page_title: Softball
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Softball / International competition / United States
caption_attribution_description: WCWS 2014 Championship Series Game 2
context_page_description: Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a field that has base lengths of 60 feet, a pitcher's mound that ranges from 43–50 feet away from home plate, and a home run fence that is 220–300 feet away from home plate, depending on the type of softball being played. It was invented in 1887 in Chicago, Illinois, United States as an indoor game. The game moves at a faster pace than traditional baseball. There is less time for the base runner to get to first while the opponent fields the ball; yet, the fielder has less time to field the ball while the opponent is running down to first base. The name "softball" was given to the game in 1926, because the ball used to be soft; however, in modern-day usage, the balls are hard.
  A tournament held in 1933 at the Chicago World's Fair spurred interest in the game. The Amateur Softball Association of America is one of the largest governing bodies for the game in the United States and sponsors annual sectional and World Series championships. Other national and regional governing bodies also exist, including the USSSA.
context_section_description: Competitive fastpitch softball for girls is growing increasingly popular. All over the US, there are thousands of teams that compete year-round at tournaments. During most of these tournaments the biggest goal is not winning the tournament, but attempting to get as many college coaches as possible to observe (a) particular player or players. Competitive teams are now beginning around eight years old, if not younger. Depending on the team they can travel all over the United States or even out of the country such as to Canada, the summer and fall for many weeks and days at a time.
  There are many different sanctioning bodies of softball: USSSA, ASA, ISA, NSA, WSL, USFA, Triple Crown and SASL just to name a few. One of the biggest is the Amateur Softball Association, also known as ASA. It is known as the national governing body of softball, was established in 1933 and has over 240,000 teams. The USSSA, founded in 1968 as the United States Slo-Pitch Softball Association, but renamed in 1997 to the United States Specialty Sports Association, is the only association that still has a men's major slow-pitch program alive. Currently, the USSSA program is run out of Viera, FL. The United States also has a competitive women's softball team that competes in international tournaments. They represented the US each time at the Olympics until softball was removed from the Olympics.
  The USA Softball Men's Fast Pitch National Team has won five World Championships (1966, 1968, 1976, 1980 and 1988) and three other medals.  In the Pan-American Games, Team USA has made the finals in all seven appearances at the Games when Men's Fast Pitch was played.
caption: 2014 Women's College World Series Championship Series
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