Wicked Wiffle segment from Sport Science episode 209. On the set of Sport Science, Wiffle Ball Cy Young Winner Joel Deroche attempts to strikeout MLB star James Loney. Read about more amazing athletic feats: www.amazon.com/...
I met this guy before I played softball with him. He wasn’t unlikeable like he is in this video. He was actually pretty cool and humble. He never even told me about him being on sports science someone else had told me after he left.
+Alva Cassel kid you don't understand how stupid you're making yourself look, everybody hates that wiffleball pitcher because he is cocky and no he actually probably sucks at every sport because he has spent all his time learning wiffleball pitches
This season, as of today, for Loney: .353 BA, second best BA in MLB behind The All-Powerful Miguel Cabrera. And he's played in all 45 games the Rays have played right now.
We started a wiffle ball leagues in 1994. Built an awesome stadium in the back yard and had stands. Not sure if we were pioneers of the leagues, but we definately brought recognition to it!
Best sentence is "yea baby, you cant hang" HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"I've honestly lost count of how many no hitters and perfect games I have thrown..." Yeah while playing an obscure game that no one gives a shit about, tough guy.
No, a 75mph wiffle at 42 feet = A 105 mph pitch from 60 feet 6 inches. Basic math shows that from a closer distance a slower pitch still feels as fast as a 105 mph baseball fastball.
Hell, the first time I threw a wiffle, I couldn't even guess the direction it was going to go. Any kid with some weekend practice can throw a good wiffle, because the balls are made with holes and weigh a fraction of a baseball. Wiffles are designed to pick up turbulence and speed, unlike a baseball.
Wiffleball vs Baseball is like Minigolf vs Golf. If you can't play the original there is the litte version for kids and backyarders. (But pitching wiffles is sure fun)
What I'd like to see is if you take a major league hitter and let him practice against these guys for a couple weeks. I'm guessing the results change pretty significantly.
no but thats not what they are saying, theyre saying a 75 mile per hour ball thrown from 42 feet is just as difficult to hit as a 105 mile per hour ball thrown from 60.5 feet
Everything Joel did was scripted. How to stand, how to look, what to say, and how to act. It is TV! The dude is 100% the opposite of how he is portrayed on TV. The most humble, non cocky person i know.
The distance from pitcher to batter is much less for wiffle, that alone makes it harder to get a read on a pitch. And actually, wiffle can be thrown faster than a baseball (from what I've experienced). I can only barely hit 70 on my radar gun with a 5oz baseball, but reached 79 with the wiffle.
When the narrator said that they drafted one of the best wiffle ball pitchers to ever play the game I thought the kid would be like 12, not nearly as young as the guy here.
The producers obviously got the pitcher to act all cocky, it's what they do on most reality-style shows. This would be a more interesting video if it wasn't all overproduced like a pro wrestling match, heavy guitars, the camera swirling around people flexing like it's an MMA weigh-in. I mean I get it that they are trying to 'make it cooler' and this was uploaded in 2009, but the video woulda been interesting enough without all the cringey shit.
Loney's got the ability to put up better numbers than he's shown since coming into the majors. If only he'd stop messing around with his swing and trust his hands more. Guy's a natural hitter and actually does have enough power to hit more than 20 HRs if he wanted to. Maybe he should spend some quality time dissecting footage of Garret Anderson in his prime. That's who he reminds me of the most, come to think of it...
the last sinker he threw to loney was at half speed. he gave him a pitch to hit. in all fairness he should have been using that bigger bat in the first place.
yes, but trying to hit a wiffle ball going 75mph from 45 feet away is exactly like trying to hit a regular baseball going 105mph from 60 feet 6 inches away. you still need to react in about half a second to hit it.
