When
we consider the history of softball,
it’s easy to see how the game
developed as the younger sibling of
baseball. What might not be quite so
obvious is how three other sports helped
shape softball.
Boating,
Boxing and Football, Oh My
Believe it or not, boating, boxing
and football each played a role in
the history of softball. A boating
club, a boxing glove and a football
game were key ingredients in the very
first game of softball.
Young George Hancock
was among a group of Harvard and Yale
alumni who gathered at the Farragut
Boat Club in Chicago on Thanksgiving
Day 1887. It was the Harvard-Yale
football game that drew them to the
boating club. They waited anxiously
for telegrams from the Polo Grounds
in New York, bringing updates on the
game. Yale won the football game17-8.
What happened next is, so to speak,
history.
As legend has it,
a Yale man playfully threw a boxing
glove at the Harvard grads. A quick
thinking Harvard fan deflected the
glove with a stick—supposedly
a broom handle. What ensued was not
the sports riot you might expect,
but a raucous game of indoor baseball.
Hancock fashioned a large, soft ball
by binding the boxing glove with its
laces. He chalked out a small baseball
diamond inside the boat club and the
game was underway. The hour-long,
action-packed game ended with a score
of 41-40. Hancock decided the game
was a keeper. He wrote down rules
and created a soft, over-sized ball
and rubber-tipped bat that could be
used indoors. He also painted permanent
foul lines on the floor of the Farragut
Boat Club.
Moving Outdoors
Indoor baseball spread through the
Chicago area that winter. By 1889,
a winter indoor league had formed.
But the game couldn’t be kept
inside forever. When the weather was
warm, the game was played outside
on fields too small for baseball.
The same large, soft balls (ranging
anywhere from 10 to 20 inches in diameter)
that were used indoors were part of
the outdoor game. The highly creative
name of “indoor-outdoor”
was now used for the sport.
Fireman Lewis Rober
played an important role in developing
the game. He needed an activity that
would keep Minneapolis firemen active
while they waited for fire calls.
He marked out a field in a small vacant
lot next to the fire station. The
smaller field and softer ball made
for more offense and action in the
field than baseball. By limiting games
to seven innings, Rober found that
an active, competitive game could
be completed in about one hour.
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