The Difference Between Baseball and Softball

891 Words4 Pages
The Difference Between Baseball and Softball Is it baseball or softball? It is the smell of the grass, the swirling of the dust, and the crack of the bat that all signal the start of America's favorite pastime, baseball. Everyone knows what baseball is; unfortunately the same doesn’t go for softball. If you’re a female and you play softball, many people might assume you just play the girls’ version of baseball. But they’re wrong. You have a bat, a ball, and you are hoping for a home run, but what is the difference? Until now, you do not know because these two sports are similar, but they are not the same. A few major differences that separate baseball from softball is pitching, bats and balls, the strategy of the game, and lastly lead offs. Even with the mixed opinions about the similarities and differences of the sports, one thing is for sure, people play the sport not just for the personal satisfaction, but because they love it. Perhaps the most obvious difference between baseball and softball is the pitching technique. Baseball involves overhand throwing from an elevated mound in a pitching circle that extends to a 9 foot radius. Softball, on the other hand, involves underhand pitching from a flat pitching circle that extends to an 8 foot radius. Another major difference between the pitching is the distance from the mound to home plate. In baseball, the pitching distance is 60 feet and 6 inches whereas in softball, the distance falls anywhere from 35 to 43 feet. Both sports use bats, but a softball bat and a baseball bat are two completely different pieces of equipment. Neither softball nor baseball bats generally exceed 34 inches in length, but their weight differences are vastly different. In both sports, the difference between the length and weight is referred to as to the drop. If a bat’s length is 34 inches and the bat’s weight is 24 ounces, the bat

More about The Difference Between Baseball and Softball

Open Document