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Hailey J. Kim

Mrs. Bates

English 111-Dual Enrollment (3A)

13 December 2019

Baseball vs. Softball

Is baseball really harder than softball? Or is softball just an easy sport? Professionals,

researchers, coaches, athletes, and scientists beg to differ in terms of reaction times, differences

in size, and many more features that each sport brings. This thought has crossed almost every

ballplayers’ mind, questioning whether softball is a challenging sport or not. Although studies

show that baseball pitchers throw baseballs at around 90+ miles per hour, softball pitchers aren’t

that much different, in terms of how quick and fast a softball athlete has to react to a pitch that is

thrown by a softball player. Baseball and softball may seem to have similar fundamentals but,

they differ in multiple ways. While baseball may seem difficult based on past experiences and

the overall history of male superiority, softball brings more challenges to the average athlete

considering all the factors that play into the complexity of the game. The argument and statement

that ‘baseball is harder than softball’ is just a prime example of how women are treated in the

world that we live in.

The history and construction of femininity was always inferior to males and dependent

upon masculinity. This mentality was woven into the cultural fabric of American life regardless

of the hardworking accomplishments of many women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Society responded to women with a toxic mixture of outrage, contempt, and mockery, making all

forms of social control designed to slow the advancement of women. Feminists were attacked for
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abandoning their domestic roles and responsibilities, as well as blurring the “natural” boundaries

between men’s public and women’s private spheres. The male-dominated press continued to

denigrate feminism throughout the nineteenth century, focusing on the personal characteristics of

feminists such as their single marital status. Scholars who have documented the emergence of

women’s participation in baseball during the nineteenth century have highlighted ideological

assumptions about the female body as being ‘fragile’. The connection between assertive behavior

by women in the public domain and mannishness was easily extended to women’s participation

in athletics, particularly in “violent” sports such as baseball.

Long before softball was invented, baseball first started off as a man’s sport. Originally,

in 1867, when athletic entrepreneurs formed the National League, pitchers threw underhand and

the distance from the pitching mound to home plate was only forty-five feet (Cohen 21).

Overhand pitching did not become the norm until 1884 and the distance from the pitcher’s

mound to home plate was not extended to sixty feet and six inches until 1893. In the early days

of professional baseball, the balls were suited to smaller parks, often located in the cities, and the

ball did not travel far after making contact with the bat. Through a males perspective, by the

1880s baseball was entering its golden era. It was anointed the national sport and deemed the

great assimilator of urban immigrants into American values and communities. Women’s

participation in baseball also emerged at this time, beginning as spectators whose entrance into

male homosocial space was justified by presumptions. The presence of women spectators helped

legitimize baseball and was an indicator of the sport’s popularity. Fortunately, my grandmother

got the chance to live through this time in Honolulu, Hawaii, witnessing the early stages of

women’s independence in athletics. My grandmother was just as involved with the sport as the
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average boy, making herself noticeable. She always participated, wishing she could be able to

play and have fun just like the boys did, whether it be through coaching or spectating. Along

with the few girls who wanted to play baseball, my grandmother had to deal with the

discrimination towards the idea of having females on a baseball field. With females becoming

more interested in the sport of baseball, several leagues were created for a variety of people

(professional, travel, men, women, etc.). By the 1890s the novelty of watching women’s teams

composed of attractive women with inept skills. This encouraged the public to see skilled women

players competing against men’s teams. Some local teams were composed of both men and

women, such as ones in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Starting with the basic fundamentals, both softball and baseball utilize a round ball,

cleats, a glove, and a round bat. Some rules in softball are identical to that of baseball. Both

sports involve a pitcher throwing the ball to a batter with the hopes of getting him or her "out."

Both sports play a certain number of innings and require three outs to end the inning. However,

there are major differences between them that are easily observed. Although both sports use

balls, bats, and gloves, the size of each differs. Because a softball is significantly larger than a

baseball, those who play softball use bigger gloves and, often, thinner bats. A casual viewer of

baseball and softball can immediately recognize a difference in pitching styles in the two sports.

A pitcher in baseball throws the ball overhand, while in softball, the pitcher throws the ball

underhand. Baseball pitchers throw from an elevated mound. Softball pitchers throw from a

surface level with that of the batter. The pitcher’s mound from home plate is about 43 feet for

softball and for baseball it is 60 feet, making the softball pitching area much closer to the batter

than for baseball.

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The field dimension makes each game different and the ball style is also a contributing

factor towards the difference of each sport. Usually, the softball fields are smaller, making

softball a fast-paced sport. The exact dimensions of the baseball field’s infield (the dirt portion of

the field) is 16,700 feet whereas a softball field is 7,200 feet. As a result, softball infielders and

outfielders (players on the field) have less time to react. Since softball players have to react

much faster than baseball, the thought and decision-making process must be done much faster

due to the speed and dimensions of the field. A softball can come in as fast as 70 mph which is

equivalent to a baseball being thrown at 100 mph. In other words, a batter has 25 milliseconds to

decide whether to swing or not, which also equals out to 55 percent less time than a baseball

player has (Trifoso). Balls can be hit up to 100 mph, or the same speed as the ball when it’s

pitched! With a much smaller infield, players have approximately 3.2 seconds to react and throw

the runner out at first. In softball, there are “slappers”, a specific type of softball hitter who

makes the game more fast-paced and challenging for the opposing team. They get a running start

and can reach first base as fast as 2.66 seconds. On the other hand, a baseball player can have as

much time as four seconds to throw the runner out at first. If the fielder takes more than 1.5

seconds to field and throw the ball, then it becomes impossible for them to throw the runner out.

Lastly, one of the major differences in the game are the people playing and participating

in it. Due to physiological development in males, they are not able to play softball, however,

females develop at an earlier age and are able to learn and comprehend faster than males.

Females will take the game to a higher level at an earlier age because it is scientifically proven

that they mature faster and earlier than males. Softball is an exciting sport to play and watch

because the maturity of females makes it possible for them to be creative and have fun with the
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game. Males naturally take longer to comprehend and process the game which makes the

baseball slower than softball. Sadly, males do not take the sport as seriously as females do,

showing the lack of effort, intensity, body language and energy on and off the field due to their

mentalities and drive towards baseball.

Overall, baseball and softball are sports that require a lot of skill. But when it comes

down to it, scientifically, it is proven that softball is a more complex and difficult game to play.

The amount of hard work, dedication, time, and money female athletes invest in softball to

achieve their goals are undervalued and go unnoticed in this world. Most professional athletes,

especially softball athletes, work a second job to make up for the lack of pay they are not

receiving. Female athletes need recognition and respect for what they do, not just for softball, but

for any sport. Providentially, professional athletes in softball are becoming a well-known sport

and are signing contracts for higher pay at an incredibly slow rate. Women are usually investing

more time, work, and effort into their profession than males because of how much more

compassionate and competitive they are towards their sports, and it’s time they start earning

what they’ve worked so hard for.

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Works Cited

Bill. “Softball vs Baseball: Which Is Harder?” ​SoftballTradingPins.net​, 26 Mar. 2018,

www.softballtradingpins.net/softball-vs-baseball-harder/.

Cohen, Marilyn. ​No Girls in the Clubhouse: the Exclusion of Women from Baseball​. McFarland,

2009.

Farmer, Imani. “Why Are Female Athletes Paid Less than Male Athletes?” ​Spartan Newsroom,​

18 Dec. 2017,

news.jrn.msu.edu/2017/12/why-are-female-athletes-paid-less-than-male-athletes/.

Mann, Avery. “Baseball vs. Softball.” ​American Profile​, 30 Sept. 2011,

americanprofile.com/articles/baseball-vs-softball/.

“The Differences between Softball and Baseball.” ​Dummies,​

www.dummies.com/sports/fantasy-sports/fantasy-baseball/the-differences-between-softbal

l-and-baseball/.

Trifoso, Sarah. “The Science Of Softball Vs. Baseball.” ​The Odyssey Online​, The Odyssey

Online, 17 Oct. 2019, ​www.theodysseyonline.com/softball-scientifically-harder-baseball​.