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GIRLS' SPORTS | SOFTBALL • TEAM 68 • May 2021 sportstyle • sportstylemag.com L ongtime ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale recently released a book titled "The Lost Season," his summary of the 2019-20 col- lege basketball season that was COVID-cancelled in March of last year. Were he so inclined, Vitale's book could also have been an appropriate way to describe the high school and college fast-pitch soft- ball seasons in 2020, which also came to an abrupt halt a year ago. As a result, like its baseball brethren, sales of fast-pitch softball uniforms, socks, cleats, bats, gloves, helmets and even softballs slowed to a trickle, at best. It was not a pretty picture for the team sports business. Fortunately, fast-pitch did stage a comeback of sorts last summer and fall, but it was not enough to overcome the lost spring season of 2020. But, like the season itself, hope springs eternal for team dealers, retailers and manu- facturers with a vested interest in fast-pitch softball. This year will be most certainly be better than last year, yet probably not as strong as 2019. It may take another year or two for the fast-pitch softball business to finally get back to full strength. Team Dealer Talk Bizarre and virtually non-existent. That's the best way to describe that state of team dealer sales for fast-pitch softball in 2020. In Meriden, CT, girls' fast-pitch softball has been the number-one selling category for girls for Mike Billings, co-owner of Billings Sports, but the last 12 months have not been easy. "If you took last year's sales combined with what we expect to sell this year, that will equal one year's worth of sales," Billings says. While the high school and local colleges are the main clients for Billings Sports, travel teams are a more lucrative per capita source of income. "While high schools will order one set of uniforms every four years, travel teams are ordering two types of uniforms for every member of the team every year," he explains. One bright spot: Because of safety and hygiene concerns, sales of batting helmets have been brisk. "Leagues and teams don't want players sharing batting helmets, so they are requiring that every player has her own," says Billings. In Massachusetts, selling fast-pitch softball is usually brisk business for Holyoke Sporting Goods in Holyoke, but business has been very, very slow in the last 12 months. But, says owner Betsey Frey, there is some light at the end of the dugout. "We had no softball play here last year," says Frey. "I sold one set of uniforms to one school. The uniforms were delivered and they paid the bill, but they never wore them." Frey is expecting more softball sales this year, but it won't be business as usual. FAST-PITCH TIMES After a lost season in 2020, softball is on the comeback trail for Spring 2021. By Mike May

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