I'd like to see a Chael Sonnen / A.J. Pierzynski death match. Maybe even add Nick Diaz to the mix.

With any luck, it would end in a 3-way tie.

This might've been an interesting article if done seriously. But the three picked are Trout, Pujols, and Rivera, and glancing over the reasoning, there is no real thought or research done. Just stupid crap like the reasoning above.

Kyle Farnsworth, Randy Myers, and Daryl Strawberry.

I wonder how many MMA fighters could have a MLB career. Maybe the skill sets are just different - not to mention the sort of training that is required. Not that the premise of this article is stupid . . .

Kind of an odd article. When I think of ballplayers that had training in a fighting skill I think of Ed Ott (college wrestling, did a number of Felix Milan once), Ray Knight (gold gloves boxing, likewise with Eric Davis), Randy Myers (one of the oriental martial arts). From the old days, I believe George Magerkurth was a boxer, as well. The relief pitcher that had a column on espn.com a couple years back (Jones?) gave a list of ballplayers you did not want to get in an altercation with: Mo Vaughn was at the top, as I recall. Darryl Strawberry had a reputation of having extremely strong arms/upper body. I don't recall him having any "fight" moments, perhaps because his reputation was a strong disincentive for others. I do recall that in a Yankees-Red Sox "brawl" he supposedly stood at the Sox dugout yelling at Clemens to come out. Clemens sat quietly, contemplating his next move.

Darryl Strawberry had a reputation of having extremely strong arms/upper body. I don't recall him having any "fight" moments, perhaps because his reputation was a strong disincentive for others.

Darryl Strawberry vs Armando Benitez.

Ugueth Urbina. Or are you not allowed to use a machete in MMA?

I wonder how many MMA fighters could have a MLB career. Maybe the skill sets are just different - not to mention the sort of training that is required. Not that the premise of this article is stupid . . .

This is easy to answer.

Zero. Zero percent of MMA fighters could have a MLB career.

8, There's a great line in Carl Sagan's Contact, where one of the characters wonders if Humanity (which is buildingn a vessel for 5 people due to aliens sending plans to Earth to build that vessel) was sending Decatlon champions when it should be sending Chess champions.

(Or something like that. It has been over 20 years since I re-read it).

RP Rudy Seanez used to do MMA training in the offseason.

A key skill in MMA is combining excellent cardiovascular endurance combined with high ratio of physical strength to body weight.

One of the all-americans on my college team combined a 11 minute 2 mile time with forearms as big as my calves, and he wrestled at 149 lbs. He seemingly could do squat thrusts and pushups forever.

Baseball is like the polar opposite of MMA. While strength training is now integral to baseball training, your weight almost doesn't matter, extra body fat seemingly doesn't impede most players. And few MLB players seem to have a great wind or do much long distance training. I sometimes wondered if I was on the cross country or wrestling team, so many 5-10 milers they made us do in training.

Lastly, while long legs and arms are beneficial to strikers, shorter limbs provide better reactions and give better leverage when the fight goes to the mat, which is where MMA contests tend to be decided, so top fighters are almost always compactly built.

Size always seem to benefit baseball players, long limbs mean faster fastballs and longer home runs (if you can coordinate those limbs enough to make solid contact).

And Butt Head Astronomer sure wrote some lame sci fi.

#9

It's been about 10 years for me, but I remembered enough to google it.

"We're picking somebody to enter the Olympics, and we don't know what the events are. I don't know why we're talking about sending scientists. Mahatma Gandhi, that's who we should send. Or, while we're at it, Jesus Christ. Don't tell me they're not available, der Heer. I know that."

"When you don't know what the events are, you send a decathlon champion."

"And then you discover the event is chess, or oratory, or sculpture, and your athlete finishes last."

So Decathlon, CHECK.

Chess, CHECK.

And I think that this was spoken by Ms. Arroway, but I could be wrong.

It seems clear to send Nikolay Sazhin on this hypothetical vessel.

What if we sent Carl Lewis, but it was a singing show called "Intergalactic Idol"?

What if the outside of the invitation read "To Serve Man," so we sent Roger Federer?