# Which sports have the biggest & smallest gap between pros and regular people? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 25, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-sports-have-the-biggest-smallest-gap-between-pros-and-regular-people/579628 "2011-04-25T06:54:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 37
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-sports-have-the-biggest-smallest-gap-between-pros-and-regular-people/579628/37 "2011-04-26T01:24:57Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Yes, there is a long string of progression in baseball, but the talent level is not hugely different from the low minors and the majors. I disagree. I see a lot of baseball at all levels, and while each tier shades into those above and below, the overall progression is clear. The player pool is _relentlessly_ whittled as you go up the ladder (the whole system is really dependent on an enormous reservoir of unrealistic optimism among young players, and their resulting willingness to work very hard for little money). Many players never reach the majors because they hit unmistakable walls in their development somewhere along the way. A guy may look great in rookie ball, very good in short-season and low-A, and then he crashes in high-A. He may get busted back for half a season, look good again, and then promptly crash again on re-promotion. When pitchers start to command their secondary pitches (and that’s about where that happens), that’s the end of the line for more than few hitters. I do think that the size of the particular step between AAA and MLB is often exaggerated. > [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > When top major leaguers go to single-A to begin a rehab stint, they don’t suddenly hit .500 or throw shutouts. In Spring Training, sometimes college teams play and beat the pros. Major leaguers on rehab stints are not exactly playing to their top form, but they _do_ hit .500 or throw short-outing shutouts often enough that they’re clearly a little different than their competition at that level. And it’s very rare for a college team (playing hard, with something to prove!) to actually beat a quasi-major team just getting in gear in the spring. A few years back when the Tigers were really bad they _tied_ a college team in the spring, and _that_ was seen as an embarrassment. Of course anything can happen in one game here or there. > [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > A decent college player could play a series for a major league team and with a little luck could look passable as a Major Leaguer. He just couldn’t do it for a month. Well, yes, because passable major league players themselves regularly go not-much-for-the-series at the plate, and it’s easy enough to look passable in the field, especially the outfield, for just a series. Your college player may not stick out to a casual observer as not belonging on that team, but he’s not likely to look better than mediocre either. In a way the differences are all small things, but there are a _lot_ of small refinements that players make as they climb that ladder. The Crash quote is accurate, of course, but it doesn’t acknowledge how hard it can be to make up each additional tiny increment of improvement against ever-tougher competition. The most telling single fact is how rare it is for players to succeed in the major leagues _without_ time at every or nearly every level working up. It happens for an occasional phenom, but rarely enough that the whole structure is clearly necessary to develop typical modern-MLB-quality players. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-sports-have-the-biggest-smallest-gap-between-pros-and-regular-people/579628)._