The article sure could use a picture.

Edit: now that I realize from the article its 16" circumference it's less surprising, and I can imagine what it would look like. The title should mention it is circumference.

This is proper softball, none of that 12-inch nonsense. The original game was played using a wrapped up fielder’s mitt as a ball. Although the rules are similar to baseball, it’s a very different game, one much more about fielding and base running than baseball which is ultimately a game about pitching.

I’ve played in adult leagues for both the common softball and the 16-inch softball (everywhere I’ve lived everyone called it Chicago style), as both a player and a coach. Aside from being an unusually expensive ball to purchase (I believe that they are all hand-made in the Caribbean), the 16-inch ball is a LOT more aerodynamically stable. A long distance/home run hit will have a lot of spin, so either ball flies well. But a super hard hit line drive in the infield will not have much, if any, spin on the ball. The common softball jumps around a lot, and I’ve seen injuries from people that were unable to catch one. But the 16-inch ball flies straight and true. And breaks your finger.

I grew with the game blooperball but nobody ever seemed to know what it was. I had no idea it was a name specific to Bay City, Michigan. Also strange to see my hometown pop up on Hacker News.

A fun game we used to play as kids was a similar variety, but with a home made "ball". The ball would be a balloon that was tension wrapped in duct tape. They'd last about a single game, but were incredibly light.

It still had enough mass to be thrown, but it also had so little mass that spin would drastically change the trajectory. It made for more interesting pitching and strategy.

Apparently a dislocated or broken finger is commonplace if you've played enough years.

https://youtu.be/oqrtoFWglMY?si=dF70gTql9TwYi4iB

The great thing is, no gloves required--just a ball, a bat, a vacant lot, and a handful of players of almost any age.

> and played with no gloves or mitts on the fielders

I've played in several leagues that use 16 inch clinchers and we used gloves. I hate them, but at least as it was explained to me, clinchers don't go as far when they're hit, so they're better for small fields in Brooklyn like McCarren Park.

I'm disappointed to read that 16 inches is referring to the circumference, not the diameter, of the ball.

The game I was picturing in my head seemed far more exciting.

At my junior high school, these were sometimes used in dodgeball. I was not a small kid, but there were some eight graders who were much bigger. It stung if one of those guys got you squarely with the ball.

I greatly admired a tee shirt I saw a few years ago, saying something like "Dodgeball: America's Version of Stoning."

I should add that this would have been at the end of the 1960s.

So similar to Canadian slow-pitch? Of the 4 distinctive features differentiating from softball (arcing pitch, larger ball, smaller field, lack of gloves) slow pitch has the first, may have the second and third depending on league, but always uses gloves AFAICT.

Nothing is more satisfying that hitting an old 16" softball and having the guts fly out of the skin.