​Opening Week Ripe with Juicy Storylines
 
We are less than a week from Wiffle and this season appears to be the most interesting and competitive yet!
 
Monday: The past two CCW champs, the Noodlers and 8 Balls, will clash on the Dirtyard for Opening Night. Caleb Jonkman, the 2x National Player of the Year, will square off with the current king of the CCW hill, Mike Speek Jr. Both players ranked inside the top 30 in the 2019 installment of The Drop’s top 100 Wiffle players. Jonkman will become the first player to play in all 4 of the major Indiana Wiffle leagues.
 
Tuesday: Both CCW expansion teams, the Hackers and Outlaws, take aim at their first wins. Eric Starke (Hackers) and Aaron Rogers (Outlaws) both feel confident about their rosters, and they’re each looking to buck the trend of expansion teams being doormats for the better CCW franchises. Rogers has already labeled his rookie pitcher, Mitch Buis, as a rookie of the year contender.
 
Wednesday: The Pork Pistols have spent the offseason fuming after getting the short end of the CCW playoff stick last season. Rudy Lyon and the re-tooled Yakkers find themselves on the opposing side of the revenge tour to start the season, but the addition of CCW-slayer Ryan Voges and promising newcomer Dustin Dowden ensures the Yaks will remain a CCW title contender. All things considered, the biggest storyline here MIGHT just be whether or not the lines will be chalked before Hopkins arrives at the field.
 
CCW Fantasy Wiffle
 
The deadline to submit rosters is Tuesday, May 26th (TONIGHT) at 10 PM.
 
When the season begins on June 1st, the CCW Fantasy Wiffle page will transform into the hub for all of the stats and leaderboards you’ll need to track your team’s performance.
 
Confirmed prizes for the best teams include CCW logo hats by Branded Bills and a custom CCW logo drink tumbler! Submit your roster and $10 entry by 10 PM tonight!
 
COVID-19 Update
 
Governor Eric Holcomb has updated the Indiana social distancing guidelines to allow for outdoor recreational activities (such as Wiffle ball). The easing of social restrictions does NOT mean the virus and its dangers are gone; it simply means that hospitals are confident in their ability to handle an influx of patients.
 
We have several at risk individuals within the league and we all likely come into contact with older relatives. PLEASE monitor yourself for symptoms and respect the space of people aiming to keep distance. To help lower risk, teams will be required to bring their own bats and seating.
 
Week 1 Power Rankings
 
Based on average ranking from each coach
 
1.8 Balls (1.3)
2.Short Shorts (2.9)
3.Moonshots (3.6)
4.Yakkers (4.4)
5.Noodlers (4.6)
6.Pork Pistols (4.9)
7.Outlaws (7.1)
8.Hackers (7.3)

1. Mike Speek Jr. – Team Voris
MVP ('19), Cy Young ('19), 2 x CCW Champ
2. Will Smithey – Team Speek
Rookie of the Year ('19)
3. Brian Schaler – Team Lyon
2x Cy Young, CCW Champion ('18), Rookie of the Year ('16)
4. Dakota Rogers – Team Jones
MVP ('17), Silver Slugger ('17), Triple Crown ('17) CCW Champion ('18), ROTY ('15)
5. Brendan Dudas – Team House
3x MVP, 4x Silver Slugger, 4x Triple Crown, CCW Champion ('15)
6. Mike Speek Sr. – Team Gregory
Cy Young ('17), 2x CCW Champion
7. Rudy Lyon – Team Dudas
8. Aidan Palmer  – Team Werner
9. Taylor DeHart – Team Werner
10. Austin Church – Team Dudas
MVP ('14), CCW Champion ('16)
11. Tyler Gregory – Team Gregory
CCW Champion ('18)
12. Blake Voris – Team House
13. Reid Werner – Team Jones
Rookie of the Year ('17)
14. Conor Morris – Team Lyon
CCW Champion ('19)
15. Keegan Caughey – Team Speek
CCW Champion ('15)
16. Christian Leffler – Team Voris
17. Sawyer Mitchell – Team Voris
Cy Young ('15), CCW Champion ('14)
18. James Haworth – Team Speek
19. Drake Capps – Team Lyon
2x CCW Champion
20. Jordan Tackett – Team Jones
Silver Slugger ('14)
21. Cody House – Team House
Cy Young ('14), CCW Champion ('18)
22. Dylan Jones – Team Gregory
23. Brandon Benedict – Team Dudas
CCW Champion ('16)
24. Devon Hensley – Team Werner
Rookie of the Year ('18)
25. Holden Palmer – Team Werner
26. Slater Burger – Team Dudas
CCW Champion ('14)
27. Zach McFarland – Team Gregory
2x CCW Champion
28. Christian Abner – Team House
CCW Champion ('14)
29. Bailey Buescher – Team Jones
30. Thomas Hopkins – Team Lyon
31. Dave Bailey – Team Speek
32. Mason Nickell – Team Voris
CCW Champion ('16)
33. Colin Miller – Team Voris
34. Joshua Hart – Team Speek
CCW Champion ('15)
35. Jake Sprinkle – Team Lyon
36. Michael Plourde – Team Jones
37. Dillon Douthitt – Team House
38. Jeremy McIntyre – Team Gregory
39. Griffin Ball – Team Dudas
40. Jacob Harris – Team Werner

Decision made on season start date
Circle City Wiffle will return to action the week of June 1st. “Opening Week” will feature one matchup per night from Monday, June 1 through Thursday, June 4 and culminate in the Opening Week round robin tourney on Sunday, June 7.
 
The decision to begin the season comes on the heels of Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb’s announcement to ease stay-at-home orders and allow gatherings of up to 25 people.
 
CCW plans to limit the number of people allowed at the Dirtyard while offering solutions for disinfecting bats, balls and hands. The league strongly encourages anyone experiencing symptoms to inform CCW officials and stay home.
 
All games during the CCW season will be live streamed on Periscope (@circlecitywiff) and uploaded to YouTube the following day.

Rule Modifications
The CCW Board met via Zoom Sunday night to discuss modifications to some of the rules heading into 2020. Summaries of these modifications are listed below:

• Runners must reach the halfway point to be awarded the next base on a pitcher's hand dead ball
• Pitches that miss the back stop will no longer be a passed ball
• Following ball 4, if the hitter has chosen to receive lob pitches, the pitcher must step to the front of the mat and throw a "demo-pitch" before proceeding

The 40 best CCW players… ever!?
CCW members, both new and old, took turns selecting players in an all-time CCW player draft. The result was eight 5-player teams and a list of the 40 best Circle City Wifflers of all time.
 
Each coach displayed a unique strategy when picking their team which led to some surprising names rising and falling on the list.
 
The selecting members enjoyed the exercise. One anonymous member wants to see these teams in action: “I want to see these come to life on the field! A weekend draft-style tournament would be an insanely fun and competitive time.”
 
The selection committee, player list and complete rosters will be revealed this week! Stay tuned and prepare to let them know who YOU think picked the best all-time roster.

Dirtyard Dish to return on May 22
After a brief hiatus, Dirtyard Dish will release a new episode this Friday. The original episode schedule included a fantasy Wiffle panel and a season prediction show in the two weeks leading up to Opening Day.
 
With the updated timeline, expect those two topics to be discussed during each of the next two Friday episodes.
 
If you’d like to be included in an episode, please contact @DirtyardDish on Twitter or reach out personally.

​Prizes for CCW Fantasy Wiffle
The season is right around the corner, and fantasy Wiffle rosters are due May 24th! If you haven’t selected your roster yet, head to circlecitywiffleball.com/fantasy-wiffle. Good luck!
 
Circle City Wiffle is pleased to confirm the following prizes, with more to be announced soon:

• Circle City logo tumbler
• Logo hat by Branded Bills
• Circle City t-shirt

Dirtyard Dish’s “CCW Fantasy Wiffle Panel” episode will air THIS Friday. The panelists will offer advice and insight into how they constructed their fantasy rosters.

On This Day
May 17, 2017
Circle City Wiffle brought LIGHT to the Dirtyard!

League Update

• As many of you are well-aware, CCW will NOT start on Sunday, May 17th. We have pushed back until May 31st at the earliest, and we will continue to analyze the situation and update the schedule in 2 week increments. I'm currently brainstorming ways to ensure we're being responsible with all of this while still being able to play Wiffle.
  
• If you have not secured a team sponsor, please make one last effort to do so. A $250 sponsor will earn half off of your team entry fee and a $500 sponsor will waive your fee entirely. The CCW sponsorship flyer can be found in the Google Drive in 'League Info'. Sponsorships/team fees are due by May 24th.
  
• We've been consistently putting out CCW content via the Dirtyard Dish podcast. If you are not subscribed, do that and check out the past episodes! We just completed our "Team Preview" series last week. Dirtyard Dish Playlist
  
• The Dirtyard has undergone some serious cleaning and reorganizing, and Speek Sr. is drawing up an increbile addition to the field that you all will love. I'm really looking forward to taking the field to the next level and improving our game film in 2020!

Fantasy Wiffle

• If you haven't already, please go to CCW Fantasy Wiffle and enter your team. My goal is to get as much league participation as possible, and our numbers have not been great to this point. We've got some CCW hats, tumblers and other items to give away as prizes, and your $10 entry will help support the league. Rosters are currently due May 24th. I will be sending requests for the entry fee shortly.

Around the Wiffle World

• The NWLA Tournament, set to be held in Indy this summer, has been rescheduled for September 18-20. We'll discuss the logistics of all of that in the coming months, but with the current economic climate, we're going to need to work really hard to put on a great event. We'll need all hands on deck in the form of both players AND volunteers.

Moving Forward 

• The CCW Newsletter will be a great way to recognize guys in the league and present that content to the people who care most about it: our players. If you have ideas on things you'd like to see in the newsletter, feel free to offer suggestions. I look forward to handing out Player of the Week honors, sharing milestone achievements and more!
• I think the best way to go about this is to have coaches send me messages with little updates about their team. I'll always be on the lookout for material to post in here, but if you want the league to be aware of an upcoming milestone, weird stat, cool picture, etc, then I'd love to hear about it!

I can't wait to get back out to the Dirtyard! If you or your team wants to set up a small practice, text me and we can work it out!

Best,
Dudas