Somewhere right now, a Chicagoan is explaining to a transplant that no, they will not need a glove, and yes, the ball really is that big. Sixteen-inch softball is the most Chicago sport there is, which is saying something in a city that argues about hot dog toppings. Here’s the short version for anyone who has watched a game from the edge of a park and wondered why nobody is wearing a glove.
It was invented here, on Thanksgiving 1887
Softball itself is a Chicago invention. On Thanksgiving Day 1887, at the Farragut Boat Club on the Near South Side, Harvard and Yale alumni were killing time waiting for the result of the Harvard–Yale football game. The Encyclopedia of Chicago credits George Hancock with improvising the first ball out of a boxing glove. According to WBEZ, the game was played indoors at armories before it moved outside.
The rest of the country eventually settled on the 12-inch ball. Chicago, per the Encyclopedia, stuck with the 16-inch “mush ball” and slow pitch, and the version played in city parks on summer Sundays stayed virtually unknown elsewhere.
Why the ball is so big
A big, soft ball doesn’t travel far, which made it a good fit for cramped city schoolyards and parks; the Chicago 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame has made the same point about balls staying inside park boundaries. It also meant nobody needed a glove. In the Depression, as WBEZ’s Curious City put it in 2012, a team could buy a ball for a dime and skip the rest of the equipment.
That’s the whole economic argument for barehanded play, and it has hardened into doctrine. “No gloves — never have — never will,” Larry Pickard of the Forest Park Park District told WBEZ.
The Clincher
The ball has a name. The Clincher was developed in the 1930s by Fritz DeBeer, according to WBEZ, and it’s still the standard ball. Its core is kapok, the fiber once used in life preservers. The cover was horsehide until the 1990s and is synthetic now, and the design hides the seams so a rough infield doesn’t chew them up.
The important part for players: the ball gets softer the longer you play with it. A new Clincher is a rock. A late-inning Clincher is a pillow. Plan your power hitting accordingly.
The extra fielder
Sixteen-inch puts ten players in the field, not nine. The extra one is the short center fielder, an extra outfielder who plays shallow and catches the bloopers that a ball this size produces in bulk. It is the most Chicago position in sports: technically outfield, practically infield, nobody’s quite sure where the line is.
The big crowds were real
This was never just a rec-league thing. The Encyclopedia of Chicago says 70,000 people saw the first major tournament game at the Century of Progress Exposition in 1933 (played, in a twist, with a 14-inch ball). ABC7 reported that a 1948 “World Series” drew 15,000 fans to old Comiskey Park, and WBEZ calls the 1950s the game’s golden age. Softball has been played in Grant Park since 1933, Fox 32 reported.
Famous alumni include Bill “Moose” Skowron, who played 16-inch before he was a Yankee, and Mike Royko, the columnist, who was a devoted player and sponsor and is in the Hall of Fame.
There’s a Hall of Fame in Forest Park
The Chicago 16-inch Softball Hall of Fame was started by Al Maag and Tony Reibel, and it opened a museum in Forest Park in 2014. ABC7 counted more than 700 players and teams inducted since 1995. Sources differ a little on when the Hall itself got going, somewhere in the early-to-mid 1990s, but the induction count is the number that matters to the people in it.
It still fights for field time
Being a beloved tradition doesn’t guarantee a diamond. In 2023, Fox 32 reported that the Park District was turning down summer permits for Grant Park softball because of the NASCAR street race and music festivals. Hall of Fame president Paul Rowan said the NASCAR event “is not a part of Chicago, when this game is known as Chicago’s game.” On the brighter side, the Park District brought back its citywide 16-inch tournament in 2021 after a 10-year break, with the final in Humboldt Park.
How to get in a game
The season is winding down, which makes this the right time to plan next year. Ask around your block, your bar or your park’s field house, and ask again in early spring when teams are filling rosters. Plenty of teams are one cousin short.
When you buy your Clincher, buy it from a neighborhood sporting goods shop, and have your team sponsored by the tavern you already drink at. That’s how this game has always worked: a ball, a bar, a park, and a group chat. If you’d rather watch the pros, our Wrigley ivy and scoreboard piece has you covered.
Played 16-inch in your neighborhood park? Post your team photo, sore hands and all, with #Chicago111.
Sources: Encyclopedia of Chicago; WBEZ Curious City, Oct. 9, 2012; ABC7 Chicago, Nov. 2022; Fox 32, Feb. 21, 2023; Fox 32, July 4, 2021.
Photo: Ray Graciano / Unsplash
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