For what it's worth...
This isn't entirely a "baseball versus softball" thing. For whatever reason, FED baseball uses the same "softball" designations in all of their rule books, case books and printed interpretations.
Why they do this- who knows? They are the only one of the "major" baseball rule sets that follow this numbering system. And those more familiar with OBR or NCAA never miss a chance to critisize them for it!
Personally, as someone that deals with both, it's not that hard to keep them separate. "When in Rome...", I guess. But I have always wondered how these two similar systems came to be split in this regard. I wonder if sometime many years ago they might have been the same, then one or the other switched thinking theirs was "the better way".
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