Kalamazoo Wiffle League gets big league help

The Kalamazoo Wiffle League — 16 teams and more than 100 players — knows when to ask for help from a higher authority.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reports a disputed play during a heated game was resolved with a call to a Major League Baseball umpire more than 2,000 miles away.

The debate centered on what should have been a home run, with runners on first and second.  Steve Everett jumped in the air, snagged the plastic and tumbled over the left-field fence, all while holding on to the ball.

When the two sides couldn’t resolve the play, Ryan Winfield, who was filming the game for the league’s website, joked that someone should call Tim Welke, a veteran MLB umpire who lives in Portage. As a long shot, Everett called Welke, who was in San Diego prior to working at that night’s game between the Padres and Colorado Rockies.

Excerpt:

Welke answered, put Everett on speaker phone and his crew made the call. The story recounting the home run-robbing catch (with video) was posted on the league’s website.

For more on how the call went on to become an Internet sensation, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Kalamazoo Gazette