Lol ... good story, Sam. I do think some people have a double standard. I've seen college strike zones that were the size of postage stamps, not to mention that it always amuses me when non-pitcher's parents just think that a pitcher should be able to throw it every single time to a spot that's good enough to be a strike but not good enough to have a chance of being hit back at them. We all agree that we are seeing more masks in college ... it's just too slow of a growth for me to think about how many kids are going to get hurt in the meantime.
There's a couple of other comparisons being made to baseball and, while they are somewhat legitimate, one thing that's different about our game is that bunting and slapping are a much bigger part of the game, and that brings two more positions into the mix as well (i.e., the corners). Plus, just because baseball doesn't do certain things doesn't mean that softball shouldn't. Baseball is a much slower paced and more traditional sport ... things are slow to change there, and there's a certain "macho" element ... e.g., try to get long-time baseball coaches to even consider wristband systems ... or, the thinking that if a player celebrates something like a home run that they're disrespecting the other team and there needs to be retaliation. I'm probably a little bit off topic, but my point is that our sport has grown up on it's own and surpassed the game of baseball in many respects, and we should be at a point where we worry less about what the baseball only people think about our game, because we know it's better!