The history of softball. Have you ever wondered where it all started?
I can tell you that softball originated in Chicago, on Thanksgiving Day in 1887. After a group of about twenty young people had gathered at a yacht club to hear the score of a football game. After the winner was announced, a man picked up a boxing glove that had been left to the side and threw it at someone… who then hit him with a pole.
A man named George Hancock is known in softball history as the man who yelled, “Let’s play ball!” He tied the boxing glove into a ball, dug a diamond out of the ground, and found a broom handle to use as a bat.
Thus was born the idea of the game of softball. Now how did this twisted version of baseball become the sport it is today?
George Hancock, the man who almost single-handedly invented the game of softball, created an oversized ball and a slightly smaller bat with a rubber tip on the end. He also went and painted permanent white foul lines on the gym floor and wrote new rules for the game he called “indoor baseball.”
Indoor baseball quickly spread internationally. Many played it to keep practicing during the winter months, a great alternative to playing outside in the freezing snow! When the weather turned warmer, the game was moved outdoors and the sport was given the new name “indoor-outdoor”. The sport exploded in popularity, and Hancock published indoor and outdoor rules in 1889.
Another important event in softball history was when the game was limited to one hour in length, reducing the innings to seven. This happened because a firefighter decided to adapt the game to keep his fellow firefighters busy between firefighter calls.
The game was finally given the name “softball” in 1926, after an official at the Denver YMCA suggested it. In 1933, softball was introduced to the rest of the world when it traveled with the world’s fair.
An important year in softball history was 1933. It was then that the Amateur Softball Association was founded. The association introduced standardized rules for the game, including rules about different age groups, ball sizes, and field sizes.
In 1939, softball was introduced to Australia, and softball was introduced to the Netherlands by the Canadians after World War II. Later in 1962 softball was introduced to the UK, the first British women’s softball league was established in 1983.
The first women’s fast pitch world championships in softball history were played in 1965 in Melbourne, Australia. The first men’s world championships in softball history were played in 1966 in Mexico City. Since 1970, softball’s world championships have been played every four years and in 1996, women’s softball became an Olympic medal event.
Today, millions of people in the United States and the rest of the world play softball…including me!
This is just a brief segment of information on the history of softball. For the full version, visit Baseball Brainiac’s “History of Softball” page.
