Nonprofit sets world record for longest softball game, while raising awareness for sex trafficking

ATLANTA, Ga. (WANF/Gray News) - Eight hundred energy drinks. Two hundred chiropractic adjustments. One hundred ice baths. Eighty massages.

That — plus a lot of determination — is what it took for a metro Atlanta nonprofit to beat the world record for the longest softball game.

At 9 a.m. on Sunday, Men Opposing Sex Trafficking’s (MOST) nonstop game reached five days and 59 minutes, or just about 121 hours. At Cartersville’s Dellinger Park, a Guinness World Record official announced the organization had set a new record, prompting cheers across the field.

The existing official record was 4 days, 19 hours and three minutes, set in Canada in 2009. The unofficial record was about 120 hours.

But MOST wanted to beat both of them, said Bruce Deel, the organization’s founder and CEO.

The people on each of the two 20-player teams weren’t professionals. They were men from multiple states who are passionate about ending sex trafficking, according to Deel.

“It’s just a bunch of guys that believe in the cause and are tired of sex trafficking exploitation and decided to give us five days of their life to fight it,” he said.

MOST didn’t hold the event randomly. The softball game was in line with the organization’s mission to raise awareness of sex trafficking and goal of raising $500,000.

The money raised will go toward organizations that help prevent or intervene in sex trafficking and save survivors, according to Gabe Franco, MOST’s chief operating officer. Franco also played in the softball game himself, which only allowed for five-minute bathroom breaks and five-minute showers. Players slept on cots by the field before waking up to hit the field all over again.

“It’s been awesome. Super tiring,” he said. “Obviously, I’ve got a little [bit of] aches and pains, but overall, it’s been a great experience.”

Franco said the issue of sex trafficking is especially important in Atlanta, which consistently ranks as one of the country’s worst cities for trafficking each year.

“There’s tons of heartbreaking stories. Too many to really count,” he said. “It’s needed for people to fight this.”

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