Wiff and memories

Here is an interesting article on the history of the wiffle ball. http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/112975/making-a-wiffle-ball-wsj It's pretty interesting, especially the part about the other uses of wiffle ball bats: the plastic yellow bats being filled with BB gun pellets to rattle pigs. As a kid I played wiffle ball once in awhile; it was usually at friends houses or with cousins. At home, we swapped a wiffle ball for a tennis ball and used a friend's Mark McGwire red blimp of a bat, that had a 2 Liter sized (that was actually hollowed and see through) sweet spot. Our field was a rarely used unpaved alley, and we hit home runs over the fence into the Salvation Army parking lot or we would play into front of my house. We always got yelled at for that, but the imaginary field was perfect, in my mind. There's this cement engraving directly down my steps (it's the only one in the city I've ever seen like it) that is in the middle of the sidewalk. That served as home plate. My neighbor's steps were first, second was a spot where the sidewalk  began treme and third was whichever paralleled parked car's side view mirror was close enough to being straight across from first. We touched, no grabbed onto first and third, for some reason. We never spent time on the bases though. That's what ghost runners were for. A light post was the pesky pole. Those were the days, when we played till the fireflies began to wink. 

I remember this faux stick ball game kids used to play up at summer camp in Michigan. It was in the knot tying section/fortress. I think the ball was a superball wrapped in duct tape. I always just watched bits and pieces of it. I was either getting my environmental science or swimming merit badges, and was always late to games. It seemed to be a combination of baseball and cricket and red rover. I could never figure out all the rules, as long as I watched. There are a lot of memories I have of camp that are foggy. There was this skit performed every year that's punchline was 'Yellow fingers!' that was always so funny. There a was bootleg Whose on First routine and the solemn camp hymn that might of sounded like a 13 year old version of a Fleet Foxes song about camaraderie and scouting.  


Okkervil River has a great line that I think fits with memories. From Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed of the roof the Chelsea Hotel, 1979, my current favorite O.R. song: 


Old times, hello, hey, I've missed you
Old life, hey now, let me in
Because you win on every issue
Now, can I kiss you?
Don't you care how long it's been?
It has been so many years, I lived my yearning
But in every bed, it led me through
They only bloom on what was burning

When I can't remember it all, I distract myself. I check out Hobart and their new tumblr. They reviewed a new sports website, Grantland, here: http://hobartpulp.tumblr.com/post/6601340512/hobart-mini-reviews-grantland I checked it out, read a few good articles about Ichiro and the Orioles, and the story by Jimmy Kimmel was the funniest thing I read in years. I also love the picture they have under their title; the man, in a suit, fully swinging for the fences. I need to figure out where that is from. It's a great shot, a story itself.  

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