Baseball is a dirty game. While the field looks beautiful from the stands, the players sliding and diving in the grass and dirt can get dirty in a hurry in all that grass and dirt.
If you’re a parent of one of those players, there’s a good chance that laundry duties will fall to you. Do you have a plan when your baseball star comes home wearing pants caked with dirt, sweat, and grass? What about baseball pants that stink? Don’t worry—it doesn’t have to be difficult. Here’s how to clean baseball pants the right way.
Assess The Damage
As soon as the game is over, you’ll want to take a quick look to assess what you’ll be dealing with when it comes to cleaning the pants before the next game. Sometimes, the uniform may be free of dirt or grass stains, so just a standard wash will do the job. Other times, however, the pants will be a mess.
If your child spent most of the game sliding into bases and diving for the ball, the evidence will be all over their pants. They probably also worked up a sweat, which can soak into the synthetic fibers of the pants—resulting in some serious stink.
So the question is, how do you get the smell out of baseball pants and remove those pesky stains?
How to Wash Baseball Pants
Here’s the short and sweet version of how to clean baseball pants, with more details on each step below:
- Treat heavy stains and odor quickly
- Try a long soak for persistent stains
- Machine wash with a quality sports detergent (your best defense against odor)
- Hang to air dry or tumble dry on low/no heat
It’s Important To Act Quickly
The best thing you can do to keep baseball pants “like new” is to act quickly post-wear. If you let things like dirt, grass, and sweat remain on the pants for too long, it’s going to be a lot harder to clean them later. Don’t make this mistake.
A good first step is to provide an extra pair of pants that your child can wear home from the game. This way, you can get the pants immediately rinsed, even with just a bottle of water or a faucet near the field. Rinsing the affected areas immediately can go a long way toward preventing the stains from setting into the fibers of the pants.
Treat Heavy Stains & Odor First
If you were able to treat the pants right away, removing stains shouldn’t be too difficult. However, if it’s been a while, you may have your work cut out for you. Here are a few simple steps to treat heavy stains before washing baseball pants:
- Brush away any extra dirt or grass
- Create a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and detergent (WIN Activewear Detergent includes peroxide!—so no need to mix)
- Spot treat the stained areas by dabbing or spraying the mixture onto them
- Let soak for half an hour before rinsing
Try A Long Soak For Persistent Stains
Stains on baseball pants can be tough. You might have to get tougher. If your spot-treatment mixture doesn’t do the trick, try a long soak in warm water and bleach:
- Fill a tub or bucket with warm water
- Add a cap of bleach to the water (careful to handle safely)
- Let the pants soak for an hour or more
- Rinse with bleach-free water
Machine Wash With Quality Sports Detergent
Whether you did a spot treatment or a full soak (or both) to treat stains, it’s important to machine wash the pants immediately—before they dry. This gives you the best chance to remove any lingering stains or smells.
- Wash with warm water
- Keep separate from colored clothing
- Use a sports detergent
If you decide to use the same detergent on baseball pants as you do for the rest of your laundry, you may not get the results you’re looking for. That’s because your usual detergent probably isn’t formulated to deal with the damage that activewear can incur. With a strong sports detergent like WIN Detergent on your side, you’ll stand a much better chance of removing odor and getting the pants back into shape before the next game.
WIN Activewear Detergent is made specifically for athletic apparel. It includes several ingredients that are not found in regular detergents, and which separate oils from synthetic fibers to get them out of your garment. With WIN, you will have a detergent that is designed to target the oils from your skin and remove them from the fibers of your garment. The result is clothing that smell fresh and new every time you pull them out of the wash.
Don’t Forget The Rest Of The Uniform
A pair of baseball pants is not the only item that’s going to be dirty after the game. Your player’s jersey, undershirt, and cap will likely have accumulated their share of dirt and sweat, as well. And let’s not forget the socks, which might be the worst item of all to clean after hours of playing in the dirt and hot sun.
The good news is that the same basic steps for cleaning baseball pants should apply to the rest of the gear that needs to be cleaned, too. Act quickly, make sure to address any specific trouble spots, and use the right detergent. Follow these steps, and you can get the whole uniform looking and smelling good as new.
WIN Detergent Can Strike Out Odor!
As a baseball parent, washing baseball pants and the rest of your child’s gear is an inevitable part of the sport. But it doesn’t have to be a struggle. With WIN Detergent on your side, you’ll have the items looking clean and smelling fresh in no time.
Of course, dirty baseball pants probably aren’t the only activewear pieces you need to clean. Rest assured, our detergent is up to the challenge of whatever else you need to throw its way. Place your order today to see what a difference WIN can make!