Why is it called Softball

In grade school in a suburb of Chicago, our playground ended 3 ft from residential houses, and of course the playground was much smaller than a baseball field, so playing real baseball was not possible. We did play something we called softball, but it was not true softball. It involved something we called a "clincher" or 16 "incher." I believe a true softball was 8 inches, but that is memory for 70 years ago.

But the clincher was soft. Brand new they were fairly hard, but very light. After a weeks use, they would become literally as soft as a pillow, and it would take a mighty swing, at least as mighty as a 10 year old could swing to send it to the outfield, which on our playground wasn't really that far out there. But that's the baseball I grew up with.
 
Soft softballs are still made today. They are used for practice and training purposes. They are also used for kids in elementary schools to use at recess to prevent injuries. Getting hit with a soft softball is a world of difference compared getting hit with a competition softball.
 
When I grew up, my parents would sometimes take me to watch the Chicago Bloomer Girls play softball. My father never once took me to a major league game, but I had a friend whose father took us to watch the Cubs. But the Bloomer Girls, discrediting as the name may sound, played soft ball. They pitched underhand, but unlike the way we pitched on the elementary playground, they pitched a softball underhanded as fast as a hardball.

I've heard that under handed pitchers can throw curves and fast balls faster than hardball players. It's hard for me to believe that because when I tried to pitch underhand with the Bloomer Girl windup, it felt like my arm was going to come out of the socket, and where the ball would go was unpredictable, as in I could miss the batter by 40 yards.

This was shortly after World War II, and as I understand it, women's baseball became very popular when all the men were being sent off to Europe. So going to watch the Bloomer Girls was not that unusual.
 
Beezer said:
Why do we park in the driveway, and drive on the parkway?

Why is the plane's black box orange?

How come 'fat chance' and 'slim chance' mean the same thing?
Click to expand...
It’s called a black box because during WWII very sensitive electronics and books containing sensitive information were sealed in black boxes. Later, after the war and the boxes were still in planes, but were being used to collect information from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR) that collected information from sensors and different systems were painted orange so they could be easier to find after an accident.

Also, a fat chance means hardly any chance at all and a slim chance means a slight possibility.
 
Here in Toronto during WW2, thousands of young women came to our city to get jobs in "war plants" . Those war work plants started sports teams for the women. One of the most popular women's sports was "Fast Ball", played with a softball, but with underhand pitching styles. The Toronto Women's Fast Ball League grew to have 16 teams, and they were playing games 2 or 3 times a week at a number of Toronto baseball stadiums. The major War industries teams were Inglis Appliances, DeHavilland Aircraft, Victory Aircraft, Timken Bearings. Canadian Industries Limited, General Motors, Ford of Canada, and Canadian General Electric, and Westclox Industries.

Fast ball pitchers use an underhand movement, where the ball leaves the pitcher' hand near their hip. Yes they can throw curves and strikes. JIM>
 
Something that occurred to me is that the terms hard and soft describe the difficulty in hitting the ball.

A hard ball is hard to hit but a softball is not.

I only once faced a curveball. I swore it would hit me in the head but it always broke over the plate.

The guys who can play hardball take longer to react to perceived danger and can wait to see what a ball with English on it is going to do.

Over thinkers like me say Get the hell out of there its coming right for you.
 
During WW2 my Mother played semi-pro softball. Her employer sponsored a team and she was paid to be the catcher on that team. In later years she took me to a few games and I was amazed by how hard those women could throw pitches underhand.

As a young boy showing absolutely no talent for team sports I must have been a big disappointment to my naturally athletic Mom.
 
Why to internet sites give me the option to unsubscribed, when I never subscribed in the first place?
 

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