BASEBALL REAL SPORT OR NOT?

It's a game.

thank you...so is monopoly

Yes.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sport

if you would like to contend that an individual who is able to make his body makes plays like this is a "gamer" rather than an "athlete," then yes, baseball is just a game

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20060701&content_id=1532706&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex

link to the video is right before the copy of the story starts

unfortunately it is (sport)

but it is one of the least athletic and its organization and coaching an current players are mostly a joke

Yes of course it is a damn sport. Try hitting a baseball. It is not easy. Especially when the pitcher throws 90+ mph fastball then comes back pitch with a 75 mph breaking ball.

All you scrawny punk runners couldn't touch a sub-average major league ball player’s jock strap when comparing athletic ability. Sure they’re a number of "out of shape players" which mostly consist of older pitchers hanging around the majors since it is extremely difficult to be a successful ML pitcher.

I am a runner. However, if I had the body type would have played baseball in my later years (babe ruth - high school) in a heartbeat.

People who think baseball is not a "real" sport is just jealous when a sub average ML player makes more money than an "elite" runner. Or just have some napoleon complex or envious of not being recognized to a higher degree of difficulty it takes to maintain a high level of running fitness.

ummm its a sport wrote:

All you scrawny punk runners couldn't touch a sub-average major league ball player’s jock strap

And I would want to because...............?

no its just that baseball players dont do anything that pushes the body. They only sweat because they sit in the sun waiting for a ball to come into their gloves. Admit it, its not very athletic, they dont move around a whole lot.

Alright, a simple yes would have done nicely. The OP admits, in his name, that he is a troll and you just walked into his trolly den. All of us reasonable guys know that baseball is a sport and that there are a lot of very skilled athletes who play it and work very hard and do impressive things. There are also out-of-shape people who play but then again, there are out of shape people playing soccer, hockey, golf, running marathons, etc.

The ancient Greeks wrote the book on sport. Sport consists of hitting, running, jumping or throwing; a combination thereof or a modification thereof such as hitting a baseball with a stick, kicking a ball (hitting), race walking (running), hoops (throwing) etc. The list goes on. This is what the olympics are based on.

Is baseball a real sport? Another kiddie troll trying to start an argument. Go back to dyestat.

ok, its just my name, im an ex troll. not anymore. i agree with what you said in your post. baseball players are SKILLED not athletic. Poker players are SKILLED but they are not athletic. get it straight numbnuts.

Alright, a simple yes would have done nicely. The OP admits, in his name, that he is a troll and you just walked into his trolly den. All of us reasonable guys know that baseball is a sport and that there are a lot of very skilled athletes who play it and work very hard and do impressive things. There are also out-of-shape people who play but then again, there are out of shape people playing soccer, hockey, golf, running marathons, etc.[/quote]

It's a pastime that involves sudden, ballistic activity interrupted by long periods of boredom.

No wrote:

It's a pastime that involves sudden, ballistic activity interrupted by long periods of boredom.

Truer words...

If you could hit a curveball or a 95 mph fastball, you'd think it was a sport. Actually, if I could do either, I be at letsplaybaseball.com instead of responding to that ridiculous post.

to those who don't understand baseball, there are long periods of boredom because they think nothing is going to happen. those who understand the sport know that in those periods anything could happen

95% skill, 5% sport

If you can chew tobacco or drink a beer while doing it... it probably does not require a large amount of athleticism. I will not argue the definition of a sport, it would be arbitrary. However, I will argue that hitting a 95 mile per hour fastball is a talent, and a developed one at that. But, it in no way makes you an athlete. You are in no way pushing the boundaries of the human body while participating in the activity. The exception might be those redic outfield dives into the walls which are badass. But you would have to be semi retarded or SOOO worried your going to get fired by your wishy washy money hungery monetary based franchise for one mistake that youll risk anything so that they dont import a Mexican to take your place. That is my miny rant on baseball and yes its probably flawed and I dont think I'm clever for writing this but I really do have a problem with it being called our national pastime when just about everything the sport stands for is negative and it is directly tied to America. Also, more than twice as many 6-15 year olds participate in Soccer and thats a fact. Therefore... that should be the passtime of America if anything.

And if were going to bother defining a sport. How about defining athleticism which is the base of all sports, which would then lead you to define athlete. And take a look at what track and field is called in all Olympic and or national competitions.

my god wrote:

If you can chew tobacco or drink a beer while doing it... it probably does not require a large amount of athleticism.

I'm not sure what your point is. If you do anything at a less than totally serious level than you can do either of those things while participating. I've never seen a pro ball player out sipping a beer in the outfield. I don't know why you think that dipping makes baseball any less athletic. There are people who participate at a high level in many different sports who dip during competition, even running.

It's a sport because at the end, they have numbers that tell you who won or who lost, and those numbers are derived from the determination of an objective fact (how many times an each team had an individual touch home plate in the context of a rather convoluted set of rules). This is opposed to something like figure skating, where there's an evaluation of "artistic merit", which ought to remove it from consideration as a sport.

Is it a very pure sport? No, because the rules are so ridiculous (strike a thrown ball in such a way that you are able to run ninety feet and touch the base before the ball is either caught on the fly, or fielded and thrown to first base; or receive four pitches outside of the area between your knees and your upper torso and over the plate before receiving three pitches inside this area, or at which you swing and miss, or which are hit outside of the area between first and third base, except if two strikes have already been received; and have your team mates follow in such a fashion that...)

Is it difficult? Of course it is--any competitive activity is difficult to win, by virtue of its competitive nature. The 0.5 m dash is difficult, because it requires such incredible reflexes that 99% of the population will lose to the 1% of the population with those reflexes. Not everything difficult is a sport, of course, but all competitive sports are difficult if you want to win.

Is it arduous? No, you very rarely have to endure real pain to play or win a game of baseball, and the pain that you do experience is sporadic and unpredictable.