By:  Brendan Black

Wiffleball is the backyard recreational game played at family barbeques, picnics, and after school afternoons. To most people, the game involves a skinny yellow plastic bat, a wiffleball, and a lawn chair to use as a strike zone. Not many people think that the game goes much further than the aforementioned equipment. Well, those people could not be more wrong.  

            “Fast pitch wiffleball” may sound like an oxymoron to most people who have played wiffleball on their own time. It seems impossible that a wiffleball could be thrown over 35mph. Though that seems reasonable, it is not correct. The top tier wiffleball players pitch at an average speed of around 70mph. With the mound a short 49 feet away from the strike zone, that pitch seems a little more like 100mph.

The most common question asked by the novice wiffleball player is “how is that possible?” In fast pitch wiffleball it is all about the ball itself. You are allowed to doctor the ball with sandpaper, knives, and whatever else you find without adding any foreign substance to the ball. For example, the most common way to “scuff” a ball is to take a serrated knife and carve very shallow marks in the ball. So when thrown instead of the wind and air around the ball just sliding over the ball it now catches the shallow carvings, allowing there to be more control.

            Along with the balls being allowed to scuffed, the batters are allowed to use larger bats. These bats are not the ones with massive barrels that one will find at Walmart, they are most-of-the-time purchased online through bat companies. Wiffleball bats can range from $30-$200. Strike zones in fast pitch wiffleball are also very different. No longer is there just the lawn chair thrown down, but it is a carefully constructed strike zone that has to meet certain measurements. The zone is a piece of tin suspended in the air by ties attached to a PVC pipe rectangle. This rectangle is then held a certain height above the ground by more piping. When hit by a pitch the tin makes a loud “ping” sound signaling a strike.

            Behind the strike zone is another new aspect to the backyard game, a large backstop. In fast pitch wiffleball there is no running, but rather fielding zones set up. So when fielding a ground ball, instead of throwing to the first baseman to beat the runner, the fielder now has three seconds to cleanly field the ball and throw it into the backstop in the air to get the out. The rules become more complex as more “runners” are on base and other situations unfold.

In all 50 states in the U.S. organized wiffleball leagues can be found. Massachusetts just so happens to be the home of the largest organized league and tournament circuit, Goldenstick Wiffleball (GSWL). Goldenstick Wiffleball has been around for ten years now and is just starting to scratch the surface of becoming prolifically recognized.

Currently GSWL has fast pitch leagues in 13 states and tournaments set up five broad regions across the country. The finals for league play are hosted in Las Vegas, NV with the winners of each state’s league getting a full ride to Vegas for free to play for the national championship. The tournament circuit championship is held in Phoenix, AZ with teams getting an invitation by winning tournaments in their regions. Over $32,000 was handed out in prizes to winners of the leagues and tournaments.

Fast pitch wiffleball game highlights and videos are going viral all over the internet. YouTube and other major user-generated content websites are breeding grounds for wiffleball videos. Try and search “Goldenstick Wiffleball” or “wiffleball pitcher” on YouTube and be ready to be amazed at what you see. That is not video editing; it is fast pitch wiffleball at its finest.

The sport of fast pitch wiffleball is growing each year. More and more people are finding out about it and creating their own teams to compete in tournaments, some even try their luck in leagues. With the sport becoming more competitive and more noticed, it will only be a handful of years before we all start hearing about fast pitch wiffleball making it big.