Baseball-Softball Rules Differences

[dan_renninger]

Greetings colleagues,

I work in a small association in Northern California which requires our umpires to work both HS Baseball and softball. I have seen documentation that shows the differences between HS Baseball and Softball in a table format. I am not here to start a flame war or discuss which game is better - we can begin a new thread for that if you want. I am just looking for a teaching tool that will help better prepare our officials for the season ahead. If one of you have a document, or a link to a web site that I could go to to download that document, I would forever be in your debt.

Thanks for the assistance,

Dan Renninger
Middletown, CA
Coastal Mountain Officials Association

[Steve M]

Dan,
Fed puts out just such a document. Here's a link

http://www.nfhs.org/web/2006/11/soft...ules_diff.aspx

[Az.Ump]

"That was easy"

Paul

[Skahtboi]

I am just trying to figure out why any association would require officials to work both sports. I know of many places where one assignor does both baseball and softball, but the officials for each sport tend to be sport specific.

[Andy]

I'm going to guess that Dan is in a rural area without a large roster of officials. The assignor probably needs all of the officials he has to cover both sports and it's easier for him/her to "require" that umpires work both to make the scheduling easier.

I'm pretty sure it works that way in some of the rural areas of Arizona. It's not so much a "requirement" as it is most umpires just accepting that they will work both baseball and softball.

Speaking for myself, I have tried umpiring baseball and didn't like it. Fortunately, I am in an area where there is an abundance of FP softball and I don't have to work baseball.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Andy

I'm going to guess that Dan is in a rural area without a large roster of officials. The assignor probably needs all of the officials he has to cover both sports and it's easier for him/her to "require" that umpires work both to make the scheduling easier.

I'm pretty sure it works that way in some of the rural areas of Arizona. It's not so much a "requirement" as it is most umpires just accepting that they will work both baseball and softball.

Speaking for myself, I have tried umpiring baseball and didn't like it. Fortunately, I am in an area where there is an abundance of FP softball and I don't have to work baseball.

I've been in this position. I worked softball for years because we were short on softball umpires. I was good at it (ended up one step from the state tournament and was always the crew chief in the HS playoffs, which annoyed the softball-only umpires) but never found any real joy in it.

The softball only umpires were not asked to work baseball, though.