When Sacred Heart University professor Josh Shuart was planning a trip to Ireland last month as part of his school’s study abroad program, he agreed to spend a day with his students at an Irish boys’ school.
The idea: the Irish kids would teach the Sacred Heart students Gaelic football, and the Americans would in turn teach the children baseball.
Then Shuart, an Ansonia resident, had second thoughts. Would it really be a good idea to give a bunch of 10- and 11-year-old boys bats and baseballs if they hadn’t been introduced to the sport?
He found the answer to his dilemma in Shelton, at the headquarters of The Wiffle Ball, Inc.
Shuart figured that no matter how rambunctious a bunch of Irish youths may be, they wouldn’t be able to do too much damage to one another with the company’s trademark plastic equipment.
And it would also be cool to introduce a local product to kids so far away.
“I knew about the Wiffle Ball factory in Shelton,” Shuart said. “It’s a Connecticut connection, and more specifically Valley, because it’s Shelton.”
So he drove to the company for an unannounced visit not expecting a lot in return.
“I drove to the factory and stopped by one day, and I told them the story. They told me they couldn’t do much,” Shuart recalled.
Then he learned what “couldn’t do much” means in the Wiffle dictionary.
“They gave me a dozen bats and 36 balls,” Shuart said.
David Mullany, who now runs the company with his brother, Stephen, said they hear from people like Shuart a few times a year.
“Every now and then we’ll get a call from somebody who’s traveling someplace unique and would like to bring something from their hometown, or the Valley,” he said.
“It’s usually with a program that involves kids, and we’re happy to provide a little bit of fun here and there when we can,” Mullany said. “That’s what we’re all about.”
“I didn’t even actually get to the point of asking them for stuff,” Shuart remembered. “They offered it up. They were happy to do something out of goodwill.”
So after packing — his suitcase was well below the 60-pound limit because it was full of Wiffle Balls — and making it through security — the TSA people “tested” the equipment on one another to make sure it was safe — Shuart was off to Sacred Heart’s campus in Dingle, Ireland with about 60 students.
Of the students, 17 were taking Shuart’s Sports Marketing class. They spent six hours a day in the classroom for nearly two weeks, developing merchandise for a Irish rugby team.
Which was all well and good, but not as fun as teaching kids to Wiffle.
“They were so excited when we came,” Shuart said of the students at the boys’ school. “They were treating our kids like celebrities.”
When he and his students first started to explain the rules, the Irish seemed familiar with it.
“They initially said ‘Oh, this is just like rounders,’” Shuart said, referring to the baseball-like, British game that reportedly dates back to the 1500s.
Then came the first play.
“One of them hit it and the kid on the defensive team came and tackled him. And they were throwing the ball at each other,” Shuart said. “I don’t know if they do that in rounders, but we had to go back and revisit the rules a little bit.”
The kids got the hang of it eventually, Shuart said.
And loved it. Several pictures Shuart took that day are posted in the slideshow below. Article continues after photos.
“They didn’t want us to leave,” he recalled. “They were asking us when we were coming back.”
Of course they couldn’t, but Shuart and the students left the equipment they brought — along with about 50 copies of the official Wiffle Ball rules — in the hopes of making new devotees to the sport.
And perhaps a new market for the Shelton company.
Mullany said that the vast majority of The Wiffle Ball, Inc.‘s sales occur in the United States, but they do have distributors in Japan, Taiwan, and Chile.
But what about Europe?
“Occasionally they’ll get over there,” Mullany said, naming the UK, Finland, and Sweden as countries to which they sometimes ship orders. “Not huge amounts, but little bits and pieces here and there.”
“It’s kind of an expensive product to ship,” he said of the company’s lightweight — yet bulky — merchandise. “It’s kind of like shipping air.”
