The Boston Globe - 02.09.2019

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 The Boston Globe The Region A

Griffin, a 32-year-old from
Danvers, went into his windup,
dropped hi s armlow tothe
side, and released the ball ona
line headedstraight to the top
of the backstop. But half way to
the plate, the ball suddenly
dropped four feet like the bot-
tom fell out, right into the
strike zone.
This was a game of Wiffle
Ball, butnot the casual kind
you play in the backyard.No,
this isthe obsessiveworld ofthe
Golden Stick Wiffle Ball
League, an ultra-competitive
collection of the game’s top
players, men who swing $20 0
carbon-fiber bats and spend
hours carefully carving patterns
into the plastic ballsto make
them behave like the laws of
physics are drunk.
As the slogan on the back-
stop says, this is “a backyard
game taken way too far.”
Thirty teams were here from
around the country for the na-
tional championships, but most
are from thetwo places that
have taken it the farthest: Bos-
ton andNew York.
The competitive game was
born inMassachusetts, and its
teams dominated for decades.
But in recent years, the un-
thinkable has happened as
teams from theNew York area
have come to rule the nationals,
leading to a seething rivalry.
They used to hold an all-star
game pitting the best players
from each region, but it would
oftenget very heated.They no
longer have that game.
Invented in the 1950s, Wif-
fle Ballwas designed as a way to
play “baseball” in a small space
without breakingeverything.It
was developed by DavidMulla-
ny, a Connecticut dad whosaw
his son and some friends trying,
and failing, to play in his back-
yard using a small plasticgolf
ball.Mullany created a base-
ball-size plastic ball, into which
he cut eight oblong holes on
one half, allowing it to do what
the plasticgolf ball would not:
curve easily.

uWIFFLE BALL
Continued from Page A

By the 1960s, the low-cost

Wiffle Ball and its slender yel-

low bat —the setstill costs only

about fourbucks today — were

a national hit. But it wasn’t un-

til the 1980s that the competi-

tive game took off in earnest,

when a man inHanover n amed

RickFerroli built a Wiffle Ball

field that looked like a minia-

ture Fenway Park in his moth-

er’s backyard, complete witha

15-foot plywood GreenMon-

ster.

So many people wanted to

play on hismini Fenway that he

began hosting tournaments

that he dubbed the “national

championships.” Working from

Ferroli’ s basic rules — the most

notable being there are no base-

runners, with the distance of

the hit determining whether it’s

a single, double,triple, or home

run — those national champi-

onships have continued on in

variousevolutions to today.

There’s also a separate tourna-

men t in Illinoisthat calls itself

the World Series.

But at the nationals, there

had been one unbroken con-

stant in the decades sinceFer-

roli’s backyard: Boston-area

teams have dominated the

game.

That is un til recently, when

the center ofpower, and popu-

larit y, has shifted toGotham.

Here at the nationals,New York

teams outnumber Boston

teamstwo-to-one.

It’s a change that leaves such

players as Griffin —a fixtureat

the elite level since he won the

nationals as a teenager — des-

perately trying to reclaim what

they once considered a birth-

right.His team lost in the finals

last year, and as they pushed

their way through the knockout

roundson Saturday night, Aug.

24, toward the finals the follow-

ing day, you could feel the in-

tensity rise with each pitch.

“Let’s go,” he screamedat no

one in particular after his drop

ball landed fora strike.

On the sideline,Lou

Levesque, the president of

Golden Stick, let outa satisfied

smirk.“The teeth are out now,”

he said, “and they’re going to

stay out until the end of the

tournament.”

The co mpetitive game of to-

day has come a long way from

that Connecticut backyard. The

balls are technically the same,

but each one is heavily modi-

fied in a process known as

“scuffing” or “knifing.” Before

the game, pitchers carve an in-

tricate pattern into the ball that

makes it breakmore consistent-

ly and dramatically.

The yellow “banana bat,”

however, is a thing of the past.

In its place are $200 carbon-fi-

ber bats, made by a company

calledMoonshot, that deliver

considerably more pop on con-

tact.

Games are played on small

fields — 16 of them were carved

out oftwo baseballfields in

Hamilton — that have an out-

field fence about 100 feet from

home plate.There is no catcher

or umpire; instead, pitchers

aim for a 2- by-3-foot piece of

metal hung behind the plate

that lets out a percussive ding

each time it isstruck.It’s 43 feet

from themound to the tin.Two

strikes and you’re out.

For this tournament, there

weretwo fielders, in addition to

the pitcher.

As Saturday night gave way

to Sunday, a familiar pattern

was playing outat Patton Park:

New York teams were rolling,

and Massachusetts teams were

falling.

Griffin and his “Seventh

Floor Crew” teammates, Brian

DiNapoli of Everett and Eric

Stevenson ofGeorgetown, were

the last survivors, clawing their

way to the quarterfinals before

fallingina 1 -0game.

As he sat on the sidelines

and watched the all-New York

finals, Griffinannounced to no

one in particular that he felt de-

flated.

Then he reached into the cli-

ché bagfor that oldstandby, the

one you drag out when aNew

York team is on a roll and

there ’s nothingto do but watch.

“There’s alw ays next year.”

Billy Baker can bereached at

[email protected]

him onTwitter @billy_baker.

New Yorkers invading Mass. Wiffle Ball turf

PHOTOS BY BARRY CHIN/GLOBE STAFF

Matt “LilNuke” Griffin

tossed astrikeat the

NationalGolden Stick Wiffle

Ball championships in

Hamilton. A defaced ball

allows pitchers to add more

rotation andcurve toa pitch.

OPEN 24/[email protected]

“Wedon’ tsellcars.

We help people buy them.”

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