The single hardest act in all professional sports is found in the game of baseball. To get a base hit is to accomplish the single hardest act in all professional sports.
Agree? Disagree?
Hmmmm…
I would say a hole-in-one, but I think there is an element of luck involved in that accomplishment. (Though I guess there can be an element of luck to many sports feats…)
I’m gonna turn it around on you. How about a perfect game by a pitcher?
Upon re-reading your OP, I guess a perfect game wouldn’t qualify as a “single act,” so I’ll go with the hole-in-one. (After all, the act of hitting a baseball can involve an element of luck, just the same as the hole-in-one.)
Granted a perfect game by a pitcher is a huge accomplishment, but it is much more than a single act. At a minimum a pitcher would have to throw 27 pitches…right?
What I’m thinking is that each pitch a batter sees is a chance to get a base hit. In a game there might be 250-300 pitches thrown and maybe 5-10 hits or so…making the success rate of the cat of hitting a pitched ball very very low.
Further, I’ve heard people nominate golf-related acts, but the way I see it, hitting the baseball is much harder because it isn’t just sitting there waiting to be struck. It could be coming at you at 90 mph, from various angles…or it might be a curve or a slider or a changeup. Additionally, a baseball bat is round, not flat like a golf club. I think that act of getting a base hit is harder.
C’mooon,
Getting up off the canvas and making an attempt to come back against the likes of Lewis or Tyson in his prime knowing you’re gonna get smashed(stoopid too possibly)
Scoring 147 at snooker in a single break.
Cyling - the time trial up Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France.
C’mooon,
Getting up off the canvas and making an attempt to come back against the likes of Lewis or Tyson in his prime knowing you’re gonna get smashed(stoopid too possibly)
Scoring 147 at snooker in a single break.
Cycling - the time trial up Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France.
Casdave,
Thanks for at least not mentioning something soccer-related…
How about a soccer goalkeeper stopping a penalty kick?
Thanks a lot Arnold.
The soccer ball is much larger than a baseball and a baseball bat is much smaller than is the body of a goalie.
The act of getting a base hit is harder.
Although come to think of it, surviving an English soccer match as a fan might actually be the hardest single act in all of sports.
Single hardest act? Making baseball interesting!
From another thrill-a-minute sport, how about a soccer goalie stopping a free kick?
In the baseball v. golf issue, is it relevant that a baseball hit can occur anywhere between the foul lines, whereas a golfer is aiming at that teeny little cup?
I always figure they do the women’s balance beam with mirrors.
How bout scoring off Michael Jordan in his prime? Or Shaq today?
The phrasing of the question, hardest “act”, influences the responses and tilts things towards baseball where a very limited number of discrete events are interspersed among interminable periods of inaction. The Tour de France can’t qualify. Nor can lasting a round against any decent boxer. No other sport has the ridiculous stats as baseball (most doubles against a LH pitcher with 2 men on on a nightgame after a day off…), because in other sports things happen as part of an ongoing process, and more action happens. In baseball, you have to endlessly dissect the last thing that happened while you are waiting for something else of note to happen in another 5 or 10 minutes.
Enjoy playing the game. But watching it? z-z-z-z.
re: baseball versus golf issue
True, the golfer aims for a tiny cup, whereas the hitter can place his hit anywhere between the foul lines, however, the area between the foul lines is patrolled by 9 skilled fielders. Golfers don’t have to contend with a moving defense.
Dinsdale, no one ever said baseball was a game of action. Rather, it’s a game of suspense.
Am I missing something?
It seems to me that baseball players average somewhere around a 20% batting average (.200). Good ones are over .300, not so good around .100. An average of 1 hit in 5 doesn’t seem too bad.
Compare that to hockey. Goalies hang aroun .900 save prercentage…or 1 in 10 shots gets through.
By this standard I’d say scoring a goal in hockey would have to beat a base hit in baseball for difficulty. Seems to be about twice as difficult.
Of course, I’d have to say the first time down an Alpine Ski Jump would have to rank with one of the hardest things to do in sports. I’ve heard tell of coaches prying the skiier’s hands off of the seat to make them go down.
As much as I hate ice skating, how about the infamous “Quad” or qradruple axle. I think like one or two people have ever done it.
THe Iron cross in gymnastics.
Jeff,
Yes, you are missing something.
You are using the success rate of acheiving a hit per at-bat instead of per pitch. An at-bat is not usually a single act.
Krispy said:
The soccer ball is much larger than a baseball and a baseball bat is much smaller than is the body of a goalie.
The act of getting a base hit is harder.
Don’t we have to figure in angles, distance, target size, etc. Soccer ball might be bigger, but goal is also much larger than the strike zone, and the goalie doesn’t know whether the kicker is going left or right. Batter always knows where the ball is coming. Also, difficulty would depend somewhat on the count and situation, players on base, score, subsequent batters, etc, wouldn’t it?
Other variable, getting “a” hit may be largely influenced by luck. Being the season batting champ is something else. Is being a .200 hitting utility infielder “harder” than being the NHL MVP. I don’t want to hijack and question which sport is hardest to excel at. Perhaps another thread …
Krispy, you’re saying that a base hit is the hardest act, but your numbers and analysis apply only to making contact with the ball.
If you take the total amount of field not covered by fielders, it’s got to be several hundred times larger than the cup on a golf green.
That open space is also closer - golf greens are hundreds of yards away while a safe base hit could be a dribbler down the first baseline.
Golf is the more difficult sport because of what you said earlier:
**
In golf, the golfer can blame nothing but himself - the psychological pressure is tremendous, like nothing found anywhere in team sports. It’s comperable to a gymnast preparing for a vault, but a gymnast vaults twice and gets the average of both scores while, for a golfer, every shot is different, every shot counts and every shot is counted - he or she hits the ball close to 100 times each round, and every swing occurs in different conditions!
The question is phrased in a way that leads to good debate but really no answer - in terms of psychological performance combined with precise physical skill, no game is more demanding than golf.
It would also follow logically that doubles triples and home runs are all more difficult than base hits.
The most difficult feat in all sports is dead-lifting over one ton. It’s so difficult, it’s never been done!