"I Think I Glove You" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Purple Sox

Clue 6 states that one team is led by someone whose first name has the same initial.
We could potentially match Alexa with the Amazonas, but Judith leads the Amazonas (clue 7).
Paula and Purple Sox start with 'P'.
No one else's first name has the same initial as one of the teams.
Therefore, Paula is captain of the Purple Sox.
(Battle-Axes and Brown both start with 'B' but Brown is a surname, not a first name.)


Meant to be a form of indoor baseball to be played during the winter, softball was invented in 1887 by George Hancock, a journalist for the Chicago Board of Trade. Hancock was inspired at football game in Chicago, when he saw Yale fan throw a rolled-up boxing glove at Harvard fan, and the Harvard fan hit it back with a stick.

Answer: Freeman

Clue 1 states that the five captains are Ms. Jones, Ms. Freeman, Marcia, the Battle-Axes captain, and the Honey Badgers captain.
Paula leads the Purple Sox (see question 1), so of those five, she must be either Ms. Jones or Ms. Freeman (the only two places that fit).
The Purple Sox captain is not Ms. Jones (clue 2), so Paula's surname is NOT Jones.
That leaves Ms. Freeman.


The two predominant forms of softball today are slowpitch and fastpitch. The main difference between the two is how the ball is pitched to the batter, although both ways are underhand. In fastpitch, the pitcher uses a windmill-type motion in throwing the ball for greater power and speed and a straighter path that is harder to hit. In contrast, a slow-pitched softball will arc 6-12 feet with moderate velocity, a much easier target.

So in fastpitch, the pressure of play is on the pitcher's team (to keep the ball out of play) while in slowpitch, the pressure of play is on the batter's team, as the manner of pitching actually encourages the ball to be in the game. Fastpitch softball also has nine innings, whereas slowpitch has only seven. Slowpitch also has an extra player in the outfield and does not allow pinch-hitting.

Answer: Sorelli

The surname choices are: Smith, Jones, Sorelli, Brown, and Freeman (the premise).
Thus far we know the five captains are: Ms. Jones, Paula Freeman, Marcia, the Battle-Axes captain, and the Honey Badgers captain.
Marcia can't be Ms. Jones or Ms. Freeman (already on the list).
Marcia also can't be Ms. Smith or Ms. Brown (clue 3).
Ergo, Marcia must be Ms. Sorelli!


In Chicago, where softball was founded, there is a third type of softball that is still favored, called mushball or 16-inch softball. (It's also been called Chicago-style softball.) This game is closer to Hancock's original game as published in 1889 than either fastpitch or slowpitch. The ball is larger (16 inches) and fielders do not wear gloves. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan played mushball during her faculty tenure at the University of Chicago Law School.

Answer: Jones

From clue 1 and the previous two questions, we know the five captains are Ms. Jones, Paula Freeman, Marcia Sorelli, and the respective captains of the the Battle-Axes and the Honey Badgers.
Jumpin' Judy captains the Amazonas (clue 7), so the only way she can be placed in the list is if she is Ms. Jones.


Baseball and softball are both bat-and-ball games, but softball uses a larger ball, smaller playing diamond, a smaller bat, and a shorter distance from pitcher to home plate. A baseball is pitched overhand or sidearm while a softball is pitched underhand. Slowpitch (but not fastpitch) softball also has fewer innings and more players on the field. These differences may explain why softball, especially slowpitch, is often perceived as "for women" and baseball "for men", even though both sexes have played both sports since they were invented. In 2013, the International Baseball Federation and the International Softball Federation merged to form the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), and since the early 2000s the International Olympic Committee has regarded baseball and softball to be disciplines of the same sport.

Answer: Brown

The full names we have so far are Judith "Jumpin' Judy" Jones, Paula Freeman, and Marcia Sorelli.
The only remaining surnames are Smith and Brown.
Claire is not Ms. Smith (clue 5).
Therefore, she's Ms. Brown.


We know the origin of the game, but the origin of the name is in dispute. Some credit YMCA member Walter Hakanson for coining the word "softball" at a meeting of the National Recreation Congress in 1926. Over the years the sport has been variously called indoor baseball, pumpkin ball, kitten ball, ladies' baseball, etc.

Answer: Smith

We've placed all the other surnames in the previous questions, so all that is left is Smith. Hello, Captain Alexa Smith!


Some U.S. milestones: In 1895, Chicago's West Division High School formed the first women's softball team, though they could not play competitively until 1899 when they finally hired a coach! In 1933 at the Chicago National Softball Tournament, both male and female champions were honored. In 1951, Betty Chapman was the first African-American professional softball player. The first professional softball league was the short-lived International Women's Professional Softball Association (IWPSA), which formed in 1976. The Women's Professional Softball, established in 1989, was renamed Women's Professional Fastpitch in 2022.

Answer: Amazonas

Ms. Jones is Judith (question 4) and Judith captains the Amazonas (clue 7).


The real Amazonas are a team of indigenous women in Yaxunah, Mexico, who play in bare feet and traditional Mayan dresses called 'huipiles'. They are the second team of this kind, after Las Diablillas (the Little Devils) formed in Hondzonot, a village in the Yucatán peninsula. In their culture, it is unusual for women to participate in sport, so when they first began playing, their husbands pooh-poohed the idea. Eventually the Amazonas and Diablillas started winning games against more polished teams in jerseys and cleats, indeed routing them sometimes, and their faces would appear on billboards. After that, their husbands would wait for them at home and offer them a beer and eagerly ask them how the game went!

Answer: Battle-Axes

So far we have:
- Judith Jones, Amazonas
- Paula Freeman, Purple Sox
- Marcia Sorelli
- the Battle-Axes captain
- the Honey Badgers captain
Alexa, whose last name is Smith (question 6) has to be either the Battle-Axes or the Honey Badgers captain (the only ones on the list without a named captain yet).
Alexa doesn't play for the Honey Badgers (clue 4).
Therefore, Alexa Smith captains the Battle-Axes.


The first world championship softball tournament took place in 1965. With five nations competing, the Women's Softball World Cup predated the first Men's Softball World Cup (1966) by one year. It didn't take place in Chicago or even the USA, but in Melbourne. Australia beat the USA in the final game 1-0 to claim the first international title in a tournament that launched softball as a global sport.

Answer: Honey Badgers

Here's a recap of our roster:
- Judith Jones, Amazonas
- Paula Freeman, Purple Sox
- Marcia Sorelli
- Alexa Smith, Battle-Axes
- the Honey Badgers captain
We've got two captains without a team, Marcia Sorelli and Claire Brown.
Marcia Sorelli can't be the Honey Badgers captain (as per the recap).
Therefore the Honey Badgers must be Claire Brown's team! (Sometimes it's just simple elimination).


In 1979 at the Pan-American Games, the United States women's national team won the gold medal. Nearly twenty years later, women's fastpitch softball entered the Olympics at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. Dot Richardson hit the very first home run at the Olympics and helped the U.S. softball team win the gold medal.

Answer: No-Names

The only remaining captain without a team is Marcia Sorelli, and the only remaining team without a captain is the No-Names!

SUMMARY of the QWSL:
- Judith Jones, captain of the Amazonas
- Paula Freeman, captain of the Purple Sox
- Marcia Sorelli, captain of the No-Names
- Alexa Smith, captain of the Battle-Axes
- Claire Brown, captain of the Honey Badgers


The International Olympic Committee announced in 2005 that women's softball (along with men's baseball) would be removed starting with the 2012 Games in London (the first sports to be cut since 1936). Happily, softball and baseball returned in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were actually postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In women's softball, Japan won the gold, the USA the silver, and Canada the bronze medals.