The Evolution of Softball

September 24, 2022 0 Comments

The first softball game to be played was on Thanksgiving Day in the year 1887. After a football game between Yale and Harvard, specifically during the payout of bets, a Yale man threw a boxing glove at the Harvard graduates, one of whom hit the glove with a broom handle, giving rise to the game of softball.

Initially an indoor game

George Hancock, one of the Harvard and Yale alumni, tied a boxing glove in the shape of a softball and proceeded to draw a softball diamond with chalk on the floor of the yacht club. Since the glove converted to softball was soft, players still did not wear gloves. Thus came the first softball game that ended with a score of 41-40.

Shortly thereafter, Hancock wrote the rules for the game of softball and created a rubber-tipped softball bat. He even marked permanent foul lines on the yacht club floor.

It soon became an outdoor sport

Softball became one of the favorite sports during that winter in Chicago. The new sport became a way for baseball players to keep practicing even during the winter season. Well past the winter season, softball was taken outdoors where it was played on fields that are much smaller than baseball diamonds.

However, the evolution and development of softball was attributed to a fire chief named Lewis Rober. Rober used the relatively new sport to keep his Minneapolis firefighters from getting bored while waiting for fire calls.

On a lot adjacent to the firehouse, Lewis Rober marked a softball field where firefighters spent their time playing the sport. Rober soon discovered that the larger, softer balls, along with the smaller fields, created a sport that had more offense and more action compared to baseball. He made a rule to limit the game to seven innings to allow the game to be completed in one hour.

Soon, softball games were organized between firehouses, drawing as many as 3,000 spectators and leading to a proliferation of softball games in parks and playgrounds throughout the city. By the year 1913, softball was officially adopted as a sport by the Minneapolis Park Board.

It became an international sport.

The game spread from Chicago to Milwaukee and then to the Midwest and Canada. Different places had slightly different rules and implements. For example, the game was called elsewhere by other names such as cabbage ball, pumpkin ball, or porridge ball. It was only in 1926 that the name softball was established as the official name of the sport.

It was only in the year 1933 that the rules of softball were standardized by the Amateur Softball Association. The sizes of the ball and the field were established, as well as the distances between the bases. Fastpitch and slowpitch softball games were also defined.

As for softball attire, the early years of softball had players wearing sweaters and pants. Today, softball players wear nylon jerseys with undershirts, pants, softball cleats, and softball socks. Baseball caps are mandatory for men’s fast pitch leagues. Metal spikes in softball cleats are prohibited.

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