Welcome the Jason Mattseals

A 6 feet 7 inches, 245 lb power forward, Jason Maxiell was selected by the Pistons with the 26th pick in the first round of the 2005 NBA Draft. He attended Newman Smith High School in Carrollton, Texas. During his career at the University of Cincinnati, where he was coached by Bob Huggins, Jason earned All-Conference USA Second Team honors. He led Conference USA in blocked shots (2.8 bpg) and ranked 18th in the nation. His 91 blocks are the second-highest University of Cincinnati single-season total. He averaged 17.3 points in three postseason games and shot .607 from the field. Posted 22 points (8-of-11 shooting), nine rebounds and six blocks in NCAA Tournament opening round win vs. Iowa. Recorded a career-high eight blocks to go with 14 points and 10 rebounds vs. Houston. Scored a career-high 30 points and tallied seven blocks vs. Longwood. Tied his career with 15 rebounds and recorded 21 points and five blocks vs. Northern Iowa.

Maxiell finished 11th on Cincinnati's career scoring list with 1,566 points (13th in Conference USA history) and second on the Cincinnati career chart for blocked shots with 252 (4th in Conference USA). He played 129 consecutive games, the second-longest streak in Bearcats' history, and started the last 77 contests.

Maxiell is drawing comparisons with former Pistons forward Rick Mahorn due to his burly size and ability to create inside presence.[citation needed]

On October 30, 2008, Maxiell agreed to a four year, $20 million deal. - wikipedia

On a related note:

On March 30th, 2011 the Jason Mattseals agreed to be and were officially accepted as the final, 8th and final WSEM franchise for the 2011 season! We have been talking with some of their players for months about playing, and have been doing so intensively over the past week. Some of you will remember Jason Matt, half of the inspiration for his team's namesake, from the "Winter" Meeting. His presence was a big step in getting their franchise approved, as have been the steadily positive reports and feedback from team captain, Imran Kakli, on assembling a solid, committed lineup. Fun Fact: while many teams in WSEM have assistant captains on their roster donning an 'A', only the Jason Mattseals have an 'A' that stands for the title of Admiral. While their team name and logo are all in good fun, don't let your guard down around the these 'seals; what they may lack in wiffleball experience they make up for plentifully with competitive drive and athleticism. Everybody welcome the Jason Mattseals to the WSEM hunt for success and the championship! ... And Commandos, maybe now we can kick off Opening weekend on 4/29 with a Friday night special featuring our two teams fresh to the WSEM game?

P.S. MLB Season starts tomorrow! Who's wet themselves? And how many times?

Seasons Change, we Recap Things

The "Winter" Meeting went off without a hitch last night. Representatives were present from all eight teams, including the prospective final franchise, and the anticipation and excitement can be seen building in every clubhouse. No fights, some decisions, good communication, clarification on who will have fields and an idea of when teams' players will be available, an issue regarding the June All-star Tournament format that we'll find a way to work out with everyone's interests in mind, and the match-ups were set for the second day of "Opening Weekend" on Sunday 5/1; following suit with the Hoppe's tri-meet format from the day before, the Squirrels, Belgian Wiffles, and Ass Kickers will square off in a tri-meet of their own at Constanti Field Sunday afternoon. I'm sure there's a lot else I'm leaving out... I think someone bowled a strike... but I honestly can't remember. It's great to see all these guys together and really get the feel for this season so close to starting up!

Bean balls in full force,
just south of center mass

On that note, Git r' Done hosted a Spring Training scrimmage today with members of the Squirrels and Belgian Wiffles. Not gonna lie, a lot of rust, especially on the bats, but the offense came around as we got deeper into the three and a half hours. The pitching picked up pretty solidly and seemed to not miss a beat, if only needing to build back up the stamina: accuracy and speed seemed right where they should be for this time of year, and for 35 degree temperatures. Chris Lewis of the Belgian Wiffles had a great first outing pitching a wiffleball, showing off a very nice deflating riser and a slider with a lot of cut. Dennis Pearson of Git r' Done brought the heat. A lot's been said about his speed, but he can bring it. He was clocked in the mid-sixties on most pitches, but dialed a few up to 69 mph with some wicked movement, nearly teleporting at times. In warmer weather and less sleeves I don't think there's any doubt he'll be pushing for the mid-70s. Absolutely unequivocally: defensive swings, bean balls/body shots, and welts were the stars of the show.

UPDATE: Threw together a promo video for our inaugural season (and the better play to come with it!) from the Spring
Training clips and photos; rusty play aside, this pretty much gets the gist of us, right?... Let's get acquainted!

"Winter" Meeting reminder

Tomorrow, Saturday March 26th, we will be holding the 2011 WSEM "Winter" Meeting at Carl's house, 21932 Chipmunk Trail, in Woodhaven. We'll go over details of the upcoming season, open it up to discussion to hear any of your ideas/questions, take a vote on an "up in the air" idea or two, hand out binders with all of the information and materials you'll need throughout the summer, and get the anticipation building even more. Trash talk will likely slip in with jokes, jabs, quips, slams, some bragging, mockery, side bets, and sordid comments from the peanut gallery. After we're done with the business, we'll hit the town (a bowling alley or BWW's kinda place, that has something for everyone), continue dishing out the smack talk and hype, and have some fun with our comrades in plastic athletics.

Hope to see the cocky, excited looks on your faces there!

NWLA St. Patty's Predictions

The National Wiffle League Association has posted its St. Patty's Predictions. Six of the NWLA columnists browsed through all of the leagues' websites looking at W-L records, rosters/stats, ranked lists, our own predictions, etc. to try to determine who looks to be the favorites in each league. They have all, now, submitted their predictions for champion and runner-up, so check out which WSEM teams the six prognosticators from around the country like to play for our championship this August in the included image, or here at the link: http://nationalwiffleballrankings.com/11Stenson2011PattyPrediction.htm



If you haven't noticed or visited the banner link at the bottom of this page, the NWLA brings together a meeting of the minds of wiffleball talent and wiffle enthusiasts from about 35 leagues from all over the country. They run columns that are often amusing and occasionally even informative, post a weekly top 50 ranking of the country's teams throughout the year, and talk shop (and shit) on the message board. Definitely worth taking a look at.

Happy Spring! Get ready for the "Winter Meeting"

Okay. So, maybe we should have strayed from MLB terminology and called it our "Spring Meeting." But whatever you want to call it, this Saturday at 8pm at 21932 Chipmunk Trail in Woodhaven WSEM is having our meeting to get everyone familiar with one another, on the same page, and in full swing for our inaugural season. We'll go over details of the season and game play, hand out binders with all the league info, and vote on a few final decisions, but knowing us, it won't be all business; we'll make it fun and hit the town to hang out after. By the way, WSEM Opening Day is just 40 days away!

On that note: Opening Day, April 30th, will be celebrated with a "tri-meet" between the Wiffling DeLoppes, Git 'r Done, and the Westside Warriors hosted by Chad Hoppe in Monroe. Each team will play a 2-game series against each opponent. There's a lot to be excited about here with the rivalry between the Warriors and Git 'r Done taking center stage in the chatter around the league. As if the first wiffleball games of the season aren't enough reason to be counting down the days, we're now going to have fireworks from these guys to go along with it!

Lastly, to celebrate Spring being upon us, the first profile for one of our 2011 fields has been started for The Drey, the 2011 home of the Flying Squirrels. It will be updated as progress is made. Any of you who are building a field, when you have a name and a general idea of the layout, dimensions, or any weird quirks you're going to work in get that info to us, and we will get your field's profile started, as well.

Happy Spring! Hope to see you at the Winter Meeting, and don't forget to get your team in the Spring Preseason Tournament on April 16th!

An End of a Series, a Beginning of the Build

The Flying Squirrels are dialed up for this week's Team Tuesday. With any luck you'll find this to be a high note for Team Tuesdays, as this is the last in the series; you'll notice the 8th team slot is once again vacated for the 2011 season. More about that here. So, with these out of the way, starting next week, probably on Wednesdays, Your Junk my Happy Zone will start churning out regular material. Hopefully you look forward to that change of pace, because I know I will; a lot of fun to come!

In site news: you'll notice the new link tab at the top of the page, "Fields." Right now it has dimensions, details, and some words about the philosophy and work that went into the two fields at B.M.S. last year: Southfield and Pitcher's Park. We'll add the 2011 fields as information on them becomes available and clear, then will provide updates on the profiles for the new fields as they come together.

Magnificent Seven

WSEM and the Johnny III Truckers have parted ways. Their guys had second thoughts about committing to the drive from Linden and West Bloomfield, and after considering a couple possibilities to minimize their mileage we were incapable of coming to an agreement on a solution that was in both of our best interests. WSEM is not comfortable splitting the league into divisions in our inaugural season: we want each team to play a schedule with the same competition, get the same experience, and most importantly develop a comradery and unity across the league. Dividing the league before everyone has that experience with our game would run the very real risk of the two divisions beginning to call rules differently, skew the game play in different ways, and result in the the divisions growing apart from each other... quite literally "dividing" the league. We did consider expanding to 10 teams, to accommodate the northern teams with more series close to home, and some southern teams offered to play a couple series up there to bring their mileage even lower.

Our final decision to stick with the 8 team, 28 game* season, and 3-round playoff came because that plan has been carefully put together since November, checking with other leagues around the country, and has been determined to be the most viable format for a first year league to be successful. To change our game plan this close to preseason activities would be a rash, impulsive decision that would result in confusion, likely mistakes, and a detrimental experience that would be unfair to those of you who have committed to playing with us this year, and those of you who have been wiffling with us over the last two years. Giving you players the best wiffleball playing experience we can is our first priority. Now, that the 8th team slot is open again, filling that team slot is not a move we can afford to make in an act of desperation; it must be a move that improves the quality and competition of Wiffle in Southeast Michigan.

* The number of games may be adjusted at the winter meeting, based on a vote of the players after.

Squirrels to Fly in Second Shipment of Coffee

As the caliber of talent on teams across the league continues to rise, the Flying Squirrels have made another part-time addition to their roster. Nick Coffee will be available in the outfield for the Squirrels mid-season when he returns from south Florida. An original Lugnut and Downriver Wiffle star, as well as brother of WSEM commissioner and Squirrels' captain, Carl Coffee, Nick brings a true power bat to the lineup and has ridiculous speed in the outfield. Pairing him with John McKinnie will give the Squirrels' top-flight range across their outfield, making it a tough challenge for opponents to find a gap to place the ball in. To sum up: the Squirrels already stingy defense just got as tight as ** lewd comment removed at publisher's discretion **

Nick at bat for the Lugnuts in the 2005 Flag Day Tournament

New DeLoppes Logo, Pitchers-no-Catchers Site Set

The Wiffling DeLoppes have a new logo. Okay, so it's a slight reworking of the former Downriver Wiffle logo in black and grey. It features the familiar minimalistic wiffleball and bat forming a 'lower case d,' with the holes in the ball representing a 'w.' The DeLoppes have been playing with us since Downriver Wiffle first used the logo in 2009, and Chad Hoppe has since stepped up and helped out in a big way with making a wiffleball league in this area possible; they are a team well deserving of taking up the mantle, and we are happy to have them carry the identity into the future and that it won't be forgotten in the back of the archives.

2011 Wiffling DeLoppes logo

Chad of the DeLoppes has also come forward and offered the use of his yard for Pitchers and Catchers on April 2nd at 3pm. Every pitcher and anyone who's interested in learning something about pitching is invited. Details about the Pitchers and Catchers event can be found in the third paragraph on the Schedule page. So, let Chad or Carl know if you plan on attending and we'll get the address and directions to you.

Guest Stars & the Fantastically Bizarre!

This week's Team Tuesday features Campus Commandos captain, Adam Grant, guest starring to pull back the curtain on his team, how he became acquainted with wiffleball, and what he's looking to get out of the 2011 WSEM season. As it turns out, Adam's wiffle story shares quite a bit in common with commissioner Carl Coffee's wiffle beginnings. I also changed up how the articles are laid out in the right-hand column over there: a little cleaner, easier to browse through, and links to all of the teams' articles will remain conveniently visible.

You may also have noticed over the weekend that a fantasy wiffleball league sprung up over on the Skinny! A lot of people are having fun with this already, and Carl's going to kick it up further this weekend by playing inning by inning simulated games in a single elimination playoff. We have since added a few of the players' best statistics under their selection to give a little definition to the kind of player they are. This way guys who are new to the league, as well as outsiders, can see what it's all about on a little better and be more involved with this ridiculously fantastic experience Carl has given us!

Welcome to the Johnny III Truckers, who thanks to the wonders of technology inked (or pixelized, rather) the deal for the final 2011 WSEM franchise over a distance of 1,746 miles, while one side of the table sat in Marquette, MI and the other in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Don't worry we won't be changing our name to Wiffle in the Eastern United States, and both commissioner Carl Coffee and Truckers' captain John Ingamells IV will be back in southeast Michigan when the wiffling commences. Like the team from Manchester who briefly occupied the 8th slot before them, the Johnny III Truckers are expanding our wiffle footprint in this state. Ingamells is from Linden in southern Genesee County. Again, guys, don't worry he is not planning on building a field using the field he has built in his backyard, so you won't have to make the drive unless you want to take a field trip. Besides, after his trips home from Northern Michigan University, the drive will seem like nothing to John.

We now have players representing five counties: Monroe, Wayne, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Genesee. Truly giving us the rights to the name Wiffle in Southeast Michigan. This is why we changed our name last fall; we wanted to grow, broaden the reach of wiffle, and expand what we are able to do with the game. Now, with our first year's franchise slots filled, we can say that we are for sure accomplishing exactly that!

Squirrels Fly Under New Flag in 2011

The Flying Squirrels have updated their look for the 2011 season. The new logo remains focused on the classic squirrel silhouette, but is now set at an angle that further implies flight and forward movement, as well as the form of an "S" with the arching tail. The brown and blue colors representing earth and sky, hard fought runs and long flies, also remain to symbolize the performance and dedication of the Squirrels' roster. The layout of the script resonates with both the past and future of the franchise: one acorn dotting the "i" behind the squirrel represents the past championship, while the acorn above the "i" in front of the leaping squirrel represents the future championship goals of the team. In the spirit of the club's goals the Squirrels also introduce the secondary "Go Nuts!" acorn logo as a visionary emblem for the championships they aim to accomplish.

You can view the Squirrels' 2011 primary, alternate, and script logos below, at a larger size, along with the 2010 logo for comparison, or on the team page where their logo and banner have been updated.

(click for larger)
2011 Primary

2011 Alternates & Script

2010 Primary