With the omicron variant of COVID19 raging around the world, the AGB board made the difficult decision yesterday to postpone the All American Women’s Baseball Classic in Sarasota, as well as all festivities connected with it. This decision did not come lightly. Until this past week, Florida was reporting low numbers of COVID19 cases and we felt like we were in a good position to host our inaugural event.

However, in the past few days cases have skyrocketed in all parts of the country, including Florida. We could not reasonably justify the risk to the health and safety of the elderly original AAGPBL players who were traveling, the young girls attending the clinic who may not be fully vaccinated, the players coming in from all regions of the USA, and the Sarasota population who planned on attending the Bash and games.

Furthermore, access to testing is now limited which would make it difficult for our players to comply with the protocols we had in place requiring testing within 72 hours of departure to Florida. The postponement of NHL, NFL, and NBA games this past week is a sign of things to come as we enter the New Year. It was the right decision to postpone our event, which will be rescheduled within the calendar year of 2022.

In the words of the Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who spoke to the press on Monday: “An event canceled is better than a life canceled.” It does not get any more clear than that statement. By prioritizing the health and safety of our supporters, we hope to bring back an even stronger event with a much greater chance of success.

AGB is proud to announce we were able to surpass our goal of securing $100,000 in sponsorships for the event. We have the support of Geena Davis and her Institute. We have the support of the executive producers of the new Amazon TV series, “A League of Their Own.” We made a great friend in Misdee Wrigley Miller, who is the granddaughter of the founder of the AAGPBL. Everything was coming together! It is a disappointment not to see the realization of a dream that took months of hard work to bring to fruition. However, we firmly believe we are in a position to put on a historic event in Sarasota in the coming year.

Thank you for your time and commitment to girls/women’s baseball.  We sincerely hope you will participate again when the new dates are announced.