softball life in olympics...?
595648
Yes softball is being dropped in the 2012 Olympics but I think that it will be reinstated into the 2016 Olympics once they get a different president of the IOC. All there reasons can be argued.\n \nThe IOC said they were going to get rid of these two sports to make the games smaller and less costly.  Then why did they try to fill up these two open spaces with golf, rugby, squash, karate, or roller sports. None of these sports received enough votes to be added to the Olympic Games. This tells me that the IOC was not actually trying to make the games smaller.\n\nAnother reason that IOC dropped softball was because of the United States domination in the sport. Yes, it is true that the United States have won the past 3 gold medals, but the only way the other international teams are going to get better is to play the best in the world. In the 2005 World Cup of Softball, Japan won the tournament. They beat the United States in the championship game, 3-1. Canada also beat the United States in pool play in a close game. According to these results, the United States is less dominating now. \n\nSoftball does not have enough of a worldwide appeal. That is why there are currently 127 countries playing softball. Not all of them are developed into excellent softball teams, but they are playing the game. The only way they are going to get better is to play. The problem is that softball is not a popular sport in Europe. Europeans mainly dominate the IOC. Softball is more popular in the Americas and Asia. They don’t have as big of an influence on the IOC. 60% of the IOC executive board is European. Less than 15% is from the Americas and 20% is from Asia. \n\nSoftball is closely related to baseball which I believe hurt them in the IOC’s decision. The IOC just assumed that softball had problems with steroids like baseball does. Softball is one of the few sports left that have never had a positive drug testing in the Olympics or World Championships. \n\nBaseball players have dreams of playing in the Major League. Softball players dream about playing for the Olympic team. Many young women and girls dream about playing for their country’s team in the Olympics. The IOC shattered millions of these dreams. It is not just American girls that are upset either. Many young women from all over the world are upset about the decision. I am one of them. I too want to play in the Olympics. I have played softball since I was 6. I started playing varsity softball as a freshmen.
176707
I love playing softball, i play for my high school team, it is awesome.
1113270
Not All Softballs are harder.\nIt's the new material they're made from and the compression of the center core.\nSoftballs are measured by core rating and compression.\nCore are rated from 40 core to 50 core\ncompression is rated 300 compression(restricted flite) to 525 compression (Hot and long flite).\nBaseballs are the same way you have live core and dead core.\nWhen see a lot of Home Runs hit in a season they're using a live core. When the Home Runs are lower they're using a dead core.\nIn the Hone Runs Derby they have during the All Star Game. Those balls are hot, along with their bats.\nSame way when you get to batting practice and see the guys hit a lot of Home Runs those balls are hot to put a show on for the fans.\nIn Softball you have different associations ASA,NSA. ISP, USSSA,Super League(The big boys of softball).\nThe bats have hotter too. Also the prices reaching up to and a past $400.00 per bat.\nAll the different materials these softball bats are made of is crazy.\nIt has taken the game to a crazy level(and somewhat dangerous for the players the way the ball comes off the bats.\nIt has taken the fun out of the game when there were wooden bats and the first Alumiunm bats came out.After 1986 the bat market got crazy.\nSame way with the hotter softballs . Red Dot, Steele. Rocket Ball. Now the balls are hotter and some are getting hotter to match the bats.Then other ways they make the balls hotter(in the microwave & freezing(or cooling what some call it)the softballs). Anything to get that edge rather than using their abilities.\nI've seen guys weighing 135 pounds hitting the balls 350' with no trouble with the bats and balls out there.\nIf you need anyother information you can go to different softball websites and check out the band bats and balls(because how hot they are).\nwww.asasoftball.com, USSSA.com\nI hope this help and answered your question.
70772
I am on a 14 and under softball league. I play on Veasey Cove Venom in Chesapeake City and Cecilton Maryland and we just got done doing a fundraiser. We earned a ton of money by selling pizzas and cakes. Everyone loves food! We also sold t-shirts with the team name on it and made about $300. I hope this helps you because these fundraisers allowed us to enter 2 more tournaments and have some leftover. Good luck! You can visit our website at www.vcvenom.org.
576851
I wouldn't think anything of it. Alot of guys play fastpitch softball. They even have a national team. You should check out this website.
502844
http://www.ncaasports.com/softball/womens/story/9424995
419104
First of all, curling is not a real sport.  It's a leisure activity.  It's not much harder than playing a pocket ball.  The reason it's in Winter Olympics is because there aren't too many events in Winter Olympics.\n\nOn the other hand baseball is definitely a sport.  It requires physical speed, strength, endurance, skills, team spirit and more!  This sport is getting more popular and it should be part of Summer Olympics.  I mean basketball and soccer is in Summer Olympics.  Why shouldn't baseball be?  It's only a matter of time before baseball will be part of Summer Olympics
675597
I played softball for 9 years and it all depends on where your standing and what position.You would throw it like you would a baseball
1055954
Check out http://www.ultimatecollegesoftball.com/ it's  a very informative place for softball fanatics.
249446
there are already pro atheletes in the Olympics.  such as basketball,  Hockey.
85610
I hope this helps:\n\nhttp://local.yahoo.com/FL/Tampa/Recreation+Sporting+Goods/Softball
320953
The first version of softball was invented in Chicago, Illinois in 1887 by George Hancock, a reporter for the Chicago Board of Trade, as a winter version of baseball. It was intended to be a way for baseball players to keep in practice during the winter.\n\nYale and Harvard alumni had gathered at the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago to hear the score of the annual football game. When the score was announced, one person threw a boxing glove at another. The other person grabbed a stick and swung at it. Hancock took a boxing glove and tied it into a ball. A broom handle was used as a bat. The ball, being soft, was fielded barehanded rather than with gloves like those which had been introduced to baseball in 1882. Hancock developed a ball and an undersized bat in the next week. The Farragut Club soon set rules for the game, which spread quickly to outsiders.\n\nIn 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), pumpkin ball, or diamond ball. Rober's version of the game used a twelve-inch (305 mm) ball rather than the sixteen-inch (406 mm) ball used by the Farragut club, and eventually the Minneapolis ball prevailed, although the dimensions of the Minneapolis diamond were passed over in favour of the dimensions of the Chicago one. Rober may not have been familiar with the Farragut Club rules. The first softball league outside the United States was organized in Toronto in 1897.\n\nThe name softball dates from 1926 (in addition to indoor baseball, kitten ball, and diamond ball, names for the game included mush ball, and pumpkin ball). Standard rules were agreed on only after the formation of the Amateur Softball Association in 1933.\n\nSixteen-inch (406 mm) softball, also sometimes referred to as "mush ball" or "Super-slow pitch" is a direct descendant of Hancock's original game. Defensive players are not allowed to wear fielding gloves; however, a sixteen inch softball is actually soft, and can be fielded safely with bare hands. Sixteen inch softball is played extensively in Chicago, Illinois.\n\nIn the 1940s, fast pitching started to dominate the game. Slow pitch was invented to give batters a better chance to hit the ball.\n\nAfter World War II, Canadian soldiers introduced softball to The Netherlands.\n\nIn 1991, Women's fast-pitch was selected to debut at the 1996 Summer Olympics.\n\nIn 2002, sixteen-inch slow pitch was written out of the ISF official rules, though still played extensively in the United States under Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA) rules.\n\nThe 117th meeting of the International Olympic Committee, held in Singapore in July 2005, voted to drop Softball and Baseball as Olympic sports for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
354636
Section 47.1 of the Olympic Charter says:\n\nTo be included in the programme of the Olympic Games, an Olympic sports must conform to the following criteria:\n\n1. Only sports widely practised by men in at least seventy-five countries and on four continents and by women in at least forty countries and on three continents may be include in the programme of the Games of the Olympiad.\n\nSo, never.
511399
Ok pitching a softball is totally different than pitching a baseball. Theres no way someone like jenny finch could just join a team in the MLB. Now if you taught a girl how to pitch a baseball from a young she might have the skills but like all other sports men just won't let it happen. I mean keith hernadez went nuts because a girl was in the dugout. it just won't happend
1097033
LMAO @ the number of ignorant people who think softball is mainly for women.\n\nGet your brain box out of your butts. 70-80 mph pitching from 43-46 ft from home plate would spin most of your heads.\n\nA few years back there was a mens softball team which exhibition toured the USA and Canada. This team played with only 4 men and never lost. The pitcher would pitch one inning from second base instead of from the pitchers circle and most nights he would strike out the side.
516530
I think that eventually one will. She will probably be a specialty pitcher on an AL team (assuming the NL continues to keep the DH out). Some of those lady softballers can throw a mean pitch, and today more girls are joining Little League & taking up hardball than ever before. A few seasons back a softball pitcher threw an exhibition batting practice at one of the MLB parks, and noone could hit her.
312154
Women played baseball during WW2 and did OK, but not as good as the guys.  In Softball the fields are smaller (60 foot bases, 200+ foot fences, and about 45 foot pitching mound) and the women can play very well.  Fast pitch is many times faster to react to on the shorter mound than the baseball.  There were some attempt recently to have women pro teams on a baseball field, but it never was successful.  It is harder for them to cover the 90 foot bases and 400+ fences and pitch the 60 foot distance.