Baseball and Softball in Nigeria

Baseball in Nigeria

Softball: the smaller-field game

Softball is an alternative form of baseball which is one of the sports games which is practised in Nigeria, it is being played on a smaller field with a larger ball.

Softball was invented as an indoor game in Chicago, Illinois in the United States and was popularly known as indoor baseball, playground, Kitten ball, softball, mush ball, and also ladies baseball because it is being mostly played by women, but was introduced to Nigeria in the early 1960s.

In 1926, it was named softball because the ball is usually soft, softball is of three types which include slow-pitch softball, fastpitch softball and modified softball.

Slow pitch softball balls can measure 11 or 12 inches in circumference which depends on gender and league and there can be 10 players on the field at once while Fastpitch softball has 9 players on the field at once where bunting and stealing bases are allowed and modified softball are usually used by fastpitch pitchers and do not permit the windmill.

Baseball: pitch, hit and run

Baseball which is also an alternative form of softball is known as a bat and ball game that is being played between teams that take turns batting and fielding.

The game which is being played between two teams; starts immediately when a player called Pitcher on the fielding team throws a ball to a batting team; which tries to hit with a bat. Baseball as a game and competition is not all that famous in Nigeria, despite the unpopularity Nigeria still plays baseball in some levels.