Farewell Squirrels; 8 Teams Move into 2013

It is with sorrow in my heart that I make this announcement, but also confidence in what is to come. Due to availability concerns from many team members the Flying Squirrels franchise, one of the originals with us since 2009, has folded. Despite a 30-26 record in league play the Squirrels were often seen as our flagship team. Their best success came at the first WSEM event, after the name change from Downriver Wiffle, when they won the September 2010 tournament. The Squirrels may no longer be part of league play, but they will remain with us as our team that travels down to London, OH every summer for that wonderful tournament.

The dissolution of the Squirrels is not all somber, either. The players are now on the free agent market, which increases the talent pool and will serve to strengthen the remaining teams and improve parity in WSEM. Carl and Nick Coffee, as well as Matt Murtha have already signed with King Friday. While against Capt. Hurd's 2012 "rookies only" policy, the addition of these long-time Wiffle vets to a roster that's figured out the game should make Friday much stronger in 2013. Ryan Bullard and Jason Hewlett are available and looking forward to finding new teams. Adam Cosby and Mike Myers are also available as part-time players. Team rosters are capped at 8: if you need defense, a bat, or pitcher, make any of them an offer (non-monetary, of course).

We will also be moving forward as an 8 team league for the 2013 season. Prospective teams for slot ten have fallen through, time and again, due to waned interest and commitment. Now with a need for 2 (or at least 1.5) new teams, we feel the best decision is to contract and strengthen our existing franchises and league parity. We will continue to use the Garcia and Ringler divisions, which will be drawn at the Winter Meeting, but the schedule will now be balanced as you will play each opponent 4 times. We will also be changing our postseason set up: 4 teams will make it into the WSEM Championship playoffs, while the other 4 go into 'For the Thrill'.

The loss of the Squirrels is tough, but it is very fitting of a founding franchise to go out in a way that will help improve WSEM for the future.

UPDATE (1/19):  Carl and John Hill put together a "Squirrels Retrospective" bonus podcast. You can download it here and listen to them talk about their favorite moments, the brightest stars, and the biggest accomplishments of the franchise.

'Days of the Living Dads' Premiere!

Days of the Living Dads is a behind the scenes movie that follows the Big Wood and Squirrels teams at the NWLA and London tournaments in Ohio in July 2012. A lot more than Wiffleball goes into making tournaments a great experience, and that is pretty much exactly what this movie is about. Run time: 20m 54s.

Big Wood: Players			Squirrels
Austin Bischoff Evan Bortmas Brandon Corbett Sam Hatt Dennis Pearson Alex Shore	P OF/RP OF P DH/RP OF		Ryan Bullard Carl Coffee Nick Coffee Brandon Corbett Dennis Pearson Alex Shore	OF P OF SS DH OF
Big Wood: Coaches			Cameramen
Nick Braden Carl Coffee Nick Coffee Josh Nagorski	Bench/1b Manager 3b 1b/Bench		Brandon Corbett Alex Shore Carl Coffee Josh Nagorski
Music
Electric Six "Escape from Ohio" Kill, 2009 electricsix.com Johnny Headband "Hot Button Topic" Who Cooks For You, 2012 johnnyheadband.com Cold Men Young "We Own the Night" YSBAF, 2012 coldmenyoung.com			Replicas "Ebblike" Singles, 2012 facebook.com/replicas.detroit Tim Pak "Rustbelt Serenade" Dirt Work, 2008 facebook.com/timpakledinaz
Thank You to: Chris Gallaway for financing and putting on the awesome NWLA Tournament! Brian Wheeler for doing an amazing job with London; always a blast! The umpires at NWLA for an outstanding job with a game you just learned existed! The caterers at NWLA for the awesome spread!

Upcoming Things and Website Tweaks

Events are beginning to pick up as we head toward the 2013 season. First, on January 19th we are planning the Slow in the Snow tournament. You can click that link to the Facebook event page for all the details, but it will be a slow-pitch, yellow bat tournament held at the Wiffle Iron. The rules are designed to optimize play for fun in the snow and there will only be two fielders used behind the pitcher to maximize number of teams. If there's no snow on the ground, we'll postpone the tournament until sometime in February.

Prior to "first," January 17th will see the release of Days of the Living Dads, a behind the scenes movie following Big Wood and the Squirrels at the NWLA and London tournaments last July. "A lot more than Wiffleball goes into making tournaments a great experience, and that is pretty much exactly what this movie is about," reads the release notes, and that's just what you can expect. This is not game film; only a few minutes of the 20 minutes 54 seconds run time are from on the field. The movie will be released on the WSEM Youtube page. Another upcoming treat from the Media Department, the next podcast, will be recorded on January 26th; it will feature members of Tampa Bay Wiffleball League, the team single-handedly responsible for eliminating Big Wood from the NWLA tournament.

Then, on February 2nd, the Winter Meeting will take place at the Coffee's apartment in Farmington, MI. As always a representative of each team is encouraged to attend. Unlike past years, however, this meeting will be used to talk over, iron out, and finalize issues for the season. Season length, postseason set up, the ability to steal home, and division alignment are all on the docket for starters, in addition to making sure everyone is familiar with 2013 changes. Final rules, schedules, and details will then be presented at a second meeting held in April.

We are also making a few tweaks to the website in preparation. Team pages have received a minor makeover. The bottom section used to feature nothing more than a Team Tuesday link and blurb. Now, two pieces of media the team has recently shown up in (videos, articles, podcasts, etc.) are featured. These will update regularly, and are displayed alongside a feed from the team's Facebook for the most up to date info.

Looking further ahead, 2013 will feature a new Gameday post set up, derived from that used during the 2012 playoffs. Pregame, the table will feature probable starters, their head shots and incoming records. Then postgame, will switch in the final score, stats from the game, and our new feature, stars of the game. Another related minor change for 2013, the upcoming schedule banner along the top of the home and schedule pages will, from this point forward, link series to Gameday posts instead of team pages.

One more thing, if you are still unaware, we launched player pages in September. They are set up alphabetically, containing team history, career statistics, awards and championships won. Whereas names in lists or articles used to link to their team page, they will now link to their players page. Players pages are also reachable through links in the rosters on team pages.

Other odds-and-ends:  The standings page and standings on the front page will be turned over after divisions are drawn at the Winter Meeting on 2/2. The offseason schedule will continue to display on the schedule page until the Scheduling Meeting is held in April when the weekly season schedule will return, and be updated live from the event.