London Calling...
So...we didn't qualify for nationals. Big deal. But I know somewhere else we can go. Let me tell you a story.
Long ago, I didn't play in a wiffleball league. I know, it's hard to believe. I've always played wiffleball when I wasn't playing Little League. But it wasn't until I sustained an injury that caused me to fear the ball that I considered starting a league. I didn't even know it was a thing. It was 2002 and the Internet wasn't quite what it is today. It was chat boards mostly. ASL???????????? And it was pre-YouTube. There was no National Wiffle League Association. VHS was still a perfectly respectable medium for film. It was a different era. So I start a league with a handful of friends thinking that I'm really doing something ground-breaking. We play that whole first summer without realizing that there were probably dozens of leagues around the nation who had been around for years and were competing against one another in large tournaments. We operated totally unaware that we were in this bubble.
Our season wrapped up at the end of July 2002 and I received an email from a dude named Brian Wheeler. He said that he had been watching our progress this season and wanted to invite us to his tournament in London, OH. Ohio isn't far away I thought. But we were 13 and 14 year olds. We couldn't drive. So we had to blow it off. But seriously, how big could a wiffleball tournament be, anyway? I didn't know it then, but they ended up having 50+ teams that year. I didn't know that Brian Wheeler is one of the coolest guys in wiffleball. I didn't know that it was one of the premier events in the sport. I didn't know that there were leagues that were on the internet other than us. And until that day, I didn't even know there was a town named London in Ohio. That was the first contact I'd ever had with someone else who played wiffleball (outside of our league).
So he continued to invite us every year after that. And we'd try to make plans and get a team together only for something to go wrong and screw everything up. Last summer, 13 years after Brian's initial invitation, we finally got a couple squads together to hit up the London Wiffleball Tournament. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. A massive thunderstorm ripped through central Ohio and flooded the field and the tournament was set to be rescheduled. Luckily, it was somewhat salvaged by the NWLA Tournament and they held a makeshift "mini" London tournament across the street from their event. It was still muddy and did not even come close to capturing the atmosphere at London.
I had been to London myself three times without a team. When our old league folded in 2011, I really began to focus on my wiffleball news blog/magazine and did photography for the London Tournament and the NWLA Tournament. It's for this reason that I've gotten to experience the London tournament. Picture this. You're in the middle of nowhere in central Ohio. All you can see is corn (or soy, depending on what they decided to grow) and wiffleball games. It has a real field of dreams feel to it. There's 20 wiffleball games going on at the same time and there could be as many as 90 teams in attendance. It's a festival-like atmosphere. There's teams from all over the midwest, northeast and south there. If you want to have an appreciation for how far modern wiffleball has come...read up on London. The Potomac Wiffleball League and Wiffle in Southeast Michigan met up there for years before coming up with the idea that led to the NWLA Tournament. It's a magical event.
Some turn their nose up at the concept of the London Wiffleball Tournament. They don't respect it because it's slow-pitch. Our format change this year should show people that slow-pitch is another level of competition. It still takes skill to win games in slow-pitch. Sure, it can be more-or-less a home run derby but it requires tact and stamina as well. We've had some success in growing our league with this format and London has as well, consistently growing year after year. Something keeps old teams coming back and new teams trying it out. The last year I attended (2013) there were 80 adult teams and 22 youth teams (102 total). That's quite a turn out.
So what I'm getting at here is that I really want to get some teams involved from our league and take them up to London. It's the same weekend as the NWLA Tournament so we can check that event out too. So let's create some teams, bring some coolers, and have a great time! Our final league tournament is the following Saturday and then that's it until Hallowiffle on October 8th. Let's end this summer with a bang. Who's with me?
