Hardest thing to do in all of sports

Pole vaulting 19 feet. A lot of people could go out and hit a baseball if they get enough tries. Most people would kill themselves if they tried to sprint down a runway and plant a 16 or 17 foot long pole into a box and jump over a bar.

How about cliff diving, then? You have to have a good standing long jump, your timing has to be perfect, and you don't really get to practice, do you?

The 3:50 mile is probably harder, though.

Scoring an NHL goal. It's like trying to get the "A" standard at 5K while others try to prevent that by hitting and tackling you.

There is no luck in running.

You could, by chance, hit a baseball thrown by a professional pitcher. You don't, by chance, run a 4:00 mile.

Hitting a baseball IS NOT the hardest thing to do in sports. But anyone out there who thinks otherwise I challenge them to prove it. SAYING it doesn't prove it.

Ears2Yoo wrote:

There is no luck in running.

You could, by chance, hit a baseball thrown by a professional pitcher. You don't, by chance, run a 4:00 mile.

good point. It's difficult to compare skill sports vs. speed/endurance sports.

I understand your points and I like this discussion and hope more people join in on this.

I could say it is the hardest thing to do in all of sports to hit 400 or above in a baseball season.

Now major league hitters have been trying to do this the last 40 or so years.

But as a skill hitting a baseball is tough to do.

A person can run, it just varies is frequecy.

Hunting and killing a grizzly with your bear(no pun intended) hands is the hardest thing in sport...

Now that is the best answer ever.

Yes, I would agree with that, I have only been able to do it twice.

I had this same argument with someone recently. My point was, in the history of the United States, there has been, what, maybe 250 people ever to run under 4:00 for a mile. Versus how many people that have ever had a MLB hit?

I would say a 4:00 mile is way harder. Until Bannister, people thought you would literally kill yourself if did break 4.

Actually, cliff diving is very easy...the trick is in surviving the fall!

Running a sub 330 mile is the hardest thing in all of sports. Nobody has ever done it; therefore, it is the hardest.

No one has ever hit 1.000 for a whole season either.

There are just way too many things to think of. I think that the luck vs. skill arguement is pretty interesting. Like hitting a hole in one...that has to be high on the list, but a 5 year old can get lucky and do it. My old coach always hated hearing people say "good luck" before running races as he always said that there is no luck in running.

I think that these arguements will always have people side with what sport they are passionate about. Most runners will say the 4-min mile is the hardest, baseball players will say hitting a fastball is hardest, etc. Funny thing is, all the runners that will say the 4-min mile most likely have never done it, but the baseball players most likely have done it. Hmm...

Comparing hitting a pitch and running a Sub-4 mile is like comparing apples to oranges. We should be comparing hitting a pitch to running. Both are things that ALL people can have a chance to do. So in that case hitting a pitch is harder than running. But now if we specify the type of hit, like hitting a HR out of the average MLB Park, and then compare that to a specific running achievment, like a Sub-4 Mile, then things get a little more interesting.

Anyone can get lucky and make contact with a ball thrown by a Major League pitcher, just like anyone can run a mile. Now I think we can all agree that no one can get lucky and hit a HR off a mjor league pitcher because there are too many varibales at play, with the main variables being strength and technique, both being things that people have to refine. Just like with a Sub-4 Mile, you can't get lucky and run under 4. You have to train your body and mind to be able to run through that barrier.

SO - the question should be....."Which is harder, hitting a HR off of a Major League Pitcher or Running a Sub-4 Mile?"

Have you ever hit in a batting cage with the ball going 70 mph? That is the slowest major league pitchers throw. A player has less than one second to figure out what kind of pitch it is, whether they can hit it, where they can hit it, and swing.

Hitting a major league pitch is easily one of the hardest things to do in sports. People train for their entire lives just to be able to bat .280! You have to be a freak to be able to hit a baseball well.

Apples and Oranges-A Comparison

S A. Sandford

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) Vol. 1, No. 3,May/June 1995

We have all been present at discussions (or arguments) in which one of the combatants attempts to clarify or strengthen a point by comparing the subject at hand with another item or situation more familiar to the audience or opponent. More often than not, this stratagem instantly results in the protest that "you're comparing apples and oranges!" This is generally perceived as being a telling blow to the analogy, since it is generally understood that apples and oranges cannot be compared.

However, after being the recipient of just such an accusation, it occurred to me that there are several problems with dismissing analogies with the comparing apples and oranges defense.

First, the statement that something is like comparing apples and oranges is a kind of analogy itself. That is, denigrating an

analogy by accusing it of comparing apples and oranges is, in and of itself, comparing apples and oranges. More importantly, it is not difficult to demonstrate that apples and oranges can, in fact, be compared (see figure 1).

Granny Smith Apple and Sunkist Orange

Fig.1

Materials and Methods

Both samples were prepared by gently desiccating them in a convection oven at low temperature over the course of several days. The dried samples were then mixed with potassium bromide and ground in a small ball-bearing mill for two minutes. One hundred milligrams of each of the resulting powders were then pressed into a circular pellet having a diameter of 1 cm and a thickness of approximately 1 mm. Spectra were taken at a resolution of 1 cm-1 using a Nicolet 740 FTIR spectrometer.

Figure 2 shows a comparison of the 4000-400 cm-1 (2.5-25 mm) infrared transmission spectra of a Granny Smith

apple and a Sunkist Navel orange.

Fig.2

Conclusions

Not only was this comparison easy to make, but it is apparent from the figure that apples and oranges are very similar.

Thus, it would appear that the comparing apples and oranges defense should no longer be considered valid. This is a somewhat startling revelation. It can be anticipated to have a dramatic effect on the strategies used in arguments and discussions in the future.

A Personal Note

I, for one, intend to carry a copy of figure 2 in my pocket so that the next time someone accuses me of comparing apples and oranges, I can whip it out, shove it in front of their eyes, and say, "No - this is comparing apples and oranges!" That should fix them.

Scott A. Sandford is a research astrophysicist working at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

Caleb Brown is an illustrator and biologist living in Montana. By day he drives a delivery van, and by night he draws pictures with his computer.

Did our tax dollars pay for that research?