1903 - The Birth of Women's Softball

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February, 1903 - Spalding’s Athletic Library Official Indoor Base Ball Guide

INDOOR BASE BALL FOR WOMEN

By Milo S. Walker, Ph.D., West Division High School, Chicago, Ill.

Indoor base ball has been played by the young women of the West Division and Joseph Medill High Schools of Chicago in their gymnasiums during the last five years. The first team was organized in the West Division High School in 1895, but there was no attempt to coach the team for competition with other schools at all until the winter of 1899.

The game is steadily gaining in favor among the young ladies of the various high schools in Chicago. There are two reasons for the fact that indoor base ball has not been played as much by women as basket ball. The first reason is that basket ball is easily understood by spectators, which makes it popular, especially with those who do not know the general rules of athletic games. The majority of those who attend indoor games for women do not understand base ball.

All players are more or less sensitive to environment, hence the difficulty of starting and maintaining an indoor base ball team in a ladies’ college or Young Women’s Christian Association when the game is little understood, and consequently not appreciated by spectators. However, the large city high schools seem quite well adapted to the development of indoor base ball for women.

Many of the girls who attend these schools understand base ball because the boys have both outdoor and indoor teams. All that is required under such conditions is for the girls to show that they can play ball, and they will receive hearty sympathy and enthusiastic support.

The second reason for the slow development of indoor base ball for women is found in the fact that the coaches and teams may be discouraged before the players become proficient in the game. There are natural ball players among women, but it takes much time and patience to develop the playing of most individuals and a longer time for team work. However, it seems to me this is no more difficult than the development of a foot ball team from a body of men who have never played in a game.

There is a general impression that women can not throw a ball, but experience shows they can acquire the short, quick throws of indoor base ball. It is admitted, of course, that they cannot develop the strength of throw, fielding or battery that men do, but the skill acquired in the ball game compares favorably with that attained in other games for women, such as basket ball and the art of fencing.

In the West Division High School gymnasium the girls have played indoor base ball according to the standard rules, and used the regulation diamond, bat and ball.

It is perhaps early for suggestions of modifications, but it seems to me the game can be improved if a lighter, softer and quite elastic ball is used. Such a ball was furnished us by A.G. Spalding & Bros., and was recently tried with great success.

The advantages of this ball are that it is more easily batted and fielded than the regulation ball, which, of course, makes the game livelier and reduces the difference in playing strength of the boys and the girls’ teams.

I suggest that sliding to bases be not allowed. There is a great danger of personal injury to players unaccustomed to this form of locomotion which is considered unsafe by some of the best athletes among men. I object to it also for the same reason that batting the ball from the hands of an opponent has been abolished in the modified rules for basket ball, viz.:—that it introduces into the game certain roughness entirely out of harmony with true sport.

For psychological and physiological training and development the game offers many advantages. It is not as violent as basket ball, and for that reason it is a much safer sport for women. High exertion is required only at intervals, and is not continued long enough to be injurious to a player in normal physical condition.

In this respect indoor base ball excels all other forms of school and college athletics. Foot ball and basket ball require such physical strength and endurance that they are prohibitive to all who are not above the normal physical development. Candidates for an outdoor base ball team must have skill acquired by years of practice, and should possess considerable endurance.

All athletic games are open to young men who possess the requisite physical development and acquired skill, but the young women have not engaged to any extent in more than two athletic exercises, tennis and basket ball.

Indoor base ball requires more and quicker exertion than tennis, brings into action more muscles of the body and permits eighteen players in a space equal to that required for four tennis players. There are nine positions to be filled, and each player must adapt herself to the place she occupies, and should, to a certain extent, possess peculiar qualifications for her part in the game.

It is, therefore, possible to take a class of young women in which there is a variety of physical strength, size and mental traits, and from this class develop a team which will work together effectually and harmoniously.

Coaches of women's basket ball players have experienced special difficulty in securing team work, and for facilitating this desirable feature of all athletics, they have added boundaries and modified the rules.

The natural boundaries of a base ball diamond and the necessity of each player remaining in her own position are conducive to team work in all indoor teams. The results of indoor base ball for girls in the West Division High School, Chicago, have shown that it is successful in every way. Marked improvement in the physical condition of the players has resulted in every case. No one showed any of the effects resulting from over exertion.

Girls bat well, and soon learn fielding. They throw easily overhanded and underhanded, and after a few weeks' practice develop considerable speed.

The most difficult places to fill are usually the pitcher's and catcher's positions. Among several candidates, however, some one can be found possessing the requisite strength of arm and wrist for the pitcher's work. Such players may improve rapidly, and learn to pitch surprisingly swift balls.

There are some natural catchers who receive the ball excellently, but it usually requires time to develop material for this position. Experienced players can learn to catch after a little practice unless they are afraid of the bat.

As a result of the experiments in our high school, we have concluded that indoor base ball can be learned by young women, and that the game is instructive, entertaining and highly beneficial. Steps have been taken toward the organization of a league of Chicago and Cook County high schools. There is no reason why it cannot be successful.

Excerpted from “Daughters of the Lost Century”

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