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WBraun
climber
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Oct 30, 2014 - 11:10am PT
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You guys never seen Russ, largo, etc etc play baseball.
They kicked ass .....
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Oct 30, 2014 - 11:24am PT
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EVERY posistion in baseball requires more athlectism than is needed to be an offensive lineman in the NFL.
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Oct 30, 2014 - 12:03pm PT
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The popularity of sports is the fact that it is spontaneous and it not scripted. Throw in a little drama and you got some good entertainment.
As for the manliest sport, I am going with bowling. It takes brass balls to don one of those dorky shirts and lace up those clown shoes.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Oct 30, 2014 - 12:07pm PT
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Still one of my favorite baseball movies EVER.
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bergbryce
climber
East Bay, CA
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Oct 30, 2014 - 12:32pm PT
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Wailing, +1!
No athleticism required to hit a 95 mp fastball, or throw one?
Hmmmmm, yeah, okay.
I ignored televised sports for almost a decade. I think the steroid generation of baseball, and living in AK, did that to me. Got back into it slowly the past couple years. Baseball is the only one that matters and the only one I really care about.
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bergbryce
climber
East Bay, CA
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Oct 30, 2014 - 12:35pm PT
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Loved watching Panda playing third this series. He's a big boy and tremendously athletic.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Oct 30, 2014 - 12:50pm PT
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do some weed
Lol!!!
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CA.Timothy
climber
California
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Oct 30, 2014 - 12:58pm PT
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I would call the ability to hit a fastball hand-eye coordination learned through repetition. Not athleticism. Most ball players are at peak physical fitness and very athletic. Stick them at tight end/WR in the NFL, and many of them could play. Not a lot of room for athleticism in the bullpen however..
I like sports but I am not a fanatic. That sh#t went out of style along with nationalism
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Oct 30, 2014 - 01:06pm PT
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CA.Tim, you are wrong. Again.
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Bushman
Social climber
The island of Tristan da Cunha
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Oct 30, 2014 - 01:18pm PT
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Must wrestle giant foam carabiner and war paint out of trunk now at base of Cookie for team...
"Gehan Steinmeisters!"
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CA.Timothy
climber
California
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Oct 30, 2014 - 01:18pm PT
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Apogee loves sports so much he knows the difference between the AL and NL
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Oct 30, 2014 - 01:24pm PT
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Not all sports. Just baseball.
The rest of them...notsomuch.
Tennis is pretty cool, though.
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Oct 30, 2014 - 01:25pm PT
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It takes tremendous athleticism for most MLB players to tie their shoes as they haven't seen them since high school.
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MisterE
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 30, 2014 - 01:43pm PT
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The distilled duck goes pretty good with my salmon-salad sandwich today, but I think the fish might be a little gamey...
;-)
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Oct 30, 2014 - 01:57pm PT
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I still don't get to climb with the cool kids, or picked for baseball. Screw those sports! Hah
No one likes to climb with the fat kid. Screw you climbers too!!!
Lol
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Splater
climber
Grey Matter
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Oct 30, 2014 - 02:14pm PT
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Anyway, they had the baseball plagyers against the foot ball players... I was shocked to see the baseball players always won the event and even won the head to head strong many contests like tug-o-war.
The baseball players were clearly the better athletes.
Not many baseball players in this list. The only one I remembered without checking was OJ Simpson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstars_(US_Version);
Ever try to hit a 90 mph ball? Or 80 mph? 60 mph?
Just for the hell of it, go to a batting cage one day. It's harder than shit!
The hardest part is to fix your eyes to 20/10 vision. Some of the top hitters say they can actually see the seams on the ball.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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I can see this thread went in an expected direction...
my main issue with a 90 mph fastball is standing next to it as it buzzes by, forget about hitting it, just stand there when it tails over the inside of the plate... not a skill I have.
but athletics is about physical skill... and as Russ points out, those skills are recognized by our peers at an early age. The best skilled players of the children games are first known by the other children, then they are developed by the coaches and filter through an ever finer sieve of competition requiring not only a higher level of skill, but also the ability to perform physically.
It works in climbing, too.
At some level, the ability to train hard becomes important as the last bits of ability are wrung out of a body, a limit defined by the ability to recover from injury and physical abuse.
But getting back to fanaticism (sorry to correct the OP spelling error), it is the selection process that pulls us all in... since we were the ones, at some point, who were not selected to continue to play. But those who were came from our group, we were the ones to see the difference first, playing in the school yard, just a bunch of kids.
It is entirely natural to feel a connection to those best who were chosen. You see in in the quote from the Odyssey above, the Phaeacians choose the best gamers to compete, and to challenge Odysseus, the visiting stranger, who himself was the king of Ithaca and the best in all respects, including his athletic prowess.
We are compelled to recognize the superior skills of people, from our very earliest memories, and to take some credit for those who come from our own community, of the people we knew, and of whom we recognized that greatness.
Sports "fanaticism" grows from that connection. Modern sports are largely professionalized, and that professionalism has erased to some extent the regional character of the teams that compete. This is certainly for the better in terms of the professional athletes who can find a level of compensation that matches there ability... an ability that has a very short duration. One could ask what the price of a skill is, and how much would you take for your own skill, a price that is not just dollars and cents but the likely outcome that you would not be able to practice that sport again, a price extracted by the injuries sure to be from pushing to the extremes of performance.
Those players represent us... most of us are eventually left sitting on the sideline, un-chosen, and few of us, very few, go on.
Our fanaticism celebrates that brief, fleeting moment of athletic excellence, we all have a memory of such a moment for ourselves, and we project that onto those who are able to maintain that excellence long enough for us to learn about them and cheer them on.
There are climbers that very much fit in there, many of them are not professional. That is a harder life, and perhaps that makes their dedication and commitment all the more amazing. What I truly like about climbing is that we climbers, all of us, can pit ourselves against any of the hardest climbs done... we can walk onto the World Series Diamond and compete. And there is no debate about whether or not we have won, we get up the climb or we do not.
Those of us who do get up the most difficult climbs are the select few. And we rally around them, usually our local "heroes" and "heroines," as fanatically as any San Franciscan sitting in the rain for hours waiting to for a glimpse of their favorite player yesterday.
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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"all desire is a desire to be"
Short version.
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JonA
Trad climber
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I'm a climber and I'm a special snowflake. Everyone should appreciate how special I am. Maybe if I rag on professional football and baseball players then that will help me deal with my crippling insecurity.
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