Very true!

I also had many a wiffle ball game as a youngster. We played in parking lots, alleys, and front stoops - during break from school during the summer it was an all day activity!

My brother and I did the same thing. Made us pretty good switch hitters too! I agree with you about the bomba days being long gone, but the mindset seems to still be there. Homeruns are sexy. Gets you on Sportscenter I guess. This management team doesn't seem to stress fundamentals like bunting and stealing and baserunning like past management teams have. Maybe they need a longer spring training? Or maybe different Coaching? The game is changing and the teams that are winners will make the adjustments to the game.

We all have a very similar story.  One of the beauties of whiffle ball was all the different places you could play it:  Different backyards with different dimensions or quirks (just like big league stadiums).  In the street, at the school playground etc...you could switch things up with different ground rules.  It also depended how many people you had playing.  Smaller groups, all groundballs were outs.  If players were on base and a double play was in order...you GOT that Twin-Killing...now matter what.

Yes indeed, you had to bat as the team's lineup dictated.  Twins of course, Big Red Machine, Red Sox, Giants (Willie Mays & Willie McCovey) but I also did the Pirates alot.   Clemente, Stargell, Al Oliver, Manny Sangullien, Matty Alou, Don Clendennon, Gene Clines, etc...it was a loaded lineup and fun to mimic.  HOURS of FUN.  I had as much fun being Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer, Don Sutton and Bill Singer and Twins like Dave Boswell, Jim Perry, Mudcat Grant and Bert Blyleven.  

Did you guys use a trash can for a strike zone? Just need to hear that "tick" on the edge and your backdoor slider was a strike.

We played in the alley all of us were from the Same block. since are parents wouldn't let us go across the street. But we got to know each other and enjoy are summers.

Loved whiffle ball (have you seen the 'pro' version? check out YouTube)!

But I don't see the rest of what you are seeing at all. Yep, bunting is down (and shouldn't be in the face of shifting, including bunting with 2 strikes and half an empty field).

But the Twins are notorious for working counts. They have the premiere contact hitter in baseball in Arraez. They have one of the most frustrating hitters to face in Polanco (fouling off pitch after pitch). They had Jeffers bunt just the other day. They can hit the ball out of the yard. They have people like Kirilloff or even Larnach who drive the ball all over the park with pop. (or classically the other day, there was a guy on 3B with one out and Alex came up, and I told a friend 'I hereby guarantee a fly ball to drive in the run' and Kirilloff delivered. They still have others who swing from their heels on all counts (your 'risk' factor).

They also have spectacular (if uneven) players in the field, and some pitchers who move the game along instead of re-setting their zen aura between every pitch. They have two past Platinum Glove winners (when healthy, the best CF and SS in baseball).

Things may be frustrating at times (uncertainty is the essence of sport), but this is possibly the most interesting/fun Twins team I've seen in the past decade. And I'm loving the ride!

On 6/26/2022 at 6:50 AM, Karbo said:

My brother and I did the same thing. Made us pretty good switch hitters too! I agree with you about the bomba days being long gone, but the mindset seems to still be there. Homeruns are sexy. Gets you on Sportscenter I guess. This management team doesn't seem to stress fundamentals like bunting and stealing and baserunning like past management teams have. Maybe they need a longer spring training? Or maybe different Coaching? The game is changing and the teams that are winners will make the adjustments to the game.

Or are the game changers the winners, until everyone  changes.