Softball is an Interesting Game... by Fox with Photos by Eric

Racoon, Chipmunk, and Squirrel arrived at the ball field to report on this sunny day. It was bound to be interesting as there seemed to be a lot of equipment necessary. There were long beautiful sticks called bats.

We got to sit on the bats, but Chipmunk couldn't climb them. They were too slippery.

We climbed to the tops of the bats and were nabbed.

We got trapped... -Squirrel

And plucked from escape. The girls seemed to love us they carried us around and hugged and sat us on equipment. Our photographer Eric had to save us on a couple of occassions when we were getting dizzy from the excitment. These girls sure do have energy.

We got pulled from the fence and were played with, and also used for other sport activities. -Squirrel and Chipmunk

As we ran around inside the cage that contained the girls we inspected of styles of paw wear.

Most of the paw covers had supports. Why would they be useful? -Chipmunk

And Squirrel posed a huge leather mitt that is worn on a front paw.

Get me out of here! -Squirrel

All the girls gathered in the big cage and put body armor on such as knee pads, helmets, gloves and some added socks.



I fell in love with one of the player's socks.  -Raccoon

The cage did not have doors and the girls were running out onto the field where two of their dads batted balls to them to catch.

We watched the players play catch with two of the dads that were there. -Raccoon, Chipmunk, and Squirrel

Soon another cage filled on the other side of the field and that seemed to call for serious play. The cages are called dugouts: we could not figure out why because they are asphalt and above ground. We looked for an underground entrance and could not find one. The girls did stay above ground. We will have to come back to learn more  Here is the interesting part we learned today. This game was full of strategy for sure.

Here is what we observed:



There was a little hill in the way. We couldn't see. -Raccoon and Chipmunk

We climbed up on the fence to get a better view

How to play a Softball Game

 By Raccoon

1. Send the girls with pink helmets to home plate to bat first.



First batter with Pink Helmet is #3



Second batter with Pink Helmet is #4

2. The pitcher throws balls in front of the batter (with the pink helmet.).

3. Soon the batter (with the pink helmet) hits the ball or gets a free pass to go to first base.

4. After the second batter- Wait! Here comes the girl with the striped socks. (and pink helmet.)

... And look at the socks! She also has a pink helmet too. -Raccoon

5. The pitcher loves the batter's socks so much, she keeps throwing balls instead of strikes. This allows the batters now called runners to sneak to bases two and three.

6. The players on bases (with pink helmets) come home!

She's safe! Look at the person ( he is the rules guy) behind the base making the safe sign. -Raccoon

7. The player with striped socks gets a pass for first base and comes home, and then the whole thing, called an Inning, starts over again after all the other purple shirt players have been up to home plate two times.

Then the purple team wins!

An Inning is one time for purple shirts to survive until three outs are called, and one time for blue shirts to do the same. Why it is a Inning we will have to find out. It looked more like an Outting and Dugouts were not underground. This leaves us more to learn later.. -Raccoon