7/8 7/12 7/13 7/13 7/13 7/13 7/13 7/27 7/27 7/27 7/27 7/27 8/2 8/3 8/3 8/9 8/9 8/16 8/23
FS 3|3 FS 0|0 HB 0|2 BW 0|4 EL 1|1 ON 0|0 IS 0|13 EL 1|1 IS 0|0 WW 0|0 ON 3|0 KF 6|3 KF 0|1|0 FS 0 BW 1|2 EL 1|2 R★ 2 BW 0 The
WW 0|0 WA 1|1 KF 1|3 KF 1|10 HB 0|0 WA 3|3 WO 11|8 WA 0|2 WA 3|3 ON 3|3 WW 1|1 WO 0|0 EL 4|0|1 BW 2 WA 0|1 BW 0|0 G★ 0 EL 2 Thrill

|\/\/| Crowns |\/\/|



First, the unveiling! Ladies and other ladies, your WSEM Championship Trophy. I debated whether to link that full frontal shot in this post, or just leave you with a few more teaser previews - like the one Carl dropped on Facebook yesterday - and save the big unveiling for when it is given to the Git R' Done guys. Alas, I cannot help myself. The trophy is amazing; it has to be shown it off!


Golden wiffleball and cup atop the WSEM Championship Trophy.

The trophy will be held onto by the WSEM champions until the next Championship Series when it will be passed onto the next champion. The front of the base will hold a plate with the reigning champion team. Past champions will be honored with small plates working their way around the sides and back of the base. Displaced champions can keep their former front-plate to either remember the better days, or provide visual kindling to their fire to reclaim the rest of the trophy. Joel Crozier did an amazing job getting this done for us. The little details - league and team logos on the plates, player names, etc. - are a great touch. The size is huge selling point; this trophy actually takes up the space worthy of the WSEM Championship. Great job, Joel, and thanks a lot for the effort!

While we are talking about Crozier, address your attention to the bottom of the page for a second. [Ctrl + End, read, then come back. I will give you a few seconds to do that.] Joel has been running the WWA for years, with a similar story and sort-of success that Carl and I had before our 2010 campaign. In addition to the trophy, soon-to-be-done Handies, and writing an article on The Skinny for his team already, he has also launched this page for the WWA. Obviously, not only does he like the hell out of the game of Wiffle, he also enjoys working on and playing around with all of the fun Wiffle-adjacent stuff - the stuff that kicks ass. (Check out the dimensions and features of the Wifflegrounds on the WWA site if you need more proof of kickass-osity.) He is the kind of guy Carl and I think can take this over and run with the effort, passion, and humor that we put into it come the day when the two of us inevitably become crotchety old coots (queue the "you mean like last June?" jokes). Hence the "Crown Prince."

One last note: starting on 12/12 scheduling will open, and you can begin setting the weeks in which you want to play certain teams/series. The 2012 regular season will run 14 weeks, from April 27th through July 30th, and again be 28 games: 4 vs. each opponent. Remember if you want your games, team, and players to be gotten on film, hyped up, and to get the whole range of the Wiffle experience, then you need to schedule in advance. With the pitching rotation in effect this coming season, there may also be some strategic benefit to it as well.

Wiffy Awards and National Teams

First, just a bit of housekeeping. The links to team pages have changed, making it easier for you to direct people to your pages. This comes with the side effect, however, of any link in a news post or article prior to the announcement of the All-WSEM teams on 8/21 now going to an out of date page. Team Tuesdays are the only articles on the Skinny to have been updated. So, be aware of that and just try to avoid links in old posts.


Now, the real news! The NWLA has announced the winners of their Wiffy Awards and National Team honorees for the 2012 season. WSEM has sparse representation in the Wiffy's with just one man and one team getting a nod. Quick, can you guess who the man is? I'll give you a few seconds...


A couple more...


Congratulations, Dennis Pearson on being named Strikeout King of the Year! Obviously, Dennis's numbers are well deserving of that title - racking up 233 Ks during the season, and a whopping 144 more in the playoffs! Even those numbers could not contend for the Pitcher of the Year honor, though, with Brian Rensch of the KWL never allowing a run and striking out 161 in eight games pitched. Running down that list you see a lot of amazing talent for us to try to live up to. Our second Wiffy belongs to the Belgian Wiffles for their syrupy good Team Nickname of the Year.

WSEM fares much better when it comes to representation on the National Teams, with eight players filling ten spots. Dennis Pearson and Cliff Comstock are both named as 1st Team Pitchers, and Mike Constanti as a 2nd Team Pitcher. Joey DeLano received a nod as a 1st Team Hitter, while Dennis Pearson got his second notch as a 2nd Team Hitter. The nation loves our gloves soft hands, giving out 4 fielder spots to WSEM players: Joey DeLano gets his second 1st Team nod, Ryan Bullard and Danny Johnson snag spots on the 2nd Team, and Chad Hoppe on the 3rd Team. Rounding out WSEM's spots on the national teams is Nick Snow getting rookie love, being named a 2nd Team Rookie.

With that we can pretty much put 2011 in the "history" bin, and start moving on with the 2012 season. Expect the rest of the page to turn over the way Teams and Standings have, and the ramp up to next season to begin churning by the end of December.