What's harder: tennis vs. baseball

[eLterrible]

OK, so i was having a discussion with some baseball guys (yeah), and we were arguing which would be harder:

Returning Roddick's 140+ serve

or

Hitting off Clemon's 100+ fast ball

I of course argued for the return of serve, because the distance is shorter and the swinging space is so much wider (baseball players have a strike zone and barely have to move their feet)

Their argument was that a tennis racquet is so much bigger and the court significantly slows down the ball after the bounce.

What are your opinions on this?

[jjames]

well, if you aren't careful, clemens may bean you. less surface area on the bat, than a tennis racquet.

[FalconX]

I would say hitting a fast ball. I think in tennis you have a pretty good chance of getting your racquet on the ball if you decide to guess one way. Now making a decent return or a return winner, that's a different story. In baseball guessing will rarely get you anywhere.

[Moose Malloy]

Baseball, it's not even close. Look at it this way. Only one guy(I think) Ichiro has hit .350 in the last 5 years or so. .300 isn't exactly common either. That means a guy who gets the ball in play 30% of the time is a major star. He fails 70% of the time. Imagine if a tennis player got the ball in play 30% of the time. He wouldn't be able to make a living at his sport.
Not to mention the whole risk of death in facing Clemens, which isn't there if you are facing Roddick. It's not that hard to get out of the way of a tennis ball, compared to a baseball going right at your head.

You can compare how often anyone gets a hit off of a Clemens fastball & how often anyone gets a 140 return off of Roddick. I imagine the numbers would clearly be Clemens favor.

[bcaz]

The distance is actually 78 feet baseline to baseline, so the receiver of a big serve is usually more than 80 feet away. The pitcher's rubber is 60 feet 6 inches from home plate and the ball leaves his hand about 56 feet from the batter, so the distance is almost 50% farther in tennis. The racquet is flat, much wider, and shorter than the long, thin, round bat. It also would be harder to hit Roddick's serve on the fly than it is after it bounces. The racquet weighs 12-13 ounces and the bat weighs 31-36 ounces.

[BreakPoint]

What's harder: baseball or tennis?

I'd say a baseball is significantly harder than a tennis ball, as I'd much rather get hit in the face by a tennis ball than by a baseball. LOL.

[Ken B.]

I would say hitting a baseball's harder, because getting beaned with a tennis ball is nothing compared to a baseball. Anything short of being hit in the eye with a tennis ball (ala Johansen) really wont hurt you, whereas getting hit by a baseball in most areas could damage something.

Now, Tennis is the better sport because you have to run around a lot and be in better shape to play and is more aggressive, but in the case you described baseball would be harder.

And I hate baseball. So saying that really hurts.

[jamauss]

I've played both for a number of years and as far as difficulty goes (just returning serve vs. getting your bat on the ball when it's pitched) I would say they're about equal.

It's true that once a tennis ball hits the court it loses quite a bit of it's original speed. I don't know the exact numbers or equation but I believe it's something like 140mph off the racquet equals roughly 100-110 after it hits the ground.

Here's my breakdown of difficulty:

Making contact (baseball more difficult, bat has less surface area and you have less time seeing the ball and less time to react to where it's going. Bats weigh a lot more than tennis racquets, too.) If the distance for a serve is shorter, it's not by much, maybe 5 ft or so. Mound to plate is 90 ft. Edit: Wait, sorry - 90 feet is between bases. As said above, baseline to baseline is a greater distance.

Putting the ball where it needs to go (tennis more difficult, a tennis court is much much smaller than a baseball field and you have to be much more precise with your placement of the ball, and thus, how you make contact.)

Tracking the ball (Baseball more difficult - you basically have 2 types of serves in tennis - flat and slice/kick. As a batter you have to be able to hit change-up, curve, slider/sinker, screwball, knuckle ball, etc.) However, the ball is only coming to one side. In tennis you might have to turn to either side (FH or BH) to make contact w/ the ball.

All things said, I think the difficutly is about even. Most tennis players that have moderate skill in baseball can hit 80-85 mph fastballs without too much trouble - e.g. Sampras hitting batting practice with the Cinci Reds - because the hand-eye coordination and responsiveness is already built in.

[jBayjoey]

I honestly think the hardest thing to do in sports is to hit a major league baseball pitch for MANY reasons.

1. Round bat, round ball, doesn't make sense huh?
2. Speed (Try going from a 100mph and then immediately seeing a 72 mph)
3. Spin (Try going from a 100mph cannonball to a 72mph curve)
4. Timing
5. Funky motions
6. Outside distractions
7. Weight of the bat
8. Weight of the ball

[simi]

Last year, in May, USA Today ran a series of articles titled, "The Ten Hardest Things To Do In Sports". "Hitting a baseball" came in first. "Returning a Serve" was only fifth, after "Race Car Driving", "Pole Vaulting", and "Hitting a Straight, Long Tee Shot".

Let's put aside the argument of if Auto Racing and Golfing are "sports". Before this series of articles, I had heard that hitting a pitched ball in baseball was the most difficult thing to do in a sporting contest.

The article is still on-line. Lots of "expert" analysis. You can find it at:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ten-hardest-splash.htm

[RiosTheGenius]

Tennis is more difficult. the sweet-spot of a tennis racquet isn't much wider than a baseball bat. the baseball is coming pretty much at you, while you usually must run to hit the tennis ball, then, in baseball your shot is successful as long as you make contact with the ball, in tennis you must return the ball within the lines of the court. and lastly, in tennis you only have one shot at it while baseballl you can screw up twice and can still make the shot.
Tennis is harder by quite far. IMO

[tonysk83]

Originally Posted by RiosTheGenius

Tennis is more difficult. the sweet-spot of a tennis racquet isn't much wider than a baseball bat. the baseball is coming pretty much at you, while you usually must run to hit the tennis ball, then, in baseball your shot is successful as long as you make contact with the ball, in tennis you must return the ball within the lines of the court. and lastly, in tennis you only have one shot at it while baseballl you can screw up twice and can still make the shot.
Tennis is harder by quite far. IMO

If you make contact with that ball in baseball that means nothing. Foul balls don't count as hits, ground balls normally result in being thrown out, fly balls get caught.

[FalconX]

I believe the hardest thing to do in any sport is lifting a 580 lbs weight above you head which this man is able to do. That means he can lift shaq and Roger Clemens both above his head in two motions. And he's shorter than both of them. That's without steroids.

[quest01]

Im not sure what it was, but a magazine or something was saying whats the hardest thing to do in a sport. The #1 ranked thing was hitting a baseball at the major league level. When someone is throwing that hard, you only have a split second to react and decide if your going to swing or not. I agree that hitting a baseball when its traveling at a MLB level is the hardest thing to do in any sport, plain and simple.

[eLterrible]

hmmmm im starting to believe batting is much harder

BUT

tennis is still way more entertaining to watch for me.

Having played baseball for a lot of years I appreciate the difficulty of hitting a fastball, but if the pitcher is throwing strikes you'll get a chance to put the bat on the ball every time. A tennis ball served 140+ up the tee and out of your reach and there's not much hope of contact, is there?

[Skppr05]

Originally Posted by BreakPoint

What's harder: baseball or tennis?

I'd say a baseball is significantly harder than a tennis ball, as I'd much rather get hit in the face by a tennis ball than by a baseball. LOL.

dont think that was the question lol

[quest01]

Originally Posted by Topspinz

Having played baseball for a lot of years I appreciate the difficulty of hitting a fastball, but if the pitcher is throwing strikes you'll get a chance to put the bat on the ball every time. A tennis ball served 140+ up the tee and out of your reach and there's not much hope of contact, is there?

I think it would be much easier getting a racquet on a 140+ serve then hitting a baseball going 90+. You need to have better hand eye coordination for baseball then just returning a serve.

[Max G.]

The problem with making judgements about "what's harder" is that the standards of judgement are different.

In tennis, to "successfully get back" a 140 mph serve, you not only need to get your racquet on it, you need to control it with great precision - the court is a pretty small area to hit into, compared to a baseball field.

[Steve Dykstra]

I think successfully getting a hit off of Roger Clemens would be MUCH harder than returning an Andy Roddick serve in the court.