Crossword clues for softball
softball
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
baseball of larger than usual size, used in a scaled-down version of the game, 1914, from soft + ball (n.1). The game itself so called from 1916, also known as playground baseball. The word earlier was a term in sugar candy making (1894). Softball question, one that is easy to answer, is attested from 1976.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A game similar to baseball but played with a larger and softer ball which can be thrown overhand or underhand. 2 (context by analogy English) A question designed to be easy to answer. 3 The ball used to play the sport.
WordNet
n. ball used in playing softball [syn: playground ball]
a game closely resembling baseball that is played on a smaller diamond and with a ball that is larger and softer [syn: softball game] [ant: hardball]
Wikipedia
Softball is a variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. It was invented in 1887 in Chicago as an indoor game. It was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground, softball, kitten ball, because it was also played by women, ladies' baseball. The name softball was given to the game in 1926.
A tournament held in 1933 at the Chicago World's Fair spurred interest in the game. The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America (founded 1933) governs the game in the United States and sponsors annual sectional and World Series championships. The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) regulates rules of play in more than 110 countries, including the United States and Canada; before the WBSC was formed in 2013, the International Softball Federation filled this role. Women's fastpitch softball became a Summer Olympic sport in 1996, but it (and baseball) were dropped in 2005 from the 2012 Games, to be reinstated in 2016 for the 2020 Games.
There are three types of softball. In the most common type, slow-pitch softball, the ball, which can measure either 11 or 12 inches in circumference depending on the league, must arch on its path to the batter, and there are 10 players in a team. In fastpitch softball, the pitch is fast, there are nine players on the field at one time, and bunting and stealing are permitted. Modified softball restricts the windmill windup of the pitcher, although the pitcher is allowed throw as hard as possible with the restricted back swing. Softball rules vary somewhat from those of baseball. Two major differences are that the ball must be pitched underhand—from 46 ft (14 m) for men or 43 ft (13.1 m) for women as compared with 60.5 ft (18.4 m) in baseball—and that seven innings instead of nine consecutive regulation game.
Despite the name, the ball used in softball is not very soft. It is about 12 in (30.5 cm) in circumference (11 or 12 in for slow-pitch), which is 3 in (8 cm) larger than a baseball. The infield in softball is smaller than on an adult or high school baseball diamond but identical to that used by Little League Baseball; each base is 60 ft (18 m) from the next, as opposed to baseball's 90 ft (27 m).
Softball was an all-girl punk band from Chiba, Japan. The band members — Moe (vocals/guitar), Nomiya (bass), and Rie (drums) — got together while still in high school. Mike Park signed them to Asian Man Records, and they made their first American release in 1999. In Japan, they were signed to Einstein Records.
They disbanded in March, 2003. Later Moe formed a new, very similar sounding all-girl band, named Akiakane, also under Einstein Records.
Usage examples of "softball".
Basketball player, softball pitcher, jump-rope tugger, Donnie Buffett had very strong hands.
Vlachic were across the yard, talking to Izzy Zanella, who was trying to get a softball game going.
Her mother sounded exactly like she used to when telling about upcoming plans for a symposium on a weekend Andi had softball games.
Each submunition, about the size and shape of a softball, was an onion of destruction.
Modern Oklahoma boasts both plant and animal life as well as the National Softball Hall of Fame, where every day from nine A.
She said good-bye to him then, and walked down the Tu Do to her hotel, and she felt a terrible tug at her heart at the sounds and the smells, and she laughed as she looked into the square and saw a GI trying to teach a bunch of street urchins how to play softball.
Peter had let it go to seed, and the entire plot was choked with weeds and litter: gas cans, rusty nails, a plastic toy truck, the decaying hide of a softball, cardboard scraps, this and more resting upon a matte of desiccated vines.
Sports news at this hour: The Pickax Miners beat the Brrr Eskimos in softball tonight, eight to three.
All eyes were on this man as with almost ritualistic earnestness, in the midst of much joking, laughing, clowning about of the players, he pitched underhand the dazzling-white softball to a figure crouched at bat-Sable Mills, herself-an energetic and feisty figure, yet not much of an athlete-Sable with her brassy hair newly cut in a virtual flattop, a wicked silver clamp on one ear, in black sleeveless sweater and matching jodhpurs that fitted her wiry body as if she'd been poured into them like melted wax.
Recently, she'd been playing softball, a Sunday pickup game in a nearby park, kind of a boys-meet-girls event, but many of the participants competed seriously, and she'd bought a black graphite bat last week, which was still propped in a corner a few feet from where she was now, in the living room.
A slow-pitch softball league operating in Chamisa County included two teams from Milagro: the Saints, who were made up largely of players from the town, including Charley Bloom, Rlhi Archuleta, Johnny Pacheco, Jimmy Ortega, Benny Maestas, Claudio Garcia, and Joe Mondragon, and the Angels, who were largely a Devine conglomerate, and for whom Horse-thief Shorty, Nick Rael, BernabS Montoya, and Harlan Betchel and his anemic seventeen-year-old son, Albie, played.
This time, instead of bowlers, there appeared to be a softball team—guys in sweatpants and matching short-sleeved shirts that sported the name of a local electrical supply firm in stitching across the back.
This time, instead of bowlers, there appeared to be a softball teamguys in sweatpants and matching short-sleeved shirts that sported the name of a local electrical supply firm in stitching across the back.
Cub Scout troops, Brownies, junior high basketball teams, garden clubs, book clubs, tea clubs, Bible study groups, adult softball teams, civic clubs.
Ahead, Sinnissippi Park opened before her, softball diamonds and picnic areas bright with moonlight, woods and burial grounds laced with shadows.