Short answers, pulled from the story.
Softball was invented on the 22nd of November 1887 inside the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago. The sport began as a spontaneous game using a rolled-up boxing glove and a broom handle following a Yale versus Harvard football game score announcement.
Walter Hakanson of the YMCA coined the name softball in 1926 during a meeting of the National Recreation Congress. Before this date, the game was known by various names including mush ball, pumpkin ball, and diamond ball.
The fastest pitch ever recorded was 77 miles per hour by Karlyn Pickens in May 2025 at the NCAA Division I softball tournament. This record occurred during a fast pitch game where pitchers utilize a windmill motion to generate speed.
Women's fast pitch softball was selected to debut at the 1996 Summer Olympics in 1991. The sport was reinstated for the 2020 Summer Olympics and is scheduled to return for the 2028 Summer Olympics after being dropped from the 2012 Summer Olympics.
A standard softball game is played in seven innings with the home team batting second. The game can end early if the home team is leading after the road team finishes its half of the seventh inning.
The ball used in fast pitch games has a circumference of 16 inches and is covered in two pieces of leather or synthetic material sewn together. Before 1993, white balls were standard, but the fluorescent optic yellow ball is now used in college softball.