First of all, my Duncowing crew (a group of us who used to unite on Duncowing drive in the neighborhood of Cherry Heights in Clay, New York) met so we could have Wiffle Ball tournaments every summer. We taped a square on a fence to secure a strike zone and played derby style of two outs per team before sides changed. A grounder stopped infield was an out, as was a strike-out and a pop fly in any boundary. We didn't run bases. Instead, the rules were bound to locations we determined for singles, doubles, triples, and home runs.
We adapted this game in the pool, creating determinant spaces to allot a particular hit. We also made up a sliding game where we'd toss a Wiffle Ball into the pool and then leap into a pool to reach a food towards a soaked shirt residing at the bottom.
Why does this matter? Well, Connecticut, because the Wiffeball was invented by David N. Mullany in his home in Fairfield, Connecticut where I currently teach. The year was 1953 and it resulted from a curve ball he would throw with his invention that "whiffed" out the batter.
Nathan Stolz, who I played regularly throughout my twenties and thirties in mini-tournaments in my parents' yard (to the chagrin of my father and how we flattened areas of his grass, would be impressed by this trivia. I now teach at the university located in the same town of the game's invention. That is trivia as spectacular as the Pez dispenser. I am thankful to Emily Leventhal for visiting my office last week and sharing this knowledge.
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