Equipment

• Only 32″ yellow bats from The Original Wiffle® Ball Company can be used for batting.
• The bat may include one bike tube over the barrel subject to approval from the Umpire.
• Bat may include bat grip tape on the hand subject to approaval from the Umpire.
• Only The Original Wiffle® Baseball Size wiffle balls will be used in games.
• All official game balls will be provided by the commissioner and approved by commissioner (ump if commissioner is not available) before start of game.
• Windy City Wiffle balls are uniformly scuffed per league regulations. We developed a scuffing technique to keeps balls consistent.
• Balls with 1/4 inch of a crack or more cannot be used in play.
• Only one ball on field at a time. Balls will be checked by Umpire before each inning. The umpire may check a ball at any point of the game for any reason.
• Batting Gloves are allowed on offense. No batting or fielding gloves allowed on defense.
• No foreign Substance on the ball. If a foreign substance is found on a ball the active pitcher will be thrown from the game and suspended from pitching and batting one game.
• A pitcher can wear an arm sleeve, but it must be fully covered by an undershirt. Any part of the pitcher’s undershirt that can be seen must be a solid color, and the sleeves cannot be white or gray.
• A pitcher may not wear any jewelry or accessories of any kind on their pitching arm/hand.

Batting/Fielding Line Ups

• Starting Batting/Fielding line ups must be submitted to Ump and opposing coach up to 5 min before the start of a game.
• At least 3 players from a team must be present at the official start time of the game or the team will forfeit the game.
• A player arriving late may be entered as a substitute as long as he is announced to ump/opposing team prior to the game starting.
• Starting Batting/Fielding line ups must stay in the game for a minimum of 2 innings before any substitution or add on. (Unless due to injury)
• Batting Line Ups can be up to 5 players in size.
• Fielding Line Ups can be up to 3 players in size.
• When a batter is swinging his hands are an extension of the bat. If a ball hits the batters hands during a swing it will be a strike/hit. If a batter checks his swing and the ball hits his hands it will be a ball. If it batter does not swing and the ball hits the bat it will be ruled a foul tip.
• Batting out of order: If a team bats out of order and it is substantiated on the field by the opposing team before the first pitch of the next at bat, one out is scored, offense is erased, and the order starts with the skipped batter. Hitter must take a pitch for the ‘Out of Order’ call to be made. If the 2nd out of order at bat receives a pitch the batting order will continue on in order from the batter forward with no penalty.
• If a batter catches a thrown ball/swats it with his hand or moved in front of the strike zone to effect a pitch the result will be the same as the ball hitting the strike zone.

Base Running

• Batter will only run to first. Once safe he is substituted by a ghost runner.
• Singles will move ghost runners 1 base.
• Doubles will move ghost runners 2 bases.
• Triples will clear all ghost runners.

Hits

• Single: Any hit not reaching the wall where a runner beats out the throw.
• Double: A ball reaching the wall after a bounce, deflection, or a fair ball rolling past the plane created by the wall into foul territory. Base runner still must beat out throw. (It is very unlikely that a base runner will not beat out throw to first in these situations)
• Triple: Ball reaching wall in the air or deflecting off a player and into the wall before touching the ground.
• Home Run: Ball reaching over the wall in the air or deflecting off of player and over the wall. (Players must run around the bases for HR to count. Failure to do so before next batter will result in an out.)

Tag Rule

• With Runners on base and less than 2 outs, any member of the hitting team can yell “Tag” while ball is in the air to try to successfully advance all runners.
• Defense of a tag call (Only after a catch)
  • Throw to backstop in the air = holds all runners
  • Throw to the strike zone in the air = lead runner is out
  • You may throw to a relay man to complete a throw to backstop or strike zone. The relay man cannot be closer to the strike zone than the distance of the pitchers mound. The throw and catch between the fielder and relay man must be fluid without an error for the defense of the tag call to count.

General Fielding Positioning

• Fielding line ups consists of a pitcher and 2 fielders during defensive play.
• Fielders can line up anywhere in fair territory but no closer than the pitchers mound.
• It is the responsibility of the batter to leave the lane between the fielder and strike zone/backstop unobstructed during a play. If the throw hits the batter while standing in the throwing lane the defensive result will equal that of hitting the strike zone.
• Any adjacent playing fields are considered out of play. To record an out a fielder must gain possession prior to their feet touching inside an adjacent playing field. (Umpires discretion makes last call on this)

Recording Outs and Fielding

• Outs can only be recorded when a batter strikes out, a ball is caught or fielded cleanly (before the ball stops moving on its own), and any defensive play is completed effectively, and with fluidity (in a smooth, up to speed, continuous motion). Umpire has final word on “clean”, “effective”, and “fluidity”.
• Outs at first base
  • Throw to pitcher while he touches the mound before base runner reaches first base.
  • Throw to any defensive player who is touching 1st base before the base runner reaches first base.
  • Running and tagging first base before base runner reaches 1st base.
  • Throw to backstop in the in the air before runner reaches 1st base.
• Throws to strike zone = lead force out and no runners advance. Ball must reach strike zone in air.The legs of the strike zone are considered to be the same as the backstop. If a throw misses the backstop entirely no outs are recorded and play is dead.
• In a force situation a fielder may tag a force-out base himself (within 2 step) before runner reaches 1st to record out at that base.
• On a single, with a runner on 3rd*, fielder can throw a (still rolling) ball from the outfield to the strike-zone (with fluidity) to throw out the runner coming home. Runner either scores or is thrown out. There is no way to hold him.
• If a fielder finishes over HR wall after touching, or with the ball, a HR will be recorded. FIELDERS MUST STAY INSIDE THE HR WALL.

Double Play Situations

• A double play is executed when a fielder fields the ball cleanly* and relays to the man tagging a force out base, who then throws to the strike-zone, pitcher, or backstop, hitting it in the air for the second out before runner reaches 1st. Fielders can tag the force out base themselves with any part of their body, if done within 2 steps. All components of a double play must be done with fluidity**.
  • Throw: Force out base to Backstop = Outs at Force out base and 1st with other runners advancing.
  • Throw: Force out base to strike-zone = Lead forced runners are out & runners do not advance.
• A fielder in the outfield may contribute to a double play.
• Infielder may allow an infield fly ball to drop on purpose with the intentions of turning a double play.
• In a double play situation, simply flipping to a force out fluidly without a throw home or to the pitcher before runner reaches 1st will record an out at the forced base*, all other runners advancing. Teams are incentivized to ALWAYS attempt the double play!

Pitching Rotation & Pitching

The Pitching Rotation

• A starting pitcher may not start until 2 full games after their last start. For example if “johnny” is a starter game 1 he will not be able to start until game 4.
• A starting pitcher may not relief pitch until 1 full game after their last start. For example if “johnny” is a starter game 1 he will not be able to relief pitch until game 3.
• Starting pitcher cannot be relieved until 4 runs given up, or 4 full innings pitched.
• The Pitching Rotation can be reset to start each Post-Season series. Same Pitching rotation rules apply.
• A relief pitcher may not re-enter a game in which he was relieved unless as the result of injury of current pitcher. A starting pitcher may not re-enter a game under any circumstance.

Pitching

• Windy City Wiffle allows pitches thrown at any speed. Only, 1 ball is allowed on the field at a time. Once a ball has been deemed illegal it must be turned in to the director of the event.
• There is a 4 ball/3 strike count.
• Strikes – A pitch is scored a strike when the ball makes contact with any part of the zone (except strike zone leg/arm) or when a batter swings and misses.
• Called balls – A pitch is recorded as a ball when it misses the zone and the batter does not swing, or when the ball hits the batter.
• With 1 strike remaining, 2 additional foul/foul tips into the backstop will be counted as a strike out.
• With 1 strike remaining, a foul/foul tip into the strike zone will be counted as a strike out.
• Foot Positioning – At the time of the release of the ball, his back foot must be in contact with the pitching rubber. In the event the pitcher throws the ball and is not in contact with the rubber the pitch will not count and the count will remain where it was.

Extra Innings

• Games are 6 innings. Anything beyond 6 innings is considered extra innings.
• In the event of a tie, the pitcher who finishes regulation must pitch to the first 3 batters of extra innings.
• The 1st extra inning will start with a ghost runner on 1st and 2nd in all rounds of regular season play.
• The 2nd extra inning and all extra innings after, start with the bases loaded with ghost runners.
• Any runs from extra inning automatic ghost runners will be counted towards the batter who advances them in.
• League directors have authority to modify innings based on time/weather/etc.

Slaughter Rule

• 10 run rule – If a team is behind by ten or more runs after having two at bats in a game the game is called *home team gets last ups.

• 20 run rule – If a team reaches 20 runs, they win immediately and the game is over. *no min at bats apply for either team in this case.

Home and Away

• (Regular Season) Will be marked on schedule prior to first game.
• (Playoffs) Will be based on seeding.
• (World Series) The winning Division of the All-Star game will have home field advantage at the World Series.

All-Star Game

• The stat leader in HR, RBI, Strike Outs, ERA, and Batting Average from each Division will qualify for their Divisions All-Star team. A player must at least have 3 games played in a leaderboard stat to qualify. In the case a player is the leader in multiple stats he will qualify based on the stat chosen by the commissioner and the player that is runner up for the remaining stat will qualify. (For example: If “Johnny” leads the league in both Hr’s and batting average… The commissioner may choose to qualify “Johnny” for the All-Star game based on his HR stat lead. In which case the runner up in batting average would qualify for the All-Star game.)

Post Season

• The Top two teams in 2023’s standings will qualify for the Championship Series.
• The Championship Series will be a best out of 3 series.
• The Pitching Rotation can be reset to start of a post season series. Same Pitching rotation rules apply once a playoff series has started.