The Classical Looks At The History Of 16-Inch Softball
By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 12, 2012 3:00PM
Your required reading today is over at sports website The Classical, where writer Adam Dost gives us one of the most detailed histories of 16-inch softball we've ever read. If you ever wanted to know how Chicago's bastardized take on softball began, it's worth a read.
Dost's article is full of revelations, starting from how the game began as members of the Farragut Boat Club were sitting around a ticker tape machine for updates of the Harvard-Yale football game.
When the news broke that the Bulldogs had beaten the Crimson 17-8, an overenthusiastic Yalie chucked an old boxing glove at one of his Harvard peers. To defend himself, the Boston Brahmin grabbed a nearby broom handle and swatted the glove away. Inspiration struck George Hancock, a reporter for the Chicago Board of Trade, who tied together the laces of the boxing glove, chalked out a baseball diamond on the club's gym floor, and split the men into two teams. Mitts were not available, and thus not used. "A big soft ball and a small bat—that was the central idea," the Chicago Tribune wrote of that first game, which ended in a 41-41 tie. A new sport was born.
Dost admits he couldn't find a reason why Chicago embraced "clincher" softball over the more common 12-inch variety, but he does note that the future of the game is shaky. At its peak, semi-pro leagues were covered in the same manner as the Cubs and White Sox, produced future major league baseball players like Lou Boudreau and Bill "Moose" Skowron, and had its greatest champion in Mike Royko. Forest Park still hosts a popular no gloves softball tournament every year and it's a sanctioned sport in Chicago Public Schools.