What You Should Know About the History of Softball

Softball is regarded as a descendant of baseball where two groups play with one another with ten to fourteen players in each team. The primary key difference between them is that softballs are larger than baseballs. Softball is also played on a diamond but smaller in comparison to that of baseballs. Even though its name is softball, there isn’t anything soft about the ball being used in the game and in fact it is physically harder than a baseball.

Softball didn’t begin out as “softball” straight away. The beginning softball game occurred in Chicago during Thanksgiving of 1887. It was during a soccer match between Yale and Harvard where everything warmed up as a result of a bet. A Yale alumnus all of a sudden tossed a boxing glove at the Harvard follower. The man grabbed a piece of stick and swung at the glove.

Someone is the group shouted “Play ball!” and a new game was born. Initially they furled the boxing hand glove into a ball and a broom handle worked as a bat. The 1st game of softball (which was nameless that time) stopped with 41-40 score. Everyone had a great time that night even though it started by accident.

The game was named “indoor Baseball” but the game moved out-of-doors the following year and the 1st sets of rules were out in 1889. During 1895, Minneapolis arranged an outside game for firefighters as a form of physical training and was called “Kitten Ball” with unimportant difference with the 1st softball that happened in 1887. The game was also called diamond ball, lemon ball, mush ball, cabbage ball, and pumpkin ball. The 1st softball league was assembled in Toronto in 1897.

The name “softball” was coined in US in 1926 and has spread right across the U.S. And the name “softball” became the official name of the game. Today, softball is being played all around the planet in almost all regions and still gains acclaim.

Johnny Martinez coaches softball and spends his free time studying the game’s history. If you live in the southern California area be sure to visit his facebook page: Whittier Girls Softball and learn more about his league, Whittier Whittier Fastpitch.