I've lived in Greenville, SC for the majority of my life. The only time I've seen or met anyone that mentioned softball was high school, Oklahoma Sooners Forums, and ESPN during the Softball Tournament. For the most part, no one talks about softball around here and I've lived overseas for years and months at a time and no one talks about softball there either.
Again. If it was so "popular and awesome" as some portray on here. It would garner move revenue, generate a net profit, and be up there with the other sports that have a ton of viewership nationwide. It doesn't, so why do we continue to proclaim that it's important?
In the end, Joe C is on the hot seat right now because football and basketball (until recently) were bordering on irrelevant while the other irrelevant sports such as softball, golf, and gymnastics were excellent and continued to win nattys. If that doesn't show you what matters in the grand scheme, I don't know what to tell the weirdo softball fans.