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 

Outlaws
Aaron Rogers – Fired up by the Crazy Fat Kids’ suckiness, Rogers is branching off to start his own CCW franchise. He has assembled a 6 man roster and is looking to buck the historical trend of expansion teams being doormats and stat padders for the rest of the league.
 
Alex Gates – Transferred to the Outlaws from the Yakkers prior to the 2020 season. For the Outlaws to be competitive, Gates must become the centerpiece of this lineup and pitching rotation.
 
Jay Wilsey – Will play full-time for the Outlaws. Described by Rogers as a solid field with great plate awareness – a good skill to have in a league that walks so many hitters.
 
Tyler Harnish – As a softball specialist and HS baseball coach, Harnish can potentially bring a lot of baseball IQ and hand-eye coordination to the table for the Outlaws.
 
Mitch Buis – “Our ace if I can get him to be a part of our squad” is a ringing endorsement for a player who has never stepped foot onto the Dirtyard. Let’s hope Buis can carve out time for CCW in his schedule and live up to his coach’s expectations.
 
Shawn Rogers – The brother of the head coach, Aaron. Their Wiffle experience goes way back, and Aaron describes him as a “Ri
 
Key Player(s) – The Newbies. In order for this to work, at least one of these guys has to actually be something. If Buis is the ace Rogers promises, or Wilsey turns his plate awareness into a league-leading OBP, then we MAY just have something here.
 
Projected Record – (4-17)
 
Best Case – Two of the new guys turn out to be really good players, Alex Gates steps into the centerpiece role nicely and the Outlaws are able to push .500, upset some teams and put up a really good fight on Wild Card Weekend.
 
Worst Case – The new guys show up and realize how hard Wiffle ball really is, Rogers and Gates have their spirits crushed by Joe Burrow being a bust and this team never gets off the ground. They struggle to even finish the season, and every team in the league salivates at the idea of padding their stats against them.
 
 
 
 
Hackers
Eric Starke – Taking over as head coach of the Crazy Fat Kids, Starke decided to scrap the team name and start from scratch. The Hackers were born and they are ready to hack their way out of the dumpster fire that was the Crazy Fat Kids franchise.
 
Holden Palmer – Finished top 4in strikeouts THREE straight years from 2016-2018 before a disappointing 2019 campaign that was derailed by attendance issues. Palmer has the ability to be an ace, but he needs to consistently be at the field.
 
Michael Plourde – One of the most tenured vets in the CCW player pool, Plourde is a jack of all trades type of guy. He will put up respectable numbers at the plate, eat up innings on the mound and his athleticism makes him an above average base runner and fielder.
 
Spencer Schriner – He’s been a bit of a polarizing player at CCW. Not afraid to rub people the wrong way, his bat flip walks and sky high pitches will make even the most level-headed people lose their cool. Schriner has baseball experience and is really looking to take the next step as a Wiffle ball player.
 
Kyle Gagliardi – Coming over from Leroy/GBL, Gags intends to be a part-time player in 2020. Finished top 5 at GBL in HR and RBI, and will provide some very much needed thump for this lineup when he’s available.
 
Key Player – Holden Palmer. ATTENDANCE, ATTENDANCE, ATTENDANCE. If Palmer can get to the field consistently, he will turn in top 5 pitcher numbers. We saw it 4 straight years. In order for this team to reach its potential, Holden Palmer has to perform like an ace.
 
Projected Record – 7-14
 
Best Case – Palmer shows up and hits the board, Starke continues to be a rock solid arm and Kyle Gagliardi is able to make it to more games than he anticipated. This team’s ceiling is right above .500, and with Palmer on the mound they will have the ability to cause an upset in the wild card round of the playoffs.
 
Worst Case – Gags isn’t able to make any of the games, Palmer shrinks under the pressure of being an ace and the Hackers struggle to score enough runs to make up for the lack of pitching. They compete with the Outlaws to see who can lose the most games.