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.
