(Screenshot image taken from the YouTube account of 'MLW Wiffle Ball')
Could this have been the greatest wiffleball game ever played? If it wasn’t it might have to settle for being the greatest wiffleball game ever played in a public park and captured for posterity by a production crew utilizing 4 different cameras. When I first encountered the YouTube channel for MLW Wiffleball I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Most of their videos start with a computer graphic laden intro that resembles the corporate, serious minded sports content that you would see on ESPN or other major television networks. And yet it ultimately chronicles the execution of what some might consider to be a rec league sport, contested solely by Detroit area youths. The juxtaposition of its grandiose, dramatic opening tone with the presentation of something that seems so trifling can be a bit off-putting at first, but the more I watched the videos from this channel the more I began to see that its frivolous nature is what makes it work.
Unlike other sports leagues that you could watch, MLW is completely run and managed by the youth players who compete in the league, which I suspect encourages its participants to express themselves in ways that might be considered brash by those who are more versed with adult-managed sporting leagues. This is a league where home runs are often celebrated with the ritual of a synchronous team jump at home plate. This is a league where you’ll see crazy bat flips, or see players dance as they trot around the bases, or see players walk off the field in the middle of a pitcher’s delivery knowing that the batter is about to strike out. Even in this game there is a moment where both corner fielders for the Coastal Cobras took a seat on the grass showing an arrogant confidence that the batter wouldn’t put a ball into play. And such moments seemingly occur without any controversy or bruised egos. I think part of MLW’s appeal is that it still remains largely untainted by mature notions of refinement which could drain it of its youthful exuberance.
In addition to this the pre-game interviews are often punctuated by inadvertent giggling, suggesting that these kids are incapable of mimicking the pretentious nature of modern sports broadcasting. At one point in this particular video Kyle Schultz, the founder and commissioner of the league who usually provides the commentary from behind the home plate camera, made a sly reference to SpongeBob SquarePants only to follow this with the actual clip from the show. This is a league that cares as much about having fun as it does in the outcome of its staged contests and this provides MLW with a personality and a charm that is often lacking in more professional, adult-orientated sport leagues.
None of this though, however true it may be, results in YouTube videos that give the appearance of an amateur undertaking. The videos that Kyle Schultz releases are remarkably well shot and well constructed for what is essentially a local wiffleball league consisting of around 40 kids and played entirely in Brighton, MI. Kyle often gets lauded for his editing skills and before I discuss this aspect, perhaps it’s best to start with the cameras that are used. This video, as do most MLW videos, utilizes 3 primary video sources. The main camera sits behind home plate and captures most of the action. For this video Kyle Schultz operated this camera. A secondary camera will rotate around the field capturing an array of perspectives. This camera is often mounted on a tripod which does not necessitate it being continuously operated by a cameraman. A member of Kyle’s production team (which consists of the 4 original, still active members of the league) will usually be responsible for staging and operating this camera. In this particular video since both of Kyle’s brothers played in the game, this duty fell to Tommy Coughlin. The 3rd camera is a GoPro which is attached to the fence in right field. Since this camera captures a very panoramic view of the field, it is usually left alone during a game. If this wasn’t enough, there is also a handheld mobile device that will capture additional action and is only used intermittingly. After Daniel Schultz hit his go ahead homer, the secondary camera actually captures Coughlin recording the celebration at home plate with this 4th camera. Apart from the GoPro, these cameras are not stationary objects. They can pan from side to side and zoom in and out for different perspectives on the action, which adds another layer of complexity to the overall production scheme.
As with most sporting events the cameras do not dictate the action, but are merely used to ‘capture’ what happens. On a live sports broadcast all the cameras will operate simultaneously and it’s simply up to a member of the production crew to manage the cutting from one camera source to another as the game is played. There is a decent amount of skill involved in mastering this task, but even then it comes with little concern over the continuity of the broadcast. By contrast MLW’s YouTube uploads consist entirely of ‘pre-recorded’ material and thus the content has to be edited as it would in a cinematic film. Since footage is shot simultaneously, the demands for continuity can make this an arduous process to complete. Granted continuity is not that big of a concern for the use of replays designed to show a different perspective to the action. Although the use of replays often includes hearing the same commentary repeated over again. For instance after Drew Davis strikes out to end the 3rd inning, we hear Kyle’s ‘9 up 9 down’ comment a second time when seeing the reaction of the other Cobras. Then there’s the game’s final out, for which we see 3 separate replays that allow Zach Whalen’s shouting of “Daniel Schultz” to reverberate as an echo. But not all cutting is done for replays.
In the 1st inning the side views of both Drew Davis and Daniel Schultz in the midst of their pitching motion has to flow seamlessly with the view from the home plate camera and Kyle is extremely proficient at arranging these shots. There is a real legitimate gracefulness to the cutting that is seen throughout the video. When Neal Smith strikes out to end the top of the 2nd inning and the Cobras start to run off the field, the video cuts from the home plate camera to the GoPro, and then again to the secondary camera sitting behind the center field fence and everything still transitions smoothly. But perhaps the most talked about aspect of Kyle’s editing work is what he specifically chooses to include in the video. For most of the game action, only the terminating pitch of a plate appearance is shown resulting in either a walk, a strikeout, or a ball put in play. This compresses 2 hours of wiffleball into a roughly 14 minute montage of footage that still manages to show you all the pertinent action from the game.
Watching Kyle’s work with MLW makes me ponder about MLB’s recent movement to increase its ‘pace of play’. Perhaps the bigger issue with MLB is how they present their sport through the medium of television. A continuous, uninterrupted feed of a sport structured around hundreds of staged pitches were a vast majority of them produce little to no real consequence affecting its outcome will always be a problem no matter how fast the gameplay is. I’m reminded of Ray Fitzgerald’s famous quote of a critic describing baseball as “six minutes of action crammed into two-and-one-half hours.” Kyle’s editing approach excises much of the ‘filler’ of a wiffleball game out of the presentation and places more focus on the aforementioned ‘six minutes of action’. Kyle ultimately shows the full complete story of a game with far greater pace and efficiency than what you would ever get in a MLB televised broadcast. For a sport that is probably inflicted with a greater percentage of walks and strikeouts, this editing tactic is essential in order to make the sport of wiffleball interesting and engaging to watch.
But editing aside, I’m also highly impressed with the general cinematography of the work. Let’s start with the main camera. It’s staging behind home plate is flawless in that you get a complete view of the field, with both the left and right field foul poles visible within the frame of the shot. The camera is also either tilted slightly at a downward angle or is shot from a certain depth so that the wiffleball is constantly contrasted against the lush forest green trees in the background, making it easier to see. The actual perspective from behind home plate is also interesting in that it highlights the sharp differences between baseball and wiffleball. For one the perspective is only possible because wiffleball doesn’t have either a catcher or an umpire crouching behind home plate. In baseball the presence of both requires the main camera to be stationed beyond the fence, several feet to the left of dead center field. This shot ultimately places the hitter in the center of the frame facing the camera, while the pitcher is in the foreground with his back turned away from the camera. The cinematography of baseball establishes the batter as the central figure in the drama, while the pitcher is seen as the peripheral adversary. In MLW wiffleball this dynamic is completely reversed. Like in most wiffleball leagues, balls and strikes are determined by whether or not a pitch hits a flat strike zone that is propped up behind home plate. Thus instead of throwing a ball through a 3 dimensional cube resting above home plate, the pitcher only needs to hit a 2 dimensional plane. Since the path that a wiffleball takes to reach this plane doesn’t matter, the concept of a ‘strike’ is far more expansive, making wiffleball an undisputed pitcher’s game. It is the pitcher who’s tasked with charting winding, circuitous journeys for the wiffleball with sharp breaking detours in movement that appear to sneer at the laws of physics. To see Drew Davis throw a nasty tailing slider to Whalen in the 5th inning or to see Daniel Schultz throw a wicked, sharp knuckle-drop that bends enough to hit the top of the zone in the 10th, leaving his brother Brendan completely vanquished at the plate, is to witness pure art. Thus it makes total sense to have the main camera face the pitcher in order stage their mastery as the focal point of the contest.
The angle of the camera towards the action is also noteworthy. In baseball the main camera is actually slightly askew of dead center field. This positioning is necessary in order to frame both the pitcher and the batter in the same shot and not have the pitcher either block the view of the batter, nor the pitch that is delivered. The one problem with this vantage point is that it distorts and ultimately diminishes one’s ability to see the lateral breaking movement of a pitch. It ever so subtlety conceals the craft of the pitcher. However in MLW, the main camera is looking directly at the pitcher, so that the pitcher is seen directly above the strike zone and home plate. This is an angle that better shows off the majesty of a sharp breaking curve, slider or drop pitch. It allows the lateral, ‘east-west’ movement of a pitch to be captured in all its unfettered glory. Albeit the one pitch that the home plate camera struggles to capture is the ‘riser’, a pitch that breaks upward in complete defiance to the notion of gravity. This upward motion is often obscured by the fact that the ball is approaching a camera that is looking down on the plate. Not only that, but if a riser is thrown for a strike, the strike zone will often block the view of the pitch. When Daniel Schultz strikes out Brendan with a riser in the bottom of the 6th inning, the home plate camera barely allows you to see the pitch. Here the reverse angle shot from center field does a better job of showcasing its wicked movement.
The staging of the secondary camera is also well executed when you consider how often it moves and the perspectives it is able to capture just from its positioning. During this video the secondary camera is either placed on the bench beyond center field, in order to mimic the typical ‘baseball shot’ of the action, or is positioned beyond either the 1st or 3rd base lines offering a side view of the action. During the 4th inning, the secondary camera was placed beyond the 1st base line during Clayton Price’s mic’d up segment and was able to capture an interesting perspective of him at the plate struggling to hit Davis’s stuff and later could simply pan in order to see him play in left field while on defense. The GoPro is also well positioned to show the action that often takes place at 1st base. Although another advantage of the home plate camera is that when a ball is put in play it’s already in a great position to show all the defensive fielding and base running to where Kyle really doesn’t need to cut the shot. Kyle can also pan his camera for moments where a ball is hit out of frame as seen in the 5th inning when Davis popped out to Whalen. In this instance the cut to the GoPro can show the rest of the action while maintaining the same pace and continuity seen in the rest of the video. How the different cameras are used in connection with each other is generally excellent.
Another aspect of MLW videos that rarely gets mentioned is the music. Since Kyle’s editing approach often makes it difficult to add verbal commentary of the game, Kyle overlays the video with background music as the main auditory complement to the action. For this video Kyle appropriately used more melodic, dramatic overtures to give the game an aura of significance and gravitas. The music also contained a lot of shifts in tempo, like the sudden change to a softer, lighter tone as Daniel Schultz pitched to Adam Szerlag in the bottom of the 3rd or the transition back to more bombastic, serious fare in the top of the 8th to match the escalating insanity of the game. It was also interesting to hear the sharp percussion based crescendo in the top of the 9th as Drew Davis worked his way out of a bases loaded jam with no outs. Another moment of note was the sudden abrupt downshift in tempo in the bottom half of the 9th, which was impeccably timed in concert with the ball hitting the strike zone for the third out. I also like the inclusion of a more downbeat, somber score after the resolution of the game which felt absolutely perfect. Often the music would offer an excellent accompaniment to the tension and drama of the game itself.
In spite of all this there is still plenty of room to capture the human element of these games with the use of pre and post game interviews, as well as the use of two mic’up segments which in this video adds some comic relief to the affair in addition to providing some modest level of intimacy to the proceedings. There is also Kyle’s succinct commentary of the game and a certain focus in this particular game to capture some of the emotion from the players who completed in it. After Daniel Schultz hit his game winning homer, we get to see Daniel bluntly flip his bat in the air expressing a long desired sense of relief. We also get to see the painful reactions from both Adam Szerleg and Sean Flynn in addition to the joy of the Eagles players as they give Daniel a mini-Gatorade bath after he trotted around the bases. Such acts offered an additional sampling of personal flair to the game.
When you consider all of the video’s elements; the editing, the camerawork, the soundtrack, the human actions and reactions to the events in the game itself, the personality and charm of the players and the people responsible for recording it, it’s almost as if Kyle is constructing a short film on every series that takes place in this league. His presentation of the sport invokes distinctly cinematic touches that come across as an intriguing and novel concept in comparison to the more unimaginative, soulless, pseudo-journalistic style of professional sports broadcasting. And Kyle has made this approach work for a league that contains a rather modest level of talent. No, MLW is not the most talented wiffleball league in the world. With enough dedicated research you’ll find information on wiffleball leagues with far greater quantities of athletic talent. But Kyle nonetheless has achieved something that those other leagues haven’t. He has developed a process for exhibiting the sport of wiffleball in a manner that maximizes its potential for entertainment value. And if my ventures through film culture or other sporting oddities like Troy State vs. Devry have taught me anything it’s that entertainment value is not necessarily the sole possession of those who are talented. In fact when it comes to the notions of talent and entertainment value, I suspect that the correlation between the two is not as linear nor as positive as one would thoughtlessly assume. Kyle Schultz may not be the best wiffleball player in the world, but he may be the best filmmaker that the world of wiffleball has ever produced. This is the secret to MLW’s rise in popularity.