Softball Tickets

Softball is a descendant of baseball, which itself evolved during the mid-1800s from earlier games played with a bat and a ball. Unlike baseball, which developed gradually over many years, the origins of softball are well recorded. As reported by the International Softball Federation, the first game was played in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day in 1887. A group of college football fans had gathered at the Farragut Boat Club to follow the Harvard-Yale football game played that same day. After Yale won, a celebrating Yale supporter teasingly tossed a boxing glove at somebody who had rooted for Harvard. The Harvard fan, thinking quickly, grabbed a stick and knocked the glove back at the man who threw it. A local reporter named George Hancock decided to make a game of it, and organized a match.

This first game was so successful that Hancock began to hold weekly tournaments, and in time, the popularity of the game spread from Chicago to the rest of the country. Around the year 1889, Hancock published the first rulebook. As the game became more popular, it underwent some changes—originally played inside, it moved outdoors in the 1890s. Formerly referred to by various names, it became known as "softball" beginning in 1926. During the twentieth century, it became popular internationally.

Though softball is estimated to be the most popular amateur sport in America and is played by men and women alike, it has not had much success in recent years as a professional sport, especially among men. There is, however, a small American professional women's league, National Pro Fastpitch. The International Softball Federation oversees international competition and determines what teams will play at the Summer Olympics. Over 600 colleges and universities in the United States also sponsor softball teams. College softball tends to be played by women.