The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [24]
HOLDING THE BAT AND HITTING THE BALL
* * *
Hold your hands around the bottom of the bat, throwing hand on top and catching hand right below it. Stand perpendicular to the pitcher. Here’s the position: Stand with legs shoulderwidth apart, knees bent, butt pushed out, bat ready—not resting on the shoulder but held over it. Swing like you are knocking all the place settings and food off the dining room table. Watch the ball, trust your instincts, and practice until you get it. It is essential to watch the ball all the way from release from the pitcher’s hand to when it hits the bat. If you can master this skill, you are well on your way to being a softball superstar.
BALLS AND STRIKES
* * *
The strike zone is the imaginary rectangle extending out over home plate, from your chest to your knees. A ball is a pitch that misses the strike zone over home plate. After four balls, the batter gets a walk, a no-hits-needed free pass to first base. However, don’t rely on walks to get on base. Two hundred tries and patience and you’ll be able to bat that ball to the outfield easily.
A strike is a pitch that comes through the strike zone, but the batter doesn’t hit the ball. Three strikes at bat, and you’re out, except when you’re playing with friends and you make other rules.
RUNNING THE BASES
* * *
Once on first base, your goal is to reach second, third—and home, without being tagged out. Run whenever the ball is hit, though if it’s a fly ball and a player from the opposite team catches it before it touches the ground, run back to your base. You can steal bases, which means running even when the ball isn’t hit, as long as the pitcher seems distracted enough not to throw the ball to the upcoming base and immediately render you out.
PLAYING THE GAME
* * *
One team is up at bat. Everyone on the team gets a number for the batting order. The second team is in the field. Their pitcher pitches the ball, and the rest of the team fields the bases and outfield, hoping to prevent the team at bat from scoring. After three outs, teams switch. Each team tries to get on base, run home, score more points than the other team, and win. One point per run. Softball games have seven to nine innings, or you can just play until everyone’s tired.
After an agreed-upon number of innings or time, the team with more points than the other wins. Alternately, each team and player just tries to have fun, and no one keeps score. That’s a good tradition too.
KICKBALL
It would be unforgivable to end a discussion of softball without mentioning its red-ball cousin, kickball. Kickball uses the same diamond, same positions, and the same general rules, except you can also throw the ball at the person to get them out, and there are no gloves or bats. Just pitch the ball, kick the ball. Kickball aficionados say the best strategy to get on base is to kick the ball on the ground to avoid easily caught pop-ups.
Caring For Your Softball Glove
A NEW GLOVE is a beautiful thing, but the secret truth is that an already broken-in glove is lot easier to play with as the leather has already been softened.
If you do have a new glove and need to break it in, don’t worry; you can do it, it just takes a while. Start by putting it on your hand, and with the other hand, toss a softball at it, over and over. Use your glove daily. Play catch with a parent or friend. Play toss-and-catch against a solid brick wall or a pitchback. Walk up and down the street tossing a ball into your glove. Your goal in breaking in the glove is to soften the leather and create a pocket for the ball. Your glove is properly broken in when you close the mitt and the thumb and pinkie come together and touch.
Some people get kind of crazy about glove break-in: