Noa

I used to play both for long time regularly. I must say that basketball is much harder (at list for me). In basketball you are always in motion while in soccer you can “walk” from time to time when the ball is far away from you.

Borla

It is often said that the hardest single activity in sports is to hit a baseball thrown by a good MLB pitcher.

I think, as many have said, the comparison as a whole between baseball and soccer is very much apples and oranges. Obviously soccer takes much more overall conditioning. The physical exertion by most players is going to be much higher in soccer (maybe the pitcher in baseball and the goalie in soccer are exceptions to the rule on either side). I think the hand-eye coordination required in baseball is a bit more difficult. Another factor to be considered is that MLB players play basically every day for six months straight, traveling back and forth across the country every 3-4 days. Soccer matches are much more spread out, with much more time to recuperate, travel, etc.

__________________
Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde!!!!

dippin

Well, I think there are quite a few individual tasks that are quite difficult in soccer as well... hitting a moving ball with both strength and accuracy from quite a distance away as opponents run at you is no easy feat.

Furthermore, I think that being "good" at any given sport is equally hard, given as how good is simply a deviation from the norm.

That said, I think the key difference between baseball and soccer is that one requires you to be more of a specialist than the other. In baseball you have to be superb in one area, while in soccer you must be at least ok in several, but you don't need to excel at any particular part of the game (goalies excluded).

Hektore

I'm going to go with soccer because of the team aspect.

Everyone keeps talking about hitting, I look at the other end - pitching. A good to mediocre pitcher having a great day can completely shut down a game, and the other team hasn't a prayer. For an exaggerated version of this watch little league on ESPN some time, everyone who breezes through the tournament has a 12 year old who can throw a 70mph fastball.

There is no equivalent in soccer, a great goalie on a great day can still be picked apart and scored upon by an average offense, because every part of the game is a team affair.

Also, there isn't any equivalent to an automatic score in soccer. In baseball, once the ball gets put into play a great hitter can score in such a way that there can be no defense. As far as I can tell this never happens in soccer, the closes thing is maybe a penalty kick - but they happen rarely and there is still a defender who can potentially stop the score.

__________________
The advantage law is the best law in rugby, because it lets you ignore all the others for the good of the game.

Glory's Sun

just curious.. have you ever seen a non american football schedule?? traveling and playing 2 games a week then doing international duties are nothing to laugh at. add this to all the international tournaments and domestic tournaments that are during the league season and you have one crazy ass travel schedule. plus the baseball players get a much longer off season than football players (soccer).

:shrug: just sayin

MacGuyver

I'll throw in my two cents for baseball since there are a whole lot of soccer/football supporters in here. I'm also going to be another one taking a different take on baseball. The skill required to be a legitimate pitcher is still baffling to me. Being a major league pitcher has to be one of the hardest things I've ever seen. Throwing a ball into a strike zone that is approximately 2ft. wide X 2ft. tall (dependent on the batter's size and stance) in addition to throwing as hard as 100+ mph for some of the stronger arms. But the power pitchers don't amaze me as much as the finesse pitchers. It's baffling how you can throw a 95 mph fastball from the hill to that lower target, and then the next pitch proceed to control that same ball 74 mph having a break that starts by the batter's head and shoulders, and ends below his knees, weaving it's way through said strike zone on the way. And that's no luck, its pure control, especially being able to do so throughout the course of an entire game.

The pitcher's skill is what makes batting difficult in itself. As Ted Williams once said:
"Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer."

Baseball is also intriguing for other reasons than hand eye coordination. There is a certain level of intellectualism and strategy involved with the game. Base stealing, squeeze plays, bunts, hit and run plays, defensive alignments. Some of you that don't know much about baseball probably don't think much about defensive alignment, because most think that the hitter just kind of swings at the ball and hits it wherever. What makes a hitter successful is their ability to do a number of things during the at-bat, one of which is placement of the ball with a bat. The timing of the swing either early or late will determine where the ball is hit in a pull (RF for a lefty, LF for a righty) or push (LF for a lefty, RF for a righty) situation. That adjustment is done in a split second when the pitcher throws and the batter has to guess the pitch once it comes out of the pitcher's hand. That's not a lot of time when a 94mph ball is traveling 60ft. The pitcher's goal is to deceive the batter, who is guessing the pitch based on the status of the count and the pitches already/not already thrown. There are also left handed pitchers coming in for left handed batters, adjusting the lineup to have alternating L/R hand hitters making the approach more difficult for a pitcher, having a speedy runner instead of a power hitter. Heck, I'd like to see some of the faster base stealers of today like Carl Crawford or Jacoby Ellsbury matchup with soccer players and see who can run 90ft. faster.

Again, its like comparing apples and oranges but since 80% percent of people in this thread are touting about football football football, I figured I'd put some more info out there for baseball.

__________________
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
---Aristotle

Deeds, not words, shall speak [for] me.
---John Fletcher

Chilly McFreeze

I'm not going to get into which is harder, mainly because I've never played baseball to any standard, however I do have to take issue with this. Yes, pretty much anyone can KICK a ball, but how many can kick it huge distances with acuracy? How many can kick one, on the turn and put it past a 'keeper? How many can trap a ball kicked to them at pace? How many can run with a ball at their feet at almost full sprint, and beat several players?

And lets forget about the ball for a minute and think about the other skills involved - positioning, timing of runs, defending etc.

There's a hell of a lot more to soccer than 'kicking a ball'.

Telluride

I'd say that soccer is more physically demanding, but baseball probably requires a bit more skill (hitting a ball with a bat seems more difficult than kicking it).

__________________
"I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice." - Friedrich Hayek

MontanaXVI

It's a loaded question really.

"Which is harder"

They are totally different, require different uses of physical skill sets and training to play.

__________________
Spank you very much

MonicaCo

Since I have friends who play both sports it's really hard to tell which one is harder. I would say they require different kind of things and are therefore hard to compare.