Baseball Softball

In baseball, the pitcher stands on an elevated mound while softball pitchers deliver from a flat circular area.

While baseball pitchers throw overarm, softball pitchers are required to throw underarm with most pitchers. Most use the windmill pitch style where the ball is thrown after rotating in a large circle and top female pitchers can reach speeds of over 100km/h.

Softball is also shorter in duration with only seven innings compared to baseball’s nine.

The earliest record of the game of "baseball" being played was in Surrey, England, in 1749. The sport made it to the United States by the 1770s, and the first organised professional league—the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players—was founded in 1875. Baseball is considered "America's past-time".

Softball was first imagined as "indoor baseball" in 1887 in Chicago, Illinois, by reporter George Hancock after watching someone hit a boxing glove with a broom handle. He went on to publish rules for the game and later took it outside, playing on fields too small for baseball. While the rules remained vague, interest in the game grew, and more than 100 area high school teams were formed by 1892.

In 1895, firefighters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, played a similar game named “kitten ball” using a ball of yarn wrapped in leather. In 1907, a guide for indoor baseball published by Albert Spalding allowed for game flexibility with two constants: a larger ball than baseball as well as underhand pitching. In 1926, Walter Hakanson proposed unifying the disparate versions of the game into one, under a single name: Softball.

Each team aims to score the most runs by striking a ball and running round a sequence of bases to reach the home plate.

The teams rotate between batting and fielding, with each session called an inning, and switch when the fielding team gets three batters out.

The pitcher throws the ball toward the catcher situated just behind the batter who tries to hit forward into a ‘V’ shaped zone which stretches back to the stands.

Each batter has a tally or strikes and balls. A strike occurs when a batter either hits the ball ‘foul’ (behind the ‘V’ shaped playing area), swings and misses at a ball, or leaves a ball which passes over home plate in the ‘strike zone’ between the knees and the chest. Three strikes means the batter is out although a foul ball will not result in a strike-out.

A ball is called when a batter leaves a ball which either fails to pass over home plate or is deemed too high or low to hit. Four balls results in the batter walking to first base. The same outcome is achieved if a delivery hits the batter’s body.

Should a batter make it to first base, the next batter comes in and faces a pitch with the aim of also making it on base.

Batters can be struck out (by swinging and missing a ball or leaving one which passes over home plate) or caught, or tagged or run out while between bases.

A batter scores a run if they make it all the way round to home plate. The quickest way to do this is via a ‘home run’ where the batter launches the ball over the perimeter fence. Any players on base also score.

At the end of the match, the team with the most runs win unless there is a tie necessitating extra innings.

Previously, there were nine players on a baseball/softball team with the pitcher expected to bat. But in recent years, teams have expanded to 10 players with a designated hitter (DH) replacing the pitcher in the batting line-up. The DH does not take the field with the pitcher.

A baseball game lasts for nine innings, while softball lasts for seven innings. There are three outs per half-inning (teams rotate batting and fielding each half-inning). Tied games may be left as ties or played until a winner is found, known as extra innings.

Baseball featured several times on the Olympic programme as a demonstration sport before being included as a medal event at the Olympic Games Barcelona 1992.

Cuba won gold on the sport’s competitive debut and three times in total before it was removed from the programme following the Olympic Games Beijing 2008.

Softball was introduced at the Olympic Games Atlanta 1996 as a women-only medal sport, with the United States winning gold. They won the subsequent two titles and enjoyed a 22-game winning streak from September 2000 before they were beaten by Japan in the final in 2008.

Originally considered separate sports at the Olympics, baseball/softball made its return as a combined sport with two distinct events (men's baseball and women's softball) at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, where hosts Japan won both gold medals.

After being dropped for Paris 2024, Baseball/softball will return at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.

Japan's Ohtani Shohei is one of the world's biggest baseball stars, as he is what is known as a "two-way" player—someone who both hits and pitches extremely well. In softball, Team USA's Ally Carda is one to watch.