壘球－1996年成為奧運(yùn)會(huì)比賽項(xiàng)目

　　There is little soft about Olympic softball. One pitch at Atlanta was clocked at 118 kilometres per hour (73.3 mph). Considering the pitcher stands 13.1 metres (43 feet) from the batter, and the hardest-throwing baseball pitchers throw 160 kilometres per hour (99.4 mph) from 18.4 metres (60 feet), softball batters have essentially the same time to react as their baseball counterparts.

　　亞特蘭大奧運(yùn)會(huì)女子壘球場(chǎng)上的奮力一擲曾達(dá)到時(shí)速118公里——事實(shí)證明奧運(yùn)女子壘球并不比男子棒球更“溫柔”。考慮到壘球投手與擊球手之間的距離為13.1米（43英尺），而即使是一名竭盡全力的棒球投手從18.4米（60英尺）開(kāi)外的距離投擲也只能投出時(shí)速160公里的一擲。 由此來(lái)看，壘球擊球手需要做出正確反應(yīng)的時(shí)間與她的棒球同行所需要的時(shí)間在本質(zhì)上是一樣的。

　　In addition, a softball is as hard as a baseball. The only difference being the size; a softball is 30.4cm (12 inches) in circumference and a baseball is 22.8cm (9 inches).

　　此外，壘球與棒球的硬度也是一樣的。這兩種球類唯一的區(qū)別僅是尺寸大小。一個(gè)壘球的周長(zhǎng)是30.4厘米（12英寸），而棒球是22.8厘米（9英寸）。