JUPITER CHRISTIAN SCHOOL – Often known as one of the hardest sports to perfect, baseball is the bane of non-hard workers.

First, hitting a baseball is an almost impossible thing to do for a person that does not play. When a fastball is thrown at 95 MPH or harder, the batter has about .4 seconds to react, which means that you need elite bat speed and hand eye coordination. In Major League Baseball, the average batting average is .250, meaning they get a hit two-and-a-half times every 10 at bats, and this is before we factor in off speed pitches. The average batting average then drops to .211 because these pitches move so much they are impossible to follow.

Pitching is also very hard. To pitch, you must be able to have a variety of pitches mastered, varying in speed and movement, while also having perfect control. The physical strain is almost too much to bear, with many pitchers each season having Tommy John surgery, replacing tendons in their throwing arm.

Next, the speed and agility needed to run the bases successfully proves difficult. The distance between the bases is 90 feet, but the average time between bases is under 4 seconds, making it extremely difficult to keep up. Also, no two baseball fields are the same. Players have to adjust to different field conditions, with a deep outfield in some, but also a short porch in others.

Last but not least, the psychological strain on players is intense. A baseball season in the MLB is 162 games long, over 6 months, including playoffs. That is a long time away from family and friends, while only focusing on baseball. And when you are in a slump, it seems even longer.

To play baseball and succeed, you need to have mastered almost all of these things, making it the hardest sport there is in the world.