[greymule]

I have done a lot of both baseball and softball.

Girls' fast-pitch is a lot of fun. At the higher levels, where the pitching is good, I'm done many games in which there were very few walks, frequently not a single one. They don't blast the ball to the fence, but there's a lot of slashing, bunting, and stealing action. Even at the 12-year-old level, low-scoring games are the rule. These games are not boring!

Of course, in whatever game you're doing you have to be completely in command of the rules (except slow pitch, see below), but it's particularly important in FP. With the pitching dominant, the girls are coached to push the limits to gain an advantage (for example, with the look-back rule).

Rec leagues are a different story. In areas with good programs, you can have terrific games. In other places, you'll have games full of walks, errors, interferences, obstructions, crazy plays, etc. You're often lucky to complete 4 innings where no inning starts after 1:45 and the last inning stretches past the 2-hour mark.

I stopped doing FED baseball a few years ago. The games took too long, and I couldn't seem to find a way to keep them moving. Another factor was the many rules I was uncomfortable enforcing, and every year they seemed to add another one.

Years ago, I worked a semi-pro summer baseball league that contained mostly college players and some ex-pros. Too bad that league eventually folded, because baseball at that level was the most fun of all.

Over several decades, I played a great deal of slow pitch softball. I loved it and looked forward to spending weekends playing in tournaments. (I confess that in some ways I liked it better than baseball—shame on me!) I finally turned to umpiring, and I have certainly officiated a zillion games. The game is so hitting heavy that the rules anybody cares about are easy—I know guys who have umped for years and know nothing but the basics. But the equipment—the red-hot bats and rock-hard but ever-deader balls—has destroyed the game. There's some easy money to be made in co-ed business leagues, but the quality of play is often pure picnic level, with a couple of swell-headed heroes showing off to the girls from the office. I would now agree with georgelog: "Don't waste your time."