Planning for Your Softball World Series | Part 1

Thousands of softball teams will be playing in World Series events around the United States. Typically, these events combine the beauty of a destination with the greatest game on Earth.

Having done the World Series for many years now, with several different teams and several different organizations, we can tell you that planning ahead of time makes the event much, much easier.

And while you may not be planning to attend your World Series until JULY – you MUST start planning now!

Seriously…do NOT wait until the day or two before to try to get gift bags and trading pins and reservations made.

Softball is For Girls is offering this super cute shirt for just $6.50 in grey or white, making it affordable for your entire team! It looks super cute when the whole team shows up to events wearing the same shirt. This deal expires June 25th!

Trading pins! Proper etiquette at the World Series means that during your first game, you will trade gift bags with your opposing team. This is just a nice way to kick off the event, and show hospitality.

It’s also a way for your team to show some personality and class. (There are plenty of teams that get this part oh soooo wrong!)

First of all, plan to pack at least 14 (if not 15 gift bags). Showing up with one bag too less, looks tacky. It’s better to have more than less, and you can always give the gift bag to a younger softball sibling, or use it for an incentive for someone on your team to win during the tournament.

Secondly, on average you want to spend around $10 per gift bag.

For the gift bags themselves, you can talk to local businesses in your area – or even colleges from your town and see if they are willing to donate draw-string bags, cups or the cheap novelty touristy items that they often give away at their venue. This is a really nice way to show where you are FROM. Most organizations will try to pair you up with a team that is from a different state than you.

For instance, one year, as a team from Atlanta, we were able to snag Atlanta Braves drawstring bags, and some cups, sunglasses, and towels from a local college to start the gift bag for free. We added a bag of peanuts (Georgia) and then decided on a nice gift to round out the bag.

This year, our gift bags will include handmade Jewelry items from Sporty Bella.

WE are personally choosing Sporty Bella for two reasons, the first being that they – like us – are 100% invested and dedicated to girls sports! They personally believe in female athletes and have gone out of their way to be all-inclusive of ALL girls sports on their websites. And we will stand behind companies that are willing to do this. (We hope you will too!)

Secondly, they have great softball items for around $10 each, as well as softball team bundles that make the gift bags affordable and CLASSY! Classy! Classy counts.

(And even if you get a gift bag filled with junk, you can rest easy knowing that you gave something that the other team will not just throw away and that will leave a nice impression of your team on the parents and players.)

This bracelet below which is really pretty (and handmade) is just $10, and with their new launch discount of 25%, it fits well into the gift bag budget.

It comes in tons of colors (you could give the team you are playing a bracelet in your team color or something more basic.) It also comes in several different styles.

Another idea is Sporty Bella’s no-slip headbands, also in several colors. They start at $8.99 before the discount. Use code launch25 at checkout.

And Sporty Bella offers some pretty nice pre-packaged TEAM BUNDLES as well.

If you are looking for something specific, or would like to build your own bundle, the peeps at Sporty Bella will be happy to assist you!

The next thing you need to PLAN EARLY is trading pins.

If you have an older team, you may want to ask the girls and parents if they want to participate in the parade and trading pin events. Many older teams do not. But for the younger gang, this is part of the BIG KICKOFF to the event.

We suggest at least 15 trading pins per player on your team. At least! If a player has extra siblings, see if they are interested in buying pins for them to trade as well. Trading pins goes on the entire week of World Series games, even after the big parades and kick off events.

Our suggestion for trading pins based on experience, quality and price is Softball Trading Pins. Again, they fully support GIRLS sports, and have designs and we REALLY LOVE some of their extra WOW factor options. They definitely have hit the nail on the head with girls sports and brought some BLING. They have options for glitter, blinkers, glow in the dark, sliders and SPINNERS. You can check out the enhancements here….

(Who needs a fidget spinner when you can get trading pins with spinners)

Be creative when designing your trading pins, and make sure that they match your area and the spirit and feel of your team!

Also, remember that with trading pins – you will need to give your team something to pin them on. This is where we can help, by making you team towels with each players number on them for you to put the pins on. Then they can hang the towels with the pins in their rooms as a keepsake. We have redone our towels so the numbers are bigger and bolder than ever.