What is cabbage ball?

Answer 1

Cabbage ball is a form of bat and ball game similar to softball / Baseball. The difference is the size and hardness of the ball. A cabbage ball is the largest and softest of the 3 (e.g. cabbage ball, softball and baseball). Cabbage ball is played without a mitt and the diamond is smaller than a traditional softball / baseball.

I am from New Orleans and played cabbage ball throughout my childhood. Back then, we referred to cabbage ball as "softball" and to softball as "ponytail ball" because the latter was baseball played by girls. Our summer leagues consisted of about 6 weeks of cabbage ball and then we would play 6 weeks of softball.

Until I moved to the Northeast, I had no idea that cabbage ball was uncommon in other parts of the country. I now understand that cabbage ball is a game primarily played in New Orleans. I have no idea why that is, but it is.

Ponytail was what it was called, but it started out as indoor ball because it was only played indoors. Today, the popularity of the sport has emerged to allow for play outdoors and indoors,. The indoor ball is now called "Cabbage Ball". This reason for the name is because it is the size of a Cabbage. Another important rule for cabbage ball is with adult mixed leagues, the guys have to bat opposite handed and the batting order has to rotate.

A helpful site to check out is http://www.cabbageball.org