I have coached Little League teams for several years. We had mixed T-Ball teams but after that the boys played baseball and the girls played softball. Girls can play baseball in our town but in the years I have been coaching there has only been one girl (that’s one on any town team of any age, not just one that I coached) and her parents signed her up for baseball by mistake. She stuck with it for the season but didn’t come back.
One part of it is that girls don’t like playing baseball with boys. Some of the boys are hyper-competitive. Some are just plain hyper. Some are poor sports. Some are bullies. Some are crybabies (they still cry at 12-13 years old if things don’t go their way). Nearly every boy I’ve coached fits into one of those categories. I have coached some nice, respectful, hard-working boys, but they are a distinct minority. Most young boys are not fun to play with or coach.
Young girls treat softball as a fun game. They don’t care as much as the boys about winning. They don’t pick on the girl who strikes out all the time. The ball is bigger and is pitched more slowly so they hit the ball more often which makes it more fun. I think that if you tried to set up a girls-only baseball league the girls would still prefer to play softball. It’s more fun.
Men who grew up playing baseball play softball when they get older. It’s not just the over the hill guys. My friends and I started playing softball in our 20s when we were still able to play baseball at a high level. Baseball is a battle. Softball is a fun, low-pressure game.