The hardest things in sports

USA Today has picked the ten hardest things to do in sports. I absolutely love lists like this one because it's a fairly trivial topic, but nevertheless there are so many aspects to it that can be thoughtfully examined.

I like their top choice of Hitting a Baseball, as I have heard many athletes say that this is indeed the hardest thing to do in sports. I wonder though, why no one ever sides with the pitcher and picks Throwing a Strike on the Outside Corner of the Plate. To me, this seems like it would be much more difficult. Granted, I whiff like crazy whenever I go to a batting cage, but I have hit a baseball before, and so have millions of people across the world. However, I know that I have never and will never be able to throw a 92 mph splitter that freezes Sammy Sosa and gets called strike three. There are only about 50 guys alive that can do that successfully, so that's why throwing a strike is my pick for hardest thing to do in sports.

As for the other items on the list I think the following are overrated: Pole Vaulting (I think many amateur athletes could be successful with enough practice), Hitting a Tee Shot (millions of people do it every Saturday) and Saving a Penalty Kick(it's luck, not reflexes). I think Tour de France, the Marathon and Landing a Quadruple Axle should have been higher. Also, I think that gymnastics was foolishly omitted from the list. Every event (rings, vault, beam) is damn near impossible for 99.9999% of the world.