Broken Bat

Although it was well worth it, three out of the four participants stopped having fun, and the Whiffle Ball League ended when JJ struck out, slammed the bat against the ground and broke it in two. A league that began as a fun way to play a little ball, with easy pitching, copious home runs, home run songs, and not much hustle, turned into some much more competitive somewhere before the halfway mark. Although home runs were still important, the race to the two-team World Series was the key driving factor. The increased amount of curve balls from me, and the increased speed on Bonz's pitches drove T-time to claim he hated the league. I of course was still enjoying it because my Yankees were in first and Mark Teixeira was still in the chase for top home run hitter.

On the final day of competition, I increased my hustle in the field and on the basepath. This immediately made JJ go nuts because my team had already clinched a spot in the World Series. After pulling off the best defensive play of the year (faking the throw home to get Jayj to run to second and then tagging him), JJ threw his usual hissy fit, claiming that was such a garbage play. After giving his team the run, me and Bonz went on to win that game anyway and give the Sox a chance to catch the Mets and put them into a one game playoff. As our number of balls went down from six to two, the play became ridiculously tough, as a normal at bat is around ten to 15 pitches (with mine and Bonz's horrendous pitching). It got to the point where T-time was sitting down in the outfield during an at bat. In the second to last game of the season with my Yanks beating JJ's Mets, JJ struck out and slammed the bat against the ground, breaking it into two pieces. Because no store in the world sells these fantastic nerf bats that are regulation baseball size, the league had to end with the Yankees at the top of the standings and Big Tex leading the league in home runs. Pretty solid ending.

Standings

Yankees.........4-1
Mets...............3-2
Red Sox..........2-3
Devil Rays.....1-4

Batting

Home Runs

Teixeira (Danny)- 12
Youkilis (Bonz)- 10
Beltran (JJ)- 7
Melky (Bonz)- 6
Crawford (T-time)- 4
Bay (JJ)- 4
Sheffield (Danny)- 4
Pena (Danny)- 4
ARod (JJ)- 4
Upton (Bonz)- 2
Cano (T-time)- 2
Lugo (T-time)- 2

Strikeouts

Crawford (T-time)- 7
Beltran (JJ)- 2
Youkilis (Bonz)- 1
ARod (JJ)- 1
Lugo (T-time)- 1
Longoria (JJ)- 1

Pitching

Putz (Danny)- 3-0
--2 strikeouts...1 blown save...1 complete game
Burnett (Bonz)- 2-0
--4 strikeouts...1 save...2 complete games
Hughes (Danny)- 2-0
--4 strikeouts...1 complete game
Smoltz (JJ)- 1-0
--1 complete game
Lester (Bonz)- 1-2
--3 strikeouts...1 complete game
Masterson (T-time)- 0-1
Shields (JJ)- 0-1
Joba (T-time)- 0-1
Santana (JJ)- 0-2
Price (T-time) 1-3