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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s hard to compare sports because everyone is biased towards the sport they know best, and there are so many different aspects of mental stress - pushing past pain, maintaining  focus over long periods of time, pushing past endurance limits, expectations of teammates, moving past mistakes, feeling judged in a subjective sport, etc.

Baseball does not come to my mind when I think about the most mentally tough athletes. There is so much downtime, so they don’t have to sustain focus over long uninterrupted periods of time. There is no point where players have to push past their endurance limits. Unless they are the catcher or the pitcher, they are uninvolved in the game far more than 50% of the time, either standing in the infield or outfield and not involved in fielding a hit, or in the dugout waiting for their turn at bat. In other sports, the player is on and has to be focused 100% of the time. I don’t care for combat/fighting sports, but I think those athletes are very mentally tough. It requires a lot of strength, endurance, and focus to compete in those sports. [/quote]

I think this is a very good point. But also, at the same time, the waiting around lends itself to overthinking - you can’t just keep moving through it.

But I think the lack of endurance needed and the breaks in baseball that you don’t get in something like soccer or even basketball, are good arguments against baseball. It’s sort of a different aspect of mental toughness but impressive just the same. [/quote]

Baseball players don't get mental breaks like you're assuming! Quite the opposite. They are watching EVERYTHING all the time.

If a batter stands in the batters box slighty closer to the pitcher compared to normal, this might be a sign that the batter is bunting.

An infielder will flash signs to an outfielder letting them know an offspeed pitch is coming, which means the batter might hit the ball to the pull side.

A quick hand flash from a 3B coach can give a baserunner the green light to steal.

Catchers and infielders are constantly watching baserunners tendencies to execute a back pick.

Upcoming batters are charting pitch sequences to see what they might expect in certain counts.

It might look like standing around between pitches, but it's incredibly mentally taxing. Try playing a double-header. It's nuts.[/quote]

I have a college baseball player and you are dramatically overestimating every one of these instances.

He doesn’t find the sport generally mentally taxing rather only clutch situations or if he is off his pitching game which he says is maybe one out of 10 starts (understanding that means perhaps once a season).  Doesn’t mean he isn’t giving up hits but rather when he is missing the strike zone and walking a bunch of batters

A bunch of what you list above is just instinctual playing so it’s not mentally taxing to execute.

My kid found basketball far more taxing…part of the reason is because the crowd is far more part of a basketball game because the gym is loud…that’s not something that plays as much of a factor on the baseball field.

Also, basketball shots are somewhat discretionary.  You run plays but you need to decide if you take a shot or not…you need to make a snap decision and of course every missed shot can weigh on you but you have to just shrug it off and keep playing.

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