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Originally Posted by jimpiano
Softball umpires work 2-3 games a night and, in slowpitch, have a ball in play nearly 100 per cent of the time.
A slow pitch umpire, on an average night, will outrun a baseball umpire( who works one game) 2-1 in distance. The slowpitch umpire will make more calls and interpret more rules in that same evening, not to mention hearing more gripes.
Further, most slow pitch games, and many girls's softball games, are officiated
by one umpire.
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You're kidding, right? Sure, the ball in SP is in play most of the time, 'cause the game's been slowed down so ANYone (even me) can play it. And it's only live until it gets back to the infield, where ASA (used to, at least) says to call "time."
But I umpired SP at a US base in Japan, and in a town beer league in Australia (teams had umps for each other), and there's no WAY it was harder work - virtually every call is obvious. And most every SP game I did had a 2nd ump present.
And my baseball games have required way more interpretation - or rather, more circumstances that required a interpretation - so I'm really not sure what you base this one.
I'd even argue the running 2x farther bit - maybe more running, if there's just one, but I think you overstate it. And I'm probably more inclined than others to be sympathetic to the softball cause, having also done FP softball in Hawaii for a couple years, too.