How hard is it to reach the "majors" in each professional sport

Golf is much much tougher nowadays given the amount of European and ROW golfers that are playing and winning.

The opportunities for American golfers are getting less and less.

whonamestheirkidgerman? wrote:

This is not referring to any kind of "minor" league.

Rate them.

Mine:

MLB

NBA

PGA

NFL

NHL

MLS

NASCAR

I don't intend this to be about how hard it is to play that given sport. Rather think of it this way: if there was an equally average athlete from each sport listed above, which would have the hardest time getting to the "majors"?

I didn't include sports where it is difficult to label the top level (Track, tennis, etc..).

those are games and activities, not sports. True sports include athletics, swimming, diving, gymnastics, cycling, and a few others. A sport by definition requires that one exceed oneself, not simply beat everyone else, which is the point of the above activities and games.

Kyle Petty and Dale Jr would have never made it if they didnt have their last name. Dale Jr was terrible starting out and got his chance because of a name not talent, and dont give me stats on his super speedway wins when that has more to do with the car he was in made obvious by Waltrip winning his only races in DEI cars at Daytona/Talladega. Kyle Petty pretty much sucked his entire career except for years where he was "ok". I actually know a lot about racing, have many friends who work in Nascar shops, I race as well as most of my friends and family.

Kyle Petty was pretty decent for a while in the 1980's and 1990's. He was a championship contender for a few years in there and won a quite a few races. If you win a race you're above average since such a small percentage of NGN/NWC/NNC/NSC (I wonder how many more acronyms we'll need) drivers ever even win one race.

It partially depends on the position. To make it in one of the "skill" positions in the NFL (running back, receiver, db, qb) you need to be an incredibly gifted athlete. The linemen are great athletes as well, but the talent pool is much smaller - i.e. only people over 250 lbs.

Same for the NBA. If you are under 6'4, you need to be an exceptional athlete. If you are 7 feet and reasonably athletic you have a much better chance because the talent pool is very small.

I don't think the NFL is a sport because of widespread doping. MLB is doped and not a sport. Just look at androids like Tim Lincecum, Halliday, Cliff Lee, and tell me they arten't doped. The same with the roid rage bozos of the NHL. NASCAR, PGA, Horse racing is not athletics.

db87 wrote:

Kyle Petty and Dale Jr would have never made it if they didnt have their last name. Dale Jr was terrible starting out and got his chance because of a name not talent, and dont give me stats on his super speedway wins when that has more to do with the car he was in made obvious by Waltrip winning his only races in DEI cars at Daytona/Talladega. Kyle Petty pretty much sucked his entire career except for years where he was "ok". I actually know a lot about racing, have many friends who work in Nascar shops, I race as well as most of my friends and family.

Then why do you sound like an idiot?

Wow. I'm an idiot. I should have expected this.

A discussion of the definition of what is a sport has been the topic of MANY threads already...

Let me rephrase:

Rank how hard is it to reach the "majors" in each "activity"?