Jennie Finch on Sports Illustrated cover

July 11, 2005

Women’s softball star Jennie Finch is seen holding wiffleball equipment on the cover of the July 11, 2005 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Finch is has been featured on the weekly television show “This Week in Baseball” where she pitches a softball to a different Major League Baseball hitter each week, and often strikes them out on three pitches.

Finch became well-known to most sports fans when she pitched the United States to a gold medal in softball at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. Prior to that, she pitched the University of Arizona to a national championship.

If Jennie Finch is looking to add wiffleball to her resume, she can start right here with MLW. Although we’ve already broken the gender barrier, we’re always looking for talented players — male or female — to join the league. Celebrity status is also a major plus.

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MLW tests the Junk Ball

June 27, 2005

It’s a great concept; a ball with a rotating center. Holes open = curveball. Holes closed = fastball. Pure genius. There are even scuffs on the ball for easier gripping, and to add to the curve effect.

We really liked the Junk Ball. The extra few ounces and the scuffs seemed to be the best features. It’s a heavier ball, so it allowed pitchers to throw harder than usual. Using the scuffs as seams added more pitch control.

The rotating center is a great idea, but it takes a lot of effort out of pitching, which was one of the main reasons we didn’t choose the official Wiffle Ball as the preferred ball of MLW several years ago. After a while, pitchers were throwing nearly all pitches with the holes closed, and adding their own movement when desired.

When hit, the added weight also made the Junk Ball travel farther than what we’re used to. We quickly realized that the Junk Ball is not for use in small yards, unless you don’t like your neighbors. In that case, we’d recommend using a real baseball, and hiring a good lawyer.

Some players hit the Junk Ball so hard that it knocked the rotating center out of alignment. It was easily repaired though. No one succeeded in breaking the red ring off the Junk Ball, so the ball seemed quite durable.

We all agreed that the Junk Ball is a great ball. However, like the company’s name (Little Kids, Inc.) suggests, this ball might be better for children, since it allows pitchers to throw curveballs with very little effort, and the ball travels farther than a regular plastic ball.

We tested the Junk Ball in an open, grassy area, which seemed to be the most suitable place for adults to use it. We would not recommend using it in confined areas, such as typical backyard use, or on our home field, The Sac.

We’d like to thank Jason Engle from Little Kids, Inc. for providing us with the free Junk Ball samples. This ball is definitely worth playing with. Find a place to play, if you don’t have one already, click on the link above to order from Amazon.com, or head over to your local toy store to pick up a 2-pack of Junk Balls today!

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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.”

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

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MLW listed in ESPN the Magazine

August 5, 2001

In August 2001, thanks to ESPN the Magazine, the nation’s attention shifted briefly from the Major League Baseball home run race between Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and Luis Gonzalez of the Arizona Diamondbacks, to a trio of relatively unknowns that were setting their own home run records in Major League Wiffleball.

In a short area (approximately 3″ X 3″) on page 52 of the August 6th issue of ESPN the magazine, you will see the following:

League Commissioner, and Chief Web site designer Shaun Breen was extremely glad that all the hard work that he put into this site, and the league paid off. A great big “Thank you” goes out to ESPN for the publicity.

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