It is very important for every athlete of every sport to know the history of the sport he or she is playing by heart and mind… most especially in the sport we call softball. Softball history traces its roots way back the 1880s specifically during the Thanksgiving Day of 1887. Once upon a time, a man who goes by the name of George Hancock started it all. It really was not meant to create softball it was more of an accident actually.
During the Thanksgiving Day of 1887 while having a softball meeting about an annual softball game a Yale student threw a boxing glove at a Harvard student. The reason as to why it was done was not clear but because of that incident softball was created… The Harvard student took a piece of stick in order to counter the boxing glove thrown at him and Mr. George Hancock shouted the words “Play Ball”. It then was played constantly and became known as “indoor baseball” because it was mainly played inside houses or garages. It had a purpose of serving as the training process of baseball players during the winter months.
Actually, the name for this sport was not softball to begin with. It harbored names such as “kitten ball”, “pumpkin ball”, “diamond ball”, and a whole lot more. But with the decision of the National Recreation Congress the name of softball was given thanks to the wonderful suggestion of Sir Walter Hakanson which is a YMCA. It slowly started spreading across the whole of Northern America and was given a standardized set of softball rules and regulations which makes it an officially sport.
Softball became popular in Northern America, Europe, Australia, and other parts of the world. At first, slow pitching was employed by the fast pitching style became popular in no time during the 1960s. Nowadays, several softball pitching styles exist and continue to be utilized by some of the best softball players. Normally, an adept softball player knows and is a master of at least three wonderful and hard to hit pitching styles and techniques.
Due to softball’s almost baseball like characteristics, some people often interchange the two sports. That is an incorrect notion since it is very much known that these two sports despite its external similarities are very much distinct and unique in their own way. An example would be baseball would be more aggressive and “quieter” while a typical softball game would be a little less tensed and noisier because of the constant funny softball cheers one will hear.
Modern day softball especially in this time is considered to be one of the most popular and exciting sports people of all ages play. Although there is a significant dominance of female softball players, male softball players exist as well. All rules and guidelines respected before have had very few changes and revisions. Overall, softball before and the softball we know today is very much the same.
That is the softball history for everyone. To summarize, softball began through just a simple misunderstanding of people. And thanks to that very little “commotion” that took place long ago, we now have a very fun, a very unique and very lovely sport known as softball. Now that you have gained the knowledge as to the beginning of this wonderful sport, it is time for you to go out and play softball!
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