What is Major League Wiffle Ball- The Perfect Alternative To MLB Lockout?

While Rob Manfred and the MLB discuss the lockout and when the off-season will resume, Kyle Schultz and the Major League Wiffle may stand to gain. The backyard pass-time may just be here to keep the American audience entertained. And who knows, maybe some fans will stick with MLW over MLB?

The development of MLW

Major League Wiffle is now in its 12th edition in 2021. Gone are the days when this was just some other garden variety league. MLW now commands over 293,000 subscribers on YouTube. This has given Major League Wiffle a viewership of more than 42 million total views and a grand following on newer streaming and video sharing platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

MLW tournaments are now hosted across the United States and the original league, started by Kyle Schultz and Tommy Coughlin, has now expanded to 8 teams and 50 players, many of whom are quite committed to the league.

Kyle Schultz himself was a feature as a player in the league, managing a pretty insane stat line. Schultz has won six World Series, seven MVPs, five Cy Youngs and is the undisputed home run king of the MLW, with 228 to his name.

MLW tournaments have been growing recently, from Michigan to Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York. Most of these tournaments feature three age divisions (10 to 12, 13 to 15, 16 and up). Participant teams have a three-game guarantee and a $130 buy-in per team.

Usually, the MLW will take over a baseball or softball complex for the weekend, set up a handful of Wiffle ball fields, and film the entire event and tournament to package it for a YouTube audience. A big factor in the MLW is that the videos are edited to make sure that they are suitable for consumption by 10 year-olds and don’t generally have too many expletives.  They are specifically edited to make sure no such instances occur.

Read More: When Will The MLB Lockout End?

The Major League Wiffle rules

The rules that applied to the league in its infancy remain much the same, with only slight modifications. The games are played out in 3 innings to each team, 3 fielders are permitted in the field and no gloves are allowed. The runners can be either pegged or tagged and regulation Wiffle ball bats are to be used. Wiffle balls are allowed to be scuffed and the barrels of the bats may be taped.

The changes have come due to the influx of players. Where before the age bracket for the game was defined, with only kids participating, having adults in the mix means calls for certain changes. The pitcher’s mound, once at 27 feet from home plate, has needed to be moved back to 38 feet, thanks to adult participation in the league.

The ballpark has also been recalibrated with the fence being moved back close to 15 feet from its time of inception.

While the players’ union and the MLB have it figured out as to how the lockout is to end and when the MLB off-season is to resume, the Major League Wiffle Channel could well be the destination of MLB fans. With tournaments lined up in multiple states and cities in the upcoming weeks, there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of games that MLW is likely to churn up soon.