Click above for the full cringe-inducing video.
I’m not sure where this rumor got started, but over the past two decades people out there have been claiming that baseball isn’t a contact sport like football, basketball, or hockey. Hearing someone claim this gets pretty much the same reaction out of me as someone who claims that global warming doesn’t exist: I get angry and flustered, and my head fills with so many talking points at once that I can’t choose one and then end up sounding just as ignorant as the person I’m trying to enlighten. So I decided to preempt anyone making that argument to me by breaking it down for them once and for all.
For those of you who didn’t see it, the Padres’ Edgar Gonzalez (brother of Adrian) go hit in the back of the head with a 93 mph fastball over the weekend. The impact kept him in the hospital for 3 days with dizziness and ringing in his ears. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that his batting helmet saved his life. This has happened before. I remember Sammy Sosa having his helmet shattered by a fastball in 2003, which he claimed saved his life. There was also the case of Adam Greenberg, who saw exactly one major league pitch in his career before it was ended when that pitch hit him in the head in 2005. When asked about it two years later, the pitcher who hit Greenberg, Valerio de los Santos, said “Going down the way he went, the first thing going through your mind is ‘This guy’s dead.’”
The team doctor compared his crushed eye socket to the disintegration of an egg shell.
I could go on to mention all of the come-backers that have hit pitchers in the head and altered their careers, like of Kaz Ishii. I could mention Juan Encarnacion, who is now mostly blind in his left eye after being hit by a foul ball while waiting on deck. I could mention Ray Chapman, who died from a pitch to the head in the days before batting helmets, or Doc Powers, who died from injuries sustained from a collision with a wall while chasing a pop-up. I could bring up any number of injury-inducing collisions at the plate, in the outfield, into walls, into the stands, or taking out a guy on the base-paths. I could mention the signs in every Major League ballpark that warn fans to watch for flying objects, a bit of advice that might save their lives should a foul ball or thrown bat come careening towards them. I could even direct you to a book that counts the 850 deaths resulting from baseball as of 2007.
I could site any number of instances to prove my point, but the essence is this:
baseball is a sport that consists of someone hurling an object with lethal force at men who are wielding clubs and intend to swing them violently, followed by that ball traveling in an undetermined direction with deadly force while people run around at top speed towards either other people or towards solid walls, all with little regard for their own personal safety. Every time the ball is thrown or hit, every time someone runs into a wall or another player, there exists the potential for either serious injury, or even death. Football and hockey might be violent more often, but the the extent of the violence in baseball is greater than any sport on Earth. So if you’re one of those people that likes to claim that baseball isn’t a contact sport, this is your turn to get all angry and flustered trying to think of a response.
Try telling Aaron Rowand that this isn't a contact sport.
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Baseball is obviously a contact sport, but the extent of the violence in baseball doesn’t compare to boxing or MMA. I hope this doesn’t make you angry or flustered.
MMA isn’t a sport. It’s legal gladiating.
Sport – an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition. According to that definition, MMA is a sport, and yes it is also legal gladiating (without swords and lions).
In my opinion, a “contact sport” is a competition between two opponents that require physical contact to either gain opposition over the other opponent (punch to the head) or to end a play (football/rugby tackle). These players train to do these actions. Although there is some physicality in baseball, players do not train to throw the ball at someone (i.e. like dodge ball) or barrel over catchers when the play is at home plate.
Baseball is not a contact sport; but I definitely give props to the players that sacrifice themselves for the game.
Ok, I’m going to address your comments in order. First, Twan: Boxing and MMA have violence way more often, but not as severe. Robin Ventura once turned his foot backwards when his cleat got stuck in the ground while sliding into home. Horrific injuries like that don’t happen in fights. Second, San Fran: MMA is definitely a sport. It combines Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, kick boxing, wresting, judo, and sambo among other martial arts. And it has less injuries and less concussions than boxing. And Adelson, you’re just wrong. Beaning players is definitely a part of the game, both intentional and unintentional. So is taking a pitch to get on base. It’s a skill and it’s taught by coaches to players. On top of that, they definitely do train to run into catchers, take guys out at second to break up a double play, run into walls, dive and hit their faces on the ground making a catch, etc. These are all things that they’ve done in practice and as amateurs on their way to doing these same things as pros. Contact is part of the game and is taught by their coaches.
Jeremy: You’re getting violence and accidents confused. Robin Ventura hurt his foot by accident and I don’t think that, and other accidents, should factor into the equation.
There may be contact IN baseball, but that does not make it a contact sport. In my opinion, a contact sport is a sport that revolves around human contact. You can watch an entire baseball game without any human contact whatsoever.
I don’t think that’s true, Preston. There is always contact, though less often than football or hockey. I am willing to bet cash money that there has never been a single game without someone crashing into a wall, diving into the ground, taking a guy out at second, a hit batsman, etc. There is always SOME contact. And when there is contact in baseball, the impact is usually pretty rough.
This retard Jeremy just said the violence in mma isn’t as severe as baseball…I really can’t come up with anything to subside your stupidity you are past being able to be enlightened.
the whole sport of mma is violent. And injuries like that happen all the time unlike baseball. And also unlike baseball they are usually on purpose submitting someone. Breaking joints and limbs when someone doesn’t want to tap.
Also…I’ll take you up on that bet
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[...] those of you who missed it, I wrote a piece a few weeks ago detailing why baseball is definitely a contact sport. Well my point then still stands that, although baseball is violent less often than in other [...]