With the sixth season beginning, the PWL has been experiences changes just like many of its players. We've graduated from high school and moved on to college, and some of us have graduated or are prepareing to graduate from college. But luckily, each of us has had some sense of stability in our lives: PWL wiffleball. We can always return to Pleasantview each summer to take a break from our turbulent schedules and play ball!

 

The PWL Tournaments have provided us with some of our fondest memories, from the early days when Lloyd would get pissed and through balls at Freddie, to the time Meat hit a wiffleball so hard he broke out four windows in the chicken coup (some accounts of this event say he only broke out two windows, and Lloyd threw a sandal and broke out the other two,) to the time that Louie finally won his first Tourney. We've all had some fun experiences and we all hope that the PWL will live forever. In order for something like this to happen, the PWL, like many of us, must continue to change.

 

This year Commissioner Lloyd Helmstetter has announced several new changes which will " hopefully increase the fun atmosphere" that accompanies the PWL tournaments. Now that most of us are at least in college, those who are of legal drinking age are allowed to enjoy an adult beverage or two while engaging in some hardcore wiffle action. "Hopefully, for those who do enjoy a beverage or two, this will keep them here for the tourney's and the after parties," added the Commissioner, who made anohter change to hopefully stimulate fan attendance. "I wanted to increase the amount of people that watch the games. I want the fans to be involved, I want heckling, I want brawls." There are now campfire's and a party after the tournaments finish, so people can have a good time, even after the PWL action ends. These fires are nothing new to the PWL, however. Back in the early days of the league there were gigantic bonfires that had flames of 20 to 30 feet high! This is all an attempt to increase the  party atmosphere and hopefully people will have a good time.

 

"I'm looking to return to the 2004 season, I want the tournaments to have life. I want people to come out and watch the games and party," says Lloyd. Since the 2007 season, the PWL has been holding a round robin round then a small single elimination round each tournament. "Though, statistics increased over this period, the moral of the league went from having fun to winning. People have not been able to enjoy wiffleball like they should. This league was created for people to have fun and relax," adds the commissioner. This season, the PWL will be taking on a double elmination format for its tournaments, which is a return to the origional format that it had in the 2004-2006 seasons. Accompanying this move, games will now be held solely on the Great American Wiffleball Field, because there are less games being played and there is the need to concentrate the focus to one game at a time. Amungst other changes, the PWL will also pick teams out of a hat, returning again to the roots of the league. Depending on how many players there are, the top six (statistical) players or so will be the captains of teams and will pick randomly to form their teams.

 

"Judging by the success of the Memorial Day Tourney, I think that the changes were for the better, and everyone had a good time." The PWL will always be a helm for those have enjoyed wiffleball and all those who remember the days the glory days of the ASEC:all the parties, the pumpkin bowling, the Faygo pong, the movies, the love interests, the arguments, and of coarse, the wiffleball. Pleasantview will always welcome those who want to reminisce about the glory days of wiffleball and the Angelodome.

 

*contact Lloyd, email: helmstetter.5@wright.edu, or through Facebook and the PWL group.