You don't have to be an elite athlete to play baseball.
As Michael Jordan showed. He couldn’t hit double A pitching.
Each sport has its own metrics about what elite means.
@bradstevens no I’m very angry. Heading into the club now where I’ll be having drinks to watch the France game
@zeke4ahs my five year old had seven goals weekend before last. a goal scorer's instinct, to be sure. he gravitated to the goal like a magnet. at just five he already recognizes that his value is in the attack, that it's vital that he conserve his energy for going forward, and that the relentless calls (whines) to get back MUST be ignored, both from his teammates and his coaches. i was super proud of him. service to him was incredibly poor, almost to a toddler. very rarely were balls played to his feet, requiring him to chase down shitty passes, wasting his precious energy. honestly it was hard to watch. but he soldiered on, limiting his tantrums to less than a dozen. to the untrained eye it probably looked like he was at times just wandering around. he wasn't. he was taking a mental picture of the formations he was seeing, finding the space, for later. unfortunately this was lost on his "teammates."
Like I said, little Murt, 9 PCAs, and Bron Bron at goalie. We're winning it all. I did make the difficult decision of firing Russell Crowe and hiring the coach with the great hair.
On full display, here:@snarlcakes no baseball players are the opposite end of the spectrum. you are correct. Stephen A said it perfectly. it's a combination of endurance, speed, fast twitch muscles, bravery, mechanical skills, spatial awareness, and when you throw in the amount you have to suffer and be brave there's really no comparison. certainly not baseball. a sport of largely out of shape central americans and red neck southerners who got cut from football
Stephen A. Smith recently made waves for claiming that American athletes cannot match the extreme conditioning levels of top soccer players. He argued that while NBA stars like LeBron James and Steph Curry are in remarkable shape, soccer requires an entirely different, relentless level of continuous cardiovascular endurance.Smith also highlighted legends like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to illustrate the sport's intense demands. Unlike in American sports, where players can occasionally get away with being out of shape or pacing themselves, soccer demands 90+ minutes of high-intensity running. For Smith, this means soccer players represent a gold standard of sheer athletic conditionin
@snarlcakes good lord I’ve never even heard of this pca guy. Apparently very few people anywhere have. He has 250k followers on ig 🤣. Stealth campers have bigger followings. No he’s not beating anyone but some Dominicans and country boys in Georgia
@snarlcakes good lord I’ve never even heard of this pca guy. Apparently very few people anywhere have. He has 250k followers on ig 🤣.
Your disrespect of America’s pastime in favor of euro trash sports is noted.
You're a couple posts away from hopping on a trike and going for a ride with Shooter.
@carramrod just pointing that snarl wanted to compare a guy on the cubs. Some hickory huck from small town wherever who beat out other hickory hucks from small town Louisiana or wherever to soccer stars. Globally recognized superstars. 250k people follow to 250 million followers. Different worlds
@snarlcakes good lord I’ve never even heard of this pca guy. Apparently very few people anywhere have. He has 250k followers on ig 🤣. Stealth campers have bigger followings. No he’s not beating anyone but some Dominicans and country boys in Georgia
He's young and just started playing unreal. All BS aside he is an elite athlete. Runs like a f#cking deer. Has incredible speed and is the best fielding outfielder by far in the league. He also got in trouble for telling some chick fan to suck his d#ck and she is a b#tch for talking sh#t to him. All gas.
@snarlcakes yeah ive never heard of him. Like most people apparently aren’t that impressed. 250k followers 🤣. As I said these guys playing soccer are running 4.3 40s and catching 70 yard passes on their feet. They have hundreds of millions of followers. Compete against Egyptian kings. Jungle kings. Favelas. French suburbs. American burbs. Not just outcompeting against other small town southern kids who can’t make the football team or Dominicans. Im sure in ten years he’ll still only be known to a comparatively tiny few
He's an elite defensive CF. I've seen him in person 5 times now and I've never seen an outfielder get the kind of jump he does on a ball.@snarlcakes good lord I’ve never even heard of this pca guy. Apparently very few people anywhere have. He has 250k followers on ig 🤣. Stealth campers have bigger followings. No he’s not beating anyone but some Dominicans and country boys in Georgia
So he has world class skill at reading a ball hit off a bat from 250 feet away and immediately be able to calculate where it is going and what angle to take. I'm sure if trained in soccer that would translate into something, although likely not 100%. I consider this skill an "athletic skill," even if doesn't show up in a 40 time, bench press number, etc.
Your point that soccer players need different talents is well taken and there's no guarantee that a pro in another sport will translate to soccer. But my point all along has been that more kids in the US than other countries, who have the athletic skills prized by soccer (a fat, short, slow guy who can receive a ball like Messi has athletic talent just a more hidden, sports-specific one than those we traditionally consider "athletes"), end up playing other sports because they are more culturally dominant, enjoyed, and accepted here.
@bradstevens and i think you get it but where i continue to disagree is the notion that kids going to other sports would make any difference in socccer in the states. i don't believe it would. 1) because kids who the sport appeals to gravitate towards it. and part of that is they aren't 6'10 or 270 pounds or whatever. so if you take the small percentage that from the other sports that "may" have a relatable skill set (hockey probably most) they will just add redundancy to what we already have not improve it.
2) what iniesta pirlo messi xavi henry zidane ronaldinho etc has isn't sitting on a soccer field or baseball diamond in the u.s. it's a 100 years of inculcated culture, instruction, dna. how busquets received a ball isn't something we have in hte u.s. and we have millions playing and the coaches are paid professionals and they are not able to impart it. adding some guy who would be a good centerfielder in baseball is inapposite to that
He's an elite defensive CF. I've seen him in person 5 times now and I've never seen an outfielder get the kind of jump he does on a ball.@snarlcakes good lord I’ve never even heard of this pca guy. Apparently very few people anywhere have. He has 250k followers on ig 🤣. Stealth campers have bigger followings. No he’s not beating anyone but some Dominicans and country boys in Georgia
So he has world class skill at reading a ball hit off a bat from 250 feet away and immediately be able to calculate where it is going and what angle to take. I'm sure if trained in soccer that would translate into something, although likely not 100%. I consider this skill an "athletic skill," even if doesn't show up in a 40 time, bench press number, etc.
Your point that soccer players need different talents is well taken and there's no guarantee that a pro in another sport will translate to soccer. But my point all along has been that more kids in the US than other countries, who have the athletic skills prized by soccer (a fat, short, slow guy who can receive a ball like Messi has athletic talent just a more hidden, sports-specific one than those we traditionally consider "athletes"), end up playing other sports because they are more culturally dominant, enjoyed, and accepted here.
His jumps are so good he often doesn't get credit for just how impressive a defender he is because he makes it look routine. The play below looks like a regular fly ball out, it has a 35% catch probability.
https://twitter.com/TheWARmonger_/status/2075242449044168765