieces to assemble what he called "the NEW" Honey Badgers mid-season. He added Kyle Kelly and Jacob Fischer seemingly overnight and took a fair .500 team to third place in the league with a national ranking, knocking off an undefeated team and winning the championship proving Paul Hesson to be team captain of the year. Not bad, Hesson. Not bad.
8. Being Ranked Dead Last in Nearly Everyone's Pre-Tournament Rankings
The weeks leading up to the NWLA Tournament is generally an exciting time not just for leagues/teams participating in the tournament but fans of the sport as a whole. This being the tournament's third year I was really expecting some leagues to bring some thought-provoking pre-tourny articles to the table but I would be disappointed for the most part. Most teams took the easy way out by writing 200 words or less about pre-tournament power rankings. Nearly all of these "articles" had our team ranked dead last or near the bottom. The ranking us last was one thing but the lack of originality with article content hurt more.
7. Shutting Everyone Up By Finishing in the Top 8 in the Tournament
Having us ranked last is a hard opinion to attack. I would have ranked us last too (see picture for number 8), I suppose. We brought a minimal roster and mediocre players at best in 2013. But in 2014 we brought a full roster with an alternate and 4 coaches. We practiced several times before the tournament itself and had a gameplan from the beginning. The result was us finishing in the top half of teams that attended and exceeding everyone's expectations. I could not ask for more from our guys, they went to Columbus and took care of business. I believe we would have performed even better if we had made the adjustment to 48' in our own league last year. There's always next year.
6. Equipment Upgrades Galore
Some of us are about the gameplay but me, I'm a fan of logistics. I love it anytime we can upgrade something or make it better. Our first year was minimal at best. But since then we've added backstops, raised bases, spray painted lines, hd cameras, our own fencing, foul poles, and many other advancements to the game experience. We pulled out all the stops for events like the all-star game with walk-up music and commentary. This past year was by far the most memorable for an authentic major league experience. It's going to be hard to top it next season but we'll find a way.
5. Winter Meeting, General Excitement, and Maroon Squad Skipping Out
Our first winter meeting took place the year before with just three people at Fat Pattys in early 2013. But in 2014 we had nearly two dozen players, captains, and committee members meet up for a much more legitimate meeting. We debated rule changes, spun a wheel to determine divisions, and began collecting registration fees. We had eight teams bring representation and it looked as if we might have 10 or even 12 teams total with Holy Balls, Fat Bastards, Pink Penguins, and Maroon Squad up-in-the-air. As it turns out three of those four teams folded and a fourth never got started. Maroon Squad had been talking big all off-season only to bounce at the last minute, leaving an otherwise productive event somewhat flat.
4. Unforgettable Pitching
7 perfect games. 11 no-hitters. No other season even comes close to featuring such dominant pitching. Some blame the skinny yellow bats, but I feel the elevated talent in players is to blame. Pitchers like McClanahan, Ray, Kappra, Fischer, & Hesson left many batters stunned at the plate. A lot of pretty good pitchers improved throughout the year as well and with rotation rules entering the discussion for 2015 there could be some room for nameless pitchers to make some noise.
3. Having Almost No Veteran Players
Daryl Pullin announced his retirement in January 2014 and things sort of went downhill after that. Nearly every player and team we gained in 2013 was bowing out for the new season. The Holy Balls, Pink Penguins, and Maroon Squad all dropped out leaving large gaps for rookie teams to fill...and fill they did. It turns out that having a league made almost completely out of rookies was a lot of fun. But I imagine the season would have been even better with more experienced players and teams. Guess we'll never know...
2. That Time(s) I Blinded Everyone By Celebrating Without My Shirt...Sorry
On May 27th, my team (Green Bears) did something no other team had done all season - score a run on Drew McClanahan. The unthinkable happened as Mike McCoy hit a monstrous solo shot off of Drew and the atmosphere was pure insanity afterward. I don't have much recollection of the moments after the event took place but I'm told I ripped my shirt off and ran around the park like a crazy person. I hugged Jacob Fischer at one point (his first week with us) and shouted for a few minutes. All games in the park came to a halt to witness the spectacle...which one I don't know, either A) Drew giving up a run or B) me losing my mind. Judging by the video most people were stunned, amused, a little disgusted, or a mixture of all three. I took off my shirt a couple other times late in the season (don't judge me, we rarely had anything to celebrate since we got our asses handed to us the majority of the time). I took it off the final time during the tournament to the delight of probably no one when Nick Kappra bailed us out against SRL with a walk off home run. Sadly (or thankfully) the game video for that game never saw the light of day.
1. Being Satisfied with How Everything Turned Out
I could not have asked for more this past year. We had a complete and successful regular season followed by a great playoff sequence and a very fruitful appearance at the NWLA Tournament. My only complaint this year is that Fall Ball was a complete bust due to it raining literally the whole month of October (thanks for nothing Mother Nature). I met a lot of cool people in the new players and teams this year and I hope to see them back with even more new teams and players in 2015. As good as 2014 was I see room for improvement in 2015 and can't wait to see it happen.
