SOFTBALL

INTRODUCTION-

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Softball has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My parents had me start playing baseball when I was four. This was when my cousins team always needed fill in players. I instantly fell in love with the sport and my parents could see that. The following year I was age eligible to play softball so my parents had signed me up. I had played on just a rec team for three years until my second year of 8U. This is the time people start travel ball and so I began playing on a travel team too. I remember the first tryout i went; It was way out of my league at the time I tried out for the 10u A team when I was only on 8u, not a good idea. But i was recommended to tryout for the B team. My parents were very hesitant at first because of how good the A team was, they didn't know what the B team was or what I was signing up for. They did finally bring me to the tryout after days of pestering. We showed up to the tryout and it was definitely more my speed however I was not the best person on the team. I played on that team for a year and we played tournament locally and we were not good at all! The following season I went up to 10u and the team I used to play in went up to 12u. I decided to stay down and  play on the 10u travel team. I went to tryouts and realized that this team was much better than the team I was on the previous year. This team was going to be a great fit. My parents and I talked about the team and we decided it was a good idea to stay on and play because we may be able to win a couple of games…..we totally underestimated this team.

   During that summer season we went 67-1. We won every tournament we were in and we won the NYS ASA tournament! My coach decided to play me at second base and I was Developing my pitching that season too. During the NYS tournament we lost our only game, it was during pool play so it didn't matter that much. In the championship game of the tournament we faced the same team we had lost to the previous day. We won the championship game 3-2! It was an awesome day!

   I played on this team for two more years and our final record for a total of three years was 221-21-2. It was very sad when this team disbanded. Everyone was still playing softball but everyone just knew it was time to move on to different teams because everyone was going in different directions. Some people were going to more competitive teams and some were going to less competitive teams. The team had to end.

   It was a very sad day. We were in Rhode Island and we were in the semi- final game. Our coach hadn't told us we were ending the team but everyone just knew. After our loss in the semi final game we had our final team meeting and everyone was balling there eyes out. It was the end of an era, everyone knew who INFERNO was. We were a team people feared to play we were a team that ended others seasons, we were a team that rose above all others.  

 

HISTORY OF THE GAME-

Although many people assume that softball was derived from baseball, the sport’s first game actually came about because of a football game. The history of softball dates back to Thanksgiving Day of 1887, when several alumni sat in Chicago, anxiously awaiting the outcome of the Yale versus Harvard football game. When Yale was announced as winner, a Yale alumnus playfully threw a boxing glove at a Harvard supporter. The Harvard fan swung at the balled-up glove with a stick, and the rest of the group looked on with interest. George Hancock, who was a reporter for the Chicago Board of Trade, jokingly called out, “Play ball!” and the first softball game started with the football fans using the boxing glove as a ball and a broom handle in place of a bat. (SOURCE 2)

Due to the excitement surrounding the game, they decided to create their own set of rules, and the game quickly spread to outsiders and, eventually, throughout the rest of the Midwestern U.S. As the history of softball shaped itself over the next decade, the game was known as “indoor baseball,” “kitten baseball,” “diamond ball,” “mush ball,” and “pumpkin ball.” In 1926, Walter Hakanson created the term “softball” while representing the YMCA at a National Recreation Congress meeting, and in 1930, the term stuck as the sport’s official name. (SOURCE 2)

         In 1934, the Joint Rules Committee on Softball collaborated to create a set of standardized rules (SOURCE 2). Up until this point, the game was being played with varied rules, player positions, and ball sizes. The original softball used was 16 inches in circumference. However, the man responsible for organizing softball games for firefighters in Minneapolis, used a 12-inch ball. Rober’s ball won out as the preferred softball size, and professional softball games today are played using a 10–12-inch ball. However, many Chicagoans still hold fast to the belief that real softball is played using a 16-inch ball. Games using these 16-inch balls are often referred to as “cabbage ball,” “super slow pitch,” and “mush ball,” and unlike competitive softball, players are not allowed to wear fielding gloves.
    While the sport was originally advertised as an indoor game for baseball players looking to maintain their athleticism during the off season, it gained so much popularity and recognition that it quickly became its own official sport. In 1991, women’s fast pitch softball was added to the roster of the 1996 Summer Olympics. Although softball was later dropped from the 2012 Summer Olympics lineup, the game is still one of the most popular participant sports in the United States and 113 countries have officially joined the International Softball Federation since the organization’s formation in 1952.
    According to the official rules developed early in the history of softball, and eventually defined by the International Softball Federation, there are nine players on the field at a time. The players take the positions of pitcher, catcher, first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, and outfielder. Usually, there are three outfielders holding the positions of right fielder, left fielder, and center fielder. However, slow pitch softball allows for a fourth person in the outfield. Similar to baseball, the team with the most runs at the end of the seventh inning is named the winner. However, if the teams are tied at the end of the seventh inning, the game can go into extra innings, until the tie is broken.
    Today, softball is one of the most popular sports in the country, and an estimated 40 million Americans engage in at least one softball game each year. Because it can be played on either a field or an indoor arena, softball games are played year round and involve teams with players as young as 8 years old and some players over 60 years in age. Softball is sometimes played by co recreational leagues, where both women and men play on the same teams, but the rules are generally modified to reduce physical inequalities between the sexes. Often, companies and organizations form amateur coed teams to play for benefits and charity fundraiser events.
    The history of softball is still unfolding, and the game has undergone numerous modifications since its creation in 1887, but it is still one of the most preferred sports games in the country and has developed a following in several countries throughout the world, especially in Australia, China, and Japan. Loved by amateurs and professionals of all ages and athletic backgrounds, the world can only anticipate what is in store for the future of America’s other favorite pastime.

 

GEAR -

Softball players have to carry an enormous amount of equipment all the time. They have to carry them between games on a tournament day; back and forth to school for practices/games; and to travel practices. Softball players can have anywhere from two to fifteen pieces of softball gear in a bag.

    Some players, such as pitchers may only need three pieces of gear; their glove and uniform. (Some pitchers don't hit because they specialize in pitching). Most players generally have around 10 items of gear. Players use a glove in the field, and there are many different types of gloves such as an infielders glove, and outfielders glove, a pitching glove, and a first baseman's glove. The infielder gloves pocket is much smaller than that of an outfielders because an infielder must be quick to getting the glove out of their hands. And outfielders glove pocket is much deeper than the pocket of an infielder because they must be able to catch anything in the outfield and they need to cover more ground then an infield so the glove holds more surface area to it. The firstbasemens glove has a very deep pocket like the outfielders, however it has much more padding in it, this is because every time a ball is hit to the infield it is thrown over to the first basemen to get an out. There are many types of gloves out there just like there are many types of bats, and helmets. (SOURCE 4)

    A bat, Helmet and glove and uniform (including cleats) are four mandatory items needed by a softball player. A bat is used to hit the ball in which the pitcher is throwing 70 mph from 43 feet away. There are three most commonly unused bats and those are alloy, composite or hybrid bats. Alloy softball bats are constructed with a one-piece design out of aluminum or aluminum that is mixed with other metals to make a stronger product (SOURCE 2). The advantage of this strength is that it allows alloy bats to have thinner, more responsive barrel walls.Composite softball bats, on the other hand, are made out of a mixture of carbon fiber, graphite, fiberglass, and sometimes Kevlar (SOURCE 2) . Hybrid softball bats feature a two-piece design in which an alloy barrel is bonded to a composite handle. This makes the handle lighter and allows the alloy barrel to be made longer than on a traditional alloy bat. These three bats are the most commonly used bats in the softball bat works the most popular bat brands are Demarini (my personal favorite), Louisville, and Easton. These bats are usually sold from $100.00 to about $600.00 and are easily the most expensive part of equipment in the softball world. Helmets are also a part of protective gear used by softball players, we use them while we are hitting to protect use from the softball if a pitcher throws a wild pitch. Some people may have a cage on their helmet it is a stitching of metal attached to the helmet to protect your face. However some people do not use it because they think yhwh have enough reaction time to get out of their way and the feel they can see the ball more easily without it.

    Softball also has optional gear such as face masks, sunglasses, mouth guards, batting gloves. People use face masks in the infield to protect themselves from line drives/ hard ground balls coming at them at up to 120 mph. People use sunglasses/ hats to protect themselves from the sun's rays and use mouth Garuda as another line of defense against ground balls and line dives to the face . People use batting gloves so they don't get blisters from swinging the bat. After a day at a tournament you could swing from 60-70 times so after all that swinging your hands tend to get blisters and calluses.

   After a long hard tournament day and playing 6 games in one day softball players then need to carry their 70 pound bags back home.

 

SOFTBALL HARDER THAN BASEBALL?-

  Every softball player knows the feeling you get when you are told the sport you participate in isn't a sport. Girls are often made fun of for playing softball because it's a “weak” or “easier” version of baseball. This is absolutely untrue. Softball is a complex and a physically involved sport. Girls put their body's through ridiculous  training so they look the best they can out on the field. Softball teams practice 5-7 days a week and then players have private lessons, hitting cage time, nutrition classes and weight training. Softball is not just a sport you randomly pick up you must be in it and committed to it everyday of your life to excel and get scholarship offers to top DI schools. The fact that boys use comments such as “weak” and “easy” to compare softball to baseball is absolutely appalling.

        Softball has an infield that is less than half the size of a baseball infield so you can just imagine how fast softball players motions have to be. Pitchers can throw speeds up to 80 mph (SOURCE 7). This means from around thirty seven feet away a softball pitch can reach the plate in only thirty five hundredths of a second, this is faster than a 110 mph major league fastball throw (SOURCE 7). When pitchers are throwing at this velocity hitter only have twenty five milliseconds to decide whether or not to swing, this is more than fifty percent less amount of time MLB baseball players have to react (SOURCE 7). Even though this shows much difficulty for the batter's the infielders must have a faster reaction time. “When fielders are faced with balls coming off the bat at 110 mph a shortstop has less time to react and catch a line drive than a tennis player has time to react to a Serena Williams serve,” (SOURCE 7).  When fielding a ground ball an infielder must get the ball over to first base within 3.2 seconds. On a slap hit, which is a hit where the player is running towards the ball while hitting a third basemen must field the ground ball within one point five seconds because it would be impossible to get the runner out.

          So softball players the next time someone makes fun of softball and says it's just a girl version of baseball, you show them these facts. And to all the people out there who have made fun of a player saying that it's not a sports it's just for girls you remember these few facts and get out there and you try to do it.

 

MOVING UP THE RANKS-

There are many different levels of play in the sport of softball. You can play recreational softball at your community park to playing softball at the division one level in college. There are many different divisions and associations around the world that create their own softball games. They all have their own set of rules and regulations.

    Generally kids start playing softball at the age of five- six, however our local softball program, Classie Lassie Girls Softball allows kids to start t-ball at the age of four. Here kids are allowed to understand and recognize team sports and understand how working together helps achieve a common goal. When kids have the ability to work with coaches and teammates to achieve goals it is great practice for the real world where teaming up with others to meet goals are keys to success (SOURCE 14). Kids participation in sports  provides them with opportunities for leadership and socialization, as well as the development of skills for handling success and failure (SOURCE 14).

    As kids move up the ranks in their recreational play, they are able to try out for travel teams. Travel teams are generally more competitive then rec.teams and have a more rigorous spring/summer schedule. Here kids are able to experience a different level and type of competitiveness (SOURCE 14). They must go against their friends and compete against them to be on a team. Not only during tryouts do these girls have to compete but once they're on the team they must compete for a position. Travel coaches generally take one girl for each position except a pitcher. For that position they will take 3-4 girls and then a couple utility girls for injuries etc.. These girls must now compete against each other and other teams. Some travel teams are not associated with a recreational team either. There are many outside teams that have travel teams that compete at an even higher level of competition then local travel teams.

    Many softball travel softball teams are individual softball organizations, that compete at a higher level than local travel teams. These teams practice and play year round. Usually the travel teams practice 2-3 times a week and play every weekend during the summer season (June-mid August). When you are competing at this level you are traveling to different cities and states. Some teams compete in local states (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts). And others travel to more southern or western states, (Maryland,Florida, California). When competing at that level you are pressured to do your absolute best. There is no room for error in that level of play, teams are going for state, national, and world titles. This level of play gets players the most ready for a division one college experience.

      After kids start to recognize that they want to go play softball in college they start showcasing. Showcases are tournaments where college coaches are lined up along the fence to watch you and your team play. Here teenagers are pressured the absolute most. Here they must prove themselves worthy of playing division one softball. Teens have to email college coaches daily to get them to come see them play because there are thousands of girls trying to go to the same college to play the same position. They must go to college camps and clinics and pick out their top colleges (SOURCE 14) And from there they must continually try to contact their top college coaches and try to get the coaches to come see them play.

 

RECRUITING-

The recruiting process for softball athletes becomes more competitive every day, and the recruiting process starts earlier and earlier every day. There is much more to the process then showing up at a camp or playing in a showcase. Most people believe that if your good enough they will find you. This statement is completely untrue. Teens and even children are pressured at such young ages to go out and pay hundreds of dollars for college camps to showcase themselves (SOURCE 6) . Teens must write emails to college continuously to get their attention to get college coaches to come watch them play.

If players want to play at the highest level of softball college, Division one. Then they must write emails to that college coach every day to get them interested in you. While not only will they have to impress them on the field they will also have to impress them in the classroom. Even though there is DI softball it doesn't mean they have a lot of money to give full scholarships out. DI teams have maybe one full scholarship out and then partial scholarships as well.

This is why athletes need to be STUDENT- athletes. They need to have decent grades to play DI sports because colleges usually “stack” scholarships (SOURCE 6).  This means they will give you either the best sport scholarship they can give you with some academic scholarships, or hey are able to give you a lower sports scholarship along with alot of academic scholarships because you good at school. So some college softball players are playing without any type of athletic scholarship but playing with academic scholarships.

 

OLYMPICS-

Women’s softball is a very popular sport in the United States, and has had much international success. Softball was added to the Olympics in 1996, but was then unceremoniously dumped after the 2008 Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee reported on July 8, 2005 that two sports were no longer playable in the Olympics, Softball and Baseball (SOURCE 12). The two sports were kicked out of the Olympics, unwanted by international sports officials who felt they were too American for the world sports stage. The decision, made effective for the 2012 London Games, meaning the two sports will have a final chance to compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (SOURCE 9)

    Even as the U.S. women’s softball team won world cups, they didn’t get the same kind of recognition as the softball players who won Olympic gold (SOURCE 12).Despite all the negative effects of softball in the past the trajectory of softball was given a kick upwards on August 3, 2015 as the International Olympic Committee voted to return softball for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, along with baseball, Surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and karate will make their Olympic debuts in Tokyo. (SOURCE 10)

 

SALARIES-

It is widely known around the world that society used to believe women to be inferior to men, and some countries, such as the United States says that this is no longer an issue and women are treated and valued the same amount men are. Although in some job that is true within the sports industry it is the complete opposite.

    Professional baseball players are paid tens of millions of dollars to go out on the field each night and play a nine inning game (SOURCE 3). However when it comes to softball players they’re lucky if they’re getting five thousand dollars. The highest paid MLB player currently is Mike Trout who is being paid $34,083,333 a year (SOURCE 3)and the highest paid NPF player is Sierra Romero and she is being paid $8,640 a year (SOURCE 8). Professional softball hasn’t even been out for fifteen years yet, however it is a growing industry with five current NPF teams. These teams play not only against each other but they also play against other countries organization and fight it out in the end to become world champions. The players who play on these teams are generally payed five to six thousand dollars each season (May-August). Obviously these players can’t support their lives on five to six thousand dollars a year so they must also have everyday jobs along with their softball practices and games. Lucky for baseball players they don’t have to work an everyday job and then go traina and have workouts and practices.

Some use popularity as an argument in this discussion, however i am not saying that softball is a more popular sport im saying the complete opposite. Softball does not draw in a lot of viewers, this is because professional baseball was played first by men and now people see women playing a sport similar to baseball and that is viewed as inferior to men. That is completely unacceptable in this day and age and people must begin to see women as the true strong women we are today. The MLB is actually trying to make games pass by quicker because they are not getting as many views by young people as the would like and that's due to people's attention spans (SOURCE 3). And if people love the game of baseball but want to watch a quicker version of it, go support you local softball teams and softball channels on Tv! Baseball is played in nine innings while softball is only played in seven innings so it’s perfect if you love baseball but you don't want to sit around for four hours to watch a nine inning game.

 

CONCLUSION-

I have been playing softball for almost 12 years now. My teams over the years have won a 3 state titles, 2 national titles and this past summer have obtained a world title. I have played teams from all over the country and teams from Canada and Mexico. I have seen teams win 20-0 in the third inning and teams that come back from a 7-0 start. Softball is not just a game, it's a passion. People who go DI to play softball know this. They breath softball, over the summer when they are supposed to be on break they are working their butts off to perform their absolute best. They need to perform in front of overwhelming parents, college recruiters, and their coaches. This puts a certain level of stress on a girl and players must overcome this stress and play their hearts out for 17 years on there life because that's the only time they have because once college is over it's over for us.

 

Citations-

 

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