Softball

Softball is a variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. It was invented in 1887 in Chicago, Illinois, United States as an indoor game. It was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground, softball, kitten ball, and because it was also played by women, ladies' baseball. The name softball was given to the game in 1926, because the ball used to be soft.In 1895 Lewis Rober, Sr. of Minneapolis organized outdoor games as exercise for firefighters; this game was known as kitten ball (after the first team to play it), lemon ball, or diamond ball. Rober's version of the game used a ball 12 inches (30 cm) in circumference, rather than the 16-inch (41 cm) ball used by the Farragut club, and eventually the Minneapolis ball prevailed, although the dimensions of the Minneapolis diamond were passed over in favor of the dimensions of the Chicago one. Rober may not have been familiar with the Farragut Club rules. Fire Station No. 19 in Minneapolis, Rober's post from 1896 to 1906, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in part for its association with the sport's development. The first softball league outside the United States was organized in Toronto in 1897.