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Knor614 t1_jcqt6cb wrote

Why did women’s baseball die but fast pitch softball grow

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novium258 t1_jcrb6vp wrote

Title IX, ironically. It allowed schools to ban girls from baseball if they offered them softball instead

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yavimaya22 t1_jcwxglw wrote

Can you pls elaborate?

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GOP-are-Terrorists t1_jdbxen0 wrote

Title 9 is an ncaa rule that basically says schools have to have an equal number of women's and men's sports teams. So to legally kick women off the baseball team regardless of how good they are schools just added softball and put them there.

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cspinelive t1_jcr22bf wrote

Softball is on a smaller field. Pitcher is closer. Game is faster and more exciting.

I don’t know about women’s baseball though. Was it on the same field the men played on? Might have been a slower game.

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GOP-are-Terrorists t1_jdbxm20 wrote

You never saw A League of Their Own with Tom Hanks? It's a classic

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cspinelive t1_jdff48s wrote

I’ve seen it. Great show. I don’t remember if the fields were same size or anything else that would have helped answer this question though.

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GOP-are-Terrorists t1_jdlluqs wrote

Softball has different dimensions because the sport gets played a little bit differently. I'm pretty certain the old school women's baseball leagues just brought the fences in closer and that was it.

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cspinelive t1_jdmm61z wrote

Found this in Wikipedia

In the first season, the league played a game that was a hybrid of baseball and softball. The ball was 12 inches in circumference, the size of a regulation softball (regulation baseballs are 9 to 91⁄4 inches). The pitcher's mound was only forty feet from home plate, closer even than in regulation softball and much closer than the baseball distance of 60 feet, 6 inches. Pitchers threw underhand windmill, like in softball, and the distance between bases was 65 feet, five feet longer than in softball, but 25 feet shorter than in baseball. Major similarities between the AAGPBL and baseball included nine player teams and the use of a pitcher's mound (softball pitchers throw from flat ground). By 1948, the ball had shrunk to 103⁄8 inches, overhand pitching was allowed, and the mound was moved back to 50 feet. Over the history of the league, the rules continued to gradually approach those of baseball. By the final season in 1954, the ball was regulation baseball size, the mound was moved back to 60 feet, and the basepaths were extended to 85 feet (still five feet shorter than in regulation baseball).

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Knor614 t1_jcrc2ij wrote

Seems like a smaller ball would help

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alwaysmyfault t1_jcrgpqd wrote

This isn't basketball.

A smaller baseball would make it harder to hit, harder to catch, harder to throw.

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cspinelive t1_jcrgfi4 wrote

Help with what? How?

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Knor614 t1_jcrh030 wrote

Generally women have smaller hands so you would think that using a smaller ball would be better

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cspinelive t1_jcrhz2f wrote

I’m just making stuff up here but you’ve got 8 year olds girls throwing a softball just fine. Granted it is smaller at that age but still bigger than a baseball. So I’m guessing the softball isn’t so big that it would really impact the ability to throw it.

The smaller field makes plays closer and throws shorter. Plays happen faster. The larger ball travels off the bat slower and keep more hits playable than if the ball were smaller.

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lionheart4life t1_jcte1vd wrote

The pitchers already strike out like 90% of the batters they face. There would be no scoring with a smaller ball.

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Moses_Cleaveland t1_jcreoz1 wrote

Women's baseball is pretty much dead, but there are some leagues whose mission is to support it, and there was a Women's Baseball World Cup a few years ago. I think it is done every year, but I don't know any details.

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