It’s a little different because it’s not like serious; it’s easygoing.”

Jacob Labonte, 13

PORTSMOUTH — Before he took the mound to show off his pitching skills, 13-year-old Jacob Labonte was busy putting up the numbers on the Patriot Field scoreboard last Thursday night.

Not that it really mattered, however, because the players didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the run tallies. They were too busy pitching, fielding, batting — and joking around with their opponents.

“To an extent they care about winning, but not really,” said Bob Campion as he watched one of three games played on the lighted wiffle ball field tucked behind Patriot Upholstery on East Main Road, across from Clements’ Marketplace and visible from the CVS Pharmacy parking lot.

In contrast to the competitive nature of Campion’s Little League or travel teams, these kids are here just for the fun of the game

“I don’t actually play baseball,” Jacob said, adding he comes here “because it’s a lot of fun and almost everyone I know does it. It’s a little different because it’s not like serious; it’s easygoing.”

“They just love to play the ball game,” said Bill Whitmarsh, the owner of Patriot Upholstery who built the field in 2015 on property he rents. He runs an eight-team adult wiffle ball league, something he used to do in tandem with Chris “Mick” Richard, who has a miniature replica of Fenway Park on West Main Road.

Richard dropped out, however. “He wanted his yard back,” said Campion, who contacted Whitmarsh a few years ago about the possibility of renting Patriot Field to throw an end-of-season party for his Little League team. Whitmarsh said the kids could use the field for free.

“I have to give credit to Bill for being so gracious to allow these kids to play here. I started it in 2021 as a way to have fun and getting the kids doing something once the real stuff ends,” said Campion, referring to Little League.

The league didn’t play in 2022, because Campion’s Little League Major All-Star team made a deep run into the state playoffs. (The team lost a heartbreaker to Cumberland in the championship game.) Campion promised to revive the wiffle ball league this year, and he kept his word. Now he runs it along with Patrick Grant.

Besides getting the word out to his Little League players, some members of his travel team also compete, as well as others who don’t play regular baseball at all.

“Kids get to know each other, and they make friends with kids from other towns,” Campion said.

There are four teams in the youth league, featuring players who are finishing sixth, seventh and eighth grades. They play three games every Saturday night, with the last one ending at about 8:30 p.m. The season is expected to wrap up before Labor Day weekend.

Them’s the rules

Unlike in regular baseball, there’s no set number of innings played, nor is there a mercy rule. “We play for time; it’s like a 55-minute game. If the home team is still batting and they’re behind, we let them finish batting,” Campion said.

There are two outs per inning, rather than three, and five balls prompt a walk, rather than four. There’s no catcher, but if a pitched ball hits any part of a stationary board set up behind home plate, it’s a strike. Similarly, if a runner is coming home, a fielder can throw him out by hitting the board with the ball before the runner reaches the plate. There’s no leading on base; your foot must remain on the bag.

“We play pitcher’s poison, which means if you field a ground ball and flip it to the pitcher in the circle, you don’t have to make the throw to the base,” he said. An out is recorded if the tossed ball gets to the pitcher before the runner reaches base. (And no, “pegging” a batter with the ball to get him out is not allowed.)

Like a regular baseball field, however, this one has its own idiosyncrasies and rules. A full tree, in fact, stands in right field. If a ball caroms off the tree and is caught, the runner is out. (If it falls, it’s a live ball.) However, a ball that bounces off the pole in foul territory in right field is a foul ball whether it’s caught or not. (Tate Levesque was disappointed to find that out Saturday, after he made an amazing catch of a ball that scraped the foul pole.)

The field dimensions are small — 92 feet for left field, 115 at center, 88 for right — but a wiffle ball doesn’t travel as far as a regular baseball. Still, players were hitting it hard Saturday.

“We saw our first home runs tonight — three of them. All the first year and up to tonight, I hadn’t seen a kid put one over the fence yet,” said Campion.

Their game

Although he and other adults watch the games and answer questions if needed, they generally leave the players alone.

“This is kid-run. They have to determine a speaking captain for the night. If there’s a dispute on a call, those two kids have to get together and settle it. They don’t want to come to the commissioner (Campion) to settle it, because they’re probably going to like the answer,” he said.

There are seven on a team, with four on the field when playing defense. The kids rotate their subs and pitchers for the night (a pitcher’s limit is two consecutive innings), maintain the batting order and make sure the score is tallied. 

But again, the score isn’t what matters. 

“They’re not on a video game controller in the bedroom or basement, and they’re not hanging out God knows where, doing something that’s not healthy,” said Campion. “If they want to come out and do this, that’s awesome.”