Softball Comparison Essay

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Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd.

Welcome, Café Champs to this edition of Tierani's Sports Café. In the past, I've covered softball basics. I noted in those posts that many of the basics of softball will also apply to baseball: the basic game play, number of players on the field (and the positions of the players), how to get an out, how to get on and around the bases, how to score and even terminology like balls, strikes, steals, homeruns, etc. Although the sports are more alike than different, I want to take the time to highlight some of their key differences.

Ready? Let's take the field.

Field Differences:
One obvious difference between baseball and softball are the sizes of the fields. Softball fields are quite a bit smaller. The general layout is the same as far as the infield, outfield, and bases are concerned. However, in softball, the bases are 60 feet apart while in baseball the bases are 90 feet apart. Additionally, the infield in baseball is not completely dirt like in softball, it's actually mostly grass. The outfield is also quite larger: approx. 220 feet for the further point in a softball outfield from home plate as compared to approx. 400 feet in baseball. (Field sizes depend on age/division level, but I will be using …show more content…

A slap is done by left-handed batters in which they get a moving start while swinging the bat. They start moving in order to get a running start toward first should they make contact. The contact is made to either punch the ball into a gap, right over infielders into defenseless areas, or with high bounces in order to cause delay in fielding the ball. Since slaps are usually done by extremely fast runners, if good contact is made, the defense usually has 3 seconds or less to get the runner out at first...which leaves very little room for error or bobbling the