The Top 15 Softball Stories of 2020: #1… COVID-19 Devastates the World (& Softball Feels It Too) Dec. 31, 2020

By @BruntjensElla

UCLA would not have a chance to repeat as Women’s College World Series champs after winning in 2019 although the Bruins ended the COVID-shortened season ranked #1 in 2020. Photo courtesy of UCLABruins.com

We conclude our list of the Top 15 Softball Stories of 2020, which began on December 17 and wraps up today.

Here are the previous stories (clink on link to read):

We surveyed the softball community and talked internally as well to come up with what were the most impactful and relevant stories of the year pertaining to the world of fastpitch softball.

Where applicable, we are providing the text to the original articles and/or references when the story first happened.

Click Here to see the Top 15 Stories of 2019

Click Here to see the Top 15 Stories of 2018

To provide comments, insights or thoughts, email: [email protected].

Today’s story…

#1… Could there be any doubt as to what the top story in softball—in anything—would be for 2020?

The coronavirus (COVID-19) case number heading into 2021: over 1.8 million dead worldwide, nearly 350 thousand of those in the United States.

As we entered 2020, few knew what a “Coronavirus” was, certainly not “COVID-19.” And the phrase “worldwide pandemic” sounded like something from a Hollywood thriller, not something that would be a reality in our modern-day world.

Yet, here we are eagerly leaving this brutal year behind and as we wrap up our Top 15 Stories of 2020 in softball, we have to first look at the bigger, nightmarish picture: 83 million Coronavirus cases worldwide this year, 1.81 million dead; nearly 20 million of those infected were in the United States and as the last hours tick away in 2020, America is close to reaching the awful milestone of nearly 350,000 dead.

Our way of life has been greatly altered—can you say “quarantine?”—and major industries from travel and tourism to the food and movie industries have been devastated.

Sports is entertainment, yes, but for the athletes it too is a way of life. And in softball that way of life was greatly impacted—even cancelled—in many areas of the sport.

Sign of the times: East Coweta (Georgia) High Coach Franklin DeLoach wears a mask this fall on the field.

Looking back over the last year—and you have to realize that things really didn’t start blowing up because of COVID until March—we saw that we did no less than 360 articles this year that had “Coronavirus” and/or “COVID” in them.

Even our list of the Top 15 Stories in Softball for 2020 saw #’s 2, 3, 8 and 12 be in result of the pandemic. That’s 1/3^rd of the main storylines this year being about a virus.

Unbelievable.

But that’s what this year has been—one of adapting, adjusting and enduring while hoping for a better future.

In 2020, most everything was cancelled, at least initially including the spring high school and college seasons (the Women’s College World Series too), as well as the Olympics (postponed) and the NPF pro season (also cancelled for 2021 as have been some early spring tourneys such as Mary Nutter and the ESPN Clearwater Classic).

Club ball managed to get many events in, primarily in the Southwest and Southeast, although California was all but shut down including this summer’s PGF Nationals.

We have so many stories related to COVID-19 we could rerun, but it’s easier to just publish a couple dozen links so you can read the ones you want. At the very least, it provides a look back on the chronology of events that first began with fans not being able to attend to wholescale cancellations.

Below are two dozen hyperlinks (click on each to access the story) which give an overview of how the Coronavirus came onto the softball scene and became the undeniable #1 Story of the Year…

— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball

*****

The Top 15 Softball Stories of 2020: #1… COVID-19 Devastates the World (& Softball Feels It Too) Dec. 31, 2020

Extra Inning Softball “COVID-19” Selected Stories… from March to December, 2020

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The Top 15 Softball Stories of 2020: #1… COVID-19 Devastates the World (& Softball Feels It Too) Dec. 31, 2020

Extra Inning Softball “COVID-19” Selected Stories… from March to December, 2020

Get access to even more Extra Inning Softball content!

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Inside Pitch

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