It is that time of year at our house…baseball season. My husband and youngest son become different beings. Happy, busy, always outside, sweaty, dirty, grass stained beings. And I love it.

I love the way their whole being changes when they step on the field. I love to watch them leave Dad and Son in the car and become coach and player. It fascinates me that they can make that switch. I love watching coach hold back a little on his fist pump and hide his grin under a tipped hat when player nails a play or makes a great hit. And yet still still finds a way to catch son’s eye and make sure he knows that Dad saw him. And I don’t take for granted for one second what a precious gift they have. I am just glad I get to tag along.

If you are a baseball mom, I mean really a baseball mom…you know what I mean. They would breathe that dirt if we let them.

And yet we are not here to talk about that…

Last season, had the pleasure of having an entire baseball team over at once so I could pin their pants for hemming. Their brand new pants...fresh out of the box in my driveway…that managed to get grass and mud stains before I could pin them. My heart sighed for their mothers.

Because….well…I just know.

And then it happens to me.  Had an extra player in the house and a fresh box of pants for our team so I had our son and the extra player try some on to see if we got the sizing right…that’s a whole ‘nother baseball on post, y’all. Don’t even get me started.

And, yep. Somehow in that 7 minutes of tryining on pants, chocolate appeared.

Here’s a little photo shoot of before, during and after a game…

See below for the how-to…

         

So, here is your Baseball Mom tip of the day…you have grains stains. And mud stains. And not regular mud…that is not even remotely intimidating…we laugh at mud…we are talking pure D, bonified, red-clay-like baseball dirt. These are my go to get it out methods:

1.  Go to the car wash. Yep. Do not pass go…just go.  Hang up on the mat clips if you’re lucky enough, if not take a pants hanger and find a spot – spray em.  High pressure rinse.  You have to a little close – and spray. That’s it. Just spray.  It got the grass stains off of his butt, y’all.

Disclaimer – you do risk fraying the fabric doing this – just decide if it’s worth it. We’ll get holes anyway – so it is. Just find your balance between close enough and not too close. 

2.  If that doesn’t work entirely, or simply makes you gasp in horror –  Go to the market and get yourself some Fels-Naptha soap. Best stuff. Run a little cold water over your stain and your soap, give the stain a few second scrub (I usually rub the fabric together against itself to get a little friction) and poof…no more grass stain. Still there? Try again. still there? Give a little more soap and throw it in the wash. Just make sure it’s out before you put them in the dryer.  Mid season, it’s ok – just be done with it ;).

3. My other favorite, there are lots of blogs touting for a magic mixture of 2 parts peroxide and 1 part dawn dish soap. They speak truth. This is amazing stuff. We use this stuff everywhere – carpets, upholstery, clothes, etc… Mix it up, spray it on your stain, and rub it in. as I mentioned above,  or, if it’s not that bad of a stain, just spray the stain and throw it in the wash.

Disclaimer: I have had ZERO issues with bleaching, discoloration, etc.  But, please do test it out on an unseen spot just in case.

4. And the final method…from the goddess of laundry herself, my mother in law. I kid you not, people. If you really need it clean, you hand it to Granny. It will look better-than-fresh-from-the-store new. White baseball pants, we know, are the spawn of the devil until you get this right…then you beg for them…because there is this little trick called BLEACH. It works… Ok… Pretreat and soak if necessary…you can pretreat with #1 or #2 or with what’re your favorite is.  The bleach method only works, of course, with solid white pants.  For the pants I have shared in this post, I use color safe bleach.  Does the trick, too.

Most important..soak and rinse with COLD WATER. Hot water at this point will set in the stain. I always give a little scrub and try to get some/all/ most of the stain out here. You can or not. Now, go to your washer. Put in your load of bleachable whites…which should of course include your baseball pants…Find the white setting. Whatever that is for you…white, sanitary. Whatever. Too many different washers to even give you a generic setting.  Now you can have hot water if that is what is recommended for your fabric. Wash in hot water if ok for your pants, rinse in cold, warm, whatever.  Fill to max with detergent…find your bleach dispenser. Now fill it up. All the way. No, not half way..all the way. Not almost…fill it. And she told me to go a little OVER that. I don’t officially recommend that as you don’t want to risk damage to your clothes or machine. Now… Look at your wash cycle again…you should have a prewash and extra rinse. Turn those on. Sit back, have some bonbons, play some candy crush, and watch the magic. I’ve never had this problem, but if your load smells a little too bleachy for you when it’s done, just run an extra rinse and spin cycle.  That should take care of it.

This method, of course, is ONLY suggested for solid white pants.

Don’t have pre wash and extra rinse? No problem – just let the clothes soak a bit before letting the cycle start…And at the end of the wash, run a rinse and spin or speed wash. Your goal here is to make sure all the bleach is out.

That is taken care of. Now, go watch your baby play some ball in those bright pants and watch all the other mama’s envy you.

And before he even gets up to bat…yep. Dirty pants. Sigh.

Repeat for about half the season…and after that, just throw them in with whatever you happen to be washing…because, really, we’re all over it by now…

GO TEAM!

Have fun – watch some baseball – don’t stress about the pants – kids grow, and dirt happens. A LOT.

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 Special thank you to Granny, Mrs. Stacie, #99’s Dad, and Nina’s Grandma for your help and laundry tips!

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 Shameless Plug- If you need some spirit wear for yourself or someone in your family, I can take care of that for you – jump on over to my Facebook page for a few samples – let me know what you have in mind. I love team spirit, and watching my favorite player.

 And, just for clarification, I did not receive any advertising dollars, perks, or other compensation for this post. These are products I use in my home and recommend to my friends, family, and team…