The fifth annual Jarred Williams Foundation Wiffle Ball tournament will be held on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 11th and 12th at Little Wrigley and Little Fenway in Jericho, VT. Twelve teams will be battling for the Jarred Williams cup - come see the Bomb Squad try and defend the trophy!! The event starts at 8:30 AM and is free and open to the public. Come see the Logger, Champ and the Woodchuck! There will be a kid's game, silent auction, home run derby which are open to the public and lots of great food!

If you want to help:

Silent Auction Donations contact Heather at 434-3702 or hpparker@gmavt.net

T-shirts orders contact Dwayne at 434-3363 or dmjdrd@comcast.net

8-4-10: Associated Press feature story (appeared nationwide):
Little Fenway a big hit for players and charity
by John Curran
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jP9rFGQKegTCxdvwKj55a91V4COQD9HCIOC00

8-5-10: WEEI.com story
Travis Roy Wiffle Ball Tournament at 'Little Fenway' Aug 6-8
by Nick Bove
http://leeinks.weei.com/sports/2010/08/05/travis-roy-wiffle-ball-tournament-at-little-fenway-aug-6-8

8-6-10: WCAX feature, live from Little Fenway (with video):
Wiffle ball tourney is back
by Mike McCune and Seth Leavitt
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=12941886

8-6-10: New Hampshire Public Radio feature (with audio MP3):
A field of (Wiffle Ball) dreams
by Rick Ganley
http://www.nhpr.org/node/33494

8-6-10: WPTZ-TV news feature (with video):
Wiffle Ball Tourney To Raise Money
by Stewart Ledbetter
http://www.wptz.com/video/24543365/index.html

8-7-10 WPTZ-TV news feature (with video):
Wiffle Ball Fundraiser Hits Million Dollar Mark
by WPTZ news staff
http://www.wptz.com/news/24551693/detail.html

Travis Roy Foundation Vermont Wiffle Ball Tourney Surpasses Million-Dollar Level In 2010

August 9, 2010
For Immediate Release

Travis Roy Foundation Website: http://www.travisroyfoundation.org/
Tournament Website: http://www.travisroyfoundation.org/vermont-wiffle®-ball-tournament/
TRF Wiffle Ball YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/TRFWiffleball

ESSEX, Vt. -- The 2010 Travis Roy Foundation Vermont Wiffle Ball Tournament wrapped up Sunday and the annual event far exceeded its fundraising goal as the total money raised in the nine years of the event surpassed the million-dollar mark. The 24-team tournament, held August 6-8 at Little Fenway and Little Wrigley in Essex, generated over $355,000 to bring the nine-year total to over $1,070,000 raised for the foundation that benefits and creates awareness for people with spinal cord injuries.

"The financial numbers are unbelievable and I am eternally grateful to everyone involved for their support,' said Travis Roy, the former Boston University men's hockey player who resides with his family each summer in nearby Malletts Bay on Lake Champlain. "I'm also proud that the level of the competition, generosity and sportsmanship also reached the highest level.

"The best part of a number that big is that it has not changed the event as it grows. People have just as big a smile on their face now as they have every year. The tremendous hospitality from this community is a big part of why the popularity has grown. With that, the large number of people that come up here to share in this event has grown like the fundraising piece."

On the field, Mark Trahan's sixth inning home run lifted the Comets Express to a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Staten Island Yankees to capture Sunday's championship game. It is the second title for the Comets Express, a team from the Boston area who also were the 2004 champions. Staten Island was making its second straight appearance in the finals and its third overall. Despite suffering the title game loss on the mound, Staten Island captain Joe Tirone earned the 2010 Most Valuable Player Award. Click here to watch a video of the championship game courtesy of the Pack Network: http://www.packnetwork.com/video/wiffleball/

For the fourth straight year the Boston Beef picked up the Fan Club Award as the team with the greatest fundraising effort while Curtis Esden of the Nite Feeders was the Fan Club Award individual leader. Derek Wagar of Teleblend was the winner of the Tommy Long Sportsmanship Award.

The tournament opened with the annual Celebrity-Sponsor game at Little Fenway evening. The Celebrities, who posted a 8-1 victory, were represented by Vermont governor James Douglas, former NHL great and U.S. Olympian Aaron Miller, former major league pitcher Bill 'Spaceman' Lee, former UVM hoop standout Taylor Coppenrath, former UVM men's hockey head coach and current Catamount women's hockey assistant Mike Gilligan, JetBlue Airways President and CEO David Barger, Little Fenway Hall of Famer Steve Cormier, U.S. Women's National Hockey Team members Amanda Pelkey and Melissa Bizzari, country singer Keeghan Nolan of Fairfield, Vt., local personality Rusty 'The Logger' Dewees and UVM student-athletes Teddy Fortin (women's hockey) and Dave Ramada (men's soccer).

For more information on the Travis Roy Foundation, log on to www.travisroyfoundation.org.

As many of you know, a few friends and I built a replica mini-Fenway Park called "Little Fenway" in my backyard 10 years ago. I can't say I knew exactly what we were doing at the time, but in the years since we built it the field has given me more joy than I ever could have imagined. The one thing I'm most proud of is the charity games that have taken place here over the years.

Ten years ago I read Travis Roy's book "Eleven Seconds" and was immediately inspired to see if Little Fenway could be a vehicle to raise money for the Travis Roy Foundation. On August 6-8, 2010, with the help of an amazing volunteer team, we will hold our ninth annual Travis Roy Foundation Wiffle ball tournament. All proceeds will support the Travis Roy Foundation's mission to fund spinal cord research and to assist other spinal cord injured survivors in purchasing specialized adaptive equipment. This adaptive equipment includes wheelchairs, voice-activated computers, and simple home modifications. I encourage you to visit the travisroyfoundation.org website to learn more.

Every year we continue to tweak the tournament in an effort to make it more successful. This year each participant was given their own personal online fundraising page. My hope is you will consider making a donation by clicking the "Sponsor Me" button on my Pat and Beth O'Connor page.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I would love to have you visit us during the weekend of August 6-8. Let me know if you will be around.

Thank you,
Pat O'Connor

2010 will be a big year for Little Fenway. "Help Us Reach A Million" for the Travis Roy Foundation because we hope this annual tournament at Little Fenway will surpass $1 million for the Travis Roy Foundation on the weekend of August 6th-8th, 2010. The Little Fenway season will open on June 5th with a tournament to benefit the Eleanor B. Daniels Fund - a fund that is dedicated to supporting education, research and development efforts for gynecologic malignancies and women's health issues. Please contact homerunpat@gmail.com if you would like more information on the charity tournaments for 2010 or would like to schedule a private event.

It was a weekend of fun at Little Fenway and Little Wrigley, June 12-13, as 12 teams competed in the 5th annual Blue Bulls Invitational. The weather cooperated and the competition was strong as many new teams joined the field including Herbert Memorial, National Life, Low Price, Carter Conboy, College Pro Painters, and Rag Tag. Returning teams included TG Avengers, Juggernauts, Blue Bulls, Bennington Bombers, Los Platos, and Hockey Monkeys.

There was a wild finish to the championship game when the Hockey Monkeys pulled off an amazing comeback by scoring 7 runs in the top of the last inning to beat #1 seed Herbert Memorial 8-6. The rally was capped by a 2-out, 2 strike grand slam by Kyle Riley over the center field fence at Little Fenway.

The Travis Roy Foundation has launched a youtube channel for the annual WIFFLE ball tournament. You can watch this channel by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/TRFWiffleball

Rob Montepare becomes first Little Fenway Wiffle ball star to turn Pro

http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/26/kansas-city-royals-mascot-training-san-diego-chicken-slugerrr-new-rob-montapare/

Game Point Productions has produced a 20 minutes DVD about the Real Field of Dreams: Little Fenway. To buy the 20 min DVD and contribute to this unique event and great cause email:

gamepoint921@yahoo.com
gamepoint924@yahoo.com

The trailer can be viewed below:

Pat O'Connor, creator of Little Fenway and author of "Little Fenway: Bigger than a Baseball Fan's Imagination" will be holding a book signing at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 102 Dorset Street, South Burlington, Vermont, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM on Saturday, October 17th.

Little Fenway is featured on the one hour special television show called "Yardwork" running on NESN on October 22nd from 5-6pm. There is also a special on the Travis Roy Foundation and the Wiffle ball tournament at Little Fenway held this past August running on NESN this month. Check out the day/times on NESN.com.

The Bomb Squad won the 4th annual Jarred Williams Foundation WIFFLE ball tournament at Little Fenway and Little Wrigley on Sep 12-13, 2009. Over $20,000 was raised to help families of chronically ill children. Many thanks to the volunteers, sponsors, and donors for their wonderful generosity.

Photos from the 2008 tournament

Little Fenway is featured on the one hour special television show called "Yardwork" running on NESN this month. There is also a special on the Travis Roy Foundation and the Wiffle ball tournament at Little Fenway held this past August running on NESN this month. Check out the day/times on NESN.com.

Congratulations to the Boston Beef, winners of the the 2009 Travis Roy Foundation Wiffle ball tournament in more ways than one. They beat the Staten Island Yankees to claim the the title and also led all fundraising efforts by raising over $43,000 for the Travis Roy Foundation. The Boston Red Sox have invited the Boston Beef and the Wiffle ball tournament committee to Fenway Park for the Oct 3rd game against the Cleveland Indians.

The Boston Beef defeated the Staten Island Yankees at Little Fenway to win the 8th annual Travis Roy Foundation Wiffle ball tournament this weekend. The games were exciting, but the bigger news was that over $231,000 was raised for the Travis Roy Foundation. The tournament was a huge success. The volunteers, players, and supporters of the Travis Roy Foundation had a ton of fun over the course of the weekend.

Join the Little Fenway Facebook Group to keep up with updates on the field, tournaments, charity events, and more!

Follow news, updates and heroic stories on twitter. The Travis Roy Foundation Tournament will be releasing updates via twitter for the 2009 WIFFLE ball tournament.

The Hockey Monkeys returned to Little Fenway and Little Wrigley to knock off Shake & Bake in the Championship game of the 4th Annual Blue Bulls Invitational on June 13, 2009. Scotty Willson pitched a masterful game against the Blue Bulls in the semi-final game and followed that up with another strong performance in the finals.

Everyone had a great time. The weather was good. Thanks to Brendan Collins and Jamie Leake and the rest of the Blue Bulls organization for putting on a stellar tournament.

Join us on August 7th-9th for the 2009 annual WIFFLE Ball tournament to benefit the Travis Roy Foundation. Admission is free and there are raffle prizes. To make a donation or to volunteer please contact us at VTinfo@travisroyfoundation.org or (802) 434-3470.

In September 2008, Duane Becker installed LEDs, a solar panel, and battery to light up the nine lights on the scoreboard (balls, strikes, outs, hit/error). These lights can be operated with a remote control and are a new addition for the 2009 season.

Little Wrigley opened for action on the first day of the 2007 Travis Roy Foundation's annual WIFFLE ball tournament. 2008 has been the first full season of games and when Tom O'Connor put in the last brick (a real brick from Wrigley Field) on July 4, 2008, our hope was it would break the 100-year curse on the Chicago Cubs, just like we had done for the Red Sox at Little Fenway. So far there is still hope for the Cubs as baseball's second season starts next week. Pictures of the new field can be viewed at www.littlewrigley.com. A special thanks goes out to everyone who contributed to the field. We look forward to many years of fun Wiffle ball games.

The Jack Hammers, led my coach Jack Shadduck, surprised 23 other teams to run the table at the 7th Annual Travis Roy Foundation Wiffle ball tournament in August 2008. They won 6 straight games including a comeback victory over Nite Feeders in the Championship Game 6-5. Jack Shadduck was named the Tournament MVP. Over $175,000 was raised for the Travis Roy Foundation bringing the 7 year total to just under one-half million dollars.

Bill Currier and the University of Vermont Baseball Cats visited Little Fenway on Saturday, September 20, 2008, for a Fall team-building Wiffle ball tournament. Many of the strong Catamount hitters went deep at Little Fenway as the wind was blowing out. Home runs at Little Wrigley were fewer and far between with the wind blowing in. Captain Dean Strong and the University of Vermont Hockey Cats visited Little Fenway on Sunday, September, 21, 2008, for some pre-season training. The rain held off and they enjoyed an afternoon of Wiffle ball at both fields.

The Boston Red Sox victory over Cleveland in the ALCS on Saturday, October 20th, was viewed on 16x 9 foot HDTV picture on the Green Monster.

The Blue Bulls defeated Shake & Bake 7-2 in the championship game of the 2nd annual Blue Bulls Invitational on June 2nd. Many thanks to the Blue Bulls for their major contributions to the construction of Little Wrigley. On Sunday, June 3rd, the Blue Bulls team helped remove rocks and spread topsoil and seed on Little Wrigley to help prepare the field for the grand opening in August 2007.

Tom Messner, Chief Meteorologist for New Channel 5, gave his television weather forecast at Little Fenway prior to Game 1 of the World Series between the Red Sox and the Rockies. He also hit a home run over the Green Monster.

Little Fenway now has a forum where visitors can leave feedback and comment on the field as well as the site! Click here to visit the forum.

Little Fenway can be viewed on Google Maps here. Construction of Little Wrigley had not commenced when the photos were taken.

The Echo hosts a brief multi-media story on Little Fenway. This article, produced by a St. Michael's College student, includes the latest shots of the field plus the first (brief) shot of Little Wrigley and drainage.

A small groundbreaking ceremony for Little Wrigley was held Aug 14, 2006. The success of Little Fenway in raising funds for charities like the Travis Roy Foundation has inspired the development of a 2nd field to extend this Wiffle ball dream.

Little Wrigley drainage has been installed, the field has been leveled, and the seed was planted on August 31, 2006. Construction on the outfield fence begins October 7th and the ivy will be planted March 2007. Having two Wiffle ball fields, in the likeness of major league baseball's oldest active ballparks, will enable more teams to play in the Travis Roy Foundation tournament starting in August 2007. Opening Day will be August 10, 2007.

The 1st annual Jarred Williams Foundation Wiffle ball tournament was held September 9-10 at Little Fenway. Ten teams competed and the Blade Runners defeated the Turfmonsters 6-5 in the championship game. Over $8,000 was raised to benefit the Jarred Williams Foundation. This foundation was set up in memory of Jarred Williams, a 13 year old Richmond, Vermont boy who died in 2001 from a brain tumor. The money raised benefits families of children who have a chronic illness. Next year's tournament will be held the second weekend of September, 2007. More details on the event at www.jarredwilliamsfoundation.com.

Nearly $70,000 was raised this past weekend for the Travis Roy Foundation at the 5th annual Travis Roy Foundation Wiffle ball tournament. Tournament MVP Billy Doyle led the Boston Beef to a 5-3 victory over the Blue Bulls in the Championship game on August 13th. 16 teams competed with the Boston Beef, Blue Bulls, RussWood All-Stars, and the Hockey Monkeys advancing to the playoffs. Eric Sutherland, alias "Big Papi", hit a 3-run walk-off home run for the Turfmonsters in their final game. Bill "Spaceman" Lee pitched home run derby before pitching the second game for the Turfmonsters. Next year's tournament will be held on the weekend of August 10-12, 2007. More details on www.travisroyfoundation.org.

Little Fenway, Essex Vermont --- "The next best thing to taking batting practice at Fenway Park"..."it's the eighth Wonder of the World"..."the Green Monster, the manual scoreboard, the Citgo sign, the tomato plants in the bullpen, all this place needs is a World Series banner." These are a few of the quotes from baseball enthusiasts who have visited the miniature ballpark known as Little Fenway, located in the valley of the Green Mountains in Essex, Vermont.

Little Fenway is a one-fourth scale replica of Boston's famed Fenway Park designed for WIFFLE ball. The Green Monster is 12.5 feet tall with a six foot net attached above the wall (Monster seats may be added in the future). Built in 2001, Little Fenway is situated in the backyard of Pat & Beth O'Connor about 3.5 hours north of Boston. It has served as the site for numerous charity and community events including a WIFFLE Ball game to benefit the September 11th disaster relief efforts, an annual tournament for the Travis Roy Foundation to benefit research into cures for spinal cord injuries, and weekly charity games sponsored by Vermont's number one radio station, CHAMP 101.3 FM.

"WIFFLE ball is the great equalizer," says Little Fenway owner Pat O'Connor. "It doesn't matter how skilled you are. Men, women, boys and girls can all play WIFFLE ball at the same time and have a lot of fun and laugther. We have had all sorts of folks here - Little Leaguers, youth camps, high school and college athletic teams, professional athletes, former major league ball players, businesses, and even a group of 70-90 year olds from an elderly day care. I never imagined this idea would grow into something which provides so much enjoyment for so many people. We are very blessed. I guess you could call it an east coast Field of Dreams."