mlb vs nba

[Husky25]

Agree here having played both extensively baseball is harder but not by a lot. That little white thing sitting there isn't as easy as it looks when you watch the pro's………the baseball is easy to hit when you know what's being thrown to you I think it's the ability to be quick, keep your hands back when a guy throwing 97 decides to throw an 87 wrinkle up to the plate…….that's where separation of baseball player to pro begins……….

I play(ed) both as well and golf is easier to pick than baseball. I didn't swing a gold club until I graduated high school because a golf and baseball swing are two completely different techniques and I didn't want to F up my baseball swing until I no longer competed in an organized league. Not only is hitting a baseball harder than hitting a golf ball (as you admit), it is not the only skill involved in the game. As you point out incessantly, there's throwing, catching, and running for anyone not named David Ortiz. Sure, you have to know distances, what club to use, and your own ability etc., but at the end of the day, you walk up to the ball and swing.

This is also anecdotal, but illustrates my point a little further: My brother didn't play baseball after Little League in part due to the increase volume of breaking balls in Pony League and Babe Ruth League. He was forced to quit soccer and basketball a couple years later because of bad knees, but he picked up golf in his late 20's and within a season or so (and after a few lessons) was shooting in the mid 80's (I'm not so lucky, I still have a baseball swing and golf feels very awkward after 12 years of baseball).

 

[mauconnfan]

Yeah no doubt about the 5 tools required to be real good vs less tools in golf as you don't need to catch it or throw it (actually some throw it in the stands or water after shots and you can see they never played baseball LOL). But let's not compare your brother, yourself or I (70's, low 80's player) to these guys either. He can shoot in the 80's with bad knees and I can shoot a 74 with a gut, a beer and a cigar but we aren't playing 7600 yards of 18 yard wide fairways with 4" rough either……..that now throws every one of us well over 90 and 100 and easily!!!

Again, not arguing that baseball and golf are real close just saying golfers are pretty damn good at a craft many people cannot even fathom……..there's a reason hockey players have the easiest adjustment to the game! LOL

 

[Husky25]

On average, the best athletes are the guys in the NBA. The best athletes overall may be in the NFL, but there are also many fat non-athletes. Hockey and soccer require amazing combinations of skill and endurance but I don't consider them the best athletes. It definitely depends on how you describe athleticism - to me, it means speed, agility, jumping ability etc. over endurance and coordination. Mentioning baseball is a joke.

There are fewer and fewer "fat" players in the NFL and NONE of them are non-athletes.

 

[Husky25]

Yeah no doubt about the 5 tools required to be real good vs less tools in golf as you don't need to catch it or throw it (actually some throw it in the stands or water after shots and you can see they never played baseball LOL). But let's not compare your brother, yourself or I (70's, low 80's player) to these guys either. He can shoot in the 80's with bad knees and I can shoot a 74 with a gut, a beer and a cigar but we aren't playing 7600 yards of 18 yard wide fairways with 4" rough either……..that now throws every one of us well over 90 and 100 and easily!!!

Again, not arguing that baseball and golf are real close just saying golfers are pretty damn good at a craft many people cannot even fathom……..there's a reason hockey players have the easiest adjustment to the game! LOL

No doubt. I agree 100%. I'd shoot about 180 (or higher) at the Deutche Bank.

 

[Walker11]

There are fewer and fewer "fat" players in the NFL and NONE of them are non-athletes.

Ehh doubt it, there are more than a handful of defensive tackles and offensive guards who are more big than athletic.

Edit. I am getting carried away by calling them non athletes. A lot of these fat guys are amazing athletes for their size but we are talking about the best athletes in sports.

 

[Husky25]

Ehh doubt it, there are more than a handful of defensive tackles and offensive guards who are more big than athletic.

Edit. I am getting carried away by calling them non athletes. A lot of these fat guys are amazing athletes for their size but we are talking about the best athletes in sports.

I didn't say there are "no" fat guys in the NFL. I said "fewer and fewer" and their mass is necessary to play their position. The shame of their lifestyle however occurs after their playing days are over. There are far few Jeff Saturday's of the world than there should be.

 

[intlzncster]

John Kruk:
There's a story, a funny story, about me sitting in a restaurant. I'm eating this big meal and maybe having a couple of beers and smoking a cigarette. A woman comes by the table. She recognizes me and she's shocked because it seems like I should be in training or something. She's getting all over me, saying that a professional athlete should take better care of himself. I lean back and I say to her, "I ain't an athlete, lady. I'm a baseball player." That pretty much sums it up. In an age when athletes are getting bigger and stronger and more imposing every day, John Kruk of the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies is a hero for the rest of us. He likes his food, he likes his beer, he doesn't see much point in combing his hair and he plays the game of baseball too well for anyone to get away with hassling him about any of it.

Fully agree with that, but could also offer up any number of golfers. John Daly is to golf what Kruk is to baseball. Who's the next to carry the nonathletic torch? Dufner maybe?

 

[Lefty2one]

I often win arguments like this because of one single fact: you can pick up any sport in high school freshman year, and if you're athletic enough, be a varsity player by the time you're an upperclassmen. Except baseball. There are too many specialized skills and athletic maneuvers to master in 3 years.

This is the difference between skill and athleticism IMO. Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports, I don't think one can really argue that. If you want to call golf a sport and not a game then your same philosophy applies there, being an elite HS athlete isn't going to guarantee golf success. Same thing with swimming.

Your above quote is true compared to bball/football/hockey because baseball is the only popular sport that demands phenomenal hand/eye coordination in all aspects. You need skill but you do not need athleticism. In basketball you can be Andre Drummond, in the NFL you can be a lineman or defensive player and excel with limited skill and/or hand-eye coordination and in hockey you can be a defenseman.

You aren't getting into the NFL or NBA unless you're a great athlete (relatively speaking of course, even the bums of the NBA are great athletes). In MLB you can be a poor athlete and still be an All-Star.


As for the NFL vs NBA, even though the NBA has gotten soft in the last decade or so I still believe that's were the best athletes are. The sheer size of the players combined with explosive athleticism puts them over the top. The day an average college football player fails to make the NFL and uses the NBA as his fallback I'll consider changing my mind - just like Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzales, Jimmy Graham and Julius Thomas couldn't come close to making the NBA but are All-Pro level NFL players. Same thing with baseball - Tony Clark, Carl Crawford, Tony Gwynn, Kenny Lofton, Dave Winfield, etc.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Ehh doubt it, there are more than a handful of defensive tackles and offensive guards who are more big than athletic.

Edit. I am getting carried away by calling them non athletes. A lot of these fat guys are amazing athletes for their size but we are talking about the best athletes in sports.

300+ pound offensive linemen routinely run sub-5.0 40s. Those guys are the size they are because they have to be that size to play their position. There's a reason most of those guys look like complete different people in retirement (check out Jeff Saturday on ESPN).

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

This is the difference between skill and athleticism IMO. Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports, I don't think one can really argue that.

There's definitely merit to that. But I still think that competently playing quarterback in the NFL is the hardest thing to do in sports.

 

[Lefty2one]

There's definitely merit to that. But I still think that competently playing quarterback in the NFL is the hardest thing to do in sports.

I guess that's more of a skill vs job debate but I agree. The most difficult skill is hitting a baseball, the most difficult job is QBing an NFL team IMO.

Dunno if I can drop the entire "being an NFL QB" under the category of a single skill like I can with hitting a baseball.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Ehh doubt it, there are more than a handful of defensive tackles and offensive guards who are more big than athletic.

Edit. I am getting carried away by calling them non athletes. A lot of these fat guys are amazing athletes for their size but we are talking about the best athletes in sports.

And you can carve out a career in the NBA if you're 7 feet tall and remotely coordinated.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I think the greatest athletes are in the Tour de France. Most athletes from other sports like baseball or basketball would kill themselves in the Tour. The endurance, explosion, concentration, reaction time and level of fitness far exceeds sports like baseball.

And Greg LeMond would have gotten destroyed in any other major sport. A sport being specialized to one specific skill doesn't make it the most athletic. I don't understand how people keep making this mistake.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Hmmm, I've never seen an overweight soccer player. Just sayin. . . .

 

[jibsey]

John Kruk:
There's a story, a funny story, about me sitting in a restaurant. I'm eating this big meal and maybe having a couple of beers and smoking a cigarette. A woman comes by the table. She recognizes me and she's shocked because it seems like I should be in training or something. She's getting all over me, saying that a professional athlete should take better care of himself. I lean back and I say to her, "I ain't an athlete, lady. I'm a baseball player." That pretty much sums it up. In an age when athletes are getting bigger and stronger and more imposing every day, John Kruk of the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies is a hero for the rest of us. He likes his food, he likes his beer, he doesn't see much point in combing his hair and he plays the game of baseball too well for anyone to get away with hassling him about any of it.

Kruk's hand eye coordination helped him be a good hitter but he don't look real healthy right now.

 

[whaler11]

I shoot in the mid 80's. I played a course set up for a senior major a few days after it ended. I shot 118.

 

[jibsey]

I shoot in the mid 80's. I played a course set up for a senior major a few days after it ended. I shot 118.

Just shows you how hard they can make a course with the rough, setup and greens and how different it is from the average muny most people get to play. Imagine playing the US open courses.

 

[Rocktheworld]

N.B.: mike Jordan failed at baseball; this is not coincidence

Put ANY MLB player in the NBA and watch in hysterical laughter.

What an utterly moronic post.

 

[61cygni]

Gymnasts are pretty freaking athletic. Just throwing that out there.

 

[Palatine]

And Greg LeMond would have gotten destroyed in any other major sport. A sport being specialized to one specific skill doesn't make it the most athletic. I don't understand how people keep making this mistake.

Yes, but he wouldn't have gotten killed. Have Michael Jordan ride a single mountain stage in the tour. Have him do it four days in a row.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Yes, but he wouldn't have gotten killed. Have Michael Jordan ride a single mountain stage in the tour. Have him do it four days in a row.

I think there's a much greater likelihood that Greg LeMond would literally get killed in an NFL game than there is that Michael Jordan would literally die riding his bike in the mountains of France. This is a very strange position to take.

 

[David 76]

This is like the former "greatest athlete from UCONN thread"
First, define athletic vs skill, etc
Second, no sport requires the same athleticism at all positions (pitcher vs outfielder, goalie vs center,)

I want to turn this around to which sort can you most easily get away with poor athleticism?
Baseball, golf, auto racing. Of the major sports, baseball would certainlyfit more out of shape people at first base, DH or pitcher. Those guys have a great skill(pitching or hitting) but they could be less physically fit than you could get away with in football, basketball or hockey. Maybe a kicker??