Softball is a very popular sport! Lots of people enjoy playing it. There are 65 million people that play softball around the world! Here are some facts and history about softball!
History
The history of softball is very interesting! The man who created softball was George Hancock. It all started in the Farragut Boat Club in November 1887. He was at a Yale football game. Yale had defeated Harvard and when somebody heard that they got so excited that they threw a boxing glove at another student and the other student tried to hit it with a stick! This gave George the idea of a new game! George wanted to play indoor baseball but with a bigger ball. Other people just thought that he meant outdoor baseball but he certainly did not. He used what he could and tied the laces of a boxing glove to use as a ball. To mark the bases, home plate, and where the pitcher should stand he used chalk. Soon later that sport grew and many people started to play it. After more people started to play it George took the game outdoors where other teams would go against each other. Now more than 65 million people play softball around the world!
Facts
There’s a lot of facts that you may not know about or probably already do because some of the facts are already well known. The first official game of softball was in 1887. It was an indoor game as well. Before softball got its name it was called kitten ball. Then later the Minneapolis Park Board named it diamond ball. Softball then officially got its name in 1927. Softball is played in 140 countries! That’s insane! In the diamond field, each base is 60 feet apart from the other. That’s a little smaller than a baseball field because each base is 90 feet apart. In softball, pitchers pitch underhand and baseball pitchers pitch overhand. Also in baseball, pitchers always have to look behind them because runners can steal bases at any time but in softball, runners can’t do that. So softball pitchers are never looking behind themselves but baseball pitchers are. Baseball pitchers have to pitch on a mound which makes them stand up higher than softball pitchers because they have no mound. That’s all the facts!
Jennie Finch
Jennie Finch was considered one of the best softball players in the world. She was a fast pitch pitcher and a first baseman. Jennie started to play softball when she was 5! She is an Olympic gold medalist. She started to play for the Arizona Wildcats in 1999. She and her team got a gold medal in 2004 in Athens for the Olympic Games. In 2008 in Beijing for the Olympic games, they got a silver medal. Jennie has an N.C.A.A record for having 60 consecutive pitching wins over three seasons. Within those three seasons, she struck out people 1,028 times! Jennie could also throw at 70, which is 98-99 in baseball. Jennie Finch retired in 2010 at the age of 29.
Sources:
https://olympic.ca/2019/08/23/what-are-the-differences-between-baseball-and-softball/
https://www.rulesofsport.com/faq/what-is-the-difference-between-softball-and-baseball.html
https://www.teamusa.org/usa-softball/about-usa-sb/history
https://facts.net/lifestyle/sports/softball-facts/
https://www.britannica.com/facts/Jennie-Finch
