Wallop Lumber Co. Field Report
Dispatches from the Road
Bat Promotion Tour — 2026 Season
Vol. I · No. 29The Curb
Cecil is alive. The order of how that came to be — the part I had a hand in, and the part still upstairs, asleep.
Vol. I · No. 28A Statement from the Wallop Home Office
Due to unforeseen circumstances, there is no dispatch today.
Vol. I · No. 27The Visitors
Seattle comes to Washington, three games with nothing to sell, and the flight home he ducked in Durham, still one click away.
Vol. I · No. 26The Bull
A mountain town that didn't keep its promises, a ballpark that did, and a flight home he can't quite bring himself to book.
Vol. I · No. 25Hartsfield
A flight that won't leave, a goodbye at the curb, and the one ride that went without him.
Vol. I · No. 24Ninety
A ninetieth birthday in an Atlanta backyard, and the storm just holding off.
Vol. I · No. 23Two Beds
Savannah for an interlude. Tate had a different timetable.
Vol. I · No. 22Drilled and Drained
Drilled tank. Punted labs. One room down the hall.
Vol. I · No. 21Memorable
Bats distributed: four. Caipirinhas imbibed: five, plus or minus two. Terms received: conditional.
Vol. I · No. 20No Appetite
Sixty million for the roof. No appetite for the bats.
Vol. I · No. 19Bridgewater
Out of New Orleans with Naomi in shotgun. The window stayed down past Mobile.
Vol. I · No. 18Pop. Pillow.
Off-route to New Orleans. Two nights, no game, no clubhouse. The count did not move.
Vol. I · No. 17Mission Control
Four bats distributed to an MLB team. No asterisk, no accounting reset in Knockwood.
Vol. I · No. 16Two Teams
We arrived in Arlington with no contact in the building. We left the bats in the wagon.
Vol. I · No. 15The Hitchhikers
We had ten hours and the wagon was half-bats and we did not know them.
Vol. I · No. 14The Tuesday Meeting
Denver was farther than I thought. I had been telling myself for two hundred miles that the Walla Walla turnoff hadn't cost us anything.
Vol. I · No. 13Walla Walla
Tate dozed off an hour east of Snoqualmie Pass. I took the Walla Walla exit at Pasco without consulting anyone.
Vol. I · No. 12The Globe
I drove Tate into Seattle on a Friday afternoon. I had been pointing things out for the last hour.
Vol. I · No. 11Knockwood
We pulled into the lower parking lot. Gary was in a meeting we had not been told about.
Vol. I · No. 10In the Rack
A man at the Hops called out 'Coach Tate.' Tate had been a coach. I had not known.
Vol. I · No. 09The Refosco
Dale was Tate's 'in' in San Francisco. Dale retired in December.
Vol. I · No. 08Forty-Two
Tate has been wearing 42 on April 15 for longer than baseball told everyone else to.
Vol. I · No. 07The Good Seats
The sunset was perfect. The sightlines were perfect. The legroom was generous. I could not write a word of it.
Vol. I · No. 06Bats Are Cheap
I have been turning the sentence over since Saturday like a stone in a pocket. It does not get smaller.
Vol. I · No. 05The Cage
I had driven thirteen hundred miles to sell a product I could not explain how to buy.
Vol. I · No. 04The Sound
It is possible that the bats are just bats. It is also possible that they are not.
Vol. I · No. 03Game Two
When tackling roadtrip logistics, it is advisable that one verify which is the home team and which is away.
Vol. I · No. 02Behind the Cage
Bats distributed to date: zero. Equipment managers contacted: one, briefly, who was walking somewhere else.
Vol. I · No. 01The Lower Parking Lot
Bats distributed to date: zero. Equipment managers contacted: zero. Miles driven: thirteen hundred and change.
Fantasy baseball without the homework.
Wallop is a home run-only game for friends — simple enough to play all season without the daily grind. Start a league and draft any time before September.
Start a League