The baseball player traditionally has been one of the least athletic-looking millionaires on the professional sports grid, perhaps more fit than professional golfers, perhaps not, but definitely behind the athletes in most other sports

To put it mildly, this is a vague and offhand statement. It's true that there are (and always have been) some fat pitchers in baseball, some slow and creaky catchers, and the occasional pinch-hitter who truly couldn't do any other physical activity for a living (like the mid-1980s Rusty Staub). But good baseball players in their prime are typically what anyone would call outstanding athletes. Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Stan Musial? Joe Morgan, Mike Schmidt, Ozzie Smith? Cal Ripken Jr? Joe Mauer? Does Mariano Rivera look out of shape to anybody?

By contrast, great athletes in other sports often have highly specialized body types and body-building programs that make them outstanding at a few particular actions, but don't give the impression of great overall conditioning. This is especially true of guys who depend on strength (weightlifters, throwers, offensive linemen). You wouldn't want an NBA center to run a 10K, or a marathoner to try to play ice hockey, whereas many baseball players would at least look the part in other sports.

And this is totally apart from steroids: the ripped physique was for a long time considered unsuitable for baseball, and even more recently it probably contributed to the underachievement of guys like Jose Canseco and Ruben Sierra, who got too big for their own good. Barry Bonds, OTOH, was really good back when he looked, well, like Bobby Bonds.

As to golfers, some of them are a disgrace: Carl Petterson, who finished second in Houston last week, is 34 years old but with several chins, and he really looks like he's 56 and fixing to get bypass surgery. But on the whole, top golfers walk four miles a day every day of their lives, and get great dietary and medical support. They tend to live long and active lives. In terms of lifetime fitness, golf might be the best sport to take up in your youth, as long as you don't take it up for the carts and the double scotches.

You wouldn't want an NBA center to run a 10K,

Maybe not without training, but anyone who can run up and down a basketball court for 48 minutes, even with halftime and time outs, is not likely to be in subprime aerobic condition.

But my dad says that they don't even run down court. And they don't really try except during the playoffs! :-D

And 27-year-old Prince Fielder, listed at 5-feet-11, 275 pounds, can sign the largest contract of the offseason, $214 million for nine years with the Detroit Tigers.

Uh, what?

We don’t all look like Jacoby Ellsbury. I wish I did, but I don’t. I never have and I never will.”

Oh, Joshie-Poo!You were cute enough when you were on the Marlins..granted that bush under your chin didn't help.

Uh, what?

Forget it...he's rolling

Maybe not without training, but anyone who can run up and down a basketball court for 48 minutes, even with halftime and time outs, is not likely to be in subprime aerobic condition.

Doesn't your average starting NBA player run ~3.5 miles a game? Pretty sure most of them could do a 10k with a little bit of prep.

“This isn’t football. Just one game a week,” Boyle says. “That’s another thing people miss out on when they talk about baseball players: There’s a mental and physical grind that doesn’t exist in any other sport. They’re playing every day. Playing and traveling. It’s a lot.”

I do think there is something to the long season and large amount of travel taking a greater mental/physical than a layperson might think, but it's not like football players don't practice all week (with a lot of players, especially linemen, taking hits!) and take at least two flights during a non-bye week. And both the NHL and the NBA play 82 games over the course of 6 months, with a significantly longer playoff system than MLB.

As for David Ortiz, he looked positively svelte on opening day. Of course, I was comparing him to Prince and Miggy.

Also, lets face it, there are people who do not look at all in shape and who are in pretty damned good condition.

And of course, Ted Kluszewski and Jimmie Foxx didn't cut the sleeves off of their shirts to show off their muscles because no baseball player ever tried to get in shape before steroids.

David Ortiz can play at 6-feet-4, 230 pounds.

He must be sharing a scale with Prince.

And of course, Ted Kluszewski and Jimmie Foxx didn't cut the sleeves off of their shirts to show off their muscles because no baseball player ever tried to get in shape before steroids.

What's wrong with wanting to show off how much hay you baled in the offseason?

And of course, Ted Kluszewski and Jimmie Foxx didn't cut the sleeves off of their shirts to show off their muscles because no baseball player ever tried to get in shape before steroids.

What's wrong with wanting to show off how much hay you baled in the offseason?

Narcissists. Jess Willard never felt a need to brags about his renowned hay-baling skills.

Bad word choice on the 10K example. I was sort of imagining Shaquille O'Neal trying to be competitive as a distance runner. Naturally, a lot of backcourt NBA players look exactly like distance runners, and probably would do well in long races.

It would be kind of fun to watch B.J. Raji run a 10K.

#3...brilliant. Tell your old man he should try running down the court with Laimbeer on his back.

When people write these articles do they actually watch sports? There are 22 players (or more) on the starting "lineup" for an NFL team, and half of them make Prince look anorexic. Yes Hockey and Basketball(and for those who think Soccer has a real presence in the U.S.--them too) are the traditional athletes(maybe a bit freakish in the case of the NBA--but they are still traditional athletes).

I mean it's funny when they write these articles it's going to point to the same names--- without looking I imagine that you have Sabathia, Fielder, Miggy, Ortiz Kruk, Ponson (maybe Andruw Jones) and several catchers mentioned. When the pool of examples is limited to the same five names, maybe it's time to think they are the exception and not the rule. It's like when people try to point to the past on players hustling all the time, then they say "Pete Rose"-----maybe the fact that he stands out, is a very good indication that the players of the past DIDN'T hustle all the time.

“A thing people have to realize is that baseball players aren’t supermodels,” Josh Beckett said in a recent interview. “We don’t all look like Jacoby Ellsbury. I wish I did, but I don’t. I never have and I never will.”

That's what you get with the beer and fried chicken diet.

Part of the problem with an article like this is that there's no definition of what constitutes a good athlete. Who's a better athlete, Dustin Pedroia or Logan Mankins? Mankins is much stronger, but Pedroia is faster and can catch and throw better. Neither one would be at all competitive in the other's sport. There's no rational way to decide that one is a better athlete than the other.

In terms of lifetime fitness, golf might be the best sport to take up in your youth, as long as you don't take it up for the ... double scotches.

Then why take it up at all?

I can think of grossly fat football, baseball, and basketball players. Have there ever been grossly overweight NHL players?

Probably a few goalies.

I can think of grossly fat football, baseball, and basketball players. Have there ever been grossly overweight NHL players?

Keith Tkachuk was suspended once for being overweight at training camp.

Vladimir Krutov had weight problems when he came to the NHL.

I think it's harder to tell in a hockey jersey. A lot of fat guys wear hockey jerseys.

"By contrast, great athletes in other sports often have highly specialized body types and body-building programs that make them outstanding at a few particular actions, but don't give the impression of great overall conditioning. This is especially true of guys who depend on strength (weightlifters, throwers, offensive linemen). You wouldn't want an NBA center to run a 10K, or a marathoner to try to play ice hockey, whereas many baseball players would at least look the part in other sports. "

ANY elite athlete in ANY sport will be highly specialised, for particular types of "fitness", "conditioned" for particular activities. "Fitness" and "conditioning" like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Furthermore, most elite levels athletes in most sports, barring say superheavy weightlifters, heavyweight boxers, football linemen, certain positions in rugby, golfers, baseball pitchers, competitive bodybuilders, tend to have fairly low bodyfat levels, within a pretty narrow range. A typical male gymnast, a typical male non-superheavyweight weightlifter, a typical NBA player, a typical NFL receiver / corner / safety all are fairly similar in terms of bodyfat levels.

You wouldn't want a typical baseball player to run a 10k either, or to try to play soccer at the highest level either (given the amount of running, albeit of the repeated sprint variety, that goes on in soccer nowadays). Baseball is very much a strength and power sport, moreso than most sports. It is not an endurance sport. About 80% of actions in baseball are supplied enegergetically via the "short term", ATP-PCR, energy system. "Looking the part" is pretty irrelevant.

"And this is totally apart from steroids: the ripped physique was for a long time considered unsuitable for baseball, and even more recently it probably contributed to the underachievement of guys like Jose Canseco and Ruben Sierra, who got too big for their own good. Barry Bonds, OTOH, was really good back when he looked, well, like Bobby Bonds."

The "ripped" physique was considered unsuitable, because those with the "ripped" physique tended to be egotestical fools who focused their training on so called "beach" muscles. It wasn't that they were "too big". Bonds in his hit the snot out of the ball years had HUMONGOUS legs and ass. He was not egotestical. Or rather, his ego motivated him to train towards baseball ends, instead of aesthetic "beach" ends.

Probably a few goalies.

Anything's possible, I guess, but hockey goalies, at least current ones, are remarkably agile and impossibly quick in their reflexes. And it's hard to be agile and quick when you're overweight.

It'd be tough to be notably overweight in the NHL, because the sport depends so much on endurance and conditioning.

Kyle Wellwood is considered fat, but he's far from obese.

Last May, the NY Times Magazine did a story on Tim Lincecum which discussed how he was the best athlete on the Giants in the classic sense of the word. He can't bench the most, but he can do a standing backflip, walk on his hands, shot a 9-hole 39 in his forth time golfing (and so on). Really interesting angle on the player and one that make me think about how I view the word "athlete." Sort of like how "best pure hitter" has been applied to players more like Tony Gwynn than players like Miguel Cabrera.

I'm not good at linking in this forum, but here's the article. http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/little-big-man/ Well worth a read, but the picture at the top shows that "growing a mustache" must not be in the classic definition of "athlete."

"Fat" in hockey seems to be where "Fat" in baseball was 80 years ago. Dustin Buttfuglyin is supposed to be fat but he's not even at the Josh Beckett level of overweightness.

Baseball is very much a strength and power sport

I generally agree, though a good outfielder who's on base a lot will sprint repeatedly in the course of an evening, and over six months of games almost every night, will have to be in pretty good general shape. Tim Raines used to run a mile a day early in his career, even on game days. People warned him this would wear him out, but he had a heck of a long career (though I think he cut back on the miles pretty early on). Not all players have Tim Raines's skill set, naturally.

One of the teams that plays annually in the Stevens Point, WI "World's Largest Trivia Contest" is named "I'm Not Fat, I Just Have a Sweet Hockey Body".

He was not egotestical

That's what she said. Literally!

"generally agree, though a good outfielder who's on base a lot will sprint repeatedly in the course of an evening, and over six months of games almost every night, will have to be in pretty good general shape. Tim Raines used to run a mile a day early in his career, even on game days. People warned him this would wear him out, but he had a heck of a long career (though I think he cut back on the miles pretty early on). Not all players have Tim Raines's skill set, naturally."

Yeah a good OF has to engage in some repeated sprints, but the key part of that is unless the pitcher is giving up flyballs non-stop, and only flyballs that don't get out of the park, he has time to recover (completely) between each flyball. Someone with a gimpy knee and a beer belly is going to struggle to play the OF well, but someone with a gimpy knee and a beer belly is going to struggle in most sports (at elite level) nowadays.

Gump Worsley was a fat goalie, and is a Hall of Famer who was the top goalie for the Quiet Dynasty Canadiens.

There's not many fat goalies after his era though.

Neville Southall was fat and was the best goalkeeper in the soccer world on his day. Truly outstanding. Andy Goram was mental -literally - and had the reflexes of a cat and became personally offended by the idea of giving up goals to Celtic.

The main thing of course is that baseball is primarily about two things -- amazing hand-eye coordination to hit a baseball with authority and amazing arm strength to throw a baseball past guys with amazing hand-eye coordination. It so happens neither of those is particularly strongly related to physical fitness (and rarely with each other). John Kruk was in the major leagues because he could hit 300/397/446/133 and I doubt there's a single player in the NBA, NHL or NFL who could hit well enough to be a bench player in MLB. And I don't imagine there are too many who can hit 92 with control (maybe some QBs?). (Not that I think any in MLB could step onto an NBA court much less an NHL rink.)

I knew fat guys who could shoot over 90% from the foul line. Hell, leave me open and I hit probably 2/3 of my "jump" shots and it's not like I was working on it every day. I believe (and am surely wrong) that my prime refelexes were not far off MLB 3B levels. Fat has little to do with reflexes or "skill" stuff. It kills you of course for speed, endurance and being able to get more than 6 inches off the ground. The only one of those that has any bearing on baseball is speed but if you hit 300/397/446 then you play and Alex Sanchez hits the bench.

Doesn't your average starting NBA player run ~3.5 miles a game?

Yup, and you don't even need any pedometers or some other fancy data collection. Just multiply 200 possessions times 90 feet equals 18,000 feet = 3.4 miles.

Yup, and you don't even need any pedometers or some other fancy data collection. Just multiply 200 possessions times 90 feet equals 18,000 feet = 3.4 miles.

So realistically about half of that? 90 feet is the distance from end to end, each possession they are probably running 40-50 feet, then positioning themselves.

So realistically about half of that? 90 feet is the distance from end to end, each possession they are probably running 40-50 feet, then positioning themselves.

Except for running around screens and from one wing to another and cutting through the lane trying to get open.

Of course there are the post players who just don't move once they get position, they just intersperse their lighter running duties with 20 seconds of wrestling every possession.

Tim Raines used to run a mile a day early in his career, even on game days.

I'm surprised it's that low.

John Kruk was in the major leagues because he could hit 300/397/446/133 and I doubt there's a single player in the NBA, NHL or NFL who could hit well enough to be a bench player in MLB.

A young John Kruk was listed at 5'10, 170 and once hit 8 triples in a season -- although he could obviously still hit when he was heavier than that.