Dan claimed baseball was not a sport, but instead a game for senile, fat, tobacco-chewing men. This statement is incorrect. It's time I set the record straight for baseballers and lacrossists everywhere. Read and learn.

Baseball-lacrosse tensions have always been high here at QO. Even back in the 20th century, lacrosse players and baseball players debated which was the better sport. Which sport is better? That is like asking which type of ice cream is best. But the claim that baseball is not a real sport is quite refutable. Perhaps "sport" is too elusive a term. Dan's definition of a sport is clearly not the same as mine; everyone has their own definition. I will instead use the word "activity." Baseball is an activity that requires skill, mental toughness, and yes, athletic ability.

If you have played baseball at a competitive level, you can attest that athleticism is definitely a requirement. True, baseball players don't run miles or hit 250 pound linebackers. The athleticism in baseball is very skill-specific. Benching 300 will get you nowhere if you can't put your bat on the ball. A 4.3 40-yard dash is worth nothing if you can't read a fly ball and throw it in. On the other hand, a weakling who makes solid contact every time is invaluable, and a slow runner who can throw straight to home plate from the outfield is a star. Pitchers lift weights not for bulk strength, but for muscle endurance and flexibily. Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez has the chest of a 13-year-old, but he throws the ball 98 miles an hour. Ichiro Suzuki didn't win MVP by lofting home runs into the upper deck--he just put his bat on the ball and got on base, game after game. Strength, speed, stamina, and other physical attributes are always beneficial, but not without the necessary skills that are exclusive to baseball.

These skills are not easily come by. Hitting a ball moving at 85-plus miles an hour with a bat, neither of which is moving in a straight line, is not easy. Hitting a target the size of a dessert plate from 60 feet away while fully exerting your body is not easy. Baseball skills are only learned by repetition, diligent practice over and over again.

Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said, "Baseball is ninety-percent mental. The other half is physical." Regardless of the mathematical implications, he was right. Baseball is a mental game. For example, the bench coach picks a pitcher to use against the other team, based on right-handed or left-handed-ness. Once the pitcher is on the mound, the coach calls pitches by relaying them to the catcher, who relays them to the pitcher, who may nod, if he agrees. In the meantime, all of the fielders are assessing the current situation (i.e. ball-strike count, players on base, number of outs, score, batter history, etc.), each pre-emptively deciding what to do. Every possible situation in baseball has to be carefully run through in practice, like an army battalion going over scenarios.

Mental toughness under pressure is very important. The time players have between pitches to examine and re-examine their decisions is not present in other mainstream sports, which are all mainly reactionary. As it is in any sport, no matter how long you play, you can always make a wrong decision. In fact, the most costly errors in baseball are not physical errors, but mental ones. In the 2001 World Series, Yankees third baseman Scott Brosius made a mental mistake that lost his team the World Championship. He threw to the wrong bag, getting an out, but eliminating the possibility of a double play which would have ended the inning. No melodramatic dropped pop fly or strike out, he made the wrong decision on where to throw the ball. (As an avid hater of the Yankees, I love bringing this up.)

Baseball, when played at a competitive level, requires both athletic and mental ability, along with a diligent work ethic. I love baseball (if you couldn't tell), and I never tire of its complexity and poetry. Dan may have not thought it was worthy of being a sport. Whether or not you agree depends on your definition of "sport," but if ESPN, The Washington Post, NBC, ABC, CBS, and countless other institutions have long recognized baseball's "sport" status, Dan's got a lot of people to persuade.