Erica Westly
Author of History of Women’s Softball Visits Ferguson Library
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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
If 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.