Play Ball

April 27, 2007, 3:15 pm; posted by
Filed under Articles, Josh J  | 3 Comments

After a prolonged period of meteorological schizophrenia, it appears as though spring is permanently here. And with its arrival, I have just one piece of advice — go play wiffleball. I don’t want to hear that you’re not an athlete, or that you’re not into sports, because wiffleball isn’t really a sport. And yet the beauty of the game is that it is the closest thing we have to pure sport this side of Calvinball.

Wiffleball isn’t a conventional sport because the physics of the ball as it moves through the air levels the playing field in a way rarely seen outside of inner-tube water polo. Anyone can play. Anyone can be a star. Anyone can throw a pitch Tim Wakefield only dreams about. Anyone, no matter how good they are at normal sports, can strike out. Anyone, no matter how bad they are at normal sports, can make the game- winning play.

But what defines true sport in its purest form? It certainly isn’t broadcasting rights or multi-million dollar contracts. It isn’t even a universal set of reproducible rules. It’s about a group of competitors coming together on their own turf and their own terms, striving for the goal or purpose of their game, all the while realizing the striving is the purpose.

Go grab your friends and get your wiffle on. Maybe you’ll poke your finger in one of the holes and pull the wiffle balk. Maybe you’ll channel your childhood (and mine) and circumvent a house instead of bases. Maybe you’ll have a game whose participants, rules and dimensions can never be captured again. Either way, you won’t find a cheaper or more genuine thrill.


Comments

3 Comments to “Play Ball”

  1. aaron.guest on April 27th, 2007 3:28 pm

    I. Love. Calvinball.

  2. Job on April 28th, 2007 7:42 am

    For the record, I do believe that there are enough Bweinh!tributors now to field an entire wiffle ball squad and even have a utility man.

    But we would need to have a name for ourselves, maybe the winner of the battle of the bands. And then we could play another evangelical web site’s staff.

    The Household gods versus ya know, whatever

  3. dsweetgoober on April 28th, 2007 10:46 am

    I love wiffle ball but we would have to play in a virtual environment because we are so spread out. Virtual Wiffle Ball League…hmmm.

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