[MAW] 6th Annual Opening Day Tournament Preview

The 2022 Wiffle®Ball season has arrived. Several groups get underway this weekend, including Mid Atlantic Wiffle®. MAW kicks off its 6th year of tournament competition with a a stacked 16-team field that includes players and teams from all over the northeast and into the midwest and southeast. There is a A LOT going on in this tournament field. Here are just some of the things to watch for on Saturday!

Tough Draw

There is no sugar coating it. The upper half of Group A is a beast.

The New School Risers, Voodoo, ERL, and Great Lakes Legion are all vying for – at best – three spots in the final 8 and two spots in the final six. Draws like those are inevitable at MAW tournaments given the overall competition level and if you asked all four teams, they would likely tell you that they would not want it any other way. Teams come to MAW to face that kind of stiff competition on a regular basis, not to be handed easy wins.

That does not make the challenge any less daunting, however. How that group will shake out is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure – we are going to see some playoff level intensity in the early morning hours on Saturday. None of these four teams can afford a sluggish start.

For the newly revamped and very dangerous Voodoo, that means avoiding a repeat of last year’s Opening Day Tournament. Voodoo entered as one of the favorites to win last year’s kickoff event, but a 2-0 loss to Frankie Campanile and the Shortballs threatened to bring their day to an early end. They recovered to go 2-1 in prelims and narrowly slipped past Y2B in a play-in game, but they never fully seemed to get it going and were eliminated in the semi-finals by East Coast Elite. The team cannot afford that type of start this year given their bracket. They face the New School Risers in their first game, which could present some match up issues. If Voodoo drops their opener, they will face the loser of ERL & Great Lakes Legion with their tournament playoff hopes on the line in game two. It’s a tough task for sure, but one that a team of that caliber can and should be able to navigate through.

Separating from the pack

A hallmark of Mid Atlantic Wiffle® tournaments over the past few years is the expansive group of “mid-level” teams at every tournament. This is a group of teams that may never be a favorite to win a tournament, but can beat anyone else in any given game and can go on a run at any time. The large middle-section is even more pronounced in this tournament than in many in the past. One could argue that there are nine teams at Opening Day that fit that mold. All of those teams would love to get their seasons started by separating themselves from the rest of the pack.

The part of the bracket to watch in that regard is the lower half of Group B, which consists of four such teams – OG Goon Squad, Dinos, Longballs, and Stompers. The team that emerges from that quartet with a 2-0 record will have done so by beating two of their direct peers – teams they need to beat more-often-than-not if they want to move up to the “perennial contender” level. The team that does that will have gotten themselves off to a tremendous start to the season, regardless of what happens to them later in the day. If that team is able to parlay their 2-0 start into a final four finish, that would be a huge momentum booster this early in the year.

Another team to keep an eye on in that regard are the NY Dragons. The Dragons had a rough year last season but as they showed in 2020, they have the talent to be a regular presence in playoff rounds. The addition of Mike Weiner could be their x-factor. Weiner gives them a big arm that they could roll out for one, maybe two games, at any point in the tournament. That should alleviate some pressure from Nick Lea and John Polanco. We know that Lea and Mike Bucci can turn any game around with one swing as well. The Dragons have the pieces, it is just a matter of turning that talent into more consistent wins.

Will Richard pass the test?

A year ago around this time, Louisiana wiffler Matt Richard (pronounced re-shard) had a bit of a breakout moment when he pitched the Pinecone Gang to a series win over the Renegades at SPW’s Opening Day series. Using a power drop pitch as his main weapon, Richard calls to mind an early-career Ray Lutick. Although he has competed with Anarchy in places like Southeast Wiffle® and the Texas State Championship, he has yet to really establish himself outside of his home base. Richard has seen Anarchy teammates like Ryker Holloway, Riley Viator, and Andrew Arceneaux have their moments in the spotlight in tournaments in Texas and Tennessee, but he is still waiting for his. Richard will get that opportunity to show off his stuff to the greater Wiffle®Ball world this Saturday. Richard enters the tournament as Anarchy’s only true pitching option and team captain Ben Schafer plans to keep the ball in Matt’s hands for as long as he is willing to take it. It will be a great test for the right-hander who certainly has the tools necessary to settle in at or near the top of Anarchy’s pitching corps for years to come.

The Champion’s Burden

Whether it was written about here on The Drop or spoken about on The Drop Podcast, we have spilled a lot of words over the winter months describing the truly special and historic season the Juggernauts had last year.

But in case you need a quick refresher, here it goes. The Juggeranuts went 36-8 (.818 winning percentage), won four tournaments, and finished the year by winning the Mid Atlantic regular season title, Mid Atlantic Championship, and United Wiffle®Ball National Championship. They also finished the year on a tear, going 18-1 over their final three tournaments (the 16-team MAW Wiffle®Bash, 8-team MAW Championship Tournament, and 44-team United Wiffle®Ball National Championship Tournament). It was a truly excellent season that ranks favorably among the greatest in the history of fast pitch tournament competition.

Come Saturday at 8:00 AM, however, all of that is officially history. The Juggernauts will no longer be champions and will be starting with a clean 0-0 slate as everyone else. Or at least, almost like everyone else.

The Juggernauts might be technically starting anew, but their championship season will most certainly place a target on their backs, something the other 15 teams in the field will not have to deal with. It is always nice to win a game, but taking down the 2021 champs on Day One would probably taste extra sweet for most teams. If you ask any team in the field whether they want to win the tournament or beat the Juggernauts – assuming that is a mutually exclusive proposition, which it isn’t – they will almost certainly choose the former. So, while it might not be any team’s chief goal, a win over the Juggernauts will – and should – mean a little more than others.

For their part, the Juggernauts core four seem nonplused by that reality. They claim to not only be unconcerned about their role as the team to beat, but also take a certain level of pride in it. It has been many years since the National Champions have been a regular presence the following spring & summer. They seemingly relish the role of being the team to beat and knowing that they will get a team’s best game-in, game-out. They certainly are not hiding from it and they might even be embracing it.

Debuting Teams

The Maryland Chesapeake Wiffle®Ball League had an off-week last weekend for the Easter holiday and are off again this week for MAW Opening day, but that didn’t mean the fields at Larry’s Tavern sat vacant all week long.

On Saturday, members of the Maryland Horsemen took to their home fields for some pitching practice in preparation for the MAW Opening Day Tournament. They were back at it again on Wednesday evening. The Horsemen – all of whom are lifelong baseball players taking up Wiffle®Ball for the first time – are discovering in league play that the transition to fast pitch competitive Wiffle®Ball can be a difficult one. They are also aware that this weekend will represent a step up in competition for them. Judging by their rigorous practice schedule, however, the Horsemen are determined to make a good first impression even if they know it might take a few tournaments to truly settle in at the plate and discover who their best pitching options are.

A favorite quote of mine on Wiffle®Ball – which speaks to the connection between the player and game – is “one of the deepest joys, though, is that Wiffle repays those who take it to heart”. For a newer team like the Horsemen the game can be a challenge, but as we have seen on numerous occasions it usually (eventually) rewards those players that put in the work.

The other team competing in a MAW tournament – or any tournament for that matter – for the first time are the Bunglers. Unlike the Horsemen whose strengths and current struggles can somewhat be ascertained from their half-season of league experience, the Bunglers are almost a complete mystery. This group of college friends – who are now nearing graduation – started playing Wiffle®Ball recreationally their freshman year at school. After seeing the action up close in PeoplesBank Park at last year’s United Wiffle®Ball National Championship, the guys decided it was time to give tournament Wiffle®Ball a try. One thing is for sure, the Bunglers are aware of the competition but the competition knows preciously little about them. That is often a nice position to be in.

Here and There

There is a reasonable chance that the top four teams in the Wiffle Statement MAW Pre-Season Power Rankings – Voodoo, ERL, Juggernauts, and Ridley Park Magic – face one each other in the second round of prelim games on Saturday (Voodoo vs. ERL, Magic vs. Juggernauts) . . . Once he takes the field on Saturday, Dan Potter (York Yaks) will become the only player in MAW to compete at all six Opening Day Tournaments . . .  13 unique states will be represented on Saturday, a new MAW single-tournament record . . . After being away for all of the 2021 Wiffle®Ball season, Mike Collins is back home & leading a ragtag group of Ridley Park wifflers into Opening Day. At March’s Spring Training Day, more than one Ridley Park player told me that Collins is their pick to be the league’s breakout player in 2022 . . . One thing to watch for on any Opening Day is how teams who added pitching during the offseason months (or teams formed that over the winter) line up their pitching. More than half the field added at least one significant pitcher this winter and will have to decide how to best roll out the arms they now have, which isn’t always easy . . . Among the first time MAW players to watch is 2021 Kalamazoo Wiffle®Ball League American League Rookie of the Year and 2021 MLW first round draft pick, Brendan Baranoski (Great Lakes) . . . When TJ Hannon takes the field for the Dinos on Saturday, it will be the longest gap between spring/summer tournament games in MAW history – Opening Day 2018 (April 2018) to Opening Day 2022 (April 2022) or almost four years . . . If counting MAW Winter Classic tournaments, then Kris Morse (Stompers) will hold the record after Saturday – Winter Classic 2018 (February 2018) to Opening Day 2022 (April 2022) . . . Based on current United Wiffle®Ball NCT roster projections, approximately 10 of the 16 teams (+/- 1) competing on Saturday will establish their NCT team (three or more players from national championship roster competing in the same tournament/league) through their participation in this tournament . . . Winners of two of the five major individual 2021 National Wiffle® Awards (Player, Pitcher, Hitter, Rookie, Fielder) will compete this weekend – Brandon Boas (Rookie – Longballs) and Grant Miller (Player – Great Lakes Legion). A third, Ben Stant (Hitter – Juggernauts) will be in attendance but is working his way back from offseason surgery . . . In a new wrinkle to the usual MAW tournament formats, a fourth game has been added for the two teams that begin 0-2 and win their third game. The two teams that do that will meet with the winner improving to 2-2 and taking 13th place points. This allows teams with a tough luck draw an additional chance to compete and potentially end their tournament with a very solid 2-2 record.