Wiffle® Ball: The Ultimate Guide

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About Wiffle® Ball: The Ultimate Guide

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Wiffle Ball The Ultimate Guide By Michael Hermann, Katy Sprinkel, Tony Puryear, Ricardo Lopez Triumph BooksCopyright © 2010 The Wiffle Ball, Inc All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-60078-361-6 CHAPTER 1 It is perhaps the ultimate compliment America's collective pop consciousness can bestow: a brand becoming intermingled with the product it names. In other words, a company makes a product so good, so memorable, that its own brand name becomes as recognizable as the product it produces. Think of some of the great consumer brands of our time where the product and brand name became synonymous; you know 'em, you use 'em, you love 'em — adhesive bandages: Band-Aid; photocopy: Xerox; tissue: Kleenex; soda: Coke. The list doesn't stop there. There's Vaseline, Polaroid, Velcro, and Dixie Cups, to name a few. And everybody knows baseball played with that yellow plastic bat and ball is called Wiffle ball. It is a testament to this enduring brand that Wiffle's name itself has become analogous with the game for which it was created — "Wiffle ball." But make no mistake: Though Wiffle seems to be everywhere, it's a hallowed brand nearly 60 years standing. In other words, Wiffle = Wiffle ™. This American phenomenon continues to grow and reach new generations of fans. We've all played the game and chances are our kids and grandkids will play the game, too. How many things can you say that about? Wiffle has made an indelible mark on American culture since its inception nearly 60 years ago. From the early department stores where Wiffle was first sold, it has jumped off the shelves and into the hearts and minds (and yards, car trunks, gutters, and garages) of people across the country and around the world. You will find Wiffle ball played in parks, backyards, at charity events, on college campuses, and even in professional Wiffle leagues and tournaments. More impressive, all this has happened without a single penny spent on marketing since 1975. Wiffle's marketing budget is zero, nada, zip. Mattel, Coca-Cola, Hasbro, Disney, and other American megabrands have worked their way into our collective memories — but via multibillion-dollar marketing budgets. Wiffle is the rare brand these days that is truly organic, with people coming back year after year not because they saw a commercial or print ad, but because they love it. Because their dad played it when he was little. Because it gets people outside and interacting. Because nothing is more fun. Wiffle has curved and swerved its way into books, paintings, and comic strips, not to mention television shows, movies, music, and video games. As a beloved piece of Americana, it has been enthusiastically referenced and increasingly revered. It has become one of the most enduring toys in American history, one whose followers have a "devotion bordering on obsession," according to The New York Times. VH1's special I Love Toys ranks the Wiffle ball and bat set as the 10th best toy of all time, between the Slinky (9) and Play Doh (11), leaving the Frisbee (45), Nerf (23), and even the bicycle (14) in the rearview mirror. The Hula Hoop, Barbie, and LEGO filled the top three slots; not bad company. The New York Times seconds that, proclaiming, "Wiffle ranks with Hula Hoop and Barbie as quintessentially American toys." * * * And so says Tim Walsh, author of The Playmakers, a glossy history of the most influential toys of our time. "The Mullany family is so uncelebrated. If you create a piece of music that sells a million copies, they give you a gold record and put you on the cover of Rolling Stone." Walsh believes the Mullanys need their due. "They're still relatively unknown. [If] an album that sold as many copies as Wiffle has sold, well, [the Mullanys would] be as big as the Beatles or Michael Jackson." Paradoxically, in the Age of the iPod and the video game, Wiffle, with no moving parts and featuring principles in physics that were new in 1738, is more