"I [Still] Like You Guys"
I am a loyal person. I’ve stuck with the Yahoo! search engine since the late 90’s. I cheer for the Detroit Lions even though I know heartbreak is inevitable. I only drink Skyy vodka, even if another brand is on sale. I believe loyalty is a good quality. Sometimes loyalty can look like stubbornness. Other times it can make you look like a bad guy. In this situation, it may put me on an island. I could be wrong though. Maybe sticking by the side of the new bad boys of the NWLA won’t move the needle at all.
Let me rewind here, even though this is now old news. The Huntington Wiffleball League took a stand, and they are sticking by it. They have been involved with the NWLA Tournament since the beginning. Starting in 2012 in a media role, and in 2013-14 in a playing role. They improved greatly last year, and I believe they would only have been better this year. I wish they could come to Ohio, but they aren’t, and now I find my loyalty coming into question.
No one from the HWL approached me or anyone from WSEM to stand by them. Would we have helped the situation if the reigning champs said something? Well, we kind of did, courtesy of the new Commissioner’s twitter rant a couple weeks back. I realize how fortunate we are to be so close to Dublin and now to a regional site. WSEM should never complain, and the root of the Commissioner’s rant came from sticking up for other leagues. I guess the underlining motivation of this weird rambling article is simply: ‘I wish it was different’.
The Huntington guys are some of my favorites, especially the new batch of players who played in 2014. I wait all year to see them, and now they won’t be there Friday night with the rest of us other silly wiffle enthusiasts. Josh Smith would be on the 2015 Edition of a Wiffle Mount Rushmore. He deserves to be there with the rest of us, and it’s a shame he isn’t.
I don’t know what entirely went down, but I am really saddened I won’t see my friends from WV at the Soccer First Complex in Mid-July. HWL didn’t leave the NWLA like Palisades, so there is still hope these guys could come back in future years. I wish HWL the best of luck at the London tourney, but it’s not where they belong. They are an elite league, and they belong in Dublin.
