Take a look at the calendar and one thing will jump out you if you are a team dealer selling baseball —the sport has truly become a year-round sell. With Major League Baseball’s spring training camps opening earlier each year and with the World Series stretching into November, that leaves a relatively short off-season for big league players, managers, coaches, umpires, grounds crews, fans and sportswriters to get ready for another season of action on the diamond.

The same goes true with youth teams and the dealers that sell to them, as many youngsters now play in local recreational and travel leagues in the spring and fall – even in the winter indoors in colder climates – and high schoolers are complementing their traditional spring seasons with travel/all-star appearances in summer leagues and Fall Ball.

As a result, team dealers and sporting goods retailers are buying, stocking and selling baseball product 12 months a year to teams and players from around the U.S., even in places like Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin in the dead of winter where there’s often snow on the ground.

Dealers Talk Baseball

Overall, baseball – especially youth baseball – is a strong, vibrant and a growing category for team dealers in every corner of the country. It’s interesting to note that the team dealer sales are in sync with the SFIA’s participation data, as the SFIA reports a strong level of interest in baseball for children between the ages of six and 17.

And, that’s where many of the baseball sales are actually taking place, particularly with locally organized youth recreation baseball leagues.

In West Lebanon, NH, baseball is a strong and steady category for Stateline Sports. “In January, sales start picking up for baseball,” reports Bud Hill, manager of retail baseball for Stateline Sports. “Baseball has always been a good category for us.”

According to Hill, most of his baseball business comes from local youth baseball leagues, travel teams and area high school squads and Stateline Sports is selling baseballs, batting helmets, uniforms, cleats and just a few fielding gloves.

“Many high school baseball players in our area are preferring to buy custom gloves directly from the manufacturer,” Hill laments, adding that instead of teams buying bats, many of the players are also buying their own bats.

For Al’s Sporting Goods in Wilmington, DE, baseball is the number-one revenue generator. “We sell baseball to youth leagues, high schools and to travel teams,” reports owner Bob Hart, whose biggest baseball clients are the local recreation leagues that play in both the spring and the fall. And their tastes have gotten fancier.

“Our youth leagues are wearing Major League Baseball-replica T-shirts and hats,” adds Hart.

Without a doubt, baseball is the main revenue source for Scotty’s Sports Shop in Royal Palm Beach, FL — as soon as you walk through the store’s front door the walls and floor space are dominated by cleats, gloves, baseballs, practice pants, belts, batting helmets, batting gloves, bat bags, bats, hats, socks and catcher’s gear.

According to owner Jerry Steuerer, selling baseball in south Florida is year-round, with travel baseball, high school teams playing Fall Ball in September and October, traditional high school baseball in the spring and local rec leagues conducting their leagues in the fall and spring. As a result, Steuerer is selling baseball product to a player, parent or a coach nearly every day of the year.

In Terre Haute, IN, baseball generates daily business at the cash register for Pacesetter Sports. “We sell everything in baseball that a player, fan, parent, coach or a team might need,” reports manager Jared Frink. Among the best sellers: uniforms, baseballs, gloves, hats, belts, cleats, socks, bats and batting gloves, along with some bases, field paint and protective screens.

Just as with Al’s Sporting Goods in Delaware, the biggest baseball clients for Pacesetter Sports are the local youth baseball leagues, which play games in the spring and the fall. “In addition to local youth leagues, we sell baseball to middle schools, high schools, travel teams and some college programs,” says Frink and they also supply everything to the baseball program at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.

In Battle Creek, MI, the baseball business is alive and well for Jack Pearl’s Sports Center, where owner Keith Manning says they sell everything in baseball from head to toe – minus the shoes – to travel teams, local rec leagues, middle schools and high schools.

“The local schools are trying to start middle school baseball as a feeder to high school baseball teams, which is good for business,” Manning reports, although he says that participation in local rec leagues has been hurt by some players deciding to play travel ball instead.

The bulk of Manning’s uniform business is to those local travel teams. “Travel teams are buying new uniforms every year, whereas high schools are buying uniforms once every two or three years,” he notes.

As you would expect, the beginning of the baseball season is tied to the local weather. “If we have a mild winter in February, people are thinking and buying baseball,” Manning adds. “But, when there’s snow on the ground, local players are not thinking baseball.”

Selling Everything Baseball

In Iowa, high school baseball is played in the summer in order to get the best weather for the games. So at Iowa Sports Supply in Cedar Falls, high school baseball teams are the main baseball customers. According to Elliott Egglestone, a purchaser for Iowa Sports Supply, high school baseball programs are buying uniforms, practice pants, batting helmets, socks belts and socks, along with baseballs from Diamond, which is the official high school baseball in Iowa.  

Like many team dealers around the U.S., Iowa Sports Supply does not sell cleats and fielding gloves because the range of product available online is too big to stock and sell. It doesn’t really sell many bats, either. “We’ve had a hard time moving bats in recent years,” said Egglestone.

While Iowa Sports Supply does cater to the needs of travel baseball teams, the interaction is usually not person-to-person inside the store. “For travel teams, we build online stores for them to buy what they need,” Egglestone explains.

In north Texas, Swanton, OH-based Game One sales rep Tony Duncan is busy selling baseball 12 months a year. “We’re in baseball season all year long,” says Duncan, who is based in Gainesville, TX, about 10 miles from the Texas-Oklahoma state line. “I sell baseball product to teams and schools in both Texas and Oklahoma.”

As a former 29-year high school baseball coach, Duncan was well-connected to the sport when he made the transition from being a coach to sales rep. “Being in the business as a former baseball coach definitely helps me sell baseball,” he points out.

Product-wise, Duncan sells everything in baseball from apparel to hard goods to protective gear to items that have a long shelf life. “There’s nothing in baseball that I don’t sell to teams.”

Meanwhile, out west in Las Vegas, the baseball business is brisk and profitable for Jerry Ocuda, owner of Turf Sporting Goods. “We sell it all in baseball,” he says — baseballs, batting tees, practice pants, fielding gloves, belts, socks and uniforms.

While Ocuda has a solid number of customers walking in his store wanting to buy baseball bats, not every customer actually buys a bat from him. “We have people come in the store and get measured for the right weight and length of a bat,” he explains. “Then, they go buy that bat online.”

Inside The Baseball Numbers

For many years, baseball has ranked as the second most-popular team sport in the country from the perspective of overall participation and despite any headwinds and challenges from other sports it has managed to retain that number-two spot, with 16.7 million participants (age six and above), based on recent data generated by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA). SFIA reports that baseball has had a very gradual increase in participation from a base of 15.6 million baseball participants in 2021.

Here are some more numbers:

• Of those 16.7 million baseball players, 7.7 million are classified as “core” participants (those playing 13-plus days a year) and 8.9 million are registered as “casual” participants (playing 12 days a year or less).

• Unfortunately, while overall participation in baseball has grown in recent years, the number of core participants has actually declined. Of the 15.6 million players in 2021, 8.2 million of them were core participants — today that number is only 7.7 million.

• In addition, the game remains popular with older, educated athletes — 24.4 percent of all baseball players are either a college graduate or have some type of post-graduate education.

• At the high school level, baseball is the third most-popular high school sport for boys in terms of sponsoring/participating schools (16,146) and the fourth most-popular high school sport for boys in terms of participants (471,701 players).

• The top 10 states for high school baseball participation are Texas (53,075 participants), California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, New York, Michigan, Alabama and New Jersey.

When looking at these big-picture numbers, the NFHS is pleased with where the game of high school baseball is right now.

“We are excited that the game is very stable and maturing annually,” says Elliot Hopkins, director of sports, sanctioning and student services with the NFHS. “We realize that with the small number of rule changes we have had over the last few years.

“The overarching concern is that we continue to be good stewards of the great game of baseball and not move it toward a country club sport where not all children can have access and can play,” Hopkins says, adding that “it hurts all of us at all of the contact points – players, vendors, retailers, manufacturers, coaches, fans and umpires – if we start having a contraction with our participation numbers and they begin to dip downward.”

Hopkins reports that there are no equipment- or uniform-specific rules changes taking place this year or next in high school baseball. although technology is impacting how high school baseball is being played.

“There are no new rule changes on the books for this upcoming high school season and we anticipate that our staple products such as cleats, baseballs, bats, energy-efficient uniforms and caps will be made better, with newer designs, phenomenal colors and better materials,” Hopkins says.

“However, the technology segment is wide open with products made to enhance the analysis and monitoring of the production of a player,” he adds. “There are a plethora of products present and being developed to measure your batting and pitching. We are curious to see how the communication piece will expand with our memberships’ schools and see if more schools utilize the technology.”