The Greyhound
Matt Kiebus
Issue date: 10/30/07 Section: Sports
When packing for my freshman year of college the highest priority items on my checklist -- before school supplies, TV and super-cool wall decorations -- were about six fresh, white wiffleballs and a couple brand new wiffleball bats.
Like many others across the country, I developed a love for wiffleball at an early age, playing with neighborhood kids back when the Power Rangers were cool. The sport is thrilling, heartbreaking, and even life changing. Every walk of life can play it -- no matter if you're short or tall, an Olympic athlete or an out-of-shape college student.
While touring colleges before I chose to attend Loyola I saw wiffleballers all over quads, in front of residential halls, in frat houses, in parking lots and on rooftops (not really). If baseball is America's pastime then wiffleball should be college's pastime.
This raises the question: Where have the wiffleballs gone at Loyola? Walking around the Evergreen campus we see green grass everywhere, Frisbees being thrown, overachievers reading whatever overachievers read, and, on good days, girls tanning. It seems Loyola students like to be outside enjoying the seemingly endless perfect fall weather. Yet the classic skinny-yellow bat and perforated-white wiffleballs are nowhere to be seen.
This semester, there were more people trying out for the club badminton team than people playing wiffleball in the last two years. No disrespect to badminton, but it's a shame that wiffleball is heading towards extinction in our small corner of Baltimore.
But there is hope. Hidden near the back entrance to Campion Tower some young freshmen are breathing new life into Loyola's wiffleball lungs. Dan Camargo and Andy Cevasco are roommates from New Jersey, and their love of the game stems from backyard rivalry games with siblings.
"I've been playing wiffleball with my brothers in my backyard since I was 5 years old," Cevasco said. "There are permanent dirt patches at home plate and the pitchers' mound made over the last 14 years. In fact, you can see them from Google Earth.
Like many others across the country, I developed a love for wiffleball at an early age, playing with neighborhood kids back when the Power Rangers were cool. The sport is thrilling, heartbreaking, and even life changing. Every walk of life can play it -- no matter if you're short or tall, an Olympic athlete or an out-of-shape college student.
While touring colleges before I chose to attend Loyola I saw wiffleballers all over quads, in front of residential halls, in frat houses, in parking lots and on rooftops (not really). If baseball is America's pastime then wiffleball should be college's pastime.
This raises the question: Where have the wiffleballs gone at Loyola? Walking around the Evergreen campus we see green grass everywhere, Frisbees being thrown, overachievers reading whatever overachievers read, and, on good days, girls tanning. It seems Loyola students like to be outside enjoying the seemingly endless perfect fall weather. Yet the classic skinny-yellow bat and perforated-white wiffleballs are nowhere to be seen.
This semester, there were more people trying out for the club badminton team than people playing wiffleball in the last two years. No disrespect to badminton, but it's a shame that wiffleball is heading towards extinction in our small corner of Baltimore.
But there is hope. Hidden near the back entrance to Campion Tower some young freshmen are breathing new life into Loyola's wiffleball lungs. Dan Camargo and Andy Cevasco are roommates from New Jersey, and their love of the game stems from backyard rivalry games with siblings.
"I've been playing wiffleball with my brothers in my backyard since I was 5 years old," Cevasco said. "There are permanent dirt patches at home plate and the pitchers' mound made over the last 14 years. In fact, you can see them from Google Earth.
My dad can't even grow grass there it's so worn down."
The majority of the members of our generation played the game at some point in their lives, like when we were carefree, pre-puberty, pre-awkwardness, right around our "cooties" years. Wiffleball has been a tool to teach baseball to children, but it shouldn't be forgotten as we grow older.
"There's a lackluster attitude towards wiffleball here," said a rather upset Camargo, who was proudly wearing a grizzly-bear sweatshirt that he won in a grammar school contest to remind himself to stay young at heart and always have fun. "When the ball wanders foul, people just seem to kick it farther away."
Consider this: All sorts of majors have a direct correlation to wiffleball. Physics majors can ponder the gravity defying pitches. Finance majors can discuss the outrageous contracts that superstar wiffleball players are now receiving. Communications majors can practice the art of communicating with their teammates. And classics majors can -- well, OK, maybe not all majors.
Wiffleball is a relatively safe sport for healthy people ages 2-102. There have not been any known fatalities suffered in wiffleball, except the Krakow conflict of 1732, but that is a whole other story (which involves sex, drugs, and international intrigue). For all of you pacifists out there, wiffleball is for you!
Party animals, wiffleball can be played no matter your stage of inebriation. You can't say the same thing about hockey, downhill slalom, or curling.
Now some people think that wiffleball is not important; that there are world issues we should worry about more than the lack of wiffleball on campus. Al Gore (inventor of the Internet) thinks we should worry about global warming. The late Mother Teresa said to feed the hungry and spread God's love.
Here's a compromise: Let's start making a better world right here at Loyola by reviving wiffleball. Why not be a man or woman for others and enjoy the great weather -- while our glaciers melt -- and pick up a wiffleball and bat ($4.24 at Amazon.com) and practice hitting those swooping curveballs? Don't let wiffleball become another great sport that falls by the wayside like Jai-Alai and fly-fishing.
The majority of the members of our generation played the game at some point in their lives, like when we were carefree, pre-puberty, pre-awkwardness, right around our "cooties" years. Wiffleball has been a tool to teach baseball to children, but it shouldn't be forgotten as we grow older.
"There's a lackluster attitude towards wiffleball here," said a rather upset Camargo, who was proudly wearing a grizzly-bear sweatshirt that he won in a grammar school contest to remind himself to stay young at heart and always have fun. "When the ball wanders foul, people just seem to kick it farther away."
Consider this: All sorts of majors have a direct correlation to wiffleball. Physics majors can ponder the gravity defying pitches. Finance majors can discuss the outrageous contracts that superstar wiffleball players are now receiving. Communications majors can practice the art of communicating with their teammates. And classics majors can -- well, OK, maybe not all majors.
Wiffleball is a relatively safe sport for healthy people ages 2-102. There have not been any known fatalities suffered in wiffleball, except the Krakow conflict of 1732, but that is a whole other story (which involves sex, drugs, and international intrigue). For all of you pacifists out there, wiffleball is for you!
Party animals, wiffleball can be played no matter your stage of inebriation. You can't say the same thing about hockey, downhill slalom, or curling.
Now some people think that wiffleball is not important; that there are world issues we should worry about more than the lack of wiffleball on campus. Al Gore (inventor of the Internet) thinks we should worry about global warming. The late Mother Teresa said to feed the hungry and spread God's love.
Here's a compromise: Let's start making a better world right here at Loyola by reviving wiffleball. Why not be a man or woman for others and enjoy the great weather -- while our glaciers melt -- and pick up a wiffleball and bat ($4.24 at Amazon.com) and practice hitting those swooping curveballs? Don't let wiffleball become another great sport that falls by the wayside like Jai-Alai and fly-fishing.
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