Equipment Check

		Wiffle Logos in Words
		by Brandon Corbett

There is a trend in the NBA that is a joke on par with "that's what she said" at college parties. It almost seems to be mandatory that a team's primary logo feature a basketball, or in some cases be nothing but a basketball. You would think that a team at the pinnacle of the sport would be recognized as a basketball team, and thus render the inclusion of a basketball completely redundant. They keep showing up, though, and it humors design-geeks worldwide.

Now, it may be redundant for the biggest professional basketball league, but how about for a sport as grassroots and "up-and-coming" as Wiffleball? In our case, I think inclusion of a Wiffle ball or bat as a design element can actually be a good service to both the team and sport as a whole. Even with all the success a team like Freaky Franchise had in 2012, nobody outside of a Wiffleball circle will recognize that name as an NWLA Tournament champion. When they see the ball-headed logo, though, they will make the connection. Same for a storied team like the KWL's Industrials: "is that a labor union? Beer-league hockey? Oh, that's that plastic ball we played with in the backyard as kids!" Boom. Connected.

I thought it would be fun to look at exactly where Wiffleball leagues, in general, measure up in relation to the NBA and other sports leagues when it comes to using equipment in their team's primary designs. I included 14 Wiffleball leagues to get a decently varied sample. Also, note that the term "ball" includes the puck for NHL teams.

League	# Teams	# w/ Ball	% w/ Ball	# w/ Other Equip*	% w/ Any Equip
NBA	30	20	66.67	1	70.00
NFL	32	2	6.25	3	15.63
MLB	30	10	33.33	3	43.33
NHL	30	5	16.67	2	23.33
MLS	19	8	42.11	0	42.11
WIFFLE	160	105	65.63	19	77.50
Wiffle leagues used:  CWA, GSWL, HFWB, HRL, KWL, NWBL, OCWA, ORWBL, PWLSD, SWBL, WATL, WDSL, WSEM, WWL

As should be expected, the NFL takes a stand as a league of teams not needing to identify their sport. Only two teams feature a football: the Buccaneers and Jets. Three teams - Miami, Oakland, and Cleveland (duh) - also showcase a helmet. Still, this makes up only 15.63% of the league: by far the lowest proportion of all the professional leagues. The NHL is the next lowest with just 7 of 30 teams using a puck or stick in their design. The Hurricanes, Avalanche, Islanders, Flyers, and Capitals all have a puck, while the Penguins and Sharks both showcase a stick. This still amounts to only 23.33% of NHL teams does not exist.

MLB, a source of many Wiffle team logos, and MLS jump up a bit and come in at 42.33% and 42.11%, respectively. Very similar overall, but while all of the MLS teams feature a soccer ball only 10 of the 30 (33.33%) MLB teams use a baseball. The Pirates and Cardinals both feature a bat, and the Rays use the infield diamond to add to the total use of equipment, though.

I mentioned "mandatory" earlier in regard to NBA teams using equipment, and now we see just how close to accurate that is. Two-thirds of the league uses a basketball in their primary logo. When you add in the Rockets use of the rim, you end up with 70% of the league. Stout, and sure enough, Wiffleball stands toe-to-toe with the NBA numbers. 65.63% of the 160 teams sampled utilize a Wiffleball as part of their primary mark: just over 1% shy of the NBA. Since Wiffle has more vivid equipment to play with - bat, plate, etc. - we leapfrog the NBA in that category, though, bumping all the way up to 77.5%!

Breaking it down by individual Wiffle leagues, of the leagues sampled, we see that the HRL does the best job mimicking the NBA: two-thirds of their 18 teams feature a ball. Looking at the extremes, three leagues - GSWL, SWBL, and HFWB - have 100% of their teams showing a piece of equipment. SWBL and HFWB both have the Wiffle ball in 100% of their teams' primaries. On the other end, the WWL has the lowest percentage of teams with a ball, of leagues sampled, in their design at 12.5%. However, ORWBL has the least amount of equipment in general, just 25%.

Going to equipment seems extraneous and a bit cliche for professional teams, but in Wiffleball it seems less like a crutch and more like a sign of community and pride. It is true that the popularity of Wiffle has grown immensely over the past five years, however, the sport is still rarely recognized outside our circles. When teams promote the sport along with themselves by using a ball or bat it does not come off as a joke, rather as a vanguard for the game. In thirty years when Wiffle is dominating the programming on ESPN8 we can revisit the issue, but for now, keep flashing those balls!

* i.e. bat, stick, rim, helmet, playing surface. Not counted if ball also included
** roundels or ellipses alone not taken to represent ball or puck

Interview with Joel Crozier of the Whiteford Wicked Aces

		Wiffle Logos in Words
		The Wicked Aces won National Team Logo of the Year; we had to pick the brain of the designer.

Wiffle Logos:  First of all, Joel, congratulations on winning the National Team Logo of the Year Wiffy! Where does this award rank with all of your Wiffle achievements this season: All-Star, WSEM Champion, NWLA Tournament final four?


That's Joel up to bat. Say, "hi." Joel Crozier:  Thank you! Hmmm... as proud as I am of this award, I am more proud of how our team stepped up in the playoffs and took our play to the next level. I wish we could have played the championship series; I think we could have given Manchester a run for it despite the general thinking that they would have dispatched us easily. That this gained our team enough recognition to make a NWLA Final Four run is awesome and has to take second. My all-star selection probably comes third, but this is right behind all of them. I love doing all the background stuff that relates to Wiffle and it's nice to get recognition for doing it well.

WL:  The Whiteford Wiffleball Association has actually existed for longer than WSEM, so when joining the league this year you guys wanted to keep the 'WWA' abbreviation intact while adding a bit of team identity. Can you take us through the process of ultimately ending up at Whiteford Wicked Aces and the poker/playing cards identity? Were there any other names that almost beat Wicked Aces out?

JC:  Haha, yeah it actually took us a while before deciding to make a change... Austin (Bischoff) really loves tradition and there was a lot of good times stored in that name. When the league started putting a little pressure on us, though, I talked to him and we came up with a list of possible names, including the Whiteford Wiffling A's, Walking Anacondas, and Wild Aftershock. We did a poll in our Facebook group and the Aces came out on top. It was my favorite; I liked that it represented our team (multiple dominant pitchers) and also the unpredictability of Wiffleball (cards).

WL:  When you were designing the Aces' set did you ever think winning "National Team Logo of the Year" was a possibility... or that it was even a thing?

JC:  I knew that the NWLA gave away an award, but the thought never actually crossed my mind!

WL:  You went all out on the team's jerseys - league patch on the left sleeve, Aces primary on the right, names and numbers on the back, and (my favorite thing) putting the number inside the club on the front. Was going all out like that a conscious effort to completely dominate WSEM in the vein of "when you look good, you play good"?

JC:  Yeah, we spent awhile trying to determine what to do for the front, and when I put the numbers in the club it was like, "That's it." The "all-out" approach wasn't so much an attempt to affect our play; it was more about just having fun with it. We also hoped that it would inspire other teams to step up their jerseys, which would improve our league's image.

WL:  You also went the extra mile getting hats made with their own variant of the club and WWA design. Were those something your guys asked for, or just something you wanted to do to see this project all the way through?

JC:  The hats were something that I personally wanted, so I asked around for interest and we had enough guys that wanted one to make it worthwhile.

WL:  The infamous whooping crane. This thing showed up once or twice last offseason on the WSEM site and you guys hated it, but can you appreciate it a bit now, since without it you likely wouldn't have gone to the lengths to win this Wiffy?

JC:  Hahahaha, yeah Austin and I did not like the crane much... but the positive side was that it kind of pushed us towards getting a new identity, which was definitely a good thing looking back. The Whiteford Wiffleball Association is not a very good team name, haha.

WL:  Something tells me this Wicked Aces look will be sticking around and since the the NWLA tends not to double up on these types of Wiffy picks, what are the next Wiffys you Aces have in your sites for the 2013 season?

JC:  Well, I think if Austin can turn in another stellar year with the rule changes then he might find himself in consideration for pitcher of the year. I would like to think that Poolside Park might go on the radar for Field of the Year; we are planning several improvements for next season. Obviously, it would be awesome to win the NWLA Large Team Championship, but that is a very tall order indeed.

Thanks to Joel for taking the time to answer some questions, and congratulations again on the Wiffy! Good luck on following it up with future awards in 2013. Can you imagine if 'Walking Anacondas' had won their poll? Safe bet this interview would still have been called for in that case!