The History of Softball

In 1887, on Thanksgiving Day, Harvard and Yale alumni met to place bets and hear the scores of a recent football game. After the scores where announced, an alumni from Yale threw a boxing glove at a Harvard alumni, who then deflected it with a broom handle. The game then began.

In the next week George Hancock, the man accreditted with founding softball, developed a proper ball and bat to be used in the games. As the ball was so soft, no gloves were used. The boating club set up rules and a league for the new game, which quickly spread outside of the glove. Under the new name of "Inside-Outside", softball was played outdoors and the first set of rules published in 1889. The first league outside of America was formed in Toronto in 1897.

In Minneapolis in 1895, Lewis Rober, Sr. organized outdoor games as exercise for firefighters. Rober's version of the game introduced the 12-inch ball used today and was called "kitten ball", "pumpkin ball", or "diamond ball". Although Rober's ball was adopted as the official ball size, the field dimensions from the boat club were adopted.

In 1926, the name "softball" was coined. At that point six different names for the game. In the 1930's, there were several different versions of softball, played with different names and different rules. In 1934, Joint Rules Committee on Softball standardized the rules and name for softball.

Sixteen-inch softball, a.k.a "mush ball" or "super-slow pitch", is the version of softball most similar to Hancock's game. As the ball is so soft, players never wear gloves. Sixteen-inch softball is played frequently in Chicago.

Softball has spread worldwide since World War II: it was introduced to Australia in 1939 and the Netherlands after the war ended. In 1972, during the filming of A Touch of Glass, softball was introduced to the U.K.

In 1991, the Olympic Committee decided to include women's fastpitch softball in the 1996 Summer Olympics. In 2005, softball, along with baseball was voted out of the Olympics.

Today, softball is played all around the world, especially in the U.S. and Japan. In America, there are travel teams in every state. Travel teams travel all over the country playing in tournaments against teams from all over the country.

Softball is also widely played in high school. Almost all (if not all) high schools in the country have at least a varsity softball team and many colleges have softball programs. There are many girls both in the U.S. and in other countries who want to, or do, play softball professionally. This is why softball should be re-enstated for the 2016 Olympic Games.

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