LOCAL TEAMS PREPARE FOR WIFFLE BALL WORLD SERIES

The boys of summer are heading into the World Series, battling it out this weekend as the returning champions the Diablos fight to keep the crown. And it will all take place in a backyard at 2130 Sherwood Drive.

Yes, it's time once again for the Wiffle ball world series, the third annual one, being held today and Sunday in the yard behind the house where Jeff Augustine lives with his parents.

Teams from as far away as Farmington will be competing today in Wiffle ball, which is like baseball except played with a vented plastic ball, a smaller field, fewer players, but the same spirit of competition.

"We play during the summer just for fun," said Augustine, the organizer of the competition, a member of the Diablos and a delivery driver for Knaup Floral. "But during the tournament we take it somewhat more serious. It gets a little more competitive."

Not wanting that competition to be tainted by financial reward, the winning team will not get the money raised by the $60 per team entry fee as has happened the last two years. Instead that money and any other raised during the tournament will be donated to the Human Society of Southeast Missouri.

"We didn't want it to become just a money game," said Mark Lewis, who as assistant baseball coach for Southeast Missouri State University and superintendent for the ball fields at Capaha Park is sort of a ringer on Augustine's team.

"We're mainly here to have a good time," Augustine said. "We thought someone else could use the money more than we could."

Since the first year of the Wiffle ball world series, participation has grown 33 percent. That's from six teams to eight.

"Eight's about all we can let in and still get all the games played in two days," Augustine said, noting that as it is, games are scheduled from 9 a.m. until dusk today and Sunday. "We have to play during the day because we don't have any lights out here."

But lights are one of the few things he doesn't have.

For this world series is taking place on what is likely the premiere backyard Wiffle ball diamond in the area. Likely because it's probably the only backyard Wiffle ball diamond in the area with real bases, backstop and foul poles.

It's much smaller than a regulation baseball diamond. Baselines are about 50 feet long and there's not much of an outfield. But you still get some feel for being at a ballpark.

Augustine and his buddies, all now in their mid-20s, began playing Wiffle ball in what was then just a standard grass lawn, tree-shaded backyard more than 12 years ago when they were junior and senior high school students.

"It just kind of escalated from there," Augustine said.

The first formal base was home plate.

"We'd been playing and complaining that the area around home was muddy," Lewis said. So they set a green-painted cement step in the ground.

Then came the other bases and the pitcher's mound, a tall backstop, benches, even large yellow foul poles, complete with metal net. All things players thought necessary for this version of Wiffle ball, played like baseball, in which players run bases.

"Each year it seems like we add something new," Augustine said, noting they have new bases for this weekend's games.

Of course some things in the yard had to go as the diamond become more profession. Several trees were chopped down, a barbecue pit was moved and the glass basement windows were replaced with plastic.

Then there was the house, which is only a few yards behind the second baseline. Since they couldn't move it, they incorporated it into the game.

If a batter slams a ball onto the roof, it counts as a home run. For lefties, a rope is strung between the house and the right field foul pole.

Sometimes those right field homers sail over some low shrubs and into the neighbor's yard. The neighbors don't mind, Augustine said, or at least they've been too nice to complain.

Knocking out a homer isn't easy, even on this small field. With Lewis pitching, Augustine took a few practice shots Thursday morning as they took a break from preparing the field for this weekend.

He swung hard, connected, a crack was heard. The ball sailed high, then plopped down inside the second base line.

Those are the breaks of batting with a light plastic ball. Fielding the ball is equally challenging. Augustine said there's a certain way you have to throw a Wiffle ball to get it to a baseman to tag a man out.

"There really is an art to playing Wiffle ball," Augustine said.

And this weekend there will be the added pressure of performing before a crowd.

Augustine said he was amazed last year that 50 to 60 people showed up to watch the games in his back yard.

That wouldn't set attendance records at fields like Busch Stadium in St. Louis, but in the small part of Augustine's yard not taken up by the playing field that's quite a crowd.

"It's different when people are watching you," Augustine said. "It gives me butterflies."

The only problem with the crowd is they sometimes get in the way of fielders trying to catch a pop fly foul behind the third base line.

"But we just play around them," Lewis said.

After all, Wiffle ball isn't just a game. It's a reason to get a lot of guys together to whack a ball around.

"It's just fun," Augustine said.