After reading the headline above you may be wondering how are the three sports mentioned connected? To find that connection you have to go way back in time to the 1880’s when Chicago Board of Trade journalist, George Hancock while attending a Yale-Harvard football game seen a Yale fan throw a boxing glove at a Harvard fan who swung at it with a long ruler type of stick and the idea for softball was born in Hancock’s mind.

Originally sold as an indoor version of baseball for the long cold Northern weather it took only a year until the game started being played outside too. And the first official softballs we’re big measuring 16 inches in circumference and made out of a of semi-hard material.

As a result of those big soft balls used in the early years of softball defensive players didn’t even wear gloves.

The softball game we watch today is much different then those early years but did set the foundation for modern softball.