The Real Ironman

Not this Ironman either.

No, not Cal Ripken Jr. Actually, I'm talking about Jeff Conine. He's going to try to do the Ironman challenge which consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon. Then, you have to do it in under 17 hours. I can't even imagine attempting something like that. Anyway, he makes an interesting point that I rarely think about:

Baseball has probably the worst-conditioned athletes. Running around the bases four times and running down four to six baseballs is not physically taxing.

I completely agree. When you have a sport with Greg Maddux, CC Sabathia, and Prince Fielder, then obviously baseball players aren't well conditioned. Most are, but I guarantee you that football, basketball, soccer, and hockey players are in much better shape. Regardless, that's one of the things that makes baseball better than the other sports. You can relate to baseball players because they're not the 6'8", 250 lb. rock-solid masses that you see in football and basketball. Not that all baseball players have a gut, but baseball definitely has more than any other sport besides golf and bowling (we can debate the definition of sport later). When I watch football and basketball, there's this certainty that I can never play those sports. I'm not tall enough, muscular enough, or fit enough to do it. But, baseball is one thing I feel like I could still do. With just a little workout and some batting cage reps, I can be back at it. It's totally and utterly untrue, but that's the sense you get from watching baseball. That you can still go out there and do it. That's why you see so many softball and baseball leagues still around even for adults. Basketball and football leagues are out there, but based on no research other than observation, I bet there are more adult softball and baseball leagues. We all feel like we can still do it. I love baseball.