Everyone has heard how bad the economy is but if you like me you never expected it to get down to your level.  No I havn’t lost my job, house or car, but our local little league association is feeling the pain.  Most of our little league  funding comes from donations from schools, parents and local businesses sponsoring our teams.  Unfortunately do to the fears over the economy many of the local businesses and private donations were used to getting just arent going to be there this year.  Our little league association has decided to pass on buying new baseball and softball equipment this year and start buying used little league softball and baseball bats.  You wouldn’t believe the savings we have found buying secondhand catchers equipment, bats and helmets.  Yes some of the equipment especially the catchers equipment need some new straps,  tape on the handles or minor repairs but compared to the price of new gear this is a no brainer.  We are actually going to have a surplus of helmets, bats and catchers pads for the first time since I’ve been involved with the little league.   I wish we hadn’t waited for a bad economy to decide to go this route.  Now if there were only a way to refresh old baseballs and softballs we’d have it made.  I’m sure were not the only ones having this type of problem so hopefully this helps other little league teams save some money.