It was a typical day at WIFFLE Ball when Dave Mullany answered his phone. He is the president of the company as far as the official record goes, so he was the obvious choice when The White House called. “It’s kind of odd when you get a phone call like that, you kind of, you really don’t think it’s real, and I think [when] the email and more details came in, that kind of solidified it in my head that it was an actual invitation to go there and visit the White House. So it was really, it was pretty humbling, really.” It was for the 2018 Made in America Product Showcase, the second running of the event, to put the spotlight on one manufacturer from each state. “I don’t really know how they chose Wiffle, but I was happy they did.”
They had a few weeks to prepare, and to decide who would get the “+1” on the invitation. The first offer went to Dave’s father and the inspiration for the WIFFLE ball here. Dave tells about asking his dad if he wanted to go, “I said, ‘Do you want to take one of us?’ and he said, ‘Ah nah, you and your brother go.’ It made sense since Dave and his younger brother Stephen run the company together and get along great, “For formality’s sake, I’m the President, he’s the Vice President. But titles don’t mean a hell of a lot unless it’s required on some document… We really overlap a lot in what we do. He might handle a bit more of production side and shipping I handle a little bit more of the internal and admin side, but we’re pretty interchangeable in what we do… I’ve been working with him every day for the past, almost 30 years now, and really wouldn’t have it any other way.”
It was only two for the White House, but not for the trip; the brothers brought their wives to make an adventure of the whole thing. “We headed own there at noon on Sunday [July 22nd] and we were allowed to get in to set up our display, which we did pretty quickly.” After setting up their table in the East Room, it time for was dinner in DC for four, “Our wives had questions on, you know like, ‘What was it like inside?’ I know my wife would have really enjoyed it; she’s an artists and she just would’ve really enjoyed all the different artwork and sculpture and paintings and everything that lined the walls in the White House. It’s incredible the amount of artwork there… We had to be back at the White House for 8 AM so it was a pretty early night.”
The next day the Product Showcase ran from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm, with everything from a Lockheed Martin F-35 (top speed over 1200 MPH) and an Orion space capsule (top theoretical speed, 20,0000 MPH) on the lawn to Maine-made Bartlett yarn and South-Carolina made Brackish Bow Ties feather bow ties inside. And Dave and Stephen where there by an eight foot table displaying products that make anyone who grew up in America smile with a childhood memory. But did they meet the President? “We didn’t meet the president… There’s a press conference that I believe aired on television talking about the Made in America Showcase and their appreciation that folks came down and supported the showcase. [see it here ] It really wasn’t a political type of event, it was really more about celebrating the variety and quality of American made manufacturing that’s going on and our ability to make things; that’s really the feel I got from it all.”
“We did have Vice President Pence stop by to say hello and shake our hands and thank us for coming down and displaying our products. We also had several [others], Ben Carson, the HUD Secretary stopped by, Sonny Perdue who is the Secretary of Agriculture. It seemed like everybody had kind of a fun story of a fun memory of WIFFLE Ball, so that was always good. Linda McMahon she’s the Small Business Administration Administrator, she came by to say hello; her business is not all that far away from ours here in Connecticut.”
The Showcase ended at 4:00. WIFFLE balls and bats are pretty light, so… “probably by quarter to 5 we were back on the road heading back to Shelton [Connecticut].” It was a big deal, and ranks right up with some other top honors WIFFLE has gotten, including being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017, as well as having been displayed at the Baseball Hall of Fame and also at a little museum just down the mall from the White House – the Smithsonian Institution.
Once back to Shelton, their dad got the story, “We had photos and just telling him how the whole event went, and you could tell he was happy to see that we made it down there and were invited to go… I think my brother and I, we’re just happy that you know, my dad, from our point of view, it’s really the recognition my dad and my grandfather and all the work [they did], they got this thing going and making WIFFLE part of America.”
And from great recognition like that comes… Tuesday. Dave describes the day after, “It was more of a, ‘All right, now it’s Tuesday, I missed Monday, what do I have waiting for me?’ Once we got in it was talking with the folks here at the shop and the crew we have here about it, kind of old stories letting them know what went on.” Then it was back to work, making WIFFLE balls and bats in America.
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