The Mallany's never met any of these stars they just purchased the photos from agents. Today you can buy the bat-and-ball set as cheaply as $2.49.įrom 1956 until 1992 the familiar Wiffle Ball box displayed a picture and endorsement from a big league star, like Whitey Ford, Eddie Mathews, Ted Williams, Jackie Jensen, Pete Rose, Mike Scott, or Rick Sutcliffe. The original Wiffle bat was wood, but for many years it has been a skinny yellow fungo-shaped plastic bat, manufactured by another company. The Wiffle Ball sold for 49 cents in 1959, only 75 cents in 1985. The company employs about 20 people, working three machines. The Wiffle factory is a small "undistinguished" two story building in Shelton, Connecticut,đ0 miles from New Haven. His father passed away in 1990, but two more Mallany's, grandsons David J. Mullany, the first person to throw a Wiffle curve, became president of the company. It is still a privately held company and does not disclose its sales figures, except to say that millions have been sold.Ğxperiments with Wiffle golf, basketball, and football were flops, but the original ball has been a steady seller.ĭavid A. has not been taken over by a giant international conglomerate which makes ovens, dog food, asphalt shingles and sporting goods. Incredibly in this day and age, Wiffle Ball Inc. The company never advertised very much, depending instead on word of mouth, and the word spread like wildfire among kids. 2776139), got a second mortgage on the house, took out some loans, and started marketing the product. When you miss it, it's a wiff.'"Īs the younger David Mullany once put it, "The beauty of it is that you can get a guy 30 years old playing against his son who isđ2 years old and he can't overpower him with size or strength."ĭavid Mullany the Elder patented the Wiffle Ball (US No. "Without a second thought, Dave turned around to me and said, 'Wiffle. I asked him, 'What do you call that game you play?' "It was a rainy day, and I was down in the cellar withĝave writing the rules for the game. "I'll never forget how the name came about," said the elder Mullany. The ball that worked best had eight oblong holes on the top half, and a solid bottom. The Mullany's finally concluded that it was the shape of the holes, rather than the precise volume of plastic removed, was the critical factor in the ball's performance. Then they'd tape two halves together and try out the ball. Father and son cut holes, diamonds, and other shapes out of the balls, to create an imbalance. Mullany reasoned that a plastic ball could be made to curve if its two hemispheres were of unequal weight. With a baseball, a pitcher throws a curve by creating unequal spin on the two sides of the ball. He brought them home, and that night he and his son sat at the kitchen table with white plastic hemispheres, a few razor blades and some scotch tape. "The mold was still there so my friend pulled off some samples for me." "They made a plastic-ball gift box for Coty, the perfume company," said Mullany. Besides guns, the company made packaging products. The elder Mullany called a friend who worked at the nearby Colt Firearms factory. He needed something - his auto polish business had gone bust he was broke and unemployed. If you could take a plastic ball and make it curve, you'd probably have something." "Whether they're playing the outfield or infield, warming up or just throwing the ball around, everyone is always trying to throw a curve," he told a Network News Service reporter thirty years later. Mullany - a former college and semipro pitcher - watched his son trying to throw a curve with the plastic golf ball, and he got an idea. "We had tried playing with tennis balls at first, but one day my friend's mother was hanging laundry and I drilled a shot through her arms and into the backdoor light."ĭavid's father, David N. The boys used a broom handle and a plastic golf ball, because every kid knows you can't play hardball in the yard. Mullany and his friend were locked in another marathon game of backyard ball. It was a lazy summer afternoon in Fairfield, Connecticut,đ953.
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