2020 Drop 100: Introduction

I was lucky enough to have my dad coach several of my youth baseball teams growing up. He understands the game and was a solid strategist as a coach, but where he really made a mark was the way he looked after and encouraged every single member of the team. He was adept at instilling confidence in his players. Perhaps too good at points.

One summer, a player on our team badly injured his leg in a pre-season inter-squad scrimmage when he barreled into a teammate while attempting to score. This kid was not a good player and had little in the way of baseball instincts (as evidenced by his ill-advised decision to shoulder tackle his own teammate during a practice game). He was slow and a not a natural athlete, but he had some size to him and occasionally got ahold of a ball in batting practice. Recognizing how upset the guy was over missing the first half of the season, my dad tried to lift his spirits by constantly mentioning how we were going to miss his bat in the lineup and how we couldn’t wait to have one of our “best players” back.

My dad was so consistent with providing this encouragement, that other players on the team began to believe those things and repeat them as fact. Come the halfway mark of the season – when it was time for the players on our team to vote for our All-Star representatives – the injured player received many votes despite having not played in a game and just not being very good. In the end, he didn’t make the All-Star team, but he nearly beat out several more productive players. It was both a testament to my dad’s encouragement and a reminder of the power of mythologizing.

Coaches like my dad – who made being uplifting and encouraging his players a priority – are especially important in baseball where constant failure is inevitable. When coaching, he had an anecdote he would use whenever a player was upset about striking out in a big situation or was frustrated with the frequency in which he or she struck out.

“Do you know which player holds the all-time record for striking out the most times?”, he would ask. Dad would pause for just a second – I don’t think I ever saw a kid even venture a guess – before answering his own question. “Reggie Jackson,” he would say. “And he’s in the Hall of Fame.” 

The lesson of course being that one act of failure – or 2,597 of them in Reggie’s case – does not define you and that in most cases you cannot succeed if you are not willing to accept the inevitable failures that come along with it.

So, what does any of this have to do with fast pitch competitive Wiffle®Ball and The Drop 100?

The impetus for The Drop 100 was my personal frustration with the fractured and siloed nature of competitive Wiffle®Ball. Specifically, there were two harmful notions that – at least in my view – were far too prevalent. The first being an unhealthy defensive attitude towards any different style of play or even just different an organization other than yours, regardless of style. The second being a less pervasive but nonetheless non-helpful attitude that only one tournament a year mattered. The common thread being an attitude that some players and organizations inherently matter, while others inherently do not.

Nate Cruz (AWAA Blue Kamikazes) gets lose in the on-deck circle during an NWLA Tournament game. (September 20, 2020; photo credit: Dan Potter)

What began as an idea to write about notable player stories and performances from all over – as a means of sharing what I was learning by watching and paying attention outside my bubble – eventually morphed into the idea of a fast pitch Player of the Year award, which then in turn became the Drop 100.

It was a catch-22 – attempting to compare players from all over when the deeply rooted separation and division made direct (or even 1st or 2nd removed indirect) comparisons difficult. A lack of comps immediately became an issue. Of the players on the list in 2018, only TWO – Ryan Bush and Tom Gannon – played in a fast pitch league (Palisades for both), the NWLA Tournament, and the Fast Plastic Texas Open. Only two other players – Jimmy Cole and Brice Clark – competed at both the NWLA Tournament and Fast Plastic that year. A lot of people had strong opinions about who the good players and organizations were and weren’t. When it came to supporting those opinions with actions, there was almost no movement, however. You largely played either here or there without much in the way of crossover.

A lot has changed in that regard between the initial 2018 Drop 100 and the 2020 version. There are many players that deserve enormous credit for taking the not-so-easy steps to make the Wiffle®Ball world a less divided place.

One of those steps involves accepting possible failure as a cost of competing. Like my dad reminded me and the other kids on the teams he coached, some level of failure is almost always attached to great successes. When it comes to competitive Wiffle®Ball, you can chirp away and never even try to back up your words. You will avoid failure, but you will also place a limit on your potential success. Or you can step in the batter’s box and accept that you may strikeout more than anyone has ever struck out before or since, but in the process of doing so you might also end up 14th on the all-time home run list.

Gerard Fitzgerald (The Lot) circles the bases after hitting a home run in a first round game of the GSWL Yard Comeback Cup (August 30, 2020)

Awesomely, many players have taken that risk over the last three years and in the process, have helped move the fast pitch Wiffle®Ball world from a very divisive place to a more inclusive one. To be fair, for many players it was never an issue of not wanting to branch out and face different challenges. In some cases, the opportunity was not afforded to them and/or players justifiably felt excluded from certain places. In any event, those walls have slowly but surely eroded from the first year of the Drop 100 in 2018 to now. They are not gone completely by any means, but significant progress has been made. As previously mentioned, in 2018 there were four players – in total, not just in the top 100 – that competed at both the NWLA Tournament and Fast Plastic. In 2020, there are 32 players just in the top 100 that competed at both the NWLA Tournament and United Wiffle®Ball. That is an increase of 800% (!) which grows even larger when accounting for players not in the top 100 that competed in both tournaments this year.

Comparing those two national fast pitch tournaments is an easy, short-hand way of making the point that there is far less separation now in fast pitch Wiffle®Ball then there was three years ago. However, this has also occurred and continues to occur at a more local and regional level. More players play in more than one league now, even if just for of a cup coffee in their non-home league. More players drop in for a tournament or two outside their home base. This has certainly made the Drop 100 process a far easier one. In 2020 – even with COVID-19 – there were far more direct and indirect player comparisons available. The number of players that compete in multiple environments grew exponentially in 2020 after taking a big step forward in 2019. That is likely to repeat in 2021 as well. As a result, this year’s list feels as cohesive as ever. More importantly, it is an undeniably positive development for the potential continued growth of this sport.

Dan Whitener (Black Dog Country Club) walks back to the pitching rubber as Ed Packer (C4) stands in at the plate during a semi-final game at the United Wiffleball National Championship. (October 25, 2020)

Those that took the stance that increased interaction among different sets of players would prove that one style/region/organization/etc. is inherently better than the others have been disproven. Good players are good players. There are learning curves to unfamiliar styles, of course. In addition, all but a select group are going to be better in their preferred style – that is to be expected – but at the end of the day, good players in one environment will likely be good players everywhere. I think we know that now.

This past year it warmed my Wiffle®Ball loving heart with just how many times we got to watch players from different eras, different locations, and different styles compete against one another. The success of United Wiffle®Ball played a big role in that, but it did not play the only role. It was incredible to witness so many players put it all on the line – at various times throughout the summer – all for the sake of competing. That competition played itself out on the field and long persisting myths were torn down on those same fields. After years of swapping stories and pretending to know on how certain match ups and scenarios will play out, many of those match ups and scenarios were given a chance to actually play out in 2019 and 2020.

Those forward steps that were taken in 2020 are reflected in this year’s Drop 100. It was both the easiest and the hardest of the three years doing this project. The easiest because there was far more comparability among players. The hardest because there were so many players out there doing great things, that for the first time limiting the list to 100 names proved difficult. To that end, this year’s project will kick off with 20 bonus players that didn’t make the top 100 for a variety of reasons but are worthy of a mention. Truthfully, there could have been 50 or more bonus players this year if time were not a factor.

I wrote in the foreword to the inaugural Drop 100 that “when it comes to quality players, these are the good old days.” I believe that was a fair assessment of 2018 and still is, but is an even more true statement for 2020. This is a great time if you enjoy playing and watching fast pitch Wiffle®Ball. I hope everyone enjoys reading about just some of the good players from this past year (120 players now qualifies as only “some” of the good fast pitch players!) as much as I enjoyed writing about them.