74

		Coffee Time
		by Carl Coffee

With this being our inaugural season of Wiffle in Southeast Michigan, we really do not know what to expect. After years of playing pick-up games, traveling across state lines to play in tournaments, and hosting our own tournaments, we have finally made enough wiffle connections to start an actual league. We have seven solid teams who will all be competitive, and with any luck that number will soon be eight. Oh yeah, and we also have a rivalry… Oh, do we have a serious rivalry! Two of our teams are made up entirely of high schoolers, and there is absolutely no love lost between these guys.

Git r’ Done made their debut in our August 2009 tournament and really did not make much of an impression. They went two and out, but still had a blast, got a taste for the game, and kept in touch. They returned the following year and had a shockingly deep run, finishing second at the Rally Around the Flag-a-Palooza tournament in June, making themselves a threat to be reckoned with. The Westside Warriors debuted in that same Flag-a-Palooza tournament and did pretty well, and then finished second at the Hoppe's in September with a three-man roster in their second tournament.

There are a lot of similarities in the teams’ on field successes: Git r’ Done’s 2010 record was 6-7, Westside’s was 7-6, and both have played in and lost a championship game, and boy-oh-boy do they like to throw around talk of their high points and head-to-head escapades. Since both of these teams are filled with Generation Yers, they are very active on the league's facebook page. Dennis Pearson, captain of Git r’ Done made a recent post boasting that he is pitching 74 mph and his pitches are "hittin the strike zone" and that post has produced an amazing string of 100 comments! Alex Shore and rookie Tom Heffernan of the Warriors led the charge to dispute Dennis's claims. Shore quickly stated, “last time I checked that 74 mph pitch was in the dirt and you issued more walks (than) the three day march for breast cancer,” and one of Tom’s first lashings, “I’m jackin two out on you. Don't worry I’ll watch for you hanging your head when I’m trotting around the bases.” Dennis held his ground: “don’t worry (you) won’t be able to hit it and it’s gunna be strike out city… (we’ll) see when (I’m) blowin it right pass (you) make (you) look stupid,” and Dennis even threw down a gauntlet for the Warriors, “don’t worry. If it’s against (you) guys (I’ll) make sure I pitch the whole day.” It has been incredibly entertaining to watch the rivalry build up, and many other league members have chimed in. Michael Constanti of the Ass Kickers shrugged off Dennis’s confidence mockingly, “bring that shit to my kitchen and (I’ll) put that in the train tracks at Constanti Field.” DeLoppes captain, Chad Hoppe, digs the enthusiasm, “I love how the West Side/ Git r’ Done rivalry didn’t miss a beat.... The damn season hasn't even started yet!” The back-and-forth trash talk between the younger teams has really started to ramp up the excitement for the start of the season.

A scene from the genesis of the Westside Warriors /
Git r' Done rivalry on field at the 2010 Flag-a-Palooza

Just what else, tangible, has this rivalry produced for the league, you ask? Well, Git r’ Done and the Westside Warriors are now scheduled to kick off the regular season on April 30th at Chad Hoppe’s field. Chad has proposed hosting a tri-meet, which will also include the DeLoppes, with each team playing two games against each other. Even though I am sure that the Warriors and Git r' Done will meet at the preseason tournament on April 16th, I still cannot wait to watch these guys play on opening day. In fact, the whole WSEM front office is opting out of playing on opening day to take in these three series and whatever fallout comes from them. WSEM Sec. of Defense, Brandon Corbett, issued a memo to me with this message, “April 30th, whatever time: I'm bringing peanuts, some choice adult beverages, kicking back and will be thrilled to watch these games go down! Carl, forewarning, even if it is opening day of the season, I'm taking 4/30 off as a vacation day,” and I agree one-hundred percent with his request!

So, as the founder and co-commissioner of this league, as well as captain of a squad, I for one am very excited to have such a heated rivalry in our ranks already. It is easily the number one storyline in the league going into the season, and I can't wait to see how it all pans out. Who do I think has the better team? Gun to my head, I would say the Warriors, but if Dennis has dialed in his accuracy, then he has the ability to be a star and change that prediction. There you have it, folks! Rivalries! Nothing else like them! The MLB has Red Sox/Yankees, college football has OSU/UofM, college basketball has Duke/UNC, and the WSEM has Warriors/Git r’ Done!

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Carl Coffee

Flying Squirrels, 18, SS

Commissioner, League's Counselor, and all around Cool Guy

Team Tuesdays: Git r' Done

Git r' Done is one of Wiffle in Southeast Michigan’s youngest teams by age, but are also one of the teams that has been competing with us the longest. First appearing on the wiffle scene in Downriver Wiffle’s August 15th, 2009 Fast Pitch Tournament, they have since played in both 2010 Downriver Wiffle tournaments with different lineups on each occasion. The core of the team, Dennis Pearson, Dylan Braden, and Nick Braden, however, has been in the lineup at each tournament and has made great strides toward being strong contenders. On the field Git r' Done has developed strong rivalries with both the Ass Kickers and Westside Warriors, and off the field their search for a visual identity has resulted in the first behind the scenes controversy between teams in the upstart WSEM.

After a disappointing 0-2 showing in the double elimination tournament in 2009 Git r' Done came back and put on a showcase of offensive power that catapulted them into the Rally Around the Flag-a-Palooza championship in June [stats: batting, pitching]. Coming out of the losers’ bracket they defeated the Kickass Team (now Newport Ass Kickers), who had beaten them in the first round, in game one forcing a final showdown between the two teams. Kickass and Git r' Done had faced three times prior with Git r' Done having won a round-robin game and now holding a 2-1 series lead. Kickass would come back, however, quiet the now tired Git r' Done’s bats, and win the championship in the final low-scoring game.

Still, they showed tremendous progress as a team and came away with something to brag about: going from 0-2 to 5 wins and playing for a championship – a championship that was lost only on the timing of the wins in a 2-2 series tie. So, going into the September tournament expectations were high and pitchers were looking for ways to limit Git r' Done’s newfound offensive prowess. Perhaps  they were bitten by a familiar gremlin, though, as Git r' Done followed up their 5-2 runner-up finish with a 1-4 showing after playing in an extra-inning slugfest that lasted over an hour and fifteen minutes in round-robin play against the Westside Warriors. They seemed to again run out of gas after this effort the same way they had after forcing the final game in the Flag-a-Palooza championship. Possibly the more critical thing to come out of the marathon game, though, is the heating up of a rivalry between the two young teams.

Git r' Done has become a lightning rod for rivalry and controversy both on the field and off. Recently while trying to create a visual identity in anticipation of WSEM’s inaugural season, Git r' Done’s selection of the Confederate Flag as their logo made many around the league uncomfortable, including in the league’s front office. Apprehensively a compromise was reached, and a modified flag with wiffleballs substituted for the stars was uploaded to the website. The front page blurb announcing the logo included this statement, “(Git r' Done has chosen) a logo that might make them WSEM's team people love to hate, like the Yankees, though not at all like Yankees.” The expectation was that players would use their disdain for the divisive symbol as extra determination to beat Git r' Done on the field. However, the WSEM Facebook immediately started buzzing with ranging levels of dissatisfaction with the use of politically charged emblem: from lighthearted, sarcastic jabs to discussion of why use the flag and whether it should be allowed, and even some players expressing their desire not to play in games that would associate them with the Confederate symbol.

Controversial logo used from 1/30/2011-1/31/2011

The controversy peaked less than twenty-four hours after the posting of the logo, and Captain Dennis Pearson chose to have the logo removed and begin a search for a new team identity. Pearson expressed that something such as a logo or symbol isn’t nearly as important as playing the game and having fun. “I don’t want people not playin’ against us just because of our logo … I want everybody to play and be fair,” he calmly stated. The WSEM front office responded to the incident by giving Git r' Done a temporary red, white, and blue retro “GRD wiffleball” logo (seen above), and instituting a “standards and common sense” mentality to govern over team names and logos, since image is important for the league’s standing in the community and with future sponsors. It is unclear whether Git r' Done will play as Git r' Done in 2011, now, or if they will select a new moniker for their third year.

Back where every team decision plays a more important role, on the field, Git r' Done heats things up just as much. All three of the core members will take the mound and are solid, competent, and capable pitchers. They won’t light up the world with records, but they don’t need to; they have their offense to do that. They can put up 5 runs or more runs and with error-free defense and solid pitching that is enough to win frequently, if not consistently. Gaige Braden played in 2009 and will return to the lineup full time this 2011 season. Joining him on the roster are Josh Roberts, who played in a limited role at the September 2010 tournament, and Chris Barta. In the sea of potential, progress, and power Git r' Done has, consistency is the one big question mark. No matter what the 2011 season holds for the young, talented team of Git r' Done, they have already made a terrific mark on Wiffle in Southeast Michigan, both on and off the field.

Team Page: http://wiffleinsemiteams.blogspot.com/p/thunder-ducks.html

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Brandon M. Corbett
Flying Squirrels, 17, P
Co-Commissioner,
Secretary of Defense