Baseball Is Not a Sport
April 6, 2011
America’s favorite pastime is not a sport. Of the three major sporting events in the United States, baseball requires the least training, the least athleticism, and the smallest amount of effort. Baseball players are regularly out of shape and success in the sport is more contingent on skill level than on natural ability. The very essence of sport is based in a player’s natural ability and the genetic inclination towards harsh, challenging physiological exercises and baseball does not have that. Baseball, even at the professional level, is just physical activity, not sport.
Baseball is the only highly-paid recreational activity where the participants do not have to maintain their weight. Players like C.C. Sabathia and Prince Fielder show up to spring training grossly overweight and thrive once the season starts. Tony Gwynn was built like a bowling ball and was one of the best hitters of his generation averaging .338 for his career. In a sport, athletes have to undergo intense training to compete with their opponents.Players that have not put in the necessary work, falter under the demands of grueling seasons. Basketball players stay in constant motion to score or defend against other players. Their percentage of body fat never exceeds 10%. Basketball guys that train poorly are exploited on the basketball court or fall victim to injuries. A football player’s ability to compete is dependent on how much he can lift, how fast he is, and how fluidly he moves. There is constant contact between players and their physical prowess is matched against another player on every sequence in each play. Similarly, football players that avoid strict regimens of exercise are quickly over-matched or get injured. Baseball has the longest season by far, with twice the games as basketball and 10 times the amount of football games, but gets less injuries. It is void of the displays of athleticism seen in the other sports, other than the occasional leaping catch. A great pitcher does have special gifts, but is not necessarily an exceptional athlete. For some reason, a pitcher’s arm produces more torque than the average arm. Part of their success is due to a physiological advantage, but they do not have to shape their entire body; they only hone their pitching arm. Case in point, Bubba Wells, an overweight left-hander, pitched a perfect game in the playoffs with a severe hang-over. He retired every batter that he faced after a night out drinking heavily. That could never happen in any of the other major American sports. They require an athletic standard and a discipline that baseball does not have. Baseball is not a sport, at least partially, because obese, undisciplined players often yield the same results as those that work tirelessly.
This guy hits better than anyone in MLB with a slow swing.
Hitting offers no evidence that baseball players that are physically gifted excel more than those of average ability, either. Bat speed, which is a measure of athleticism, does not determine the power or effectiveness of a hitter. Gary Sheffield possessed one of the quickest bats and was one of the better athletes in Major League Baseball history with a bat speed of about 130 mph. Sheffield produced relatively strong numbers with his bat garnering a career batting average of .292, 509 HR, and 1676 RBI. The average MLB player has a bat speed that hovers around 108 mph and the league batting average floats between .260 and .275. However, Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals, manages his at-bats with one of the slowest bat speeds in the MLB at 85 mph. Despite this, Pujols could historically be the best batter ever. He has a career batting average of .331, with 409 HR and 1233 RBI, in 11 fewer seasons than Sheffield. Pujols has almost matched Sheffield’s career numbers in half of the time it took Sheffield to produce them. He won the National League MVP 3 times, has hit more home runs through his first ten years than anyone has hit in their first ten years, and is the only player to ever hit at least 30 HR in each of his first 10 seasons. Pujols has achieved all this with a slow, deliberate swing. He is able to do this because batting is about technique and pitch recognizance, not raw strength. Players that are afforded good coaching can decipher the difference between a curve ball and a fastball in fractions of the .47 second that it takes the baseball to reach home plate. Batters learn to get power from their hips, not their arms and drive the ball. The ability to swing a bat quickly is completely unrelated with how well someone hits the baseball, so physical aptitude is less important in this recourse. Ken Griffey Jr. retired from Major League Baseball as one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball, despite having a slight build. He learned how to see and react to the ball from his father, Ken Griffey Sr., a professional baseball player, and had one of the smoothest swings in baseball. He had outstanding, readily-available coaching, so he excelled in the game. Now most of the talent in baseball comes from suburban families that play baseball all year or from farm systems in rural South America. They are given multiple opportunities to learn, and thus acclimate to the technique of batting and recognize pitch movement better than the average person. Getting more chances to hit the ball translates into better hitting. Greatness in baseball has nothing to do with talent level. It is contingent on practice, repetition, and more options to play the game.
Baseball relies on a particular set of learned skills rather than natural athleticism, so it should not be categorized with football, basketball, soccer, and track and field as a sport. Baseball is closer related to golf, bowling, or motor racing. In general, the people that play it at its highest level are not great athletes, but just people that have specialized in their field. With training, persistence, and opportunity, they have come to excel at an activity that most people have not had the chance to try to pursue. Other than the specific position of pitcher, any average athlete could succeed in baseball, and if anyone can do it, then it is not a sport.
Baseball is obviously a sport.If it wasn’t a sport then why would it be America’s national past time. If you have the time to write about why our country’s national past time isn’t a sport then you probably don’t even play a sport to begin or were cut in high school and can’t accept the fact that you suck.With that being said your only argument was that baseball wasn’t a sport because a few select players like C.C. Sabathia, (a PITCHER) and Prince Fielder (a DESIGNATED HITTER)were over weight. They use their weight to an advantage to provide more power to their pitching and hitting. These players are PAID to maintain this weight so in a sense they are staying “in shape”, just the shape that they need to maintain to be effective. If your saying football is a sport then why isn’t baseball a sport? Just because there’s more time in between action doesn’t make one or the other more or less challenging.
Baseball is America’s pastime because it came along at a time when people didn’t have televisions. I would rather watch the grass grow than go to some of these games. By the way, being fat does not help you perform. Steven Strausburg was fat when he entered college and was throwing 93-95 mph. Once he started training seriously, his top pitch speed jumped to 101 mph. Imagine what C.C. could do if put down just one hamburger per day. Prince Fielder is fat because he keeps eating not because he needs the extra weight. Fat does not equal power. If so then Tony Gwynn would have hit more home runs. Prince Fielder hits home runs because his dad is Cecil Fielder and he’s strong as a bull. What would happen if he brought his weight down to 240? David Wells was fat and pitched a perfect game messed up from the night before. Baseball is a step above golf and bowling.
P.S. I played baseball though not in high school. I stopped playing baseball so that I could play some real sports. I played football and basketball, and I received scholarships in basketball and offers to play professional basketball overseas. Have you played any sports?
First of all, your crap about how fat people only play baseball blah blah blah is garbage. What about football players like Vince Wilfork? Can you say fattass? I mean seriously, he’s fatter than almost all baseball players, but he’s still one of the best defenseman in the league. And I don’t understand what you mean by how Albert Pujols must be unathletic because he has a slow bat speed. What about football players like MJD and marshawn lynch? No, they’re not the fastest either, but they are definitely athletic. And you think you’re soooooo special because you got an offer to play “pro” overseas. Overseas basketball is garbage, you are clearly a second-rate player who was too lazy to play baseball so you just used what I assume is some height (which is not in your control) to play basketball, which for tall people, takes practically NO SKILL OR ATHLETICISM (yes, I know plenty of terribly un-athletic basketball players too). Sorry that you wern’t smart, athletic, or hard-working enough to play a multi-demensional sport like baseball, and are left to try to criticize people who are better than you. (oh and I bet any of the baseball players you mentioned could kick your ass)
And prince fielder is a vegetarian and his dad has nothing to do with his ability to hit home runs (which you can’t)
You sound pretty angry, so I’m going to guess that you’re a baseball “athlete”. Your “sport” does not necessitate athleticism, and that means that it is borderline at best as a sport. And, I did not say that all baseball players are fat. I said that if a fat guy can star in your sport then it probably is not that great of a game. The essence of sport is athleticism, and there are not a lot of great athletes in baseball. Prince Fielder is fat, and he is a bonafide star. Bubba Wells pitched a no-hitter in the playoffs drunk. Yes, Vince Wilfork is bigger than either of them, but I would bet a paycheck that Vince Wilfork can lift more weights, is more agile, and runs faster than Prince Fielder on any day. I did not say that Albert Pujols is not athletic, I was pointing out that bat speed (a measure of explosivesiveness) doesn’t even matter. He has a slow bat speed and is a historically great hitter. And, there are very few nonathletic basketball players that make it to the pros. We are not talking about guys at the park around the corner from your house. We are talking about the highest level of basketball. Pro basketball players are talented and skilled athletes that excel in anything sports-related. Sorry dude, deal with it. Baseball sucks. (By the way, multi-dimensional? Stop it.)
Glad to know anyone can pick up a ball and be as good as Manning or Brady or Kobe or Lebron or Messi if they were possessed with the gift of natural talent, because we all know that throwing and catching a football, dribbling between defenders, knocking down shots from anywhere in the field all require no training or specialization what-so-ever. Nope, training has nothing to do with elite level “athletes” in any other sport at all…
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna take my “talents” to South Beach.
Jobu, I am not saying that there is no “specialization” in baseball. In fact, I am saying the opposite. Baseball is full of specialization, but it is not full of great athletes. Being good at baseball is a skill that can be learned. Granted, there are some great athletes like Carl Crawford, but the standard of athletic ability is not the same in baseball. If you get them at a young age, you can teach a child to hit a baseball well. There is a reason that the kids that go to baseball camp every year inevitably reach the college level of baseball. If you put a football, basketball, or even a soccer ball in his hands, there is no promise that the child will excel. To play sports there is a certain amount of raw athleticism that you must possess. Pitchers are not necessarily athletic. They just have a special gift. Their pitching arm produces more torque than the average arm. How do you explain the fact that a guy like Manuel Rivera who is of average height, build, and weight could throw a fastball with more velocity than guys that were twice his size? Pitching is a misnomer. Most baseball players are not good athletes. Athleticism is generally measured in how big you are, how fast you can run, how quickly you can move your feet, how strong you are, and how coordinated you are. Baseball players, in general, do not possess all of these traits. There is one fast guy, two power guys, one to two guys that have a great batting average, and if they are lucky one guy that is a pure athlete on each team. In basketball, football, track, and even soccer (America’s red-headed step-child) everyone meets the standards of athleticism. You could take the average soccer athlete and put him in track. He may not win, but he would compete. You could take a track guy and put him in football and he may excel like Herschel Walker did. You could take a football player and put him on a basketball court and he would find a niche as a rebounder or defender. You could put a basketball player in any of these sports and he would fit. You can only say that about select baseball players like Crawford or Jose Reyes. Baseball is not a sport.
You are right. Baseball is a game for little kids. No athleticism, contact or excitement let alone enthusiasm. If you all want a real sport, play lacrosse, which requires endurance and has contact. Or soccer which requires so much endurance. Not trying to make fun of the US (I am 100%) but baseball is it’s national pass time because America is very unathletic. This is why for instance soccer is big in all around the world, because many of those countries revolve around athletic-related activities instead of sitting home, cracking open a budlight and watching television.
Simple
Have you ever played the game beyond a little league level? Or even beyond high school? I thought not. Contrary to your belief, you cannot teach anyone to hit or catch a ball. Maybe if you had any experience as a coach you would know this. Yes, I know what I am talking about, I have played baseball my entire life, all the way to AA level before an injury ended my career. Know what? I was good, but there were many who were better simply because they were better athletes. It had nothing to do with how much they were taught, they had natural abilities that were superior to mine. And as a college coach, I can tell you that I see the same in my players, some are just better athletes than others.
Nope AJ, I haven’t played baseball past the little league level, but I do know that baseball players generally do not play any other sport than football. And, the only players that make it in football are pitchers that turn into quarterbacks (the most non athletic position on the field). I did not say that there are no athletes in baseball. Justin Upton is a freak. Ken Griffey Jr. was a ridiculous athlete. But by and large, in baseball you can do well if you are a specialist. If you can hit, then coaches will hide you on defense (Dmitri Young). If you can pitch, then you do not need to hit (Bubba Wells). The best athletes are the defensive specialists, but special athletes like Torii Hunter are few and far in between. In basketball, you regularly run into guys that are freak athletes. Every pro team has a couple. And, in order to play the game you have to meet a certain level of skill and natural ability. Guys can be taught to hit and excel in baseball, though the best athletes generally do better. Pitchers are the only guys who can not be replaced because they have a true physical gift. Everyone else is interchangeable. 3rd basemen play shortstop, shortstops play 2nd base, catchers play any of the infield positions. How did Chuck Knoblauch stay in the league so long? He couldn’t field or make routine throws to first base. He could hit. Adam Dunn can’t field and literally struck out as much as he hit the ball for years. When he hit the ball, it left the park. Baseball players just are not that athletic.