Hitting a Baseball is the Hardest Skill to Pull Off in Sports. Here's Why.
By: Pocket
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
There are few aspects of life where you can fail seven out of 10 times and still be considered great at what you do. With a 30 percent score on the MCAT, you wouldn't get into medical school. You'd likely lose money if you only won 30 percent of your Super Bowl bets. But in baseball, if you get a hit 30 percent of the time you step up to the plate, you might be headed to the Hall of Fame—and that's because it's perhaps the most difficult thing to do in any major sport.
Ted Williams, for instance, one of the greatest hitters to ever play Major League Baseball, finished his 19-year career playing for the Boston Red Sox with a .344 batting average. That's a 34 percent success rate, tied for seventh best in the sport's history. But even he famously said that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. So why is that the case?
For one, the physics are extreme. The velocity of the average fastball in the Major Leagues is more than 90 miles per hour. When the ball whizzes in at that speed from less than 60 feet away, the hitter has about 150 milliseconds to decide whether they want to swing. That's literally the blink of an eye.
And even though a hitter has that 150 milliseconds to decide whether to swing, the ball is only in the hitting zone for less than 10 milliseconds, according to David Kagan, a physics professor at California State University, Chico, and the self-proclaimed "Einstein of the National Pastime." Essentially, the amount of time the ball is in a spot where the batter can make contact and keep it in fair territory equates to the time separating a photo finish at the Kentucky Derby.
Plus, hitting a round baseball with a round bat squarely is an additional piece to this complicated puzzle. Getting those two curvy objects to connect in just the right way is extremely difficult—if you're off by just a smidge, the ball could hook foul or make for an easy out instead of sailing over the wall.
Imagine the bat like a target. If the bat hits the ball at exactly the correct spot, a bullseye that's one-fifth of an inch in diameter, the batter will likely hit a home run. But if the ball makes contact with the ring just outside the bullseye, they'll hit nothing more than a ground ball back to the pitcher. In other words, the margin of error for where the batter can make contact with the ball and hope to get a hit is half the width of the SIM-card in your iPhone.
Taking a peek at hitters' brains can also explain why getting a hit is such a difficult feat. Paul Sajda, an engineering professor at Columbia University, studies the neural processes involved in rapid decision making. He compares trying to hit a baseball with trying to hit a bullet with another bullet. "You're trying to hit something that's moving super-fast with something else that's moving super-fast," he says.
Thomas Kaminski, the director of athletic training education at the University of Delaware, compares trying to hit a baseball to trying to catch a peanut in your mouth from someone 100 feet away. Although even then, he says, it would be much easier for the individual to get in a good position to catch the peanut. Hitting a baseball is "truly a marvel if you think about it," he says.
What's more, the incredible hand-eye coordination of baseball players transfers well to other sports—but excelling at other sports doesn't mean you'll be able to hit a baseball. An athlete could look competent on the soccer field or the basketball court. But take a soccer or basketball player and get them to try to hit a baseball? That won't work out so well, he says.
That's because successful hitters are exceptional in two areas, Sajda's lab hypothesizes. First, hitting a baseball is not about how fast a batter can swing, but rather how fast they can stop themselves from swinging at pitches they aren't likely to get hits on—preventing more strikeouts and creating more opportunities to get a hit. The ability to determine in 150 milliseconds whether to swing matters more than the batter just being able to swing quickly.
The second important area is a hitter's ability to identify pitches, he says. To an ordinary person, determining the difference between a fastball and a curveball is like determining the difference between the faces of two strangers in 150 milliseconds. They have no associations with that person, and it takes longer to process their facial expressions. For a baseball player, identifying the two pitches is like distinguishing between the faces of two family members—even in 150 milliseconds, it's easy to identify the differences between your brother and sister because your brain is familiar with them.
And even with athletically-specialized brains and plenty of intense training, many still aren't cut out to be MLB-caliber hitters. It's just that difficult.
For proof, look no further than the greatest basketball player of all time, Kagan adds. Even Michael Jordan's unparalleled athleticism and competitiveness couldn't offer him elite batting prowess.
"When I see the very limited number of human beings that can do what [MLB hitters] do, I'm just in awe," Kagan says. "You take a person like Michael Jordan [who] tried to play baseball. Michael Jordan couldn't play baseball. You know baseball's really hard."
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And basically, not everyone who can, wants to labor and practice in the minor leagues waiting for their shot,
which is why the MLB has 1 in 3 players who are born outside the US and fewer and fewer young black players
or undrafted walk ons. UDFA's are limited to $20K but can get up to $100K deferred over 2 years.
By comparison, the lowest paid NFL players, the practice squad players make $9,200 per week or $165,600 for 18 weeks.
Veteran NFL players with over two years of experience will make $14,000 per week or $252,000 for 18 weeks.
Also, baseball in America is an expensive sport to play. Basketball and football are not.
Pro Football has no minor league, there is a tiny fraction of fraction of people that can walk on a Pro Football Team. The amount of practice and training is pretty much non-stop, you have a shorter career, a greater chance of injury and long term effects of those injuries are much higher in Pro Football than baseball. As for the headline of hitting a baseball is the hardest thing in sports, I don't agree.
In Texas we call it Friday night lights and the SEC...
What do you think is the hardest thing?
But the article is not just a headline. Didn't you read the article? The author clearly states
As crazy as it sounds "Golf", hitting a 1.68" inch ball, 200+ yards to get within 36" of a 4.25" hole in the ground. There are many sports that are very hard to "master", tennis, gymnastics, boxing.
The golf ball isn't moving when you hit it. Hopefully.
Yes, I did, it takes tremendous hand eye coordination to hit a baseball along with superior reaction time, but imagine if they had to do it while a 250lb linebacker that runs a 4.5 forty is coming to take your head off, now that would be a feat very few people could master.
To be fair the author is pretty obviously biased, as evidenced by the one-way comparisons.
He points out how elite players of other sports struggle at baseball. He never mentions how few baseball players can even begin to compete in other sports.
True.
In Golf, one must master swinging a consistent club to hit the exact same spot each time. So one need perfect the body dynamics for a single motion. It is not easy, grant it, but now compare this to Baseball.
In batting, the ball:
One key similarity between the professional Baseball swing and the professional Golf swing is that both require a perfectly coordinated, balanced, timed use of one's body to achieve maximum power and precision. One key difference is that while there is only one 'drive', there are countless, different ways that a hitter must learn to swing the bat and must decide which to use (if any) in milliseconds.
The larger target (baseball bigger than golfball) does not make up the difference.
True story. My boss gave me a set of new clubs in 1994 and I hacked up quite a few driving ranges and MWR golf
courses through the years, generally ignoring score cards as I was well over par before the 9th hole.
Had the opportunity to play Pebble Beach one year with the son in law and some Air Force officers who worked for my daughter.
We had to rent state of the art Calloways. I was terrible compared to those three but I was only 30 over and I drained a
35 foot putt up on the last hole. I was ecstatic.
Equipment alone improved my golfing in one afternoon.
If I could still swing at 80- 90mph pitches, I know I cannot hit a slider, it was my downfall for my short shot at the minors
almost 50 years ago.
Truly apples and oranges, lol
Trust the scientists to take the fun out of America's pastime
Where is the Mighty Casey when you need him?
Stuck in Mudville
There are way less goals in hockey than base hits.
They do frown upon using hockey sticks like a baseball bat
Larry Walker was inducted into the Hall Of Fame this afternoon. Despite some concerns about him having played most of his career with hitting friendly Coors Field in Colorado as his home field , Walkers sterling statistics got him into the Hall.
Across 17 seasons in the major leagues , Walker reached base .400 , or 40 percent of the time. That is extremely outstanding for one year, let alone for an entire long career.
Playing out of the media limelight most of his career, he didnt have the big name others did.
I am glad someone like this was chosen for the Hall Of Fame.
Walker played for the Cardinals a few seasons, we loved him here in St Louis, Congratulations Larry!