Article:To the People Who Don't Believe Baseball is a Sport...

Several people have recently asked me a question that has bothered me for quite some time: what is a sport? There are many points of view about what a sport is. People might say that it only requires athleticism. Others believe that it must involve physical exertion or some sort of cardiovascular workout. These specific examples are arguments of why baseball is not considered a sport to quite a few people, and I personally believe it is because baseball is extremely different from any other sport (besides cricket, of course).

Unlike most sports, baseball doesn’t require a whole  lot of energy. However, it does  take a lot of talent and experience to play it well. The players go through an immense amount of conditional workouts. I have recently heard that each play only requires one person when there are nine players on the field. If you look at each play, you will see that every player moves on the field, with exception to the catcher because his job is to keep people from touching home plate. For instance, the outfield is supposed to back up the infield in case the ball gets past them. The second baseman and shortstop have a vast array of things that they need to keep in mind: watching out for the runner in case he tries to steal a base, covering second base when the team fielding is getting ready to turn a double play, etc. Everyone has a job. You need to watch a game in order to make an accurate judgment about whether baseball requires energy or not. Sure, it might not take as much energy as basketball or hockey, but you can compare it to football. There is an offense and defense that comes in and out of the game for a quick break.

Not only does baseball require a great deal of conditioning, it also needs a plentiful amount of concentration. In order to be a good baseball player, one needs to have good hand-eye coordination, fast hands, skill, practice, and maybe even luck. Here are a couple of questions to the critics of baseball and to the people who believe that baseball isn’t challenging: do you honestly think it is easy to hit a ball nine inches in circumference coming at you at 90-95 miles per hour with a bat of 2.5 inches (maximum)? Do you honestly think it is easy to hit a ball over 350 feet? I’d really like to see an average joe do that. Why do you think (slow-pitch) softball was created?

Why else would people say baseball is not a sport? Each official game in the Major Leagues has four assigned officials (umpires). There are two competitive teams that face one another. The key word there is “competitive”. If a game has at least two opposing teams, then it can probably be considered a sport, wouldn’t it? With all of that being said, how can one argue that baseball is not even remotely close to soccer, basketball, football, or anything else that is considered a sport? And if you don’t consider a sport, what would be? Baseball is  a sport… deal with it!