It's Wiffin' Season!

Played some solid w-ball on Sundy, in honor of our fallen soldiers.

We played this version under which, instead of keeping track of imaginary baserunners, you have to actually run on a hit and then get an increasing number of points for each base you get to safely; fielders throw the runner out by getting the ball back to the mound with the runner off-base.

It makes playing with more than two people easier because each person has their own score, and you don't have to worry about teams or anything. And the get-the-ball-to-the-mound dynamic introduces some of the interesting parts of baseball that are left out from the wiffle rules I've played under before: for example, if the pitcher runs to field a grounder, one of the other players on defense needs to cover the mound to get the out; and it actually becomes advantageous to throw pitches that will be hit for grounders that will be fielded for an out, whereas under the official rules it's often better to go for a fly out.

We also played using the softball ("king") size wiffle ball, which was not as weird as I had anticipated. It actually seemed to curve better than the baseball size, though maybe it was just that the larger size made the motion more visible. It's definitely easier to jam a finger in one of the holes (nullus) to throw a changeup, though. In any case, I had some success with the changeup/changeup combo, and with throwing a curve for a groundout, though my slider was as hittable as ever.

I haven't been watching baseball!

Looking at my blog posts, it appears that it's been eleven days since I've even caught a game on TV! I have been txting up a storm when I remember that a game is on, but there's just been so many social things going on, and in such good weather, that I haven't sat down to enjoy a broadcast in almost two weeks. I think hanging out with real people in real life has got to trump watching imaginary people play a game on television, so no regrets.

Maybe I will try to view the Mets/Phillies game this evening, perhaps after visiting the gym or going for a post-work bike ride (I'm supposed to be training for a century ride that's coming up). And it looks like I will at least get to see the Cyclones host the Yankees in a day game on Labor Day. The NY-Penn season is almost over! I wonder if playoff tickets will be gettable...it looks like Staten Island is going to take the Wild Card.