Baseball and Softball

Compare and Contrast

Baseball and softball are similar in many ways but at the same time they are very

different. To begin with, they are both played on a ball field, known to most baseball or

softball players as the ballpark. The ball field for both consist of four bases that form a

square, also known as a diamond. On a baseball field the bases are ninety feet apart,

compared to sixty or sixty-five feet on a softball diamond.

Both are played with a bat and ball; however, the bats, same in shape but not in

size, and balls, different in sizes and some times color, are as much alike as not. The bats

for baseball are made out of a solid piece of wood for major league players and softball

bats are made mostly of aluminum or a composite material, carbon fiber. Both are made

with a narrow end, grip end, and taper up into a two and a half inch diameter barrel,

hitting end, for baseball, and only two and a quarter inch diameter in softball. A base ball

is about the size of an adult fist, nine inches in circumference and is thrown hard, pitched,

by the pitcher in pretty much a straight line up to eighty to ninety miles an hour to a batter

that is trying to hit the ball in play. A softball is about the size of a grapefruit, twelve

inches in circumference and is pitched in an arcing angle and much slower. Both are

made with a rubber or cork center, wound in yarn and covered with a cowhide with red

stitching, but the leather on a baseball is always white where a softball usually is yellow

but can be white too.

They are played with the same objective of scoring the most runs by hitting a ball

thrown by a player on the fielding team, the pitcher, to players on the opposing team,

batting team, taking turns trying to hit the ball with a bat and get themselves all the way
Josh Girt