SOFTBALL Getting to know it better… History Player Positions Skills Equipment Rules and Regulations References Analysis Reflections

HOW IT ALL BEGAN The game of softball originated in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, 1887. A group of about twenty young men had gathered in the gymnasium of the Farragut Boat Club in order to hear the outcome of the Harvard-Yale football game. After Yale’s victory was announced and bets were paid off, a man picked up a stray boxing glove and threw it at someone, who hit it with a pole. George Hancock, usually considered the inventor of softball, shouted, “Let’s play ball!” He tied the boxing glove so that it resembled a ball, chalked out a diamond on the floor (smaller dimensions than those of a baseball field in order to fit the gym) and broke off a broom handle to serve as a bat. What proceeded was an odd, smaller version of baseball. That game is now, 111 years later, known as the first softball game. Softball may have seen its death on the day of its birth if Hancock had not been so fascinated by it. In one week, he created an oversized ball and an undersized rubber-tipped bat and went back to the gym to paint permanent white foul lines on the floor. After he wrote new rules and named the sport indoor baseball, a more organized, yet still new, game was played. Its popularity was immediate. BACK TO TOP

SOFTBALL PLAYER POSITIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES Pitcher Throws the softball from the center of the diamond (pitcher's mound) to the catcher.  The pitcher uses an underarm motion to pitch the ball toward the "strike zone".  After making a pitch, the pitcher gets ready to field balls hit up the middle.   Catcher Plays in a semi-crouched position behind home plate and receives pitches thrown by the pitcher. Also receives throws from fielders attempting to make outs at home plate. First Baseman  Positioned just to the left of the first base. Her main role is to make fielding plays on balls hit toward first base. Second Baseman  Plays in the gap between the bag at second and the first baseman.  Receives throws from fielders attempting to make outs at 2nd base and fields “grounders” and “pop ups” hit to this side of the infield. Shortstop  Fields the balls hit to the infield between second and third base.  She covers second base (along with the second baseman) and is often involved in force plays and “double plays” with the second baseman. Third Baseman Plays to the left of third base and covers any plays there. Receives throws from other fielders attempting to make outs at 3rd base. Outfielders (Left, Right, and Center) Positioned beyond the infield, they catch and field “fly balls,” line drives, and ground balls hit into the outfield. BACK TO TOP

Softball Skills Pitching Throwing Fielding Batting Base Running BACK TO TOP

Equipment BACK TO TOP

Softball Rules and Regulations Softball rules and positions are very easy to understand. The game of softball is very similar to the game of baseball, hence there are a lot of similarities between softball rules and baseball rules.  Field of Play Similar to baseball, there are 9 players in each team. This number can actually vary between 9 and 12 (depending on the level of the league that the game is being played in), but in most cases there will be only 9 players on each side. The field of play is divided into two main parts - the infield and the outfield. The pitcher is required to pitch the ball from the pitchers mound which is located at the center of the diamond. (inside the infield area) When both teams have finished batting, it is known as an inning. In an official game there are a total of 7 innings. There are 4 bases, and the distance between each base is 60 feet. These 4 bases are diamond shaped and the area between the bases is known as the infield. The area outside the diamond area is the outfield area.

Before pitching the ball, both the pitchers hands must be on the ball. Rules of Batting The order in which the batters have been placed initially is the order in which they must bat throughout the 7 innings of the game. The batter will be out if there are 3 strikes against him. A pitch is counted as a strike if the batter misses the ball completely and the catcher positioned behind the batter catches the ball. A batter will also be deemed out if a high ball hit by him is caught by a player from the fielding team before it touches the ground (this is known as a fly ball). Rules of Pitching Unlike baseball, the ball has to be pitched underhand in the sport of softball. Before pitching the ball, both the pitchers hands must be on the ball. The pitcher must keep both his feet firmly planted on the pitchers plate, and while pitching the ball, he must take one step forward. Running Bases Each base must be touched by a base runner in the correct order. A base runner cannot pass another base runner who is in front of him. He must stay at least one base behind him at all times. The runner has to be on a base until the ball leaves the pitchers hand. Leading off the bases is not permitted under any circumstances. BACK TO TOP

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softball http://www.eastbay.com/promotion/promoId:5004357/softball/ http://www.buzzle.com/articles/softball-rules-and-regulations.html http://www.ehow.com/about_4779950_general-rules-regulations-softball.html http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_Are_The_Basic_Skills_in_Softball BACK TO TOP

Analysis What are the good features of a slide presentation? A slide presentation essentially requires the following features: It should begin with the slide representing the topic of the presentation Second slide will be the flow of the presentation Only highlight essential points on the slide. Include transitions or effects in your slide to put emphasis on your point, but do not add too many.  Do not write too much on the slide or else it will result in too much of clutter. Make your presentation not too long, not too short. Include photos/pictures in your slides to let your audience know what you are talking about. A picture speaks a thousand words - Try to blend that picture into your background. Use layouts included in your software. Using links in the presentation will let the audience find the exact pages of interest by linking them. The slide presentation should only have one theme from start to end. Too many themes is confusing.

Which features are not present in the slide presentation you made? Which of these features are present in the slide presentation you made? All the features of a good slide presentation are being considered and observed before we designed this slide so we made it a point to apply them so that we can come up with a very effective output. Which features are not present in the slide presentation you made? We failed to use only one theme in the slide presentation we made, because in every slide, we would like the audience to know what message we would like to deliver, and what the slide is talking about, so we made the backgrounds per page relate or speak to the ideas being presented. BACK TO TOP

Reflections What difficulties, if any, did you encounter in making the slide presentation? How did you overcome them? Raterta Combining the designs with the animation which would fit with the topics being presented per page in such a way that it will easily capture the attention of the audience is one of the primary difficulty we experienced not only n this presentation but in most of visual aids we make. To overcome them, we considered the features of a good and effective slide presentation and applied them. Lidres Gathering the data for the presentation and organizing them according to order of relevance are some of the difficulties one usually experience in making slideshows. To make it more easy and effective, we referred to the standard features published by expert presentation designers to guide us in making an effective output.

Aguilar In making our slide presentation, there are a lot of difficulties we encountered. Planning with group mates, choosing and organizing the topic, gathering data, to name some of these problems. We considered the features of a good slide presentation to aid us in making it much easier. Galvez Making a presentation is not that easy. You will be encountering a lot of difficulties along the way. I find it most difficult in choosing the designs, styles, and colors for the background and fonts of the pages. To be able to overcome this, we looked for some exampled of published presentations and gathered ideas from the features they included. BACK TO TOP