The start of the Athletes Unlimited softball season next week will be welcome salve for Janie Takeda Reed.
To this point, 2020 has been a cruel tease for the former Oregon outfielder. She was planning to check a couple items off her softball bucket list this year. But those plans went sideways when the coronavirus pandemic struck.
Reed was in the Seattle airport with the rest of her USA Softball teammates when the pandemic put a halt to sports in mid-March. That was just days before Team USA was scheduled to play two exhibitions in Jane Sanders Stadium, one of those against the Ducks.