In honor of the Lady Bobcats starting their new season, I wanted to find out more about the start of girls’ softball in Ridgeway. In 1934, the Y. M. C. A decided that softball needed to be promoted through the state and they divided the state up into 16 districts. Harrison County was included in the district headed up by Cameron, which also included ten other surrounding counties. The Y. M. C. A. published a set of rules for the game, which mostly used the same rules as baseball with some differences. Among others, the changed included setting the length of bats to 34 and no willow or fungo wood bats were allowed. There were to be ten players per team, bunting was an automatic out and stealing wasn’t allowed. Gloves were optional.
Both boys’ and girls’ teams were formed. C. C. “Twister” Smith was working to get Ridgeway to become the headquarters of a district association so that an elimination tournament could be held there. To accomplish this, the Ridgeway field was improved and lights added. Twister was an enthusiastic supporter of girls’ softball. To get community support in 1938, he brought in teams from other towns such as Des Moines, St. Joseph and Kirksville. The Greenwood Electrics of Des Moines played here twice against the Anderson Typewriter girls of St. Joseph. These exhibition games were very popular and brought in hundreds of spectators who each paid a dime to watch the players battle it out on the field.
