Fifteen years has taken the Ridley Park Wiffleball League a long way.
It started when some buddies in a Ridley Park backyard decided to play some Wiffleball.
Today, it’s a bona fide national league with a draft, schedules, team uniforms, live-streamed games, a trophy, and lots of trash talk, writes Matt Breen for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Most of the League are players in their 20s who grew up in the borough.
The players were only in sixth grade when the league started in Wayne Shambo’s backyard. A lawn chair was the strike zone
“How everyone thinks of Wiffleball, that’s exactly how we started,” said Dylan Harshaw, commissioner for the Ridley Park League. “Backyard, lobbing it over, yellow bat. That was it.”
By the summer of 2016, with more guys coming in, they turned it into a league. Now there are nine teams and 36 players.
The games have moved to Catania Park and sometimes league teams play in tournaments across the country.
It got bigger, but it’s still the same.
“One of the things we’ve always done is, ‘Hey, we’re in this for fun. We’re playing with our friends.’ Harshaw said.
Read more about what makes the Ridley Park Wiffleball League unique in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
