As we mentioned in a previous article, Hoge is a huge wiffleball fan, and when he was younger, built his own wiffleball field at his home in Tennessee.

He even remembered our staff from his concert in Troy last year, when he toured with ‘The Last Goodnight’, and to our surprise, announced to everyone at the merchandise table that he “loves wiffleball”, and for everyone there “to visit majorleaguewiffleball.com“, which he has bookmarked on his laptop. Thanks Josh!

In the photo, he appears to be left handed, which would make him only the second southpaw in Major League Wiffleball. MLW Commissioner Shaun Breen is the other lefty, and he built a wiffleball field too — ‘The Sac‘.

Hoge will be touring the east coast, midwest, and south to promote his new CD Everything She Was through December 17th.

For more information on Josh Hoge, such as his tour schedule, check out www.joshhoge.com. In fact, everyone should visit www.joshhoge.com, and bookmark it!

In case you missed it, a few months ago, John McCain kept someone’s wiffleball. To our knowledge, Barack Obama has never stooped to this level.

Need another reason to vote for Obama? Here’s one. John McCain was endorsed by fellow Republican, President George W. Bush, who was recently photographed playing wiffleball with the fat red bat - the only bat that is banned under Major League Wiffleball rules. Do we really want four more years of the same disrespect for the great game of wiffleball?

So when you walk into the voting booth this Election Day and go to cast your vote for the next President of the United States, please think twice before voting for John McCain, the wiffleball thief who is endorsed by a wiffleball cheater, and vote for Barack Obama, the candidate who, according to our Google search, has nothing to do with wiffleball.

Thanks to: www.johnmccainkeptyourwiffleball.com

PBWWS features a festive stadium atmosphere - including ballpark food and drink vendors, spectator bleachers, wiffle commentators, celebrity umpires and DJ Wiffle will be spinning stadium tunes at the greatest day and night party of the year. Come out to the ‘Palm Beach Polo Grounds’ where Mini-Wrigley, Mini-Camden Yards and Mini-Fenway Parks will challenge the best wiffle ball hitters and pitchers in the land!

The minimum age to play in the tournament is 14 years old. Spectator tickets can be purchased for $5 each (children under 7 are FREE) on the event day and proceeds go to the Together With Pride Foundation.

Don’t miss this event! Rain or shine, the party and tourney is on! Sign up today!

TGL’s lead singer and guitar player, John Sibbett, was also there, but wasn’t around when this photo was taken.

The group was on-tour to promote their new CD: ‘Sweeter As Fiction‘.

For more information on TGL, head on over to their MySpace page.

We met up with them last year on the road, and they posed for a photo after their concert. There were four of them last time, but this time they were without their drummer.

For more information on Brookside, check out their MySpace page.

Earlier this week, Baseball Hall of Famer Peter Gammons referred to Mauer as the most indispensable player in the American League. In the National League, Gammons said Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge is the most indispensable.

Mauer was drafted number-one overall by the Minnesota Twins in 2001. At the time, it looked like the Twins were making a mistake by choosing Mauer, a local prospect, over stud pitcher Mark Prior. Seven years later, it looks like the Twins made the right choice.

Mauer autograhped the wiffleball above in Fort Myers, Florida at the Twins’ spring training facility. As far as we know, it’s a one-of-a-kind souvenir. We keep it with our Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter autographed items.

A .328 average wouldn’t be high enough to win a Major League Wiffleball batting championship in any season. The lowest single-season average to win the batting title in MLW history was .442 in our first season. But .328 was good enough for Joe Mauer to win the American League batting title in 2008.

The Xtrafielder is a great idea if you’d like some extra help for the two fielders used under Major League Wiffleball rules (pitcher and fielder).

You can set up one of these next to each base, and use them like they’re an extra fielder, just as the name indicates. If the ball beats the player to the base, the player is out. See the (amusing) Xtrafielder video on Youtube [4:38]. If you’d like, buy a few extras and position them in the outfield, so they can catch pop-ups and line drives.

The Xtrafielder will work best if you play on a grass or dirt surface. We play on asphalt, so we couldn’t use the Xtrafielder as intended, since the end spikes need to be placed in the ground to keep them upright. The company also sells plastic add-ons that help the Xtrafielder stand-up on a hard surface, but we probably wouldn’t have used them anyway. We like to think we’re a pretty creative bunch, so I could see us setting these up on our home run line, coincidentally where the grass begins, and position them there to rob home runs. Besides, we prefer our ‘mound outs’ rule, where the pitcher’s mound acts as the lead base for getting runners out.

Xtrafielder is exactly what it says it is — it’s an extra fielder, not an umpire. So we wouldn’t recommend using one as a strike zone or backstop. If it’s all you’ve got, or a temporary solution, then it’ll work. However, there are bigger and better strike zones available — ones that handle balls and strikes. As an extra fielder though, it does a great job.

The Xtrafielder is fairly easy to set up, although I did spend a lot of time tweaking it to make it just right. They’re a little flimsy too; the plastic rim was beginning to rip where the rod gets inserted, but they hold up well during a game of wiffleball. The Xtrafielder has a yellow frame, and the nets come in two colors (neon pink for the strike zone and neon yellow for the fielders). They also disassemble easily for convenient storage. Xtrafielder packages are available from one to nine.

These aren’t a necessary piece of equipment, but they are a nice add-on that can add a new dimension to your wiffleball league. If you’re looking to add a unique touch to your version of wiffleball, consider the XtraFielder from Xtra Fielder LLC.

Earlier today, Lasorda appeared on the Scott Van Pelt show on ESPN Radio. He went on to tell fill-in host Michael Kay that Manny Ramirez is a rare example of one player carrying a team, and Manny has the city of Los Angeles excited about the Dodgers making a run for the playoffs. The Dodgers currently have a 2.5 game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West.

The former longtime Dodgers’ manager is also proud of the magnificent job Joe Torre is doing this year.

You can listen to the entire interview at ESPNRadio.com. It’s free, thanks to GEICO insurance.

We’d like to wish Tommy Lasorda a happy 81st birthday, and hope there are many more to follow.

Before his brief stint in Minnesota, Lamb played third base for the Houston Astros. Often, when Lamb came up to bat at Minute Maid Park, the scoreboard would post a photograph of his face superimposed on Sylvester Stallone’s body as he appeared in Rambo, with the caption ‘Lambo’, Lamb’s nickname.

In 2005, Lamb hit the first World Series home run in Astros history. He is only the second player whose last name is a type of animal to hit a home run in a World Series game — the other is Tim Salmon (2002).

Unfortunately, Lamb won’t be able to help the Brewers in the postseason this year, if they make it. Since Lamb signed after the August 31 deadline, he’s not eligible for the Brewers’ postseason roster. Still, we wish him success with his new team for the remainder of the regular season, and hope he helps the Brewers into the playoffs.

Dahlin was arguably the most talented pitcher in Major League Wiffleball history. He had a filthy selection of pitches, and always made batters look terrible at the plate. Dahlin was also one of the best hitters in MLW history, but unfortunately for him, pitchers do not bat in the Frontier League.

The Midwest Sliders are a unique team, since they’re the only team in the Frontier League that plays all of their games on the road. The lack of home games may be a reason the Sliders have the worst record in the league.

If Dahlin continues to pitch well, it’s likely he’ll rejoin the team next year when they move to a brand new stadium in Waterford Township, Michigan, where they’ll be known as the Oakland County Cruisers.

Dahlin was practically untouchable as a pitcher in Major League Wiffleball, and posted some of the greatest pitching stats in MLW history. After wiffleball, he went on to have a great college baseball career at SUNY Plattsburgh.

We all hope Matt’s success continues with the Sliders as he pursues his baseball dream.

• Matt Dahlin’s career wiffleball pitching statistics: