| Indoor-outdoor,
diamond ball, or whatever you chose
to call it, took on the moniker “softball”
in 1926 after a Denver YMCA official
suggested the name. The newly christened
sport made a giant leap in 1933 when
a Chicago reporter and sporting goods
salesman organized a softball tournament
in conjunction with the world’s
fair. Leo Fischer (the reporter) and
Michael Pauley (he would be the salesman)
invited 55 teams to compete in three
tournament divisions: men’s fastpitch,
men’s slowpitch and women’s.
More than 350,000 spectators watched
tournament games at the ball field inside
the world’s fair grounds. This
tournament was the catalyst for the
spread of softball. Teams, leagues and
tournaments began to spring up in nearly
every US town and in many parts of the
world. During the next seven years,
historians estimate that more than five
million people played softball.
Organizing
the Game
The success of the tournament spurred
the founding of the Amateur Softball
Association in the fall of 1933. The
Association brought much-needed standardized
rules to the game. The ASA has always
believed that softball is a game for
all ages of participants, so it has
set rules for different age groups.
A 12-inch ball is now the standard
with many youth leagues using an easier
to handle 11-inch size. Some leagues
play a variation of softball using
a 16-inch ball.
The size of the field
varies with age and between the fastpitch
and slowpitch games. The pitching
rubber is anywhere from 35 to 50 feet
from home plate and the distance between
bases ranges from 55 to 65 feet.
Local, regional and
even national competition among men’s
and co-ed slowpitch softball teams
is highly competitive but it is the
fastpitch game that has caught fire
internationally. The windmill motion
of a fastpitch softball pitcher can
send the ball to the plate at speeds
equal to major league baseball pitchers.
Since 1951, the International
Softball Federation has governed worldwide
softball competition. The first women’s
fastpitch world championships were
played in 1965 in Melbourne, Australia.
The host team won the five-team competition.
The first men’s world championships
were played a year later in Mexico
City. The US men’s team won
the 1966 title. Since 1970, softball
world championship tournaments have
been played every four years. Click
here to see a list of winners.
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