Soft Flex

Soft Flex

Soft Touch Bases A 20 Year Track History Of Quality

Baseball and softball bases come in all sorts of designs these days.  New rulings at the little league level have given birth to even more designs for "safety" style bases that release from their anchors on contact.  You name it and someone has probably thought of it in recent years from bases that use magnets to hold them together until a player slides into them to bases that use alternating pegs to kind of stick together like oversized hook and loop material until the impact.  The Soft Touch Progressive Release Base design however has been in use for over 20 years and has always met the Little League "disengage-able" base rule that was implemented in 2008. 

Soft Touch Bases have always been a safe design and adding that to their 20 year track history in quality should make them an obvious choice.  The design is unique but still relatively simple. Most bases utilize a simple male to female design meaning that there is an anchor hole in the ground that the bases post style anchor slips into.  Not only are the materials and overall design different in the Soft Touch bases but so is the general anchor "principal".

Instead of using standard square tube anchors the Soft Touch bases utilize a 7 inch square in ground "sleeve. Once the "sleeve" is installed a center "post" is inserted into it.  The post leaves a border open between the "sleeve" wall and itself.  The border is designed to allow the female style receptacle on the bottom of the actual base to slide over the top of the center post but still be inside of the "sleeve".  So I guess you could say that the base itself has both a male and female design.  It is this unique design that creates both the friction that keeps the base together and the friction that allows the base to progressively release upon impact.

Besides the design described above the Soft Touch bases are also unique in that there are no metal parts on them.  They are completely molded and designed to be flexible to absorb the impact when a player slides into the base.  The bases flex and then "pop" out of the anchor unit when enough force is applied.  The polyurethane construction provides that amazing flexibility and minimize the potential of player injuries at the same time.

Last but not least I must mention one of the best features of the Soft Touch Progressive Release Bases… they are made right here in the USA.  Soft Touch bases come in adult and youth sizes and you can buy double first bases for softball.  A complete selection of replacement parts is available as well as optional items such as drag plugs.  You can find the entire line up as well as full descriptions and images of the products at www.morleyathletic.com.

About the Author

Morley Athletic Supply Company Inc. has been in business since 1931. As a fourth generation family member involved in the company, team sports is more than a job it's an obsession. With thousands of new products being developed and marketed every year it is important to keep coaches and players updated on what's new for their sport. I write articles to provide them with this information.

I have very tight abs when I flex, but when I am not flexing my stomach sticks out and the obliques are soft?

That is how it's supposed to be.

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