Does baseball require the least athleticism of all sports?

[redban]

True or False - baseball requires the least athleticism of all major sports.

The greatest basketball player: http://www.celebritycarz.com/wp-cont...ael-jordan.jpg

The greatest football player: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VqqaTrR6Pq...Jerry+rice.jpg

The greatest hockey player: http://sciencewitness.com/wp-content...e-gretzky2.jpg

But the greatest baseball player? He looks like this:






































babe_ruth.jpg

Even in modern years, it shows.

Mo Vaughn, David Ortiz, C.C. Sabitha, Bartolo Colon, Frank Thomas, Tony Gwynn, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, and David Wells have all had success in this sport.

[chicagowhitesox1173]

I voted yes but I think baseball is the hardest of the 4.

[Rich the Giants fan]

Baseball requires a lot of athleticism and endurance to last a 162 games season.

[Rich the Giants fan]

And when you show a picture of an old athlete, what do you expect? He has to be in his last 30's in the picture. In his younger days, he was much fitter.

[chicagowhitesox1173]

Baseball requires a lot of athleticism and endurance to last a 162 games season.

To be able to play 162 games is hard to do but lets face it most of the time a fielder really isn't doing much and if he's not hitting, he's sitting on the bench. The rest of the sports your active pretty much the whole game. I hate when announcers talk about how hard it is for these players to be on a field when it's 100 degrees outside. It's usually a few hours and half the time they don't do anything.

[Blackout]

this is the best player in football right now





no knock on Eli's play of course. I met him briefly back in 2005 (with Chad Pennington) at a Giant-Jet training camp and he's a nice guy.

Eli truly is the most "clutch" although his regular season stats aren't the best

[Buczilla]

A nice 60 minute war on the gridiron that plays out for say 3 hours only really provides 10-15 minutes worth of action from snap to whistle through out. There used to be quite a few videos on Youtube that broke games down.

[UnderPressure]

I don't want to hear "Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports" again (read my second sig, LOL). How about scoring in soccer? All kidding aside, every sport has its own tough task(s),

[chicagowhitesox1173]

A nice 60 minute war on the gridiron that plays out for say 3 hours only really provides 10-15 minutes worth of action from snap to whistle through out. There used to be quite a few videos on Youtube that broke games down.

Thats a good point but you surely cant be Terry Forster and expect to do well in football. You gotta be very athletic especially nowdays to be in the NFL.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

[QUOTE=redban;2046267]True or False - baseball requires the least athleticism of all major sports.

The greatest basketball player: http://www.celebritycarz.com/wp-cont...ael-jordan.jpg

The greatest football player: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VqqaTrR6Pq...Jerry+rice.jpg

The greatest hockey player: http://sciencewitness.com/wp-content...e-gretzky2.jpg

But the greatest baseball player? He looks like this:









Did Ruth at time carry more weight than he should have, yes at times in his career but your showing a picture of him in his later years, not always that heavy.
Your giving a select number of the heavier players in the game, every night we see highlights of some incrediable fielding plays, you have to be very athletic to pull off plays like we see. Some are difficult to believe.
Also the younger Ruth was a fine outfielder and could cover some ground.
In baseball you can carry some weight at some positions. Your not constantly on the run, quick burst to make a fielding play and if you can hit, you make it. [ Quote]

[redban]

large_cc-sabathia-new-york-yankees-625.jpg

gal_fat-papi.jpg

tony-gwyn.jpg

[UnderPressure]

Thats a good point but you surely cant be Terry Forster and expect to do well in football. You gotta be very athletic especially nowdays to be in the NFL.

Not if you play QB. Manning and Brady are just some of the stiffs that are successful in the NFL.

[hwmongoose]

Of the 4 major team sports (the ones in the poll), I would say yes. Baseball requires the least athleticism. However, there have always been some great athletes that played this sport, anyway. Baseball is more a collection of practiced skills than the others. Good hand-eye coordination is required, of course, but you can practice fielding by taking a zillion ground balls. Or, you can practice hitting. Speed helps, and strength helps, but it's not as essential in baseball as it is in football or basketball.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

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Again, showing a small sample out of hundreds of players. You can probably weigh 300 pounds and still pitch. Ortiz at first base, no problem, then a DH. When younger I was impressed with Ortiz running out EBH's not that slow for a big guy. Tony Gwynn why wouldn't he be in the game, only one of the greatest hitters in our time, his weight can be overlooked. Also Tony stole 319 bases CS 125, stole 56 in one season..
Isn't it obvious your not going to see a basketball player carrying lots of weight running up and down the court, two completely different sports

[chicagowhitesox1173]

i'll admit Shoeless got me viewing this a little different because you really do have to be pretty athletic to make some of the plays these guys make. It's just hard for me to think Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski and Adam Dunn are very athletic. But Derrick Rose, Brian Urlacher and Patrick Kane all seem very athletic.