Author Erica Westly by Josh Romero 6-25-16

Author Erica Westly (photo by Josh Romero)

Fastpitch: The Untold History of Softball and the Women Who Made the Game, with Author Erica Westly
Thursday, July 7 at 7 p.m.
Main Library, DiMattia Building, Third Floor Auditorium

Fastpitch book cover 6-25-16If you think softball is just a “women’s version” of the great American pastime of baseball—well, think again. Fastpitch softball is one of the most widely played sports in the world, with tens of millions of active participants in various age groups.

But the origins of this beloved sport and the charismatic athletes who helped it achieve prominence in the mid-twentieth century have been largely forgotten, until now.

Fastpitch by Erica Westly brings to life the eclectic mix of characters that make up softball’s vibrant 129-year history.

From its humble beginnings in 1887, when it was invented in a Chicago boat club and played with a broomstick, to the rise in the 1940s and 1950s of professional-caliber company-sponsored teams that toured the country in style, softball’s history is as diverse as it is fascinating.

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— Fastpitch is available through Barrett Bookstore.

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Told from the perspective of such influential players as Bertha Ragan Tickey, who set strikeout records and taught Lana Turner to pitch, and Joan Joyce, who struck out baseball legend Ted Williams and helped found a professional softball league with Billie Jean King, Fastpitch chronicles softball’s rich history and its uncertain future (as evidenced by its controversial elimination from the 2012 Olympics and the mounting efforts to have it reinstated).

A celebration of this unique American sport and the role it plays in our culture today, Fastpitch is as entertaining as it is inspiring.

Book sale and signing. For more information, call 203 351-8231.

(Photo of Erica Westly by Josh Romero)

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an announcement from Ferguson Library

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