Description

Two cast iron half-sphere molds used in making kitten balls - the original name for softballs. It was donated in 1955 by Harry C. Rober of Minneapolis. He was the brother of Lewis Rober, who was widely regarded as the inventor of the outdoor version of the sport. Lewis Rober was a Minneapolis firefighter who, according to popular lore, invented softball in 1895 as an easy way to keep firefighters fit between calls. Though the first rulebooks for the game had been produced a few years earlier in Chicago, Rober remains credited with moving the sport outdoors, as well as giving the sport its first widely used name: kitten ball, after his station's team, The Kittens.