Friends often ask me which sport I like best: soccer or softball. Despite my self-described identity as a proud member of the Stern College soccer team, my answer varies from day to day.
Soccer is the quintessential team sport. No single player can cover a 60×120 yard field for the entire ninety minutes of play. Thus, to win a game, players must rely on each other to position themselves properly in order to pass and receive the soccer ball. Without on-field unity, a soccer team cannot be successful because each player’s job and positioning at any given moment is dependent on her teammates.
Softball, on the other hand, is an individual team sport. When the ball is hit to left field, all attention is on the left fielder; only the left fielder can catch the ball. Similarly, when a player is up to bat, all focus is on the batter, for she alone is able to hit the ball. This individualistic sport offers players the opportunity to shine – but also, to fall hard. There is no greater self-satisfaction than making a diving catch, as the player knows that she herself made the athletic play. Conversely, little is worse than making an error and recognizing that the error was your fault alone. While soccer players do not experience the personal highs of a softball player who played the best game of her life, soccer players also do not feel the lows of a softball player whose playing was filled with errors and strikeouts.
Another difference between the two sports is that while softball is a perfectionist’s sport, soccer is a game full of hard work that contains few definite game-changing mistakes and achievements. Attempting to field a grounder, a second baseman lets the ball roll through her legs, allowing the batter to reach first base. A coach, who expects nothing less than perfection on defense, will chastise that second baseman. Meanwhile, a soccer game lands only two or three goals in ninety minutes of play. Goals are not a constant expectation but a rare success. In fact, the two teams switch ball possession at such a high rate that Loss-of-Possession is not even a recorded statistic in soccer as it is in most sports, such as basketball.
The very essence of the two sports is also fundamentally different as soccer focuses on positioning and softball on reaction rate. A soccer ball can be kicked by a professional male player at speeds about 75mph. Compare a professional soccer player who attempts a goal from about eighteen yards out to an elite softball pitcher who throws at speeds of 70mph. In the case of the professional soccer player, a goalie would have 0.491 seconds to react before having to deflect the 8.7-inch soccer ball away from the goal. Meanwhile, a batter, standing 43 feet away from a pitcher, has a similar 0.419 seconds before the ball soars past.
Nevertheless, while the goalie is trained to position himself between the ball and goal well before a shot is taken, the batter cannot prepare for a pitch. In fact, a batter does not even use all 0.419 seconds to hit the ball; in that time, the batter must judge the pitch, decide whether to swing, and only afterwards, actually attempt to hit the ball. As if that does not sound difficult enough to accomplish in 0.419 seconds, the batter must swing an aluminum bat at about 50mph to hit a 3.8-inch ball flying over home plate at the speed of 70mph. Thus, while soccer players must spend hours practicing positioning, softball is a game that requires not only fast reactions but also incredible spatial perception and hand-eye coordination.
In short, soccer is a true team sport that contains a more moderate sense of personal success and disappointment and requires calculated, strategic play from players. Softball, however, is an individual team sport that expects perfection from players but is accompanied by extreme senses of self-satisfaction and disappointment in an instinct-driven game.
With the Athletic Department’s recent announcement that Stern College for Women will found a softball team this coming spring, Stern College students will be given the opportunity to play softball on the collegiate level. Full of anticipation for the new softball team, my answer to the question posed at the beginning of this article is that my favorite sport is softball. But, to all my soccer teammates, do not fear, for tomorrow is a new day.