A field of dreams on a cul-de-sac

August 6, 2001

Don’t let the name fool you. Major League Wiffle Ball sounds about as professional as any sports association.

But at league headquarters, a suburban home about 10 miles north of Albany, the wisecracks fly as fast as a plastic ball filled with holes.

“You can’t hurt the cars with the Wiffle Ball,” said player Mike Breen, 23, of Latham, just moments before the first pitch of the league’s World Series Sunday night.

It was a World Series that might not have gotten any attention outside of the cul-de-sac where the team usually plays every weekend, except for a recent mention in ESPN’s Aug. 6 magazine.

“It was a surprise,” said Shaun Breen, league commissioner and a recent graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he specialized in Web site development.

Breen and his teammates credit the team’s Web site, www.majorleaguewiffleball.com, for lifting the league out of obscurity, if only for a moment.

But on Sunday, the traffic at game one of their championship series was decidedly local, drawing the usual spectators, including Breen’s mother, who supplied snacks and soda for the players and kept an eye out for any interference from neighborhood vehicles.

“Shaun, car,” she yelled from the bottom of the cul-de-sac, which serves as the league’s home turf. “That’s the bad thing. They have to move the net all the time.”

Such interruptions are part of the game, which is less about who wins than about a group of friends, some of whom grew up playing Little League together.

“It just started on Sundays for fun. It’s not about anything else,” said Mike Breen, before adding, “It’s the closest we can come to baseball.”

Wiffle Ball won over baseball as last summer’s pickup game of choice because of logistics. Where a baseball game requires nine people on the field, a fast-paced Wiffle Ball game can get under way with only a pitcher, fielder and hitter.

But the game took a more serious turn in May, when Shaun Breen launched the group’s Web site under a name that has since gotten the attention of other Wiffle Ball leagues, including a group of guys who traveled from Long Island last week to play.

“It’s a lot more popular than I expected it to get,” said Breen, 23.

Plans are now under way to play other teams from Delaware and California, as Breen continues to update the Web site with enough factoids and statistics to satisfy any fan.

For the uninitiated, Wiffle Ball is almost like baseball, except for the plastic balls, bats and a few quirks unique to the Cohoes league, such as the rule that you can’t walk unless the ball hits you at least twice or once in the head.

“If it gets past the curb, it’s a home run,” said Marc Ceccucci, 22, who grew up next to the Breen family on Spring Hollow Drive. “It’s like our outfield fence in baseball.”

Even with the league’s recent ESPN notoriety, there are no plans to shoot for the majors. On weekends, the team is happy to play on its home turf, where residents have gotten used to players dodging their lawn sprinklers as they chase foul balls.

On Sunday, one neighbor even checked out the game, in between washing his car in the driveway. Breen’s sister, Kayla, 13, also got into the spirit, blaring music from a boom box in between runs, including the Bruce Springsteen hit “Glory Days.”

“It would be nice to be known as the person who made Wiffle Ball famous,” said Shaun Breen. “But I don’t think it’s going to happen. It’s just for fun.”

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Written by Sylvia Wood; Staff writer: Albany Times Union
Photos by Jonathan Fickies
First published: Monday, August 6, 2001

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