UF needs a hockey team.

[hd80dun]

Originally Posted by PIMking

it's only the best, and hardest sport to play...

Hardest? Try hitting a 95 mile per hour fastball. And if you ever nail that, try doing the same to an equally fast splitter.

[gatorman_07732]

Hockey is just not for the south, it's like mixing grits and raviolis

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by hd80dun

Hardest? Try hitting a 95 mile per hour fastball. And if you ever nail that, try doing the same to an equally fast splitter.

Try skating on ice while hitting a puck at speeds of 90 mph all while not getting your head ripped off by another player. Or if you're lucky be a defenseman that your job is to stand infront of those 95mph shots on purpose...

[hd80dun]

.

[nortonis]

Haha. Not only did we have a team, I played on it in 93. We never actually played a game that year. We just had a bunch of practices in Tampa.

[jd]

Hd80dun obviously you have never played the game. Hockey requires way more athletic ability, agility, and toughness than baseball. Not even close. You are the type of guy I would love to skate across my blueline with your head down.

[hd80dun]

Originally Posted by jd

Hd80dun obviously you have never played the game. Hockey requires way more athletic ability, agility, and toughness than baseball. Not even close. You are the type of guy I would love to skate across my blueline with your head down.

LOL. I have played hockey. I wasn't talking about "checking," and if I was still young I would pay good money just to see you try. Many people made that mistake.

I was talking about the difficulty of any and all aspects of playing hockey compared to the difficulty of hitting a baseball. There is absolutely no comparison. Hitting a baseball is harder to do than anything you want to name about hockey. Hitting a baseball takes much more hand-eye coordination than any aspect of hockey.

[gatordavisl]

Originally Posted by hd80dun

LOL. I have played hockey. I wasn't talking about "checking," and if I was still young I would pay good money just to see you try. Many people made that mistake.

I was talking about the difficulty of any and all aspects of playing hockey compared to the difficulty of hitting a baseball. There is absolutely no comparison. Hitting a baseball is harder to do than anything you want to name about hockey. Hitting a baseball takes much more hand-eye coordination than any aspect of hockey.

If you isolate the construct of hand-eye coordination, you can make the case. But to compare any and all aspects of one sport to an isolated construct in another does not make sense in the discussion of which sport is most difficult. A more valid comparison of difficulty is comprehensive for both sports. According to eight panelists in a poll conducted by ESPN, hockey is a good bit more difficult than baseball.

[hd80dun]

Originally Posted by gatordavisl

If you isolate the construct of hand-eye coordination, you can make the case. But to compare any and all aspects of one sport to an isolated construct in another does not make sense in the discussion of which sport is most difficult. A more valid comparison of difficulty is comprehensive for both sports. According to eight panelists in a poll conducted by ESPN, hockey is a good bit more difficult than baseball.

When I made my very first comment in this thread I said:

Hardest? Try hitting a 95 mile per hour fastball. And if you ever nail that, try doing the same to an equally fast splitter.

Unfortunately, that was an incomplete answer that led to misunderstanding. I should have been more specific that I was talking about a certain aspect of the games. Hitting a baseball, unless you are a pitcher, is the single most important aspect. Without that ability you won't go far. It is the equivalent in importance to skating in hockey.

Hitting in baseball is the hardest thing to do and takes the most skill. The sport of hockey is definitely "harder" overall but hitting a baseball is the single "hardest" thing to do in the world of sports.


Edit: I just went back and checked the link you provided and see that the poll actually agrees with what I was "trying" to say. Here is the link that lays that out:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sportSkills?sort=handEye#grid

[hd80dun]

Originally Posted by gatordavisl

According to eight panelists in a poll conducted by ESPN, hockey is a good bit more difficult than baseball.

I just went and looked closer at that list and it's pretty good! I have actually done (at some level) 7 of the top 9 sports, with 2 at the college or pro level (and 2 very limited). I was kind of surprised that the "big 4" sports (as I think of them), football, baseball, basketball and hockey, made the Top 10. That is a really good break down. Thanks for posting the link.

[nortonis]

Hockey is the most difficult sport I've ever played, and I've played them all. There is no other sport where you play so hard for 1 minute that you have to be replaced with a fresh player. Hitting a ball may be difficult to do, and requires great hand-eye coordination, but so do many video games, and wouldn't compare them to giving it your all in any sport.

[gatordavisl]

Originally Posted by hd80dun

I just went and looked closer at that list and it's pretty good! I have actually done (at some level) 7 of the top 9 sports, with 2 at the college or pro level (and 2 very limited). I was kind of surprised that the "big 4" sports (as I think of them), football, baseball, basketball and hockey, made the Top 10. That is a really good break down. Thanks for posting the link.

Often polls presented by news media lack validity. This one, however, includes a reasonably comprehensive list of categories and the eight members of the panel appear to offer some credibility. Would be interesting to see a measure of inter-rater reliability for the poll. Then again, it is sports poll and we need not get too too mired in minutiae.

[MaceoP]

Hockey is a very difficult sport to play. I grew up playing baseball, football, and basketball. I joined a men's soccer league when i was in my 30's, and also played a little roller hockey. Soccer by far is the most un-natural for an American of my era, who never played as a youth. Soccer is very difficult for those who grew up mostly with hand-eye coordination sports.

Obviously the biggest problem with hockey is the lack of facilities, and the difficulty in accessing those facilities. When I lived on Long Island many years ago, I had a good friend who played in a men's ice-hockey league. He usually played anywhere from 12 to 2 am as that was the time his league had access to the ice rink.

In reality, all sports are difficult when you get to the elite level.

In my day, I could hit a fastball, but obviously how many 95mph fastballs did I ever see.. Not many. I believe in all sports, especially at the elite level, the difficulty of the task is compounded by having to consistently accomplish the task..

[hd80dun]

Originally Posted by nortonis

Hockey is the most difficult sport I've ever played, and I've played them all. There is no other sport where you play so hard for 1 minute that you have to be replaced with a fresh player. Hitting a ball may be difficult to do, and requires great hand-eye coordination, but so do many video games, and wouldn't compare them to giving it your all in any sport.

If you were going only by the stamina it takes to play a sport then hockey would be one of the hardest by far, as would collegiate wrestling and several others such as marathon running. As I said, "overall," hockey is definitely a harder "sport." But hitting a baseball is clearly the hardest thing to do successfully AND consistently. To even compare it in any way to video games is beyond ridiculous.

Baseball doesn't take anywhere near what many other sports require in terms of physical conditioning (though that is different for pitchers and catchers). But conditioning is not a "skill." It is not something you are born with but is something that anybody with good health and determination can acquire.

The ability to be a good hitter in baseball relies much more on innate abilities or gifts than it does in any amount of practicing or studying or techniques, etc. A person who is born with the abilities can certainly refine those abilities and improve those abilities, but all the practice in the world cannot "create" a great hitter.

The world is jam packed with kids and teenagers who are video game wizards. The list of lifetime .300 hitters at the highest level of baseball is an infinitely smaller list. And that is only a very small percentage of all those who have played baseball at the highest levels.

A .300 hitter is someone who failed 7 out of 10 times. Fail 7 out of 10 times after playing a 162 game schedule for 15 years or so and you'll likely end up in the Hall of Fame. That is how difficult it is to hit a baseball. That is why that poll ranks hitting a baseball as the hardest possible thing in sports.

Nobody who has ever even come close to playing baseball at the highest level possible would ever mistake hitting for playing video games.

[MaceoP]

But hitting a baseball is clearly the hardest thing to do successfully AND consistently.

I would tend to agree with this statement.. However the difficulty in hitting a 95mph fastball is due to the fact that a good pitcher will never let you know what pitch is coming. If any decent player went to a batting cage and only had to hit 95mph fastballs, eventually he would be able to time the machine and have alot more success with hitting than he would against a live pitcher.

In baseball, as opposed to (for example), throwing a football, shooting a basketball, kicking a soccerball, shooting a puck, etc, one doesn't have control over the situation. The task is initiated by the opposing pitcher. This fact, IMO, makes it much more difficult to accomplish.

[nortonis]

I don't get it. Yes, hitting a baseball is perhaps the hardest thing to do consistently, but so is operating on a human heart, and painting a masterpiece. I define hard, in the context of sports, as physically exerting. For me, hockey is the most physically exerting sport Ive ever played. Hitting a bullseye in darts is very difficult to do, but I wouldn't say that it is one of the hardest sports. The same goes with billiards.

[hd80dun]

Originally Posted by MaceoP

I would tend to agree with this statement.. However the difficulty in hitting a 95mph fastball is due to the fact that a good pitcher will never let you know what pitch is coming. If any decent player went to a batting cage and only had to hit 95mph fastballs, eventually he would be able to time the machine and have alot more success with hitting than he would against a live pitcher.

In baseball, as opposed to (for example), throwing a football, shooting a basketball, kicking a soccerball, shooting a puck, etc, one doesn't have control over the situation. The task is initiated by the opposing pitcher. This fact, IMO, makes it much more difficult to accomplish.

Hitting a 95 mph fastball in a batting cage is certainly a bit easier because you know where the ball is going to be. All you have to do is stick the bat in a certain spot before the ball gets there. But even then the difference between making contact with a ball and getting "hits" are miles apart. Plus, that has absolutely nothing to do with the concept of "hitting a baseball" since baseball games aren't played with "pitching machines."

It also is absolutely meaningless if you are talking about facing a pitcher who throws nothing but fastballs because pitchers don't throw to the same spot every time. MLB is filled with incredibly successful closers who seldom throw anything but fastballs because the greatest baseball players on the planet can hardly hit them. (If you want to take the idea of throwing pitches that the batter knows is coming, to the greatest possible level just look at knuckleball pitchers.)

When I played, on one of the teams I played for, our best pitcher was a guy who could rarely throw even an 85 mph fastball. He was a great pitcher because his control was incredible and he knew (with the catcher's help) where to throw it and when to throw it to that spot.

What hasn't been mentioned is the aspect of any sport that takes place "between the ears" and that is something that is incredibly underrated and often overlooked with baseball. That is also an area where baseball is much more difficult than hockey (though I don't know if such a category was used in that poll, it would be tough for anyone to accurately rank such things except for sports they have played themselves).

[HudsonGator]

So anyway, hockey would be a pretty cool sport to add.

[GATOR_4Life]

SEC doesn't play hockey (or a even, in Florida, more viable Men's Soccer) so we don't play. I love Hockey, but it isn't going to happen.

[hd80dun]

Originally Posted by HudsonGator

So anyway, hockey would be a pretty cool sport to add.

So anyway, as has been mentioned several times, UF has a hockey team and has had one for quite a while.