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Since plastic yellow bats joined perforated white plastic balls 50 years ago, wiffle ball has evolved as a convenient version of baseball without baserunning for players of all ages -- among them Sabbath observers who can't find other appropriate sports for the day of rest.

Marking an important phase in the game's history, The Wiffle Ball, Inc. first offered plastic yellow bats in its September 1959 catalogue, said David J. Mullany, son of the game's founder, David N. Mullany. The company owns a trademark for the word "wiffle," now associated with the game played in a wide range of venues including backyards, parks, gyms, and beaches.

The use of the color yellow in plastic bats is also trademarked because the bats are now arguably the most recognizable part of the game, along with the ball, Mullany said.

"That's what everyone has really come to associate the game with today, with those skinny yellow bats," Mullany said. "It's an iconic look and as recognizable as the ball itself."

Since the ball doesn't travel very far, wiffle ball can be played in tight private spaces like backyards that don't need to depend on the community's eruv, a construct that allows Jews to carry in public places on Shabbat. When playing the game in public parks, there is also no fear of the ball soaring beyond the eruv's boundaries. These are prime concerns for the likes of Brad Cohen, who started playing wiffle ball 12 years ago on the driveways and in the fenced backyards of Lakewood.

Cohen, 28, and his group would invite all the neighbors and anyone who stopped by to play, leading to games between teams of 5-6 players apiece. When Cohen's family moved to Highland Park about five years ago, the same number of players squared off on Shabbat in larger spaces such as Donaldson Park and Rutgers -- if the eruv was up that weekend.

"It really allowed us to vent our energy that we had throughout the entire day or the entire week," Cohen said of wiffle ball games.

Now, Cohen said games in Highland Park have shrunk to three players per team. But advantages like not having to run the bases or run far to field balls on Shabbat remain, especially as wives have joined in on the fun.

"It's kind of an inactive version of baseball," Cohen said. "Your intensity level, as far as a sport goes, is extremely low."

Evan Manzon played wiffle ball with Cohen during their childhood in Lakewood, before embarking on a baseball career that made him a corner infielder at Yeshiva University and a coach at the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth. The fact that wiffle ball can be played in anybody's backyard made it a convenient game to play on Shabbat because traveling far was never a concern, as Manzon's group of friends would simply convene at kiddush Shabbat morning to decide whose house to play at, he said.

"For me it was the best of both worlds, the fact that we could hang out and play sports on Shabbos, and that it was like baseball as well," Manzon said.

Since you don't build up a sweat playing wiffle ball, there is no need to change out of Shabbat clothing or shower afterwards, Manzon noted. It was a welcome Shabbat alternative to being stuck indoors on a nice day playing cards or board games, he said.

Manzon, 25, tried out for the Lakewood BlueClaws minor league team and was offered a spot in the now defunct Israel Baseball League, but instead accepted a position at Goldman Sachs. He lives in Elizabeth, and upon return visits to Lakewood plays one-on-one wiffle ball with his former neighbor.

The first yellow bats were made in two pieces that fit together and had a long seam down the middle, and expanded and contracted in hot or cold weather, Mullany said. In 1962, the company sold the first one-piece bats.

The Wiffle Ball Inc., founded in 1953, began with wooden bats but switched to plastic to cut costs, Mullany said. The company was already processing plastic for the balls, he said, and there wasn't a tremendous difference in the distance wood or plastic could hit the ball.

In 1959, the bat-and-ball set cost $1.49, which Mullany said would project to $10.49 on his inflation calculator that goes up to 2007. Today, the company's suggested retail price is just $4.69, proving helpful to kids who try to scrape a few bucks together to get their hands on a set.

"We've done a pretty good job of keeping it reasonable," Mullany said.

Mullany's father wasn't able to field two teams growing up in Fairfield, Conn., so he left baserunning out of the rules. Mullany said that stickball became impractical in his father's neighborhood when his group of friends got kicked out of local fields and then broke windows with tennis balls by playing in backyards.

At that point, the group shifted to plastic golf balls, but wanted them to curve because they were baseball fans. That's why they cut holes in the balls, Mullany said.

"If you are pitching, everyone wants to be able to throw a curveball," he said.

In Cherry Hill, the Betty and Milton Katz Jewish Community Center runs a wiffle ball league twice a year with eight teams of 3-4 players each. The JCC's gym offers a self-contained venue where the ball ricochets off the ceiling, walls, and dividers. The hard gym floor isn't always kind to fielders when they hit the ground, Fitness Director Gene Bonetti said.

The league uses a chair for a strike zone and a track revolving around the basketball court for a home run line. The league is open to anyone age 15 and up, and most participants range from ages 20-40, Bonetti said. Adults are more enthusiastic about the league than children, and not just because they grew up with wiffle ball.

"I think the older guys appreciate the fact that they don't have to run," Bonetti said.

Bonetti grew up with the game and said he was eager to bring it to the JCC. During his childhood summers at the Jersey shore, Bonetti played wiffle ball on the beach, where balls weren't hard to field but running to them proved difficult in the sand. The wind blew the ball all over the place, he said, and his group cut bats open and stuffed them with newspapers so they could be strong enough for hitting in windy conditions.

Dr. Bob Warkala, a 49-year-old Cherry Hill resident, plays at the Katz JCC with his brother-in-law and friend. He works out at the JCC regularly, but said that the wiffle ball league "breaks up the monotony of going there just to work out all the time." Warkala grew up playing stickball and baseball in Long Island, and said he thinks wiffle ball is a more interesting game because of the ball's wide array of movements.

Warkala also enjoys wiffle ball because pitching proves to be an equalizer that allows him to compete against 20-somethings and teenagers at the JCC, who in other sports would outclass him with their athleticism and youthful exuberance.

"If you have a good pitcher, you can compete with any team," Warkala said. "If you don't have a great pitcher, you're done."