Softball

Softball is a team sport in which a ball, eleven to twelve inches in circumference, is thrown by a player called a pitcher and hit by an offensive player called a batter with a round, smooth stick called a bat. The ball itself is also called a softball. Scoring is accomplished by the batter running and touching a series of four markers on the ground called bases. Softball is a direct descendant of baseball (sometimes referred to as hardball to differentiate the two), but differs from it in several ways, of which the chief four are:

Related Topics:
Sport - Ball - Inch - Pitcher - Batter - Bat - Bases - Baseball

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• The ball is always pitched (thrown to the batter) underarm – that is, it is released when the hand is below the hip and no further from the body than the elbow – while in baseball the ball may be released in any position and is usually thrown overarm or sidearm.
• The ball is larger, less dense, and heavier than a baseball.
• The playing field is normally smaller.
• The game is seven innings long, as opposed to nine in baseball. Consequently, softball games typically take between sixty minutes and two hours to complete, as opposed to around three hours for most baseball games.

Softball is the most popular participant sport in the United States. An estimated 56 million Americans will play at least one game of softball during a year.

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It is played by both genders socially as well as competitively, and has been an Olympic sport for women beginning since 1996. The International Softball Federation holds world championships, held every four years, in several categories.

Related Topics:
Olympic - International Softball Federation

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Softball: Types of softball ►