[greymule]

I umpired solely baseball starting in 1965 (age 16), began softball in 1995, and within 8 years was doing 100% softball.

In New Jersey, schools had to pay the softball umpires the same as the baseball umpires. So it was a choice of (1) $72 for a girls' school game and then $80 cash for two rec league softball games in the evening, or (2) $72 for one three-hour baseball game, with no time for any evening games.

Certainly the number of low-level softball games is greater, with all the church leagues, company coed leagues, and seemingly infinite bottom-level beer leagues. Therefore, the pool of umpires for softball is larger and reaches far down into the "barrel" of competence.

But at least where I was umpiring, the overall quality of school baseball had by the late 1980s deteriorated to the point where it hardly resembled what it had been a couple of decades before. (Virtually all the once-flourishing semipro leagues, full of college players and former pros, had faded away by the mid-1970s.)

Are there idiot, know-nothing coaches in girls' softball? Yes, but baseball had them, too. The college softball I did was a lot of fun, and I admit I kind of liked the rec/travel league singing and chanting.

One comment about the OP—baseball and softball myths should not be combined in the same list! While some myths ("the hands are part of the bat") apply to both baseball and softball, some baseball myths are actually rules under some softball codes. For example, the baseball myth of "one plus one" is (or at least was) actually the rule in USSSA softball. And the myth that the batter has offered on a bunt unless he "pulls the bat back" is not a myth in NCAA softball—the batter has "offered" if she leaves the bat in the strike zone.

Just three examples of ASA softball plays that run counter to basic principles of OBR (using baseball notation):

(1) Bases loaded, 2 out. Batter hits a ball off the fence. R3, R2 score, R1 is out at home for the third out. BR missed 1B and is properly appealed. Ruling: BR did not score and therefore cannot be appealed for a fourth out. Inning over, and the 2 runs count.

(2) R3, R2, 1 out. Batter hits a pop toward 1B. R3 crosses the plate. BR then deliberately crashes F3 to prevent a double play. Ruling: BR is out on the INT, R2 (runner closest to home) is out, and R3's run counts.

(3) R3, R1, 1 out. Batter gets a hit down the RF line. R3 scores, R1 misses 2B and proceeds to 3B. BR is thrown out at 2B. R1's miss of 2B is properly appealed. Ruling: Because the runner following R1 had been put out, R1's miss of 2B is not a force out, and R3's run does count.