surprising espn article

[Joe Tall]

Rugby is massively underrated in this list.

Peace,
Joe Tall

[MMMMMM]

I think swimming is the best sport for overall conditioning and general well-being. Swimming the butterfly, especially for someone not used to it, will tire you out pretty fast like punching the heavy bag. Other strokes are relatively easy.

[Sooga]

I too, was of your opinion back in college. I thought it was just a buncha knuckleheads swinging at each other for 12 rounds. Nothing too difficult, right? During college we had a certain party where we held a couple boxing matches before it began. We used really soft gloves, and no hitting above the neck, and we had 3 90-second rounds. Granted, I wasn't in totally peak physical condition, but I was no slouch, and after those 3 rounds, I was more tired than I had EVER been doing ANY physical sport. I play 5 games of pickup ball for 2, 3 hours, and at the end of that I wasn't nearly as tired as I was after that boxing match. And we weren't even hitting that hard! I was shocked, and since then I've had a newfound respect for boxing.

[Sooga]

I believe he hit .202.. but he did show good speed on the basepaths.. Plus, he just looked fantastic in a baseball uniform *chuckle*

[BeerMoney]

The toughest sports to be successful in are the ones with the best athletes and competitors. These are usually the sports which are accessible and affordable to the most people. I would take a guess and say it would be tougher to be the best ping-pong player in China then the best Hockey player in Mexico.

[Diplomat]

Well, there seems to be some consensus that boxing is the most difficult sport. I'll nominate it as also being the dumbest sport.

Flame away.

-Diplomat

[Diplomat]

Kurn,

I agree, the degree of hand/eye coordination required for many parts of top-level baseball is incredible. The question is how to define "physically demanding" or "difficult." Do you see why?

Best wishes,

-Diplomat

[jdl22]

I'm not surprised it isn't but I think cricket should be on the list ranked right with baseball. I thought cricket would be easier because the bat is flat while a baseball bat is round, but the bounce adds a serious degree of difficulty in batting.

Haven't really played cricket, just stepped in when a Jamaican friend of mine was bowling and I think that it was much harder to bat there than in baseball. He was taking it easy on me and there was pretty much nothing I could do but hope to get lucky.

Anybody actually played both?

[andyfox]

I agree 100%. Two guys stand in a square area and chase each other, trying to hit each other until one guy falls down and stays down long enough for a third man to count to ten before he gets up.

Let 'em flame us both. They have no case.

[andyfox]

I also did a little boxing back then and I felt like my arms were going to fall off after the second round. So I held them a little lower at the start of the 3rd figuring my opponent was feeling about the same. Big mistake.

I still agree with Diplomat that it's a sport for morons.