Editor’s Note: Thanks for Amanda Chumbley for this blog idea!!
Fastpitch softball is a DIRTY game! No, I don’t mean dirty in the WWE way, I mean dirty in the traditional, dust, grass stains, mud and blood way. You can tell a player who has given it their all just by looking at their uniform at the end of the day.
Being a player who comes home with a nasty, dirty uniform is a badge of honor that all players should be proud of. You have given it your all and it shows, those white pants aren’t white anymore but you don’t care because you know it shows that you are a ballplayer.
Of course you don’t care. You don’t have to clean those white pants, do you?
But someone does!
If you are a softball mom or a coach at a lower budget program you have made Softball Soup! Whether it is a small tub on the stove at home or a utility sink in the laundry room at the school, the process is pretty much the same!
1. Fill tub with water.
2. Add Oxy-Clean, Iron Out to whatever home concoction you have developed.
3. Spot treat the really nasty spots.
4. Place pants in the tub.
5. Wait.
6. Pull out pants, look with a sense of hopelessness.
7. Drain water (MUD) from tub.
8. Repeat!!!!!
Now with a little dedication and persistence you will win the battle, mostly! After the first day of wearing a pair of white softball pants, they are never going to be really white again! Sorry, but if you look close enough you will see it, but only you will know, most of the time!
A very wise person said that doing the same thing over and over again is the definition of insanity. So is it insane to keep fighting the battle to clean those white pants, week after week?
Of course it is!
Why? It dawned on me when I thought about writing this blog that most moms are spending hours every time they wash the white softball pants. You know a really good pair of white pants costs about $40 right? Start to think about the value of your time and you might want to invest in extra white pants rather than spending hours and hours and hours and hours making Softball Soup.
About the Author: Tory Acheson brings a wealth of knowledge to the Fastpitch Prep staff. He has coached at all levels of the game, including the last 25 years at the college level at the University of Wisconsin – Parkside, Tennessee Tech and Kennesaw State. He began his coaching career at the high school level spending 9 years Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wis. and is now working as a professional softball instructor.
