Compare and Contrast Essay

Baseball vs. Softball

Compare and Contrast Paper

By Tara Watnaas

        

Softball and baseball are both really competitive sports for both boys and girls of all ages. Not only do they provide entertainment and exercise, but they are also a skill required to learn to play the sport.  Baseball and softball are very similar, but also very different.

Although baseball and softball seem different they are also in the same in the sense that they are played with sphere balls and they both contain four bases, which are required to be ran around in order to score a run or point. Both softball and baseball fields are diamond-shaped and contain nine positions in which one player takes one position. Games of softball and baseball are both observed by umpires who make sure the rules are followed and determine whether a player is out or safe, a ball is foul, and if a pitch is a strike or a ball, etc..

I have found that there are many differences between baseball and softball. One example is that they each have different sized balls. A baseball is nine inches in circumference, while a softball is eleven or twelve inches in circumference. Another difference is the bats they use when hitting the ball. Softball bats can be no longer that thirty-four inches and baseball can be no longer than forty-two inches. In the professional level of baseball all bats must be made of wood. They both have a different duration of the game. A softball game lasts seven innings and a baseball lasts nine innings, unless there is a need to go into extra innings. Softball has a double first base and baseball has one first base, assuming it is safer to have to bases for girls. Each field has a different length between home plate and the pitchers mound and between all of the bases. In baseball the distance between home plate and the pitchers mound is sixty and a half feet.  The distance between bases in baseball is ninety feet. In softball the distance between the pitchers mound and home plate is forty-three feet and the distance between bases is sixty feet. There are also differences in the distance required for the ball to be hit for it to be considered a home run; Softball is anywhere from 220-250 feet and baseball is anywhere from 250-450 feet.

These were just some of the similarities and differences between softball and baseball. They seem to be so much alike, but it turns out there are far more differences than most people would suspect. Whether it is softball or baseball, they are both fun and entertaining sports that require a certain amount of skill.