American Fork Steel Days adds Wiffle Ball tournament on Tuesday

Steel Days put Wiffle Ball on its Tuesday slate, giving the fourth annual Steel Days Wiffle Ball Tournament a fixed spot at 6:00 p.m. at Mary & Art Dye Park, 1000 N 550 E. The event is presented with American Fork Recreation and sponsored by D-BAT, and teams must have at least five players, no more than seven, with every player 12 or older.

That slot gives the sport a formal place inside one of American Fork’s longest-running summer traditions. Steel Days 2026 runs from July 18 to July 25, and the Wiffle Ball tournament lands in the middle of a week packed with other civic and recreational stops, including a pickleball tournament, Kids Splash Night, a horseshoe tournament, the Fitness Festival, and a Night Glow Golf Tournament. The schedule puts Mary & Art Dye Park among the festival’s central gathering points, making the tournament part of a broader itinerary rather than a stand-alone game night.

The festival’s history helps explain why Wiffle Ball fits so naturally. Steel Days marks its 86th year in 2026, tracing back to the first celebration in 1945 and even farther to earlier city observances known as Timber Day, Liberty Day, and Poultry Day. The festival has kept expanding with low-barrier, family-friendly additions, including kickball and golf tournaments in 2018, then Kids Splash Night and a pickleball tournament in 2019. Wiffle Ball follows that same pattern: simple to stage, easy to understand, and open to a wide range of ages without the field setup or equipment demands of a larger summer tournament.

The sport’s place on the calendar also reflects how far it has moved beyond the backyard. The Baseball Hall of Fame notes that competitive play grew around tournaments such as the World Wiffle Ball Championship, founded in 1980, while United Wiffleball says it was formed in 2020 to carry forward the fast-pitch championship tradition and keep year-round play alive. American Fork’s tournament taps into that wider culture while keeping the scale local, using a festival stage to give Wiffle Ball the kind of civic visibility it rarely gets on its own.

For Steel Days, the tournament is one more way to hold families on-site across the week and spread the action across parks, games, and community stops. For Wiffle Ball, it is another sign that the sport can sit comfortably inside a city celebration and draw legitimacy from the same schedule that carries the festival’s longest-running traditions.